i

The Smallpox Epidemic in the 19th Century Philippines: Government Regulations and

Control

_________________________

An Undergraduate Thesis Proposal Submitted to the Faculty of History Department

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Mindanao State University, General Santos City

_________________________

In Partial Fulfillment of the Course Requirements for

History 040 Historical Methodology

_________________________

By

MUHAMMAD OMAR A. AWANG

July 2021
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page i

Table of Contents ii

CHAPTER 1. THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

Introduction 1

Statement of the Problem 3

Delimitation of the Study 3

Significance of the Study 3

Objectives of the Study 4

Definition of Terms 4

CHAPTER 2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

The Smallpox 5

Misleading data and conquest spread 6

Small pox, British, and Indians 7

Smallpox brings deaths in Philippines 8

CHAPTER 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Data Gathering 9

Data Criticism 9

Presentation and Interpretation of Data 9

Conclusion based upon the Data 10

REFERENCES 11
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Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

Introduction

Pandemic has existed throughout history in many forms. as the years go by humanity

tried to combat sickness to prevail and survive.

Evolving and always recurring in human history like a tsunamis for the reason it almost

wipes out civilization for many centuries, from the plague to the deadly other viruses, Spanish

flu, Polio, etc. We, human beings, are naturally susceptible to things that are not good for

ourselves.

Smallpox, also known as variola major, is an acute infectious disease that starts with a

high fever, headache, and back discomfort and progresses to a skin eruption that leaves cratered

pockmarks, or pox, on the face and limbs. For centuries, smallpox was one of the most feared

diseases in the world, killing up to 30% of its victims, most of whom were children. Smallpox is

a contagious, disfiguring, and often deadly disease that has affected humans for thousands of

years. Infection with the variola virus causes smallpox.

Smallpox symptoms normally develop 10 to 14 days after you've been exposed. You

appear and feel well during the seven to seventeen-day incubation phase and are unable to infect

others. Smallpox virus samples have been retained for research purposes. Smallpox can now be

generated from published amino acid sequences thanks to breakthroughs in synthetic biology.

This has raised fears that smallpox could be utilized as a biological warfare agent in the future.1

1
“Smallpox,” Mayo Clinic (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, September 22, 2020),
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/smallpox/symptoms-causes/syc-20353027.
 2

Past happenings happened in the world when the calamity strike people have been afraid

about the disease many lives have been taken away from them families been destroyed, cities

wiped and nation have been frightened by the said virus.

In places like Africa, Smallpox Epidemic spread on February 13, 1713, something as

unexpected as the soiled laundry of a Dutch ship's crew who had stopped at the Cape's

refreshment station struck irreversible damage among the indigenous and colonial populations of

the Cape Peninsula and the surrounding region. Reducing the populations till few just manage to

survive the virus as a result, the indigenous clan names have been lost. Instead, the Khoikhoi

were dubbed "Hottentots," a pejorative epithet. The Khoikhoi's economic strength was further

damaged after the smallpox pandemic devastated the majority of their population.2

On the other hand, gaining the data that the researcher gathered about smallpox in the soil

of the Philippines will help the researcher to gain the knowledge and contribute to citizens of the

nation about the history of smallpox in the 19th-century state of the Philippines when the so-

called calamity happened and on how the government acts and control the people of its said

nation that will contribute to the analyzers because of the current happenings on today's world

the Covid-19 and help them on what will be the move for the humanity to survive the day for

them to live tomorrow.

Statement of the Problem

2
“Smallpox Epidemic Strikes at the Cape,” Smallpox Epidemic Strikes at the Cape | South African History Online,
February 13, 1713, https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/smallpox-epidemic-strikes-cape.
 3

The overall goal of this research is to gain an idea of the recent actions of the first

people who experienced the epidemic because the researcher believed that for humanity

must learn from our mistakes to avoid making the same ones again. To make smart

selections and choices, people must gain knowledge and common sense. Only if you

learn from your mistakes will you gain good judgment. The information gained from

making mistakes is known as wisdom. In addition, the research will respond to the

following questions:

1.What were the causes of Smallpox?

2. What were the regulatory procedures to prevent the spread of the Epidemic?

3. What were the medical interventions done to control the disease?

4. What were the responses of the people towards regulatory procedures and medical

interventions?

Delimitation of the Study

The study will tackle the cause of smallpox and the factors that contributed to its

spread in the 19th-century Philippines and government actions such as controlling the spread of

the smallpox healing the infected population. It will explore the key figures involved in the

medical procedures that the Philippines did to fight the epidemic.

Significance of the study

To the Future Researcher, this could be used as a guide for future researchers looking into

various historical details about the subject. 19th century smallpox in the Philippines.

To the Community, the result of the study will provide awareness, to help people have the idea

about how to act smart about a calamity.

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To the medical establishment, the result of this study will be added to their database about the

historical background of Smallpox in the 19th century Philippines.

Objectives of the Study

To know the factors that contribute to the spread of smallpox

To know the regulatory procedures to prevent the spread of epidemic

To gather knowledge on previous activities, come to a conclusion and contribute to a

particular field of research;

To gather knowledge on previous happenings and to have an idea on how to apply the

things that contribute to help the humanity safe and sound.

Definition of terms

The following terms are defined operationally:

Smallpox.  caused by the variola virus.

Epidemic. a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a

particular time.

Government. the governing body of a nation, state, or community.

Regulations. a rule or directive made and maintained by an authority.

Control. the power to influence or direct people's behavior or the course of events.

Chapter 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

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This chapter summarizes the relevant literature and research that will be examined to

determine the study's effectiveness. The information for the corresponding data was gathered

from books, publications, and the internet. The researcher recognizes the need of arranging the

above-mentioned statements in a precise order.

The Smallpox

The variola virus causes smallpox, an ancient disease. High fever and fatigue are early

symptoms. The virus then causes a distinctive rash, most notably on the face, arms, and legs. The

resulting spots fill with clear fluid and, later, pus, and form a crust that eventually dries up and

falls off. Smallpox was lethal in up to 30% of cases. Smallpox has been around for at least 3000

years and was one of the world's most feared diseases until it was eradicated by a global

vaccination campaign led by the World Health Organization. The last natural case was

discovered in Somalia in 1977.3

History is littered with accounts of massive epidemics that wiped out entire populations.

Since the beginning of time, smallpox has been a major epidemic disease in the old world. The

disease was present in both India and Egypt as early as the 14th and 12th centuries BC. In India,

the disease was accepted as a fact of life, and epidemics swept across the country on a regular

basis. Folklore created a Goddess of small pox who was worshiped in order to protect the

populace from the scourge (see Box 1). The virus that causes smallpox has a brick-shaped virion

and is a member of the large Poxviridae family. These are the largest animal viruses and the only

ones visible under a light microscope.4

3
“Smallpox,” World Health Organization (World Health Organization), accessed July 25, 2021,
https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/smallpox.
4
Raghunath, D. "Smallpox Revisited." Current Science 83, no. 5 (2002): 566-76. Accessed July 25, 2021.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/24107129.
 6

The Vectors of the disease

Smallpox could also be transmitted through direct contact with infected bodily fluids or

contaminated objects like bedding or clothing. Smallpox has been spread on rare occasions by

virus carried in the air in enclosed settings such as buildings, buses, and trains. The only natural

hosts of variola are humans.

Manifestation of the Disease

Smallpox symptoms usually appear 10 to 14 days after being infected. During the

incubation period of seven to seventeen days, you appear and feel healthy and are unable to

infect others. A few days later, flat, red spots appear on your face, hands, and forearms, followed

by your trunk. Many of these lesions turn into small blisters filled with clear fluid, which then

turns into pus within a day or two. Eight to nine days later, scabs form and eventually fall off,

leaving deep, pitted scars. Lesions can also form on the mucous membranes of your nose and

mouth, quickly turning into open sores.

Government Regulations

Government finds a way that caused much time to make for them to regulate the spread of

smallpox. Back in the days, by the mid-nineteenth century, districts in Europe with forced

vaccination had much fewer smallpox mortality than those with optional vaccination. Smallpox

immunization became mandatory in England in 1853. There have been more than 10 times this

many fatalities per person in England and Wales prior to obligatory vaccination than what it was

in Italy and Sweden where vaccination was required. Boston was also the very first city to

enforce smallpox immunization for public school pupils in 1827. Each state, as well as the

District of Columbia, has a legislation that requires children entering school to provide proof that
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they have fulfilled the state's vaccination requirements. This movement influenced the states and

cities to adopt the policy.

Medical Interventions

Smallpox can be avoided by using the smallpox vaccination, even if the vaccine is administered

within three days following exposure to smallpox. There is no known cure for smallpox,

however research into novel antiviral medicines is continuing. In 2018, the antiviral drug

tecovirimat (Tpoxx) was approved for use in the United States. However, it hasn't been tried on

people who are infected with smallpox, so it's unclear whether it's a viable treatment option. In a

human trial, it was found to be just as secure as a placebo. Other antimicrobials are still being

researched.

Misleading data and Conquest spread

In the year 1520, 25 million people from Mexico have been diagnosed with what they

believed to be smallpox and possibly also other diseases that lead to the death of one-third of the

said population. People were puzzled knowing the lives that taken was so many making them

think about the assertion of population and if the death was caused by the disease or perhaps

there are other reasons for the deaths of the people including the group of indigenous people.

Historians were left out questioning the about of the conquerors for the fact that people in the

1500s are not

immune and prepared for the calamity and would have just died when came in contact

with the virus. But lately, they found out the reason for the flawed analysis in the population and

suddenly found out the reason for the reports of many deaths was not just smallpox.5

5
Brooks, Francis J. "Revising the Conquest of Mexico: Smallpox, Sources, and Populations." The Journal of
Interdisciplinary History 24, no. 1 (1993): 1-29. Accessed July 1, 2021. doi:10.2307/205099.
 8

Conquerors were the most infected people of their time since they always go from one

place to another resulting in them getting the disease and the most stupendous part is that some

of them don’t know why they have it and it makes the researcher think that why do they have to

be that foolish.

The successful conquest of Spanish conquistadors, Francisco Pizarro and Hernando

Cortes caused the Inca Empire in Peru and the Aztec Empire in Mexico to move towards the

verge of extinction in the 17th century. Smallpox has been accounted to be the cause of death of

many, even of emperors, including the monarchs of Japan, Burma, and other European royals.

According to Oldstone, Spanish colonizers have been exposed to viruses in Europe therefore was

immune by it. However, the people of the New World were completely vulnerable to the effects

of the foreign disease.6

Smallpox, the British, and the Indians

A well-established part of the multicultural canon can be summed up by a quote from an

undergraduate college textbook: "In the 1760s, the British at Fort Pitt gave blankets from the

smallpox hospital to Delaware Indians as a form of germ warfare." The story has been told so

many times that it appears to have become dogma. This essay will re-examine this well-known

story and what historians have claimed about it in order to determine what is credible about the

Fort Pitt incident. Despite the story's persistence, not every scholar agrees. In 1983, for example,

Donald R. Hopkins referred to a letter exchange between British General Jeffrey Amherst and

Colonel Henry Bouquet implying that Indians were infected with smallpox through contaminated

blankets "the most egregious example of smallpox being intentionally recommended as a

weapon against North American Indians.” But Hopkins felt compelled to add, "The outcome of
6
The New York Times (The New York Times), accessed July 25, 2021,
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/o/oldstone-viruses.html.
 9

this conspiracy is unknown."" 2 Even more relevant is Alfred W. Crosby's skepticism, expressed

in his book The Columbian Exchange, which made disease a subject that all early American

historians had to take very seriously. 7

Smallpox brings deaths in Philippines

May 23, 1901 J.C. Perry an assistant surgeon reports the deaths of 175 diseased people in

the island called Philippines includes Ten Filipinos and sixteen Chinese and in the same period

of the time, there were 6 cases of smallpox that involved in the death of the massive number of

people.8

Despite being heated, the temperature in Sooloo during our brief stay was pleasant. Our

visit occurred during the dry season, which runs from October to April and alternates with the

wet season, which runs from May to September. The months of June and July are windy, with

strong gusts blowing from the west. Strong gales are felt from the south in late August and

September, while winds from the north are felt in December and January; however, light winds

usually prevail from the southwest during the wet season, and from the opposite quarter during

the dry, closely following the order of the monsoons in the China seas. Diseases are rare, and

those that do exist are caused by the way the natives live. They are an unhealthy-looking race as

a result of that cause. The smallpox has raged with great violence throughout the group at

various times, and they speak of it with great dread. Few natives appear to be marked with it,

7
Ranlet, Philip. "The British, the Indians, and Smallpox: What Actually Happened at Fort Pitt in
1763?" Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 67, no. 3 (2000): 427-41. Accessed July 25, 2021.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/27774278.
8
Perry, J. C. "PHILIPPINES. Reports from Manila—Plague and Smallpox Present." Public Health Reports (1896-
1970) 16, no. 27 (1901): 1555. Accessed July 25, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41461937.
 10

which could be attributed to their years of evasion from the disorder. They have not yet been

vaccinated, nor have they practiced inoculation.9

Chapter 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes how the researcher will carry out the research. It entails data

collection, data criticism, data interpretation, factual presentation, and conclusions based on data

and reliable sources.

Data Gathering

When selecting sources, researchers must always examine the credibility of the sources as

well as if the source can provide answers to the formulated query. This research will look into

smallpox in the Philippines in the 19th century. The researcher drew on material from Blair and

Paterson, as well as sources such as book reviews, publications discussing the epidemic, and

books on relevant themes.

Data Criticism

This component was responsible for determining the credibility and authenticity of the

acquired data by thoroughly examining and verifying the primary and secondary sources. The

authenticity and effectiveness of the sources and data were examined using external criticism the
9
E. H. Blair J. A. Robertson, “The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898: Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of
the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous
Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands
from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century, Volume XLIII, 1670–
1700,” External link, accessed July 25, 2021, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/35391/35391-h/35391-h.htm.
 11

reliability of a source was determined using internal criticism. The researcher must consider the

presence of metaphors, and pessimism when reading the document.

Presentation and Interpretation of Data

After getting the necessary data, the researcher must categorize the data into primary and

secondary sources. The research will sort and classify the relevant facts into paragraphs and

chapters in a chronological and geographical order. The presentation of data in an accurate and

interesting manner will be taken into account. In analyzing, evaluating, describing, and

presenting data, historical interpretation and explanation must be used.

Conclusion based upon the Data

The conclusion will be derived from the evidence gathered and the reasonings developed

during data criticism and interpretation. In doing so, the researcher will use objective criticism

and historical explanation theories to draw a conclusion from the data gathered.
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References

Brooks, Francis J. "Revising the Conquest of Mexico: Smallpox, Sources, and Populations." The
Journal of Interdisciplinary History 24, no. 1 (1993): 1-29. Accessed July 1, 2021.
doi:10.2307/205099.

E. H. Blair J. A. Robertson, “The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898: Explorations by Early

Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the
Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the
Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their
Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century, Volume
XLIII, 1670–1700,” External link, accessed July 25, 2021,
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/35391/35391-h/35391-h.htm.

Perry, J. C. "PHILIPPINES. Reports from Manila—Plague and Smallpox Present." Public

Health Reports (1896-1970) 16, no. 27 (1901): 1555. Accessed July 25, 2021.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/41461937.

Raghunath, D. "Smallpox Revisited." Current Science 83, no. 5 (2002): 566-76. Accessed July

25, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24107129.

Ranlet, Philip. "The British, the Indians, and Smallpox: What Actually Happened at Fort Pitt in
1763?" Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 67, no. 3 (2000): 427-41.
Accessed July 25, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27774278.

Smallpox Epidemic Strikes at the Cape, Smallpox Epidemic Strikes at the Cape | South African
History Online, February 13, 1713, https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/smallpox-
epidemic-strikes-cape.

Smallpox, Mayo Clinic (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, September 22,
2020), https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/smallpox/symptoms-causes/syc-
20353027.

Smallpox, World Health Organization (World Health Organization), accessed July 25, 2021,
https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/smallpox.
 13

The New York Times (The New York Times), accessed July 25, 2021,
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/o/oldstone-viruses.html.