<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The advent of smallpox vaccine in France in 1800 inaugurates a new relationship between administration, public health and the definition of medical facts. As Napoleon himself refused to establish compulsory vaccination, a Comité de vaccine was established so as to impose the idea of a riskless vaccine protecting forever from smallpox. This article studies how human experimentation, clinical experience, medical imagery and statistics maintained the idea of a perfect vaccine for six decades, despite the multiplication of cases of post-vaccination smallpox and vaccine contaminations.</p></abstract>

The advent of smallpox vaccine in France in 1800 inaugurates a new relationship between administration, public health and the definition of medical facts. As Napoleon himself refused to establish compulsory vaccination, a Comité de vaccine was established so as to impose the idea of a riskless vaccine protecting forever from smallpox. This article studies how human experimentation, clinical experience, medical imagery and statistics maintained the idea of a perfect vaccine for six decades, despite the multiplication of cases of post-vaccination smallpox and vaccine contaminations.

The Vaccine and Its Simulacra: Agnotology, Ontology and Biopolitics in France, 1800–1865

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This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Public License.

The advent of smallpox vaccine in France in 1800 inaugurates a new relationship between administration, public health and the definition of medical facts. As...

The Vaccine and Its Simulacra: Agnotology, Ontology and Biopolitics in France, 1800–1865

Published Online: Aug 08, 2018

Page range: 173 - 192

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ADHI-2018-0010

© 2016 Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, Published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Public License.