The smallpox tragedy in two pictures

(A scene in the Chamber)
Brazilian parliamentary deputy, military officer, and sometime ally of the Church of Positivism Alexandre José Barbosa Lima: “Look, Mr. President! Our brothers, our wives, our children, fouled by vaccine, demoted to the role of guinea pigs! Misery! Protest! In the name of Comte, I positively must protest for all the juntas!” [“Junta” might simply mean “committee,” but Barbosa Lima ended up supporting the oligarchical politics which the Positivists had opposed.]

(Street scene, the cemetery entrance)
Barbosa Lima: “Behold, the victims of a black epidemic arrive. There are so many! Finally, as the dead govern the living, it is always a comfort to be sure that we have many people to govern us…
Peace to the dead! My sect [the Church of Positivism] is against the vaccine… and I find myself respectful of the consequences of its dogmas. Health and fraternity, oh! The dead are passing!”
(O Malho, Rio de Janeiro, 1904)
For more on the complicated politics of Positivist opposition to compulsory vaccination, see Robert Nachman.