Maria Isabel Wittenhall van Zeller (1749–1819) was a pioneer in the use of

vaccination Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop immunity from a disease. Vaccines contain a microorganism or virus in a weakened, live or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism. In stimulating ...

against

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. She became notable for promoting the use of smallpox vaccination at the beginning of the 19th century, particularly in the

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

area.

Biography

Maria Isabel Wittenhall (sometimes written as Witenhall or Wettenhall) was born in Avintes, in the municipality of Vila Nova de Gaia in

on 6 November 1749 to English emigrant parents. The wine company, Curtis and Wettenhall, was in existence in 1726 and it seems likely her father was a partner in that company, Townsend Wettenhall, who married, Anna Canner, the widow of a Mr. Newell in 1739. On 4 May 1767, at the age of 17, she married Pedro van Zeller (1746-1802), who came from a Dutch Catholic family and served as the Russian Consul in Porto. The couple had three sons. Van Zeller became notable for promoting the use of smallpox vaccination at the beginning of the 19th century, particularly in the Porto area. For many centuries the disease had been treated by

inoculation Inoculation is the act of implanting a pathogen or other microorganism. It may refer to methods of artificially inducing immunity against various infectious diseases, or it may be used to describe the spreading of disease, as in "self-inoculati ...

, also known as variolation, which involved the deliberate introduction of material from smallpox pustules into the skin. This induced

immunity Immunity may refer to: Medicine * Immunity (medical), resistance of an organism to infection or disease * ''Immunity'' (journal), a scientific journal published by Cell Press Biology * Immune system Engineering * Radiofrequence immunity desc ...

to smallpox but generally also produced a mild form of the infection. The Royal Family of Portugal experienced first-hand the results of a failure to inoculate when

José, Prince of Brazil Dom José, Prince of Brazil, Duke of Braganza (; 20 August 1761 – 11 September 1788) was the heir apparent to the Kingdom of Portugal until his death in 1788, as the eldest child of Queen Dona Maria I of Portugal and King Dom Pedro III of Po ...

died of smallpox at the age of 27 in 1788. Towards the end of the 18th century, the work of Edward Jenner and others showed that cowpox delivered by

to humans could protect against smallpox. Smallpox vaccination was first introduced into Portugal in 1799. Van Zeller started vaccinating in 1805 on her family farm in Avintes and also at her home in Porto, having been introduced to vaccination by the surgeon José da Cunha. There was considerable suspicion of its use, both by the Church and the medical profession. At one time Van Zeller was arrested for being a ''curandeira'' (

quack Quack, The Quack or Quacks may refer to: People * Quack Davis, American baseball player * Hendrick Peter Godfried Quack (1834–1917), Dutch economist and historian * Joachim Friedrich Quack (born 1966), German Egyptologist * Johannes Quack (b ...

or witch doctor). She appealed to the Royal Academy of Sciences for support and the Academy both successfully defended her and presented her with a gold medal in 1808. A Vaccine Institute was established in the university city of

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto Metropolitan Area, Porto, and Bra ...

in 1804 although its work was suspended during the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...

and it was only re-established in 1812. Isabel van Zeller was a benefactor of the Institute and regularly sent it a tally of the vaccinations she had carried out. According to its records, she administered 13,408 successful vaccinations between 1805 and 1819, or 18% of the total vaccinations given in Portugal in that period. The Institute awarded her a gold medal in 1813, although this was subject to some controversy because members thought that another woman,

Angela Tamagnini Angela Tamagnini was a pioneer in the use of smallpox vaccination in Portugal. She also became famous for her role in resisting the French invasion of the city of Tomar in the Santarém District of Portugal during the Napoleonic Wars. Biography ...

, also deserved such a distinction. In the end it was decided to deny Tamagnini the award because she had failed to provide the necessary data.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:van Zeller, Maria Isabel Wittenhall 1749 births 1819 deaths Vaccinologists Smallpox vaccines People from Vila Nova de Gaia