Guerra Vaccino-Obrigateza! (Compulsory-Vaccination War!), O Malho cartoon
A colour cartoon shows a street battle: a column of soldier-nurses in Red Cross caps, led by a moustached commander with a lancet, wheels forward syringe-cannon behind a banner reading 'VACCINA OBRIGATORIA' marked with two skulls, while men and women at windows and in the street hurl brooms, saws, axes, pots and slops at them. The printed legend calls Oswaldo Cruz 'the Napoleon of the syringe and lancet'. The tells are that loaded label and the skulls stamped on the vaccination banner.
- Date
- October 29, 1904
- Period
- Pre-1914
- Made by
- O Malho (Rio de Janeiro), no. 111; cartoon by Leonidas Freire
- Region
- Latin America
- Country
- Brazil
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- Media
- Regime
- Rodrigues Alves Government
- Leader
- Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Theme
- Health
- Event
- Vaccine Revolt
- Techniques
- Name-callingTransfer
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons, retrieved September 29, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (published 1904, before 1931; Commons: author d. 1943, Brazil life+70 expired)
O Malho (Rio de Janeiro), no. 111, 29 October 1904, Leonidas Freire, via Wikimedia Commons
Text on the object
GUERRA VACCINO-OBRIGATEZA!... [banner:] VACCINA OBRIGATORIA [signature:] LEONIDAS [legend, as quoted on the Commons file page:] Espetaculo para breve nas ruas desta cidade: Oswaldo Cruz, o Napoleão da seringa e lanceta, à frente de suas forças obrigatorias, será recebido e manifestado com denodo pela população. O interessante dos combates deixará a perder de vista o das batalhas de flores e da guerra russo-japoneza. E veremos no fim da festa quem será o vaccinador, á força!
COMPULSORY-VACCINATION WAR!... [banner:] COMPULSORY VACCINE [signature:] LEONIDAS [legend:] A spectacle soon in the streets of this city: Oswaldo Cruz, the Napoleon of the syringe and lancet, at the head of his compulsory forces, will be received and demonstrated against with boldness by the population. The interest of the combats will leave far behind that of the battles of flowers and of the Russo-Japanese war. And we shall see at the end of the party who will be the vaccinator, by force!
The heading, banner and signature were read from the image ('OBRIGATEZA' in the heading is printed that way, a play on 'obrigatoria'). The legend is not visible in the hosted image and is taken from the caption on the Wikimedia Commons file page, which the file page attributes to O Malho no. 111.
