The first case of bubonic plague in Porto, considered the third major global plague epidemic, was recorded on July 9 1899, by Ricardo Jorge. At the time, Ricardo Jorge was the physician in charge of the Municipal Health and Hygiene Services, which he established in 1892. He was a physician and academic of great status, dedicating himself to public health issues for quite a long time. Ricardo Jorge would become a major reformer, after starting to work at the Directorate-General of Public Health in Lisbon.

It was the first major epidemic with a remarkable photographic record. There are plenty of photos by the amazing Porto photographer Aurélio da Paz dos Reis, and others by Photographia Guedes, a photography shop that was famous in the city, at that time. The pictures show the actions carried out to address the epidemic, by health brigades and firefighters, as well as the backstage work at the laboratories, performed by medical personnel, under Ricardo Jorge’s guidance. They also document several protests by the city’s population and living forces.

It was the end of the 19th century, a period of deep social and economic changes in the city, with the arrival of industrialisation, new technologies and photography..

Porto's intellect... belonged to the Positivism generation. The generation that came after the Romantic generation of Café Guichard and Águia de Ouro. In 1878, the magazine O Positivismo emerged, produced by Teófilo Braga and the doctor Júlio de Matos, director of the Conde Ferreira hospital. In 1882, the magazine had made a thorough review of the Evolution of Species’ Darwinism. Republicanism seemed committed to garner the Scientism that grew in Europe due to the second industrial revolution. Aurélio is 20 years old, and he already collects newspaper clippings. That is probably how he was exposed to Charles Darwin’s ideas, by reading the O Positivismo. The works he eventually bought, maybe during one of his trips to France, are the most representative of the new evolutionary materialism: On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man.

M. do Carmo Serén, Manual do Cidadão Aurélio da Paz dos Reis, edition CPF, 1998

The photographic record of the 1899 bubonic plague was made possible by the advances in photography and the remarkable photographers from Porto. Since the official invention in 1839, the evolution of photography was quite fast, leading to quality pictures and, above all, vivid portraits of day-to-day life. The development of lighter/simpler equipment and glass negatives (1851) enabled the easy and ad infinitum reproduction of copies, while the adoption of sophisticated techniques e.g., gelatine silver and silver bromide (1880), contributed to accelerate the process and obtain snapshots. Moreover, and unlike all expectations, all these innovations arrived quickly to Portugal, particularly to Porto. The photographers kept themselves updated about what was happening in France, leading to the immediate dissemination and testing of all the major developments.

The photographic record of the events took place quite naturally in this context, eventually leading to photojournalism. Both Aurélio and Guedes de Oliveira are fine examples of this developing connection between photography and journalism. The development of socially inclined photography took place simultaneously, in order to expose the situation of poorer and more vulnerable individuals. These new fields expanded the scope of what would later become documentary photography.

At the same time there were remarkable breakthroughs in the field of Public Health. In 1882, Koch discovered the tuberculosis bacillus. It was the beginning of Medicine based on science, replacing the Medicine based on old wives’ remedies and empirical procedures, without scientific evidence. The advances in microbiology were the main cause of the aforementioned breakthroughs in Public Health. Having identified many of the microbial pathogens that caused most of the contagious diseases that plagued Europe at that time, the scientific community was able to understand a little better the mechanisms of disease spreading, and was able to address them more effectively. The plague that tormented Porto at the outset of the 20th century would play a key role, by accelerating change - through the valorisation of laboratory work and the microscope, as resources to support medicine. It would also contribute to a deep reorganisation of Public Health Services. Ricardo Jorge would be a key agent in this reform: first in Porto, as head of the Municipal Public Health Services, and then in Lisbon, at the Directorate-General of Health and Public Charity, and then at the Directorate-General of Public Health, during the Republic.

How the plague was addressed - the siege of the city

The irony that History keeps underlining: the third plague epidemic that devastated the city of Porto came from the province of Yunnan (China), appearing around 1840. Hence, it would take about 60 years to travel to Porto, with the first cases identified in 1899. At that time, travelling took place at different speeds, even for the infectious agents.

Chronology of events:

July 4 1899	Ricardo Jorge was informed about some sudden and unexplained deaths, which would have occurred at Rua da Fonte Taurina, in Ribeira. He visited the place after two days, and totalled four fatal cases among ten infected. They all lived "in miserable and filthy buildings" he would write.
July 9 1899	Ricardo Jorge would write: "a bacillus that microscopically covered the morphology of that of the plague - short, solid, bipolar interior, intermediate white space".
July 12 1899	For the first time, in a report sent to the Civil Governor, Ricardo Jorge identifies the disease as bubonic plague, explicitly and quite clearly.
July 28 1899	In a report, Ricardo Jorge reiterates his conviction that it is, in fact, bubonic plague.
August 8 1899	After a bacteriological examination, performed in the municipal laboratory that he had established, Ricardo Jorge confirms the previous diagnosis of plague. This diagnosis was validated by the laboratory work performed by Câmara Pestana, director of the Bacteriology Institute of Lisbon.
August 17 1899	The Government issued a decree establishing the first sanitary measures on the city.
August 23 1899	The army surrounded the city; entering and leaving is strictly restricted, for both people and goods. The "siege", as it will be remembered, will have very negative consequences, leading to great economic uncertainty, unemployment and famine.
August 24 1899	Meeting of traders and businesspersons from Porto at the Palácio da Bolsa, to discuss the blockade and the city’s sanitary siege (photographed by Aurélio da Paz dos Reis).
October 4 1899	Ricardo Jorge leaves Porto, to assume his position at the Directorate-General of Health and Public Charity.
December 1899	End of the siege.