[The history of the speckled monster].

It demolished 3 empires, killed princess and peasants indifferently, blinded its victims and scarred them for life, changed the outcome of military conflicts and eventually induced the discovery of the vaccination technique. Although conquered in the late seventies of the 20th century, the spirit of "the speckled monster"--smallpox as it was called due to its coetaneous manifestation and high death rate, still roam the earth as a bioterrorist threat. From China to Turkey, from England to the U.S.A., smallpox plague history traverses nations and physicians. This paper discusses the history of the disease and brings forward some of the less famous characters who contributed to the eradication of smallpox.