Manuel Joaquim Henriques de Paiva[a] (23 December 1752 – 10 March 1829) was a Portuguese Brazilian chemist and physician, and an important science communicator. A prolific author, Henriques de Paiva published several dozens of scientific books, several of them translations or adaptations of works by international scientists such as Scopoli, Linnaeus, Brisson, or Fourcroy. He was responsible for the spread of Edward Jenner's work on heterologous vaccination throughout the Portuguese-speaking world, through his Preservativo das Bexigas ("Preservative Against the Pox", 1801), a book of popular science meant to raise public awareness to the benefits of vaccination against the deadly smallpox.[1]
Henriques de Paiva held several important positions in the Portuguese sanitary administration (he was a physician of the Royal Household, a member of the Royal Board of the Protomedicate, a Professor at the University of Coimbra, a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Lisbon), and enjoyed some political protagonism.[1] His links to the Freemasonry and to the French during the first invasion of Portugal in the Peninsular War would see him tried as a jacobin in 1809, banished to Brazil, and stripped of his offices and honours. He established himself in Salvador, Bahia; charges against him were dismissed in 1818, and his prerrogatives rehabilitated, which led to an appointment as a Professor at the Bahia Medical-Surgical School.[3] Henriques de Paiva later intervened in support of the independence of Brazil.[1]