Hermes Rodrigues da Fonseca (; 12 May 1855 – 9 September 1923) was a Brazilian field marshal and politician who served as the eighth President of Brazil between 1910 and 1914. He was a nephew of marshal Deodoro da Fonseca, the first president of Brazil, and general João Severiano da Fonseca, patron of the Army Health Service. His parents were the marshal Hermes Ernesto da Fonseca and Rita Rodrigues Barbosa. Biography Early life His father was born in Alagoas and, while serving in the army, was transferred to the town of São Gabriel, in Rio Grande do Sul, where Hermes was born, in 1855. When his father was sent to the Paraguayan War, the family returned to Rio de Janeiro. Military career In 1871, at the age of 16, he graduated with a degree in Science and Literature and joined the Military School of Praia Vermelha, where he was a student of Benjamin Constant Botelho de Magalhães, one of the introducers of the positivist ideas of Auguste Comte in Brazil, and thus did not escape the influence of the master, although he did not become an orthodox positivist. Upon graduating, Fonseca served as an assistant to prince Gaston de Orléans, the Count of Eu. Fonseca supported the proclamation of the Republic by his uncle Manuel Deodoro da Fonseca, and was invited by him to be a field assistant and military secretary after the seizure of power. In ten months, he went from captain to lieutenant colonel. On the occasion of the 1893 Naval Rebellion, he stood out, in Niterói, in the command of the defense of the government of Floriano Peixoto. In 1894, he was promoted to colonel, in 1896 he commanded the 2nd Mounted Artillery Regiment, then was appointed head of the Presidential Military House. He commanded the Federal Capital Police Brigade, currently the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro state, between 1899 and 1904, when he took command of the Realengo Military School, which formed the officers of the army. As commander of the Realengo Preparatory School in 1904, he repressed the Vaccine Revolt, a movement that, in the name of individual freedom, protested against the compulsory vaccination against smallpox imposed in Rio de Janeiro, also showing the broader popular dissatisfaction with the regime. Fonseca commanded the 1st Military Region, in Rio de Janeiro, from 24 December 1904 to 7 July 1906. Then president Rodrigues Alves promoted him