Gregorio Marañón y Posadillo (1887-1960), played a leading role in the birth of endocrinology in Spain as is well known. However, his medical work included other important and significant fields. Thus, it was especially...Gregorio Marañón y Posadillo (1887-1960), played a leading role in the birth of endocrinology in Spain as is well known. However, his medical work included other important and significant fields. Thus, it was especially in the 1910s and 1920s, when Marañón dealt with the social-sanitary situation in madrid probably due to his professional attachment to the treatment of several infectious diseases and epidemic outbreaks. Actually, since 1911 onwards, he was in charge of the wards of infectious diseases in the Hospital General de Madrid where he had the opportunity of treating an important number of patients suffering from this type of pathology and, as a consequence, in the following years he published several articles in medical journals and presented in the Royal Academy of Medicine in Spain, some reports on infectious diseases and the Spanish health and social conditions at the time. This paper try to analyze this field of Marañón's social and scientific activity.
In Spain, during Franco's dictatorship (1939-1975) the teaching and divulgation of science were subordinated to the Catholic religion and many books defended a theistic and creationistic point of view of biology that acc...In Spain, during Franco's dictatorship (1939-1975) the teaching and divulgation of science were subordinated to the Catholic religion and many books defended a theistic and creationistic point of view of biology that accepted a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis and denied the theory of evolution, especially as it relates to human origin. This article is devoted to the main books and characteristics of this way of thinking which reproduced arguments and metaphors of the pre-Darwinian natural theology, arguing that nature was ruled by God and living organisms were the results of his design.
The pharmaceutical industry associations, as it happened with other businesses, had a significant rise during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera and II Republic. The 'Cámara Nacional de Industrias Químicas', in Barcelon...The pharmaceutical industry associations, as it happened with other businesses, had a significant rise during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera and II Republic. The 'Cámara Nacional de Industrias Químicas', in Barcelona, represented the national chemical industry to its ultimate assimilation by the 'Organización Sindical' in 1939. In this association, matters relating to pharmaceutical products -- which we will especially deal with in this work -- were managed by the 'Unión Nacional de Laboratorios Químico-Farmacéuticos', which defended the interests of pharmaceutical companies in the presence of government authorities, using the resources and mechanisms also managed by business pressure groups. The inclusion of industrial pharmacy in the Chemical lobby separated the pharmaceutical industry from traditional exercise and its corporate environment. this created ups and downs, conflicts of interests and finally, love and hate relationships with their colleagues of the pharmacy work placement and, of course, with the association that represented them: the 'Unión Farmacéutica Nacional'.
The aragonese naturalist Odón de Buen y del Cos for twenty-two annual academic courses professor of natural history at the University of Barcelona and for twenty-three of the University of Madrid. Strong supporter of Dar...The aragonese naturalist Odón de Buen y del Cos for twenty-two annual academic courses professor of natural history at the University of Barcelona and for twenty-three of the University of Madrid. Strong supporter of Darwin's evolutionary theory, experimental work in the field and laboratory, in this paper puts the value of their efforts, as an educator, to popularize the natural sciences and thus separated from the concerns, superstition and fanaticism, which they were basic reasons of the moral and material backwardness in which Spain was found.
During the founding period of palaeoanthropology, the postulate about tertiary age of humankind was an outstanding subject. First proposals were based on supposed proofs about ancient lithical industry (eoliths). Some di...During the founding period of palaeoanthropology, the postulate about tertiary age of humankind was an outstanding subject. First proposals were based on supposed proofs about ancient lithical industry (eoliths). Some discoveries of human fossil remains complicated that issue, because they were dated as pliocene or oldest. This controversy about so-called "tertiary man" soon arrived to Spain. Juan Vilanova y Piera, palaeontologist and professor at Madrid, dealt with it from an antievolutionist point of view. When a human fossil skeleton, included in the Botet's collections, with several apparently primitive traits arrived to Valencia from Argentina, Vilanova got reasserted and exposed his ideas about this question more intensely.
The sense of the real, or the material - the dead body - as an inextricable part of the sacred does not disappear in the secular environment of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This article analyzes specific human...The sense of the real, or the material - the dead body - as an inextricable part of the sacred does not disappear in the secular environment of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This article analyzes specific humanitarian narratives centered on the practice of autopsy and mummification, in which the traces of Catholicism act as a kind of spectral discourse of the imagination, where the real is configured in forms of the uncanny, the monstrous or the sacred.
One of the main obsessions of the early modern era was that of determining the notions of true and false, in order to apply them to various fields of knowledge and thus establish the divide between the lawful and unlawfu...One of the main obsessions of the early modern era was that of determining the notions of true and false, in order to apply them to various fields of knowledge and thus establish the divide between the lawful and unlawful. This trend was to have a particular impact on the fields of religion and science, where it became necessary to distinguish not only between true and false spirits, relics or miracles, but also between genuine and fake astrologers and alchemists. Situated in the middle ground between idealism and materialism, alchemy was prime territory for such tensions, as was demonstrated by a trial held in 1593 at the Jeronymite monastery of Santa Enracia in Saragossa, whose prior accused a friar of making "silver out of smoke and jewels from goblins".
The institution "Junta do Exame do Estado Actual e Melhoramento Temporal das Ordens Regulares" (Examination Council for the Actual State and Temporal Improvement of the Religious Orders) was created in November of 1789....The institution "Junta do Exame do Estado Actual e Melhoramento Temporal das Ordens Regulares" (Examination Council for the Actual State and Temporal Improvement of the Religious Orders) was created in November of 1789. Among other things, each Religious House should inform that institution about its heritage either the movables and the landed estates. The inventorying included all the goods belonging to wards and drugstores. In this paper, we aim to study those places using records obtained from a variety of Religious Houses with no regional or Religious Order preferences. We will try to give answers to questions related to that spaces such as 'Which objects could be found inside the Houses?'; 'Were they properly equipped?'; and 'Were there big differences between them in what concerns Religious Orders and Houses locations?'.
The evolution of Amado Nervo's novellas shows a constant communication with the paradigmatic shifts in the field of psychopathology. His metafictional constructs foreground a playful treatment of some of medicine's key i...The evolution of Amado Nervo's novellas shows a constant communication with the paradigmatic shifts in the field of psychopathology. His metafictional constructs foreground a playful treatment of some of medicine's key ideas. In some cases, the narrow limits of positivistic psychopathology are overcome in order to anticipate notions that obtain scientific status with modern psychology.
A growing interest in the nature of the black skin and in the origins of the peoples classified under this trait was accompanied in the eighteenth century by an increasing differentiation of their nature from whites, to...A growing interest in the nature of the black skin and in the origins of the peoples classified under this trait was accompanied in the eighteenth century by an increasing differentiation of their nature from whites, to the point that they were considered either a degenerated variety of humans, a separate species or inferior animals. Skin and race go together in the natural history of man, which comprises not only anatomical and physiological aspects, but also the history of nations, the Sacred History, and the aesthetic reflection.
This article presents a historical synthesis in order to trace how the collective belief in the existence of hermaphrodites and sex-changes was slowly eroded in the changing medical and cultural context of Enlightenment...This article presents a historical synthesis in order to trace how the collective belief in the existence of hermaphrodites and sex-changes was slowly eroded in the changing medical and cultural context of Enlightenment Spain. In order to explain this change, three interlinked processes are outlined. First, the naturalization of the monster and the disappearance of the "marvellous" in Enlightenment science. Second, the consolidation of modern legal or forensic science and the rise of the medical specialist as the relevant authority in the determination of sexual identity. Third, the emergence of the notion of fundamental biological differences between the sexes. The article concludes by discussing the consequences of these shifts for early nineteenth-century Spanish medicine.
In this article we present a catalogue of medicinal products preserved in a manuscript copy among the papers of a druggist who died in Madrid in 1599. This catalogue, whose title expresses its normative character, contai...In this article we present a catalogue of medicinal products preserved in a manuscript copy among the papers of a druggist who died in Madrid in 1599. This catalogue, whose title expresses its normative character, contains 423 entries and is signed by Andrés Zamudio de Alfaro, Protomédico General of Castile from 1592 until his death in 1599. It was presumably issued by the Real Tribunal del Protomedicato during the last decade of the sixteenth century for the use of the protomédicos and examiners who carried out official visits to apothecaries under the aegis of the Tribunal, in accordance with the royal decrees of 1588 and 1593, and was also distributed among the apothecaries themselves and their suppliers, such as the druggist who possessed the copy edited here. The document offers valuable evidence of the policy of normalization of medical, and specifically pharmaceutical, practice imposed during this period by the State through the Protomedicato.
The absorption of the "Real Tribunal del Protoalbeitarato" by the Veterinary Science School of Madrid shows several singularities in relation to the equivalent process in medicine and pharmacy. The conflict and the hegem...The absorption of the "Real Tribunal del Protoalbeitarato" by the Veterinary Science School of Madrid shows several singularities in relation to the equivalent process in medicine and pharmacy. The conflict and the hegemony of the "Real Tribunal" during almost sixty years from the creation of the Veterinary Science School (1792), has been studied by the traditional historiography with a view fundamentally focused on veterinary aspects. In this article, the process of absorption is investigated in full detail. Also, the relevance of political motivations and their predominance over technical, sanitary or professional motivations are shown. So, the game of institutions and agents which are external to the veterinary science are analysed; specially, the outstanding role performed by the XV Marquis of Cerralbo.
Vicente Cervantes Mendo (Ledrada, Salamanca, 1758 - México, 1829) was a famous Spanish Mexican scientists; he is today heritage of Spain and Mexico. As a continuation of two recent articles on his life at Spain, the pres...Vicente Cervantes Mendo (Ledrada, Salamanca, 1758 - México, 1829) was a famous Spanish Mexican scientists; he is today heritage of Spain and Mexico. As a continuation of two recent articles on his life at Spain, the present study deals with his scientific formation at madrid, as pharmacist and as botanist, as well as on his professional activity. Two documents of Casimiro Gómez Ortega, principal professor of the Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid, dated in 1786 and related with the "Real Expedición Botánica a Nueva España (1787-1803)," have served to establish conclusions which clarify the subjects studied and correct mistakes.
This paper explores the links between scientific practice and precision both in expert networks and popular literature in the second half 18th century Spain. It will be argued that scientific instruments were used and un...This paper explores the links between scientific practice and precision both in expert networks and popular literature in the second half 18th century Spain. It will be argued that scientific instruments were used and understood in different ways in these two networks, which required opposing strategies for visualizing the degree and goodness of users' dexterities, thereby fostering the emergence of different collective and individual (epistemic) subjects. I will also argue that these subjects' differences and affinities were constructed around three themes: firstly, the degree of precision needed to establish a correlation between data and the world, or, in other words, the degree of fluidity admitted in connecting material and cultural worlds; secondly, the relevance attributed to body and bod(il)y knowledge in producing reliable data and stabilizing expertise; and thirdly, the weight attributed to opinion in leaning towards ephemeral or lasting data. The first part of the paper looks at the epistemological and political confluences which in late 18th century Spain nurtured the emergence of both a culture of precision and a sphere of public opinion, and to the strained relationship that existed between them. The other three sections explore how Spanish people used different sets of practices to construct different images of themselves as supporters of a moral of precision.
This paper offers an analysis of the process of institutionalization of psychological knowledge in Spain following the educative reforms implemented during the second third of the 19th century, which prescribed its inclu...This paper offers an analysis of the process of institutionalization of psychological knowledge in Spain following the educative reforms implemented during the second third of the 19th century, which prescribed its inclusion in the curricular program of the new secondary education. After a detailed examination of the theoretical orientation, the ideological assumptions and the socio-political connections of the contents transmitted to the students throughout the century, its militant spiritualism is interpreted as a highly significant attempt on the part of the liberal elites to articulate a pedagogy of subjectivity intended to counteract the trends toward reduction, naturalization and fragmentation of psychic life inherent to the development of modern science.
The second half of the nineteenth century in Spain was a period characterized by a strong presence of social science, which even came to permeate the masses. Evolutionary theories and some figures such as Charles Darwin...The second half of the nineteenth century in Spain was a period characterized by a strong presence of social science, which even came to permeate the masses. Evolutionary theories and some figures such as Charles Darwin himself were present in areas far from the scientific activity proper. The use of concepts and laws of biological origin for the diagnosis and political practice against certain problematic social realities, such as crime or poverty, gave rise to theories and intellectual schools that asserted the value of evolutionary principles for the analysis of complex realities of socio-cultural inequality. The attraction for difference and the scientific method, with the possibility of observation of poverty and social inequality that industrial development and modernity put forward to the writers, added to the naturalist and biological interest a literary curiosity for the degeneration, both physical and cultural, of that unfortunate part of humanity.
Chagas disease is one of the main endemic illnesses in Latin America. Since 1969 up to the present, the treatment of chronic Chagas patients has been the object of a scientific-medical controversy mobilizing several bodi...Chagas disease is one of the main endemic illnesses in Latin America. Since 1969 up to the present, the treatment of chronic Chagas patients has been the object of a scientific-medical controversy mobilizing several bodies of knowledge and actors. The resolution of the controversy has direct effects on the health of patients; however, they have been systematically excluded of public debates. In this paper we identified and specified four different steps of the controversy, showing the different positions adopted by the actors implicated, analyzing their statements, the scientific knowledge mobilized during the debates and the consequences for the establishment of norms for the treatment. We conclude showing that what makes up the central issue of the controversy is not what the actors implicated explicitly state as it but the criteria (technical and cognitive) through which are measured and defined "illness" and "cure" states. This research is about a case study in Argentina.
The present paper focuses on the reconstruction of the historical circumstances of knowledge production as well as and the debates about endemic goiter disease during the period 1916-1955 in Argentina. Taking into accoun...The present paper focuses on the reconstruction of the historical circumstances of knowledge production as well as and the debates about endemic goiter disease during the period 1916-1955 in Argentina. Taking into account the social, political and material dimensions, this text explores the re-signification of scientific and medical knowledge oriented to the prevention and health treatment, through the positioning of several social actors engaged all along the period, and the diverse historical and institutional contexts.