HERNÁNDEZ, Justo. Cristóbal de Vega (1510-1573), Physician to Prince Don Carlos (1545- 1568) (Spanish). Dynamis, 2001, 21, 295-322.

 Sumario  

1.—Introduction. 2.—Nomination of Doctor Vega as Court physician. 3.—The diet of the young prince. 4.—The quartan fevers of Don Carlos. 5.—The head injury suffered by Don Carlos. 6.—The last years of Cristóbal de Vega’s profesional activity. 7.—Confinement and death of Don Carlos. The twilight of Cristóbal de Vega’s life.

Abstract

This paper presents biographical aspects concerning the always-delicate health of Prince Don Carlos (1545-1568), first-born son of the King Felipe II of Spain (1527-1598). The main conditions and circumstances of his pathobiography were drawn from interesting data offered by one of his royal doctors, the former professor of the University of Alcalá, Cristóbal de Vega (1510-1573), throughout his significant medical career. In particular, the pathographical report on the quartan fevers suffered by Don Carlos in Doctor Vega's Commentaria in librum Aphorismorum (1568), provides considerable clinical data on a disease that was previously little-known.

REY BUENO, Mar; ALEGRE PEREZ, Maria Esther. His Majesty’s Distillers: Distillation and Chemical Medicine in the Court of Phillip II (Spanish). Dynamis, 2001, 21, 323-350.

Sumario

1.—Introduction. 2.—Alchemy, distillation and quintessences. 3.—European influences in Philippine distillation. 4.—Francisco Holbeque, «simplist» and royal distiller. The Aranjuez distillery (1564). 5.—The search for the quintessence: origins of the Madrid distillery (1579). 6.—The Escorial distillation laboratory (1568). 7.—Apogee of the royal distillery. 8.—Remedies produced at the royal distilleries. 9.—Consolidation of apothecaries as distillers.

Abstract

The present work studies the appearance and development of Paracelsist Practices in the Spanish Court through a linked series of events that took place between 1564 and 1602. These were: the creation of Philippine distillation laboratories, the ordenance of the protophysician Francisco de Valles regarding distilled waters; the concession of a patent to Diego de Santiago for the invention of a steam distillery; the publication of the last (latest?) treatise by Francisco de Valles, dedicated to weights, measures, and distilled waters; the appearance of a distiller on the founding staff of the Royal Apothecary, in charge of preparing all the distilled waters and chemical medicines; and the creation of a new post within the Court health organigram, that of Distiller Major.

BERTOMEU SÁNCHEZ, Jose Ramón; GARCÍA BELMAR, Antonio. Pedro Gutiérrez Bueno (1745-1822), textbooks and a new public for chemistry in the last third of the 18th century (Spanish). Dynamis, 2001, 21, 351-374.

Sumario

1.—Introduction. 2.—Training of an apothecary in the second half of the 18th century. 3.—Pedro Gutiérrez Bueno and chemistry text books. 4.—Theoretical chemistry, experimental physics and a new public for chemistry. 5.— Conclusions.

Abstract

This paper is a part of a general research project on the role that chemistry played in transforming materia medica to experimental pharmacology during XIX century Spain. Within this general framework, the paper deals with the main characteristics of Spanish textbooks aimed at pharmaceutical and medical students. In a former study, published in this journal, we outlined the institutional context in which these books were read, written and published. Some of these issues are developed in the present paper through analysis of the «Curso de química» written by Pedro Gutiérrez Bueno. New light is shed on the public for chemistry during late XVIII century Spain and their role in shaping the contents and organisation of chemistry textbooks.

HERSCH MARTÍNEZ, Paul. The National Pharmacopoeia and the therapeutic status of flora in Mexican biomedicine (Spanish). Dynamis, 2001, 21, 375-408.

Sumario

1.—Introduction. 2.—Modern pharmacopoeia and its beginnings in independent Mexico. 3.—The mission of Mexican materia medica. 4.— Progressive exclusion of clinical evidence. 5.—Denaturalisation of the pharmacopeia: transformation of a profile and a setting. 6.—Extrapharmacopoeias, prescriptions and physicians. 7.—An instrument that can be recovered from a clinical perspective.

Abstract

The paper analyses the transformation of the Mexican pharmacopoeia, focusing on the presence of medicinal plants. Reflecting diverse processes, editions of the pharmacopoeia show a progressive modification in its content and profile. A text written to shape a Mexican materia medica, recognising empirical knowledge by the inclusion of popularly used resources and involving clinicians as authors and recipients, was transformed into a mainly industrial publication with no clinical references. The origin and implications of this process are explored.

II Premio DYNAMIS de fomento a la investigación en historia de la medicina y de la salud

ZARZOSO, Alfons. Medical pluralism revealed by private correspondance in XVIII century Catalonia (Spanish). Dynamis, 2001, 21, 409-433. 

Sumario

1.—The history of medicine from a patient’s point of view. 2.—The historicalmedical context in XVIII century Catalonia. 3.—The medical culture of a Catalan family of the XVIII century.

Abstract

This work constitutes an approach to the complex world of medical pluralism during the modern age. First, there is a review of the recent histiography concerned with recovering all the possible medical resources that existed and were offered to the patient. The complexity of this medical world are then described, noting the persistence of some elements throughout the late medieval and modern period. Within the theoretical framework and historical setting established, the work concludes by showing the complexity and permanent interrelationship in the care options, from the point of view of private correspondence of the Veciana family at the end of the XVIII century.