This paper presents a historical analysis on the Medical and Surgical Academy of Puebla de los ángeles, which was founded in Mexico in 1824. The methodology of the science history was used, particularly the historiography. The above mentioned Academy can be considered the first institution that in the Independent period of Mexico approached scientifically the indigenous knowledge on medicinal plants, across the disciplines as the botany, the chemistry and the medicine. In this academy the first two Mexican scientific works in the analyzed topic were published; the first one was a book on botany and the second one was a proposal for a Mexican pharmacopoeia. Furthermore there was a particular way of hierarchy relation between the characters of the indigenous knowledge and the characters of the scientific knowledge, which would become stronger in the approaches of the epochs and future institutions later to the academy’s life. Nevertheless, this institution was buried in the science history, due to her rivalries with another scientific institution that obtained greater diffusion in the topic and denied the credit to the contributions and the existence of the Academy of Puebla de los ángeles.
From a historiographical study, this paper presents the findings of an analysis on La Academia Médico Quirúrgica de Puebla de los Ángeles (the Medical and Surgical Academy of Puebla de los Ángeles), realized during the year 2014 with the purpose to show the place that the history of science has given to this institution for his contributions to the botany, chemistry and medicine. In this way, the history develops highlighting subjects as the foundation process, the social sectors involved, the main organization, the researches involved and his particular interest in the indigenous knowledge on medical plants, as well as the scientific works published and the factors that influenced its closing down.
The Medical and Surgical Academy of Puebla de los Ángeles was founded in 1824, although its background dated back to many years ago and it was established in a time when an illustrated vision of the sciences in the city of Puebla flourished, place where a notable interest was registered by the field of the botany, particularly in what concerns the use of the national indigenous knowledge on medicinal plants and his scientific argument. This can be estimated in the century XVIII, when two main characters would appear on scene and take over centers that would have a particularly importance for the topic in development.
The first character was the botanist and chemist José Ignacio Rodríguez Alconedo who in 1791 would be the person in charge of la Farmacia de San Nicolás Tolentino de Puebla (the San Nicolas Tolentino Pharmacy of Puebla). In this position he began the refurbishing and redecoration of the pharmacy and decided to decorate all the doors of all the shelves with oil paintings on each one of them, so they could show the importance of the botany and its relation with art and other sciences as well as emphasize the magnitude and orientation that he wanted for the pharmacy’s works. Ramírez Alconedo asked Miguel de Zendejas to execute the work piece (
On a fragment of above mentioned pictures you can appreciate a strong relation between botany and chemistry as well as with the knowledge appliance of both disciplines. These three concepts are represented with female bodies. The female representation of chemistry carries a flask while the botanical female representation carries a prickly pear (Nopal) representing in the concept of autochthone allegorically [
The second character involved was Antonio de La Cal y Bracho (a botanist from Burgos) who had arrived to the city of Puebla in 1795 getting the title of main botanist at the Hospital Real de San Pedro (Royal Hospital of San Pedro) a year later, and having the title of spokesman at the Botanical Garden in Madrid, depending of Casimiro Gómez Ortega and Miguel Barnades Clarís [
Both characters, Rodríguez Alconedo and De la Cal, established a strong relationship. De la Cal might be the person who appears talking to Rodríguez Alconedo on the first fragment on the painting [
For his part, the Royal Hospital of San Pedro was founded in 1545 under de Fray Julián Garcés instructions who would be the first bishop of La Nueva España (Spanish Colony). This institution would be involved in an instauration of a sanitary board whose objective would be to fight against the epidemic that was sticking the city of Puebla. For this reason, academics, city hall and religious authorities gathered to create the Sanitary Board in 1813 [
In this way, in spite of being an ancient longing promoted from beginning of the 19th century, the Botanical Garden of Puebla was finally established in 1820 [
After Agustin de Iturbide gave the assent and the State Congress approved his respective bylaws, the Medical and Surgical Academy of Puebla de los Ángeles was established in 1824 in the building which now is the current Museo de Arte San Pedro (San Pedro Art Museum) located on 203 4 North Street of Puebla de los Ángeles city center. In this way, created and assembled by doctors and pharmacists (
Regarding the academy foundation Juan Nepomuceno Raudón and some other associates declared to have found it as a center destined to show the purposes of the living economy and the biological body possible problems finding the truth in the facts provided and proven by the experience [
The functions of the rising academy (
Regarding the economical aspect, a state tax to maintain and afford the medical teaching institution decreed in 1828 was applied to the academy. The name to this tax was the Pensión del Jardín Botánico (Botanical Garden Pension), and would be a half Real fee on the consumption of each flour loading done in the Capital [
To enroll into the academy, the aspirants and honored members who were members of medicine and surgery academic body had to show a high intelligence level, perseverance and skills to keep up with the studies and work in Academy. Once admitted, they would have to enrich it by making donations such as books, instruments sets, or any other equipment [
Despite the characteristics of the time, the academy could establish and stay in permanent contact with its foreign colleagues, particularly with the academies from The United States of America (New York and Philadelphia) as well as with the scientific centers from France (Montpellier) and Spain. This made to think that it is in the pharmacy and botany where international current flourishing of the regional scientific nationalism is best shown [
Course | Place of Learning | Titular Teacher |
---|---|---|
Prima | Royal and Pontifical Seminary College | - |
Vísperas | Royal and Pontifical Seminary College | - |
Anatomy | San Pedro Hospital | - |
Pharmacy, Chemistry and Botany | Botanical Garden | Botany: Antonio De la Cal |
Chemical-Pharmaceutical: Ignacio Echeverría |
Source: own elaboration, based in [
The birth of the first Mexican scientific works was noticeable influenced by the circumstances of the actions created by the ending of the independence war in 1821 [
Julián Cervantes, son and disciple of Vicente Cervantes, was a valid teacher in chemistry math, physics, mineralogy and botanic, and he had given this last subject for 6 years in Mexico City. After teaching in Mexico City, he moved to Puebla. His father had gone there in 1775 to perform chemical studies on the Quahuhizquiztli plant, and he ordered the plant distribution to the hospitals in order that it could be used in treatments. Julián Cervantes would travel around Puebla collecting samples to be sent to his father in Mexico City helping him to create a wide state plant catalogue; he helped in the botanical development and to set the medicine basis of that time [
In 1825, with support of the Medical and Surgical Academy of Puebla de los Ángeles, Julián de Cervantes published Tablas botánicas (
This book is considered to be the first published book in Mexico on botanic [
In this book Julian de Cervantes, through 13 charts, explained and defined the botanical characteristics of the plants according to their parts. At the end, he included a chart with the names of the types and orders that Casimiro Ortega had established for the botanical basic course which was used to teach at the Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid (Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid). Other two charts were included, showing the sexual botanical method and all his possible classifications done by Carlos Lineo. Both charts had been copied from Casimiro Gómez Ortega’s work.
With this work, Julián de Cervantes showed in a systematic way the deep and detailed observation method for the botanical field, giving descriptions, names, shapes, texture, dimensions and other aspects sensed and learned by the senses. This would allow at the expert of the time to locate the plant according to the main characteristics that he could see in the parts of the plant. It was a detailed classification based on visual description, but, it did
not consider the function or the inner composition probably because botanic used to be only a descriptive science in which the objects would be determined by direct observation. This shows an initial stage of the academy works, in which botanic was related to other disciplines, such as medicine.
The Academy of Puebla assembled a commission to elaborate a Mexican pharmacopeia which was led by Antonio de La Cal [
Some of the assignments of this work were: 1) how to minimize the damages that may result from the lack of knowledge from the humanity’s behalf; 2) to reduce the generic and specific names of a wide collection of commercial plants, because they were know by the vulgar name, and sometimes they would be confused with other species; 3) to help the medicine teachers by giving them botanical training and knowledge which would allow them to develop themselves better; 4) to provide a first work that the professionals of the subject could be improving up to consolidating a Mexican medical matter.
The thematic content of this book was arranged in 3 main topics such as vegetal kingdom, animal kingdom and mineral kingdom. The vegetal kingdom contains a list of 111 medicinal plants, 26 would be repeated due to their vulgar name. In this case only the most common known names would be explained. For each plant, the vulgar name would be given as well as the results from studies performed on them, and also some comments on their potential features in terms of medical resources native from the country.
After the 3 sections, 2 indexes would be included; they only listed the medical plants. The first one respected to the way in which the plants were named, first by their vulgar name and then, in parenthesis and in small caps, the scientific name which was nominated at the time as generic or specific. The second one showed their location in the book by giving first the specific name and then the generic one.
In this essay, a Sucedáneos (comparison between 2 substances and their medical properties, so one could be replaced by another) list would be added. The list included 45 medicinal plants (in which 5 were duplicated), particularly those ones the authors considered the ones to be replaced daily by the people with other completely different from the real ones which are mentioned in foreign medicine subjects, specially when the plants (the real ones and the replacements) would not keep any affinity at all to each other.
At the end of this book an extract of Mariano Mocino’s speech was included. The speech was given in 1801 due to the opening of the botanical lessons in Mexico City and a mistake correction section would be added too.
From the deep analysis of this essay, we can notice the work evolution done by Medical and Surgical Academy of Puebla de los Ángeles, as well as the vision and aspirations compared to its first working days, from which we can learn as follows:
1. Already there were established precise medical indications, in multiple cases, product of the own experimentation, these were giving each other depending on the type of patients, clarifying the form of ingestion and raising strategies to offset the possible adverse reactions from the medical treatment.
2. In some cases and when necessary, and according to the treatment phase, the use of the different parts of the plant and the possible combination with other plants would be applied.
3. The indigenous use of the plants was also mentioned in a reference made in the works by Francisco Hernández as well as in the case of the plants originally from different places of the Republic of Mexico used and traded in different places from where the plants were originally. However, experimentation was said to be the method to prove the knowledge of the vulgar use of the plants being the teacher the ones who could take over the assignment and it would be clarified when the effects would not be proved in literary works, and it was clarified when the effects indicated in the literature had not been corroborated in his own laboratory. For this reason the commission performance is considered as one of vital prudence and circumspection [
4. The scientific publishing was used; this one was part of the main work to promote the results obtained from the researches detailing the observations and conclusions of some studied cases.
5. They were in the avant-garde in their subjects as they mentioned the different botanical identifiers of the plants, they quoted Francisco Hernández, José Alzate, Casimiro Gómez Ortega, Linneo and other sources of information as well as old and current from the time. They also looked for support on the contemporary observations from other places in the country, and even on the Universal Pharmacopeia which contents would be contrasted with the own results from the laboratory or the medical practice. They corrected mistakes in any international identification, like the Plumier and Lignon case, who had traveled to America reporting that the Maravilla plant was picked up of Jalapa plant but it was not, actually it was a question of two different vegetables.
6. One of the concerns that motivated the proposal of replacing imported plants for locals, besides the high prices, was the low quality and that their condition was not always pure, so it was the Tescalama plant case which grew in Mexico, and was compared with the well-know Ocuje plant from La Havana [
After nine working years and by the end of 1833, Medical and Surgical Academy of Puebla de los Ángeles became La Sociedad Médica de Puebla (The Medical Society of Puebla) as result of a new administration promoted by Patricio Furlong current governor of Puebla [
Despite of the constant defense of the academy to keep the unification of surgery and medicine together in the same practice, some authors [
In this way, the historiographical elements that showed the visionary ideology of the academy to fusion the doctor and surgeon professions and practices in one medic science, recognizing the doctors work as legitimate we can emphasize that: 1) the promotion of the unification of medicine and surgery which dates since 1825 as shown in the works of Manuel Menéndez, Mariano Escalante y Juan Nepomuceno Raudón; 2) the book Memoria acerca de la utilidad de la unión de la medicina y la cirugía (Memory about the utility of the union of medicine and surgery) were published in 1826 by Pedro Calderón; this author was a doctor and surgeon of Medical and Surgical Academy of Puebla de los Ángeles, and he seem to have performed an important role in the academy writing one of three academy works; 3) the constant counter arguments by Luis Guerrero [
So, while promoting since 1824 the union of the two sciences in one academic body, the members of the academy were also promoting a conception and a different practice for medicine; they stated that surgery and medicine are parts of the real medical practice. With this, they were questioning the political, scientific and religious order which would come from the medieval times in Europe and set in La Nueva España (Spanish Colony) under the Protomedicatos (medical tribunal that would recognize future doctors) control. Then, the quoted Luis Guerrero’s argument and his previous expressions, including the academy integration, itself configured a scientific and political modern position different and visionary for the context which appealed to a different way of conceiving and execute the medical practice.
After closing down, the works of the academy would be forgotten in history. This was the first scientific institution in the Independent period of Mexico which did the research on the indigenous knowledge of medical plants and the first to launch a Mexican book on botanic and another one with the first approach and the first argument for a national pharmacopeia. But on the academy would weight a substantially influence (feared by Antonio De La Cal) from La Academia Farmacéutica de la Ciudad de México (The Pharmaceutical Academy of Mexico City), which was founded in 1838 and tried to keep the Puebla predecessor anonymous and stating in its Farmacopea Mexicana (Mexican pharmacopeia) published in 1846 that it’s only background was the colonial pharmacopeias as well as the foreign ones referred in the Independent times [
Despite the short life of The Pharmaceutical Academy of Mexico City which had despaired once the Farmacopea Mexicana was published [
Currently the Medical and Surgical Academy of Puebla de los Ángeles is not well known and practically it is not considered to be a topic of the Mexican science history and also because there are a very few texts (which are difficult to find due to their age and location) that mention it. Because of this, the purpose of this work is to recover the history of the Academy of Puebla, so it could be placed in history and teach about the efforts, research and works on the indigenous knowledge on medical plants, and their participation in the fields of botanic, chemistry and medicine.
Even though the Medical and Surgical Academy of Puebla de los Ángeles is barely know, it can be considered in a legitimate way as the first scientific institution that focused on the study of the indigenous knowledge of the medical plants, due to its existence which was supported by four elements that would recognize it as such: 1) it was authorized and supported by the local, state and federal government; 2) the political structures of the state and local government worked in a coordinated way along with the academy; 3) they recognized it as an essential site to promote the full health benefits; 4) the academy obtained a formal economic help fee which came from the state taxes.
Although the above mentioned Academy of Puebla de los Ángeles can be considered to be the first institutional effort for the scientific research on the indigenous medicinal plants (realized from the botany, the chemistry and the medicine) in the Independent period of Mexico, in his foundation and in his main works a notable foreign influence is observed, particularly of Spain, France and London. For example the idea of having a national pharmacopeia was prompted by a group led by De La Cal who was a foreign scientist and had taken refuge in Mexico and whose ideas linked previous speeches promoted by other foreign works which collected plants in Mexico like the ones done by José Mariano Mociño and Vicente Cervantes [
Also the academy was considered to be very advanced for its time because since its foundations it aspired to take control of the medical profession used to be regulated by the Protomedicato referee. Owing to its alliance with the federal, state and local government, the Academy members were able to regulate their professional practices. The academy was one of the first scientific academies to promote and defend a different medicine practice; it had a conception which opposed the previous order in its context and unified the objects of study, the people and the knowledge of medicine in a different way of a whole and equivalent relation between medicine and surgery.
On the other hand, differing with Huerta [
Finally it is important to consider the importance of the returning of the indigenous knowledge on medical plants through botany, which was a main subject of Medical and Surgical Academy of Puebla de los Ángeles, and then this knowledge would be recognized as fundamental for the scientific practice though it was considered as an auxiliary science to the effective medical practice so it was turning out indispensable to possess a meticulous preparation on the subject. This returning is shown from the first efforts to identify the indigenous plants to the systematic and collective efforts of teaching, work field and laboratory to integrate a Mexican pharmacopeia based on the indigenous knowledge on plants.
In the same way and along with Medical and Surgical Academy of Puebla de los Ángeles the foundations for the scientific institutionalization of indigenous knowledge on medicinal plants were set; in it a particular way of relation between the representatives of the indigenous knowledge and the representatives of the scientific knowledge was also institutionalized, and this one was a outlined way of hierarchy relation where the traditional knowledge is legitimized and validates in the space of the scientific knowledge that takes only the useful aspects and places it in the space of the commercialization arguing the common well-being, but that precisely with it annuls the character traditional and the character indigenous to the above mentioned knowledge. As it will be seen in the future historical works, this relation between objects and characters would become stronger in the approaches of the epochs and future institutions.
Study realized in the frame of PhD Program on Science, Technology and Society of Cinvestav-IPN (Av. Instituto Politécnico Nacional 2508, Col. San Pedro Zacatenco, Delegación Gustavo A. Madero, Apartado Postal 14-740, 07000 México, D.F., México. Telephone: +52 (55) 57473800, Ext. 6780) and the project Environmental Governance in Latin America and the Caribbean (ENGOV) 2011-2015 (FP7-SSH-2010-3/SSH.2010.4.1-2). Guzmán-Rosas thanks Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (Conacyt).
Susana CarolinaGuzmán-Rosas, (2015) The Scientific Institutionalization of Indigenous Knowledge in Mexico: A Historical Analysis of the Medical and Surgical Academy of Puebla de los Ángeles. Open Journal of Social Sciences,03,283-292. doi: 10.4236/jss.2015.37041