Journal of - International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine

The Tangiers School of Medicine and its Physicians: A Forgotten
Initiative of Medical Education Reform in Morocco (1886-1904)(x)
Francisco Javier MARTÍNEZ-ANTONIO
iliaries” 14 . However, its unconventional teaching method was
derived from the valid experience of Óvilo himself. Shortly
after beginning his medical studies, the Queen Isabel II was
ousted from Spain and a revolutionary republican period developed
between September 1868 and December 1874. During
those years, a profound transformation of higher education
took place which, in the field of medicine, was characterised
by a rise in the number of cities which offered medical studies
and by the creation of “Free Medical Schools” that replaced
the traditional Faculties of Medicine 15 . In those schools, great
emphasis was given to clinical and experimental practice and
to disciplines hitherto absent or undervalued in the syllabus,
such as physiology, histology, hygiene or toxicology. Teaching
and learning had to take place in the dissection theatre,
the laboratory, the museum and the hospital and should last
one or two years less than usual. Óvilo was essentially trained
as a doctor in the Free Medical School of Madrid, located in
the Provincial Hospital of Spain’s capital city, and graduated
in October 1870 when he was only 20 years old, a fact that did
not prevent him from attaining a solid prestige as physician
and hygienist 16 . In my opinion, he successful.
A first substantial change took place in the Tangiers
School in 1888. The relevance attributed by the minister
of Foreign Affairs, Segismundo Moret, to Spanish activities
in Morocco led to the creation of a new Spanish Hospital
in Tangiers (opened on the 25 th November 1888), designed
and administered by the Franciscan missionaries,
but staffed by military doctors 17 . The School moved there
and benefited from better facilities and more resources.
Another important change occurred in 1889-1890. In the
first year, Óvilo had an audience with Hassan I in Tangiers
during the visit of the sultan to the city in September-
October 18 . He informed Hassan I about the School and as a
result the sultan publicly expressed his wish that the institution
became a place for training military doctors for his
army 19 . Some months later, in May 1890, Óvilo travelled to
Fez to remind the sultan of his promise and, after another
personal audience, Hassan I decided to send six new students
to the School to be trained as military doctors 20 . In
the following years and until its closure, most if not all students
of the centre were Muslim Moroccans who received
“accommodation and a suit” from the Sheriffian government
during their studies and were expected to serve in the
askar (modern army) units after their training 21 .
The last years of existence of the School, between 1896
and 1904, are uncertain. Its founder and director, doctor
Óvilo, was sent to Cuba on the 14 th December 1896 to take
part in the last war of Cuban independence that ended with
the defeat of Spain by the United States in 1898 22 . He was so
disappointed at this decision, which ignored and interruptistry
of Foreign Affairs a year and a half later, he commented
how he also had “let it be known with the greatest discretion”
that those young Muslim Moroccans who showed
interest in “acquiring some medical knowledge” would be
accepted at the new institution 7 . As a result, a number of
them “with or without talent” applied and six of them were
taken in between December 1886 and June 1887 8 .
The School’s method always had a strong focus on a
practical teaching of medicine. A student’s notebook which
has been preserved shows how Óvilo gave very condensed
theoretical lessons using a method of short questions and
answers 9 . For example, the fourth lesson, on the spine,
started like this: “What is the spine It is a bony stalk composed
of 24 bones”; “How are those bones called” Vertebrae”;
“How many parts is the spine composed of Three
parts. The cervical spine with seven vertebrae, the dorsal
spine with twelve, and the lumbar spine with five”, and so
on 10 . Óvilo combined this basic conceptual teaching on
anatomy, physiology and therapeutics with the use of wax
models, two skeletons (bones and muscles), wallpapers
(plants, minerals, animals, body parts), a Zeiss microscope,
autopsy instruments and laboratory equipment 11 . Besides,
students were quickly integrated in the clinical and surgical
work of the dispensary 12 . We have not been able to fix how
many years this training was supposed to last, but around
1890 its first students were already being referred to as doctors
in the press and publications, as will be shown later.
A general account of the School’s method was directly
given by Óvilo in an interview for the journal Archivo
Político-diplomático de España in 1888:
“The teaching method followed by Mr. Óvilo, the School
Director, is, as it has been said, practical; his disciples learn
from patients while the unavoidable theoretical lessons are
supported by posters, models, instruments, etc., which make
oral explanation easier. With this method, which was followed
in Arab schools of the 10 th century, but with the most
modern knowledge of science, the students of the Tangiers
School of Medicine learn all subjects at the same time but in
a progressive manner; general ideas in the beginning, specific
details later and a thorough study in the end, when they
are ready and prepared for it. Such is the plan we have heard
from Mr. Óvilo and it must not be mistaken since Professors
from the Faculty of Medicine and from the Military Hospital
of Madrid, who have had the chance to listen to the [Moroccan]
students with more competence than ourselves, have
publicly and warmly praised the state of their education” 13 .
This might not seem a proper medical education anyway
and would confirm the views of those who have described the
School as a place for the training of “medics”, “nurses” or “aux-
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