History of Latin American Dermatology

History of Ecuadorian DermatologyBaltasar de Peralta, and the first pharmacy was set up. St. Fulgencio, the first Universityin the country — the fourth one in the Americas — was founded in Quito through a Bullof 1596, by Augustine friars; it started operating in 1603 2 , without including Medicine inits syllabus. In 1608, the Quito Town Hall decided to appoint Jerónimo Leyton, who didnot receive a salary, as City Physician. When many deaths occurred in Quitodue to an unknown epidemic, the Town Hall decided in 1609 to hire Dr. Menesesand pay him “300 patacones of eight reales each” 2 . In 1611 and 1612,there were epidemics of murine typhus, measles and esquinencia (diphtheria);the latter lasted until 1614; the King of Spain ordered the regular inspection ofhospitals 2 .In 1622, the second university in Ecuador was founded, the Royal PontificalUniversity of St. Gregory Magnum, in Quito, run by Jesuit Fathers; the King ofSpain recommended the opening of more asylums and hospitals5 .Towards 1630, the anti-malarial properties of quinine werediscovered in Malacatus-Loja, and with that, our country contributedto world medicine, this becoming almost the onlytreatment of malaria for many centuries (5). In 1645, newsmallpox, alfombrilla (German measles) and garrotillo (diphtheria)epidemics occurred in Quito. In 1672 and 1679, dysenteryepidemics unfolded in Quito. (Let us rescue from the pagesof history the Carmen Monastery, founded in 1682 (Figure 13).In 1688, the St. Thomas Aquinas University was founded inQuito, run by Dominican clerics, but it, likewise, did not includeMedicine 5 . In 1693, coinciding with a new smallpox andmeasles epidemic in Ecuador, the first Chair of Medicine inQuito was set up at the Dominican Convent of San Fernando. In 1694, the first doctorswho graduated in Quito appeared: Dr. Diego de Herrera, proto-physician, who fought anew smallpox epidemic with canafistula, and Dr. Diego Cevallos.In late 1692, a great smallpox, measles and German measles epidemic took place inthe city of Cuenca, which lasted until October 1693, with a total mortality higher than10% of the normal-average (which was two per month); in the month of May, 1693, 59people died 11 .In 1706, the Bethlehemite Order took up the management of the Quito Hospital, whichwas given the name Hospital of the Holy Mercy of Our Lord Jesus Christ; Luis Espejo, asurgeon, father of the famous Eugenio Espejo, is mentioned as one of its first administrators5 . In 1709, as an event associated with our specialized field, the English doctor C.Dover (1660-1741), a great expert on tropical pathology and advocate of the powders fordysentery that carry his name (ipecac, opium, potassium nitrate) arrived in Ecuador. Itis worth mentioning that in 1730 Dr. Pablo Petit introduced in Lima the treatment forsyphilis with mercury. The year 1747 must be remembered by the Ecuadorians andAzuayans, since, on the one hand, the famous Eugenio de Santa Cruz y Espejo was bornin Quito; and, on the other, proper medicine was launched in Cuenca with the managementof its Hospital run by the Bethlehemites, who built the Royal Hospital, which operatedin the city until 1868, when it was moved in front of the AllSaints Hermitage 5 .The city of Cuenca suffered two new epidemics of great magnitude,the first in March 1748, with fever, diarrhea and dysentery,and then, from October of that same year to November 1749, smallpox,measles and German measles. The highest mortality occurredin the months of April and May 1749, when 44 people died eachmonth 11 . When the city was suffering epidemics or earthquakesFigure 11. Founders ofCuenca: AndrésHurtado de Mendoza,Viceroy of Peru andMarquis of Cañeteand Gil RamírezDávalosFigure 12. Originalmap of the primitivelayout of the city ofCuenca at thefounding ceremonyFigure 13. CarmenMonastery, founded in1682205