History of Latin American Dermatology

History of Dermatology in Perumentioned for the first time. We should remember that back then, as in Europe, it wassurgeons who treated external, superficial or skin problems.In 1693, the Protomédico Presbyter Vargas Machuca published a Discourse onMeasles, much praised by Unanue.In 1694, Francisco Bermejo y Roldán, Prime Medical Lecturer, published a book onmeasles, a disease that appeared in the form of epidemics and with serious complications.It was believed that the disease was transmitted by pestilent air, and that, in thisair, humors and blood were altered. For its treatment, Bermejo recommended cleaningthe air with rosemary; for the humors, he prescribed bloodlettings and purges. This isthe most exhaustive study on measles.Between 1732 and 1743, Pedro Peralta published an Annual Calendar of the Weatherand Diseases, in which he stated that fall would be a fruitful season with more diseasethan health, with threats of smallpox and measles.By recommendation of the Peruvian Protomédico Hipólito Unanue, the Royal AnatomyAmphitheater was inaugurated at St. Andrew’s Hospital on November 21, 1792, in orderto improve medical teaching, following anatomist Vesalius; there he set up the ClinicalConferences, in which he was to offer the conference on “Fevers” and Protomédico JoséM. Dávalos another on “Smallpox.” In the amphitheater’s inaugural speech, Unanue assertedthat “eruptive fevers are an evil star of Peru, which is full of pestilences and epidemics,complicated by the presence of charlatans and empiricists who practicemedicine and produce a picture of devastation. The teaching of anatomy shall redeemPeru, restoring it within a beneficial science and healthy enlightened doctors” 3 .In 1634, under the rule of Viceroy Count of Chinchón, medical education improved,and the medical properties of quinia bark for curing the intermittent fevers of tertiansand quartans were discovered; it was taken to Europe in 1635.In 1802, a serious smallpox epidemic occurred in Lima. A Spanish ship that traveledto the Philippines arrived in Callao bringing some glass bottles that contained the vaccine.Unanue took advantage of this opportunity to start vaccination against this dreadfuldisease in Peru. A few years later, the King of Spain sent a philanthropic expeditioncarrying the vaccine; this expedition reached Lima in 1806. However, a year earlier, in1805, nine glass tubes with the vaccine had arrived from Buenos Aires, and therefore,the vaccination started by Unanue continued, not without a certain resistance by thepopulation. Salvani arrived a few months later with the above-mentioned philanthropicexpedition. This is how, with the efficient collaboration of Hipólito Unanue, vaccinationagainst smallpox spread throughout the Colony.Also at an initiative of Unanue’s, during the Viceroyalty of Abascal the Royal St. FerdinandMedical and Surgery School was founded. This college began to operate on August13, 1808, with a studies program in tune with the latest medical advances of itstime, where “theory is accompanied by practice, so that, together with healthy morals,they can be the paths to becoming a good doctor” 3 . The Colony ended with the contributionof this Peruvian sage. It was only then that doctors started to have a scientifictechnique, professional sensitivity and philosophical broadness.Dermatology during the first hundred years of the RepublicMedical practice did not change with the proclamation of Independence, on July 28,1821; the methods of colonial medicine lived on. During the first years of the Republic,constant civil wars prevented any improvements. Hipólito Unanue, the father of Peruvianmedicine, who had occupied important posts during the Colony, continued working andproviding his knowledge after the proclamation of Independence.The continuer of Unanue, Cayetano Heredia, reformed the Medical Studies Plan, andcreated the present-day Medical School. December 30, 1848, was the date that marked309