During the continuance of the royal authority in Peru, when military titles were only conferred on men of Spanish blood, the honour of the church and civil courts of judicature was pre-eminently fostered by the government, and the duties of those high vocations devolved on select individuals of white or Spanish race. If there were exceptions to so partial a distribution of favour, these appear to have been made in behalf of a few of the aborigines, or Indian people, whose blood to this day runs in the veins of some of the first families of that country.
The Peruvian clergy have ever been jealous of the dignity of their office, and consulted purity of blood in their august order with the same earnestness that they watched over the orthodoxy of their faith. They appear to have considered all mixture of African blood as a sort of test of spiritual contamination, and never suffered those tarnished with it to approach the altar, except as hearers or penitents,—never as ministers of the sanctuary. We may reasonably suppose that much of this partiality on the one hand, and rigorous exclusion on the other, was originally founded on considerations of political jealousy and distrust; but, be that as it may, the effects of this line of policy are still observable notwithstanding the liberalism that is afloat, for we do not meet with a single curate of negro or zambo progenitors, while in the law the majority of professors are of Spanish origin. The practice of medicine was looked upon as the proper occupation of those who, though possessed of some classical attainments, were deemed unworthy a place in the more distinguished departments of law and theology. But this order of things admitted of a few exceptions; for, as in the dregs of the legal profession there were certain tawny interlopers, so also in the higher walks of the medical department there was a proto-medico, and a few more physicians of European birth or descent. The great body of the profession, however, were raised from among the genuine black, or other more or less crossed Ethiopian castes, to whom, as is affirmed by Ayanque at page 43 of his celebrated satire, titled “Lima por dentro y fuera,” the healing art in all its branches, and especially surgery, was almost entirely intrusted. This arrangement, which involved consequences of vital interest to society, probably arose from inadequate ideas entertained by the Spaniards respecting the medical profession; viewing it less as a noble science than as a superior sort of handicraft. Certainly it did not arise from indifference about their own lives or personal safety; for no men are more careful of themselves when sick, or more ready to call in professional assistance, than the Spaniards of South America. An idea still prevalent is, that individuals selected from “la gente prieta,” or the sable people, are, on account of their more vigorous character and constitution, the best suited for the exercise of a laborious and active profession in the debilitating climate of Lima, where, in former days, young men of European parentage not in some government employment, or members of legal and ecclesiastical establishments, had an insuperable aversion, which they have not yet overcome, to work for their bread.
But, leaving these matters as we find them, we shall here give an extract from the well-known work, titled “Mercurio Peruano,” by which it will be seen what was the ancient state of medicine in Peru.
“In the sixteenth century, the taste of our nation leaned in favour of scholastic theology, the philosophy of Aristotle, and the civil law of the Romans; so that at the period of founding the university of Saint Mark, as well as for some time after, there were established for teaching each of the above branches of learning a competent number of well-endowed professorships; and, moreover, colleges were erected not only in Lima, but in all the principal cities within the viceroyalty of Peru, for teaching the same.
“For medicine two chairs were appointed or intended,—one (de prima) on the theory of medicine, and the other (de visperas) on pathology; but, no salaries being fixed, these fell to the ground. It is not therefore to be wondered at, that when, in the year 1637, they deliberated upon restoring the medical professorships, it was stated by Dr. Huerta, that in arts, laws, and theology, there had flourished a large number of doctors, enumerating about one hundred in Lima that very year, (seventy years from the foundation of the university,) but that in this lapse of time only three or four physicians were known among them, who, having studied in other parts, had incorporated themselves with the university.”
It was at the same time urged by Dr. Huerta (who was professor of the Quichua language) that the appointment of medical professors was quite useless, “as it was notorious that the Indians performed better cures than the physicians, recovering those whom the doctors had given up for lost; and, moreover, that many who were for some time in hospitals had from their own experience found out how to cure very successfully, without being professed doctors, like Martin Sanches and Juan Ximenes.”
Let no one suppose, from the date of the fact here stated, that the age of empiricism is passed away; for now, in the nineteenth century, we have hospital-dressers who take upon themselves the character of instructed practitioners, and are employed as such; while the famous curandera, or doctress, La Señora Dorotea, wants not among the opulent and best-informed persons of Lima warm defenders of her skill and superiority over the doctors of the university.
Before an anatomical amphitheatre was opened in Lima in the year 1792, the study of the healing art continued to be much neglected, as we are informed by the founder of this school, who, after some statements on this important subject,[14] observes, that the public instruction of medicine being wanting in the royal seminary, and having no colleges that might supply this deficiency, it followed as a consequence that in the medical profession those improvements had not been made that the importance of the art demanded,—a great detriment to the public health. Some years after the anatomical amphitheatre, or practical school of anatomy, was formed, its founder was raised to the head of the medical profession in Peru; and, desirous to advance medical science among his countrymen, he had further prevailed with the viceregal government to establish a college of medicine and surgery in Lima as an independent medical seminary, dedicated to San Fernando, in honour of their august sovereign Ferdinand VII. of Spain.[15] This college, as we are informed by one of its earliest inmates, was established in the year 1809, and in it different professorships were properly assigned. Here there was a professor of chemistry, but, for want of suitable apparatus, he had not yet opened an experimental course; a professor of botany, who really gave some practical lessons when walking out with his pupils in the neighbouring “potreros” or grazing parks. There were also professors of the practice of medicine and surgery, &c. all on a goodly plan, after the manner of European colleges. But, while these improvements were going on, the revolution came, to do evil that good might come; and then all the fair hopes from the college of San Fernando were nipped in the bud.
This seminary, which, at present, metaphorically represents the tree of knowledge, stripped of its green leaves and fair promise, under the shade of the wide-spreading tree of liberty, on which it is to be hoped that science ere long may be grafted, is, in its now blighted condition, under the nominal rectorship of Doctor Don Caietano Heredia, one of the earliest and most illustrious of the disciples educated in this school,—a gentleman who, to his infinite praise, caught no small portion of that love of knowledge, and desire to disseminate it, which so eminently distinguished the eloquent founder, Don Hipolito Unanue.
We may briefly remark that, at the period when the revolution broke out in Lima, there were in the medical profession some men of excellent classical knowledge, well versed in medical literature; and the valuable libraries which some of them have left behind them would, if only spared by the most destructive moth of that country, long stand as monuments of their professional scholarship. Among the junior physicians of the capital there is less ancient learning, but a better acquaintance with modern authors, especially French works, which are imported very freely; and the revolution, which so lately subverted the ancient form of government, may likewise be said to have opened up new sources of professional knowledge and improvement in medical practice.