Conditions of public health in the period of colonial viceroys: notes on the Bellavista-Hospital in Lima in the eighteenth century

Abstract

Based on documental sources from the Peruvian National General Archives and chronicles of "the time, this research addresses the issue of urban insalubrity in Lima in the eighteenth century, the health provisions which, having their roots in prehispanic times, were still in use, and the establishment of the Bellavista Hospital, an institution to the purpose of providing medical asistance to quartered soldiers and marines or to those arriving at El Callao harbour. The documents at hand allowed to reconstruct some of the routine activities of the hospital: the duties of the regular staff, procedures for the supply of foodstuffs and material,' as well as thé respective prices, diets administered to the patients, etc., which altogether provide a to date unknown overview of a hospital which enjoyed the special interest of the Spanish Crown in the endeavour to improve the conditions of life in one of the most important urban centres in the West Indies.