The medical-pharmaceutical press association (1875) pioneer of the spanish newspaper associations

Abstract

The medical-pharmaceutical press had a spectacular development in the last decades of the 19th Century, becoming the sector of the specialist press who paid the highest tax (i.e. for the largest circulation). To this fact contributed: the framework of political stability which came with the Canovist Restoration; improvements in typographical techniques and communication —which began in the second phase of the Industrial Revolution—; the development in medical specialities; the creation of official colleges of medical doctors and pharmacists in the last decade; as well as a persistent climate of influence amongst the most relevant writers of medical journalism, in search of different means of expression. In this ideal environment of 1875 was born the Medical-Pharmaceutical Press Association, the pioneer of the Spanish newspaper associations and maybe even of the world. Resulting from the journalistic and professional worries of a large number of journalists from different medical magazines in Madrid, Méndez Alvaro —whose leadership in this field of medical journalism was accepted by all— was given the honour of being the catalyst, the same as Él Siglo Médico (The Medical Century): the journalistic project of major importance, duration and influence, in which a great number of similar magazines came together.