The origins of Hipolito Unanue’s medical thinking

Abstract

The enlightenment thinking origins and characteristics in the Spanish metropolis during the XVII and XVIII centuries and its relation with Hipolito Unanue’s (1755-1833) main medical ideas genesis introduced during Peru’s viceroyalty is reviewed. Unanue and his main work “Observations on Lima’s Climate” are integrated in the intellectual tradition of the medical topographies initiated in France and England and that had his first expression in this Peruvian author for all the Spanish Empire. We describe his particular incorporation of the enlightenment ideas to the neohippocratic movement, influencing Peruvian medicine during the XIX century through the first decades of the XX century under the form of ‘Medical Geography’. Finally we point out Unanue’s recognized medical concepts application on medical education reform and his support to the implantation of hygiene measures during the viceroyalty.