Making Medicines in Early Colonial Lima, Peru

Apothecaries, Science and Society

Series: 

Author:
Linda A. Newson
Based on extensive archival research in Peru, Spain, and Italy, Making Medicines in Early Colonial Lima, Peru examines how apothecaries in Lima were trained, ran their businesses, traded medicinal products, prepared medicines, and found their place in society. In the book, Newson argues that apothecaries had the potential to be innovators in science, especially in the New World where they encountered new environments and diverse healing traditions. However, it shows that despite experimental tendencies among some apothecaries, they generally adhered to traditional humoral practices and imported materia medica from Spain rather than adopt native plants or exploit the region’s rich mineral resources. This adherence was not due to state regulation, but reflected the entrenchment of humoral beliefs in popular thought and their promotion by the Church and Inquisition.
Copyright Year:
2017
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Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-35127-1
Publication:
18 Sep 2017
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Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-35063-2
Publication:
28 Sep 2017
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About MyBook
Linda A. Newson, PhD (1971) in Geography, University College London, is Director of the Institute of Latin Americana Studies, University of London. She is author of six monographs and two edited volumes, including (with Susie Minchin) From Capture to Sale: The Portuguese Slave Trade to Spanish South America in the Early Seventeenth Century (Brill, 2009).
"Thanks to Making Medicines, scholars can now approach such issues with far greater clarity and specificity than they could have otherwise. The book will be a key point of reference for future studies not only on the Viceroyalty of Peru but in colonial Latin America." - Hugh Cagle, in: Journal of Latin American Studies 51:1 (2019): 233-235
"This rich social history promises to make Spanish colonial pharmacies both comprehensible and engaging. Students of history, science, technology, and medicine will appreciate its premodern perspective and the complex layers connecting religion, society, and medical practice. This book is not only at the forefront of histories investigating medicine and society in colonial Latin America, but it is also a model in the balance of archival work, analysis, and accessible prose." - Kathleen Kole de Peralta, in: The Americas, 76:1 (2019): 171-173
"[E]n mi opinión, Making Medicines in Early Colonial Lima es una contribución indispensable que nos permite profundizar sobre la relación entre el poder y el saber; entre dominio de larga distancia y poderes locales. Una contribución que nos convoca a emprender nuevos estudios comparativos entre Perú y la Nueva España que nos ayuden a revelar por qué, a pesar de que ambos territorios se rigieron por la misma cultura jurídica española, construyeron culturas médicas distintas, pero, sobre todo, reconocer que en los espacios coloniales se verificaron diversas culturas médicas que mantuvieron intercambios permanentes, aunque esta diversidad no siempre resulte obvia o visible a través de la documentación." - Angélica Morales Sarabia, in: Dynamis, 39:1 (2019): 235-266
Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
Abbreviations

1 Medicines: Empire, Science and Society
 Medicine and Empire
 Practices of Medicine
 Medicine and Science
 Practitioners of Medicine
 Prospectus

2 Learning to Make Medicines
 Makers of Medicines
 Education and Practical Training
 Apothecaries from Spain
 University Medical Education
 Preparatory Schooling
 Educational Opportunities for Non-Elites
 On the Job Training
 Examinations and Licences
 Female Medical Learning
 Conclusion

3 The Medicines Business
 Acquiring a Botica
 The Premises
 Employing Pharmacy Workers
  Indian Forced Labourers
  Black Pharmacy Workers
 Running a Pharmacy
 Conclusion

4 Trading Medicines and Materia Medica
 Organisation of the Transatlantic Trade
 Apothecaries, Pepperers and Spicers
 The Transatlantic Trade in Materia Medica
 The Intercolonial Trade in Materia Medica
 Acquiring Materia Medica Locally
 Conclusion

5 Selecting Materia Medica
 Humoralism
 Scholarly Scientific Explorations
 Paracelsianism
 Maintaining Medical Orthodoxy
 The Regulation of Pharmacies
 The Impact of the Counter Reformation and Inquisition
  The Circulation of Medical Texts
 Conclusion

6 Making Medicines
 Types of Medicines
 Preparing Medicines
 Pharmacy Methods and Equipment
 Categories of Medicines
  Using Purgatives and Emetics
 Using Native Plants
 A Few Experiments
 Explaining the Failure to Adopt Native Botanical Materia Medica
 A Medical Marketplace?
 Using Minerals and Chemicals
 Conclusion

7 The Social World of Apothecaries
 The Status of the Medical Profession
 The Middling Professional Status of the Apothecary
 Criticisms of the Medical Profession
 The Christian Calling of an Apothecary
 Projecting Professionalism
 Conclusion

8 Persistent Practices
 Accounting for the Prevalence of Humoral Medicine
 Accounting for the Slow Adoption of Experimental Methods

Part 2: Appendices


 Appendix A Books Shipped from Spain by the Apothecary Juan Sánchez in 1591
 Appendix B List of Materia Medica Found in Pharmacies in Spain and Lima
 Appendix C Books Shipped from Spain to Doctor Melchor de Amusco in Nombre de Dios, 1584

Glossary
Bibliography
Anyone interested in the social history of Lima, in medicine in early colonial Spanish America, in apothecaries and the history of pharmacy, and in early modern science and transatlantic connections in general.
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Publisher:
Brill
Language:
English
Pages:
XVI, 348 pp.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004351271

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