Colonial Physicians and the Insalubrious Environment of Yucatán

• In Event: Landscapes and Peoples in Yucatán, 1500-Present

Abstract

The environmental causes of disease featured prominently in eighteenth-century medical manuals written by Spanish surgeons and physicians. The tropical environment in particular was blamed for any number of illnesses. Fears of disease, of unhealthful water, and of other ailments stemming from the environment were rampant. These fears were so pervasive that Spanish physicians and surgeons sometimes refused to serve in Yucatán’s military garrisons because the local environment was so dangerous. Those who did serve decried the conditions for themselves, their families, and the soldiers and sailors working in the presidios and aboard ships. Additionally, many soldiers and sailors during this period asked for and were granted leave to return to Spain to protect their failing health. In this paper, I explicate Spanish physicians’ rhetoric of the dangerous environment and explore the experiences of physicians, surgeons, soldiers, sailors, and their families who lived and worked in eighteenth-century Yucatán.

Author

• Rebekah E. Martin, The Pennsylvania State University