The eighteenth-century enlightenment in the University of San Carlos de Guatemala 3n203z351

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The Evghteenth-Century Enlightenment in

the University of San Carlos de Guatemala

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14ee ‘og rp! &rsnf 3 iy L(y ea oes da eteflfoe Pet on RY Eo goBE EE toHl yf Aa se, heh Mi a’ AS Ste ial2 . i: rn staoe foe iJ pow YS) Soman edt*,fet ijWy aewee NS Brees a prin «(| BeypOLME The committee of selection granted the chair to Flores in 1762 without limitation of time.”®

The language question was, in the last analysis, only a facet of the

mounting dislike of Peninsulars and creoles for each other. Since American priests were much more likely than Spaniards to know an Indian tongue, Spanish-born prelates came to hate the language prerequisite for appointment to church posts. Thus in 1769, the archbishop of Mexico uncovered his guns and fired a point-blank broadside heard throughout the Empire. This prelate argues in his memoir that all the zeal of the kings of Spain is aimed at giving religious instruction to the Indians in Castilian “as becomes monarchs and conquerors.” He goes on vehemently Guatemala. Buen Retiro, 80 de noviembre de 1756. AGG, Al. 8-4, 12338, 1890. Libro segundo de claustros, 1756-1790, fol. 8v. (Hereafter Libro de claustros, 1756-1790. ) 24 Recopilacién de Indias, Tit. 1, lib. 1, ley 49. 25 Libro de claustros, 1756-1790, fols. 29v.—82.

26 Ibid., fols. 40-41. See also AGG, Al. 8-8, 12520, 1901,

— «12 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA. that Castilian is the only instrument for uprooting idolatry and for promoting commerce and civilization without confounding men “as in the Tower of Babel.” The archbishop feels that failure to comply with the instructions to teach Castilian to Indians indicates a weakening of Spanish pride. Indeed, after two centuries in the most civilized parts of the Empire such as Mexico, there remain many different lan-

, - guages in which the Indians “are caged,” deliberately refusing to— | learn Castilian or to send their sons to school. Without realizing that native languages are more persistent in the centers of Indian culture and population, where the Spaniards themselves are also located, the archbishop points with shame to Mexican- and Otomi-speaking pueb_ los “within five leagues of Mexico City’—a situation obtaining in many ,

, other places. He takes the attitude that the Indians are deliberately resisting, for natives who understand Spanish never speak it and the curates—supposedly creoles—often encourage them by using the

native language with them. Even alcaldes mayores and magistrates | have taken to providing themselves with interpreters (lenguas). The

| - root of the damage lies, the prelate contends, in filling curacies with | _ men who know the native languages. Since the ministers speak to the Indians in their own language, this practice becomes the custom, leaving no one to promote the interests of Castilian. The Indians get

the idea that it shows a lack of respect to speak Castilian and that

they will be punished if they do. _ The eclipse of Spanish, he goes on to say, is the result of a creole conspiracy, for the creole clerics (1) think that the best way to fill the curacies “without competition from the Europeans” is to make it necessary for the contestants to know the Indian language and (2) understand that dropping the Indian-language requirement would.

| strip them of their primary advantage. The archbishop cannot, however, overlook the sullen resistance of the Indians, who also place |

| all kinds of difficulties in the way of learning a foreign language, | answering evasively and pretending not to understand. He proposes to end these “evils,” which are “growing worse every day,” by filling the curacies with the best-prepared priests regardless

of language, a classification broad enough to include Spaniards. In cases where there are parishioners who do not know Castilian, it. will be necessary to have a vicar familiar with the native language to ad- — minister the sacraments in urgent cases. Although it is essential that the “shepherd should know the voice of his sheep,” it does not follow

NATIVE TONGUES US. CASTILIAN 18 that the parish priests should learn the native languages, since even the bishops—the first shepherds to visit all the towns to “cure” the soul sickness of their charges—do not and could not know all the languages.

Making Mexican the exclusive language of the diocese will not solve the problem, for in each archbishopric there are various other languages—Otomi, Huasteco, Mazahuu, Tepehua, and Totonaco— and in each diocese still other less important ones. A curate who does not understand the native language—a Spaniard, naturally—will try to get his own language understood instead of depreciating it by using the native speech and will be less likely to fall into errors on account of the difficulties of theological explanation in American tongues. Just

think of it! “After studying in the major faculties” and being promoted to curacies, priests have to begin with some native gibberish when their theological subtleties have been mastered in Latin and Castilian. The Romans had dealt with the same kind of problem by imposing their language. Like a good propagandist, he does not mention how the Romans, town by town, pushed their frontier forward much more slowly than did the Spaniards. The petition ends with a request for authority to appoint curates on the basis of merit and not upon their mastery of the native languages. New cases are cited to show how such curates have parishioners con-

fessing in Castilian in a few years. All this would not “in any way prejudice” the clerics “born in these countries.” Thus in a few years interpreters would not be necessary. The Indians would understand the bishop, and the white man could no longer deceive them in commerce and lawsuits. A representation from the Marqués de Croix, viceroy of New Spain, supports this communication. Catering so closely to Spanish prejudice, and enjoying such powerful sponsors, the archbishop’s outburst won immediate approval in Madrid.”

The decision to put the plan in force throughout America in 1770 fell on barren ground. In one place only—the audiencia of Charcas *°

—did the plan make enough progress to test the idea. There the authorities received instructions to investigate the possibilities and to put into operation schools to teach the natives the reading, writing, 27 AGG, Al. 28, 10084, 1529. Reales cédulas, Audiencia, XVI, 1766-1772, fols. 111-116. Real cédula, 16 de abril de 1770. 28 AGI, Audiencia de Charcas (hereafter Charcas), Legajo 581. Real cédula de 10 de mayo de 1770. Testimonio del expediente formado sobre el establecimiento de Escuelas y prohibision de Ydiomas en este Reyno de las Yndias.

14 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA and speaking of Spanish to the exclusion of their own language. Fortunately for the prosecution of this scheme, it fell into the hands of the corregidor general, Don Vicente Lafita, a scholarly and enlightened spokesman for the Indian. Lafita turned to the bishop, who promptly proposed schools in the parishes of San Pedro, Santa Barbara, and San Sebastian. The bishop wanted to have the schools in churches with the sexes strictly separated. His formula for class instruction called

for an absolute prohibition of the native tongue, exercises in the morning, and review in the afternoon. In teaching Spanish words he would have the children repeat the names “of everything spiritual and ecclesiastical” before they came to the “temporal.” And, to be

sure that this teaching was not in the long run wasted, he favored inflicting severe punishments upon the Indian chiefs, alcaldes, and other officials who carried on their business or published any docu-

ment in the Indian language.”

The curates tried to comply with the mandate on the teaching of Spanish to the Indians.*° Before they had time to put the plan effectively into operation, the corregidores explained that they did not have any operating fund to finance a school for Indian boys and girls. The bishop sagely added that, without funds, “the royal desire” was hard to realize.** One school of Spanish for Indians did appear in the audiencia, but for want of means soon showed signs of giving up the

ghost.*? |

To Lafita, a man both realistic and eager to improve the lot of the Indians, all this was a rare opportunity to press his enlightened outlook upon the president. In La Plata, La Paz, Oruro, Potosi, and Cochabamba—the principal cities of the presidency—he admitted the Indians did not know Spanish. This language barrier was thus the main reason for their inclination to their old customs and rites, not “natural rudeness” and “incapacity,” the complacent and unjust

| explanation so often made by Spaniards.** A man who obviously approached his work thoughtfully, Lafita quoted Pope Paul III that 29 Ibid. The bishop of La Paz to Vicente Lafita. Mecapaca, July 4, 1771. 80 All the prelates had been asked for a description of their dioceses.

81 AGI, Charcas, Legajo 581. Gregorio Francisco, bishop of La Paz, to the fiscal. La Paz, October 22, 1771. (Description of his third visit. ) 82 The fiscal in his parecer, September 1, 1772, urged that on the basis of the

1772. : ,

Recopilacién de Indias, Tit. 1, lib. 6, ley 18, dating back to 1550, the utmost

exertions should be made to establish these schools. , 83 AGI, Charcas, Legajo 531. Lafita to the president. La Plata, November 22,

NATIVE TONGUES US. CASTILIAN 15 the Indians were rational people (gente de razén). Lafita feared the traditional do-nothing course in the enforcement of legislation designed to change the status of the Indians. He therefore advised the president to require the corregidores to establish the schools in a fixed period.

At the same time he urged the president to publish a ban setting out the punishment for the use of native languages in Spanish towns. The crown, having heard meanwhile of the eagerness of the Indians to learn and of the lack of means to provide schools, could only ask, as usual when there was difficulty in financing a project, for reports.**

The audiencia of Charcas decided * to follow Lafita’s opinion and require the corregidores to put schools in operation in a given length of time and to coerce any recalcitrant elements, such as the nunneries, with writs of mandamus (ruego and encargo ).*° Despite the solemnity of this approach, the term allotted came and went and little happened. To Lafita’s bitter disgust, the corregidores handled the schools with indifference or “studied neglect.” ** What the Aimara-speaking priests were doing is implied in the decision to replace them with Spaniards.*® Schools did spring up precariously at Chayanta, Yampares, Paria, and Cochabamba.*®

The audiencia had recourse to harsh measures to increase the number. It formally made Spanish the exclusive modern language in the

friaries and convents, in the city of La Paz, and in the towns of Oruro, Cochabamba, and Tarifa.*? It decided to permit the corregidor

and curate to allot grain or two or three head of cattle to pay the teacher of language.*! Eight years after the effort began, the Council of the Indies angrily repeated the demand for schools in all Indian 34 Tbid. Real cédula a la audiencia de Charcas. San Lorenzo, 28 de noviembre de 1772. Ibid. Real cédula al obispo de Charcas, 28 de noviembre de 1772. 85 Certainly before these cédulas could have arrived.

86 AGI, Charcas, Legajo 531. Auto de la audiencia de Charcas, 9 de febrero de ) 1778.

87 Tbid. Report of the fiscal, December 5, 1775. 88 [bid. La Plata, March 7, 1777.

schools. ,

89 Although the crown in 1776 and 1777 was still waiting for and demanding a report (ibid. Real cédula al presidente y oidores de la audiencia de Charcas. San Ildefonso, 2 de septiembre de 1776), the audiencia of Charcas could do little more than require the corregidores to propose means, such as had been tried by the corregidor of the province of Carabaya, for the maintenance of the projected

40 Ibid. Audiencia of Charcas to the king. La Plata, March 7, 1777. (In six

months a judge would make a formal visit to enforce the ruling. ) 41 [bid. Auto de la audiencia de Charcas, 1 de agosto de 1778.

16 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA villages, but the general auditor’s office in Spain absolutely forbade going into the money chests of the Indian towns.*? When the left hand neither knoweth nor careth what the right hand doeth, often as not _

nothing getteth done. = |

The very fate of the file relating to the question supplies the last sad touch to the slow fruition and final decay of this idea—pushed

by those on the ground with all the vigor possible in the circumstances. The file, ordered out to New Spain and Peru in 1779, was remitted to New Spain, at least, on November 26, 1801. Yet it is characteristic of Spanish administration that the idea, not- —

withstanding its disaster in practice, continued to flourish. So late as 1812, the Fiscal Protector General of Indians ** was working ear-

, nestly for schools to teach Spanish to Indians. Seconded by an alert subdelegado with the proper respect for practical detail, he advised the use of village municipal buildings for this teaching program to avoid the expense of separate ones. He proposed a salary scale from fifteen to twenty-five pesos a month, depending upon the number of children “capable of being educated” in the village.** There must be primers and books of doctrine, which parents could not supply, as well as teachers. The villages might raise the money for both by growing wheat on the poor or vacant lands. Only two of these administrators, however, let their enthusiasm for learning Spanish go 42 AGI, Audiencia de Buenos Aires (hereafter Buenos Aires), Legajo 324. Madrid, 11 de agosto de 1779. In 1782 the crown actually accepted the suggestion that the villages provide and tend land and give a certain number of head from their flocks to support these schools; that the presidents and audiencias appoint “masters” and pay them from special revenue or Indian community funds. The priests did not, as advised, persuade the heads of Indian families by “the softest

| methods” to send their children. Moreover, there is no evidence that this additional cédula, any more than the one before it, overcame the hostility of the. corregidores, the viceroy, and the treasury. (AGG, Al. 23, 10086, 1531. Reales cédulas, Audiencia, XVIII, 1778-1782, fol. 164. Real cédula a los presidentes, y audiencias, arzobispos, y obispos de las Indias. San Lorenzo, 5 de noviembre de 1782. See also ibid., fol. 6. Real cédula. El Pardo, 22 de febrero de 1778. )

48 Miguel de Eyzaguirre. nandez Patifio. Huari, December 24, 1811. , | : Village No. of Children Proposed Salary | Pallasca , , , Pampas120402515 44 AGE, Audiencia de Lima (hereafter Lima), Legajo 798. Report of José Fer-

Cabana 80 20 . Huandoval : 50 200

NATIVE TONGUES US. CASTILIAN 17 as far as this. Others recognized that parents preferred to have their children working in the fields or tending flocks. Although the Indians had sufficient common property to finance the projected schools, and despite the many royal cédulas requiring them, the viceroy arbitrarily vetoed the idea.*® This indifference and the difficulty of providing financing meant failure of the most conscientious experiments.

Fiscal Protector General Eyzaguirre and the subdelegado plainly acknowledged the “brutal” state of the aborigines while taking a genuine interest in their welfare. Thus at the end, as well as at the beginning, of Spanish domination, Spaniards divided themselves into two camps. Insofar as this project was a mere financial failure, the Spanish government—bereft of funds and with its back to the wall —cannot be fairly blamed. Indeed, the Cadiz government went so far as to order the viceroy of Peru to abandon his intransigent position and proceed as instructed with the establishment of schools for teaching Spanish to the indigenes.**

In most places the Spanish-language schools were not handled with any more vigor and realism than the old chairs for instruction in native tongues. Only by an oblique reference of Matias de Cérdoba do we know that the idea made any impression at all in Guatemala. In the brilliant essay he wrote for the Sociedad Econémica in 1797 to prove

that the Indians and ladinos should be “shod and dressed” (Europeanized ) in the Spanish fashion, Cérdoba said that even the Indians

agreed that the mulattoes were better than they were. Since this odious distinction merely meant that the mulattoes spoke Spanish, he heartily endorsed the efforts of “His Majesty to establish primary schools” to teach Spanish to the natives.*”

Decline and Demise of the Chair of Cakchiquel The unvarnished truth is that in the eighteenth century every formal plan of language teaching was a failure. It was perfectly natural that, 45 Ibid. Expediente: Establecimiento de escuelas de idioma castellano en los pueblos de Cabana, Pampas, Pallasca, y Huandoval (1818). Miguel de Eyzaguirre to the Ministro de Gobernacién de Ultramar. Lima, July 8, 1812.

46 Ibid. Ministro de Gobernacién, Ultramar, to the viceroy of Peru. Cadiz,

February 5, 1813. |

47 Matias de Cérdoba, “Utilidades de que todos los indios y ladinos se visten y calcen a la espafiola y medios de conseguirlo sin violencia, coaccién, ni maltrato,” Anales de la Sociedad de Geografia e Historia de Guatemala, XIV (1987), 219.

, 18 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA when the University of San Carlos made its self-evaluation in 1778, it should decide, for the old shopworn reasons,‘* to suppress the chair of Cakchiquel. The cloister preferred to divert the stipend spent on it to.a “more useful” chair.*® Yet, upon the resignation of Fray Ildefonso

de Flores after a decade, the judges gave the chair to Fray Luis Ibafiez, not only “because he was the only contestant” to appear, but also because of his “competence and application.” Upon his death, the “provisioning” of the chair lapsed as the cloister had long wished. One result of the sweeping charges against the University made by Fray Fermin Aleas,®° however, was that the king, holding the language necessary ad curam animarum, ordered the chair continued ** as stipulated in the statutes. The Superior Government issued the proper instructions, the cloister took up the re-establishment of the chair, and Presbyter Bachelor José Marroquin won the post in open competi-

tion.®? , |

No peremptory order, however, could rescue this chair from the misery and disrespect into which it had fallen. When the Seminario Tridentino took it over in 1789 for the convenience of theological stu-

dents, the University was so indifferent to this step that it refused even to provide a classroom for the professor, who could not find one in the new location. When Professor Marroquin became ill in 1803, the councilors agreed to name a substitute,** but the death of the proprietary professor, apparently coming within a few months, precipi-

tated a real crisis. Dr. José Simedn Cajfias, the rector that year and one of the progressive spirits of his generation, used the break to make

a new effort to suppress the chair of Cakchiquel. Accordingly, he pleaded with the captain general, outlining the conventional arguments against the chair and buttressing them with some secondary 48 T.e., (1) royal orders favoring the teaching of Castilian, (2) diversity of lan-

guages in Central America, (3) student neglect of the course in favor of the

superior method of learning by conversation with Indians. |

49 AGG, Al. 8, 1162, 45. El rector de la Real Universidad de San Carlos, Dr. Dn. Manuel Jauregui, sobre el adelantamiento para la juventud en diversas letras, creandose catedras. Afo de 1778. Also Libro de claustros, 1756-1790, fols. 167— 168v.

50 See below, Chapter III. -- , 51 “Re-established” was the word used in the cédula, dated January 29, 1787. 52 Libro de claustros, 1756-1790, fols. 28-28v., 91-9lv., 93-94, 269-272, 273—

nN AGG, Al. 3-4, 12339, 1891. Libro tercero de claustros, 1790-1808, fol. 138.

(Hereafter Libro de claustros, 1790~1808. ) ,

NATIVE TONGUES US. CASTILIAN 19 props.** He took advantage of the rector’s power to “consult for the public good” to postpone the immediate holding of an oposicidn to fill the vacant chair required by statute. Cafias made it plain that others shared his strong antipathy to the chair of Cakchiquel. He felt that the objective of the king, in insisting upon the continuance of the chair in 1787, had not been achieved. The transfer of the class to the Seminario Conciliar, where the rector could not keep a watch on it, had contributed to its decadence and uselessness, particularly since the Seminario had not set aside a room for students eager to learn the language. Likewise, he made the classic

criticism that “retiring to the villages,’ not perfunctory classroom teaching, gave the student the competence required by the synodal examiners for the “cure of souls.” And, even if the method were basically sound, no one available was capable of teaching the subject except the Franciscan Fray José Antonio Sanchez, a man frequently so ill in Guatemala City that he could not discharge the duties of such a chair. The king, by ordering the archbishop to enlarge the chair in the Seminary, excused the University from its obligation to cultivate the field, much less to invest its precious funds in it. Cafias’ aim was to drop the chair altogether, but, short of suppression, he proposed to change it from the proprietary to the temporary (four-year ) category, to oblige the professor to present his students for examination in the main hall in the presence of the rector and other professors, and if the councilors certified the teacher, to continue him for another four-year period without oposicidén. His final reform was that last refuge of failing pedagogy, the prize. This determined attack created considerable stir in circles unaccustomed to change by agitation. The archbishop admitted that the attendance in the Seminary was slight and promised that the teacher “would conduct the chair again” as soon as the enrollment demanded. He expected to continue the professorship until the “king rules otherwise” and, in the interest of improved instruction, conferred with the rector on reforming the “method.” He proposed appointment to Indianlanguage parishes as a reward. The ever-legalistic fiscal thought that by “the re-establishment of sound method” and by compelling all those expecting ordination to take the course, the University could continue the chair as required by municipal law. The “royal mind” in his keeping was too well under54 In a consulta of September, 1803.

20 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA stood ** to think of suppressing the subject. That was plainly more important than the universal testimony that the chair was utterly useless, The crown attorney ventured to declare in favor of making the chair a temporal one and forcing the professor to submit his students to public examination every year “by the Socratic method as the scholastic is not well suited to literary exercise in the Cakchiquel language.”

The greatest handicap to the University reformer was the annual change of “administration.” A course of action depending upon the initiative of one rector—and most did sooner or later—usually ceased when his successor took office. So, after Dr. Cafias’ term, the new rector, Dr. Bernardo Pavoén, called a meeting of the cloister in the academic year 1804 that overwhelmingly decided, despite the possibility of improvement in the chair, to make no changes and to proceed with the oposicidn.®* Since the post had been vacant for a year, however, the cloister sought and received authorization from the audiencia to

fill it.6” In the circumstances the audiencia had little choice but to support this course.*® The councilors immediately ordered the posting of the edicts for the oposicioén, examined three candidates, and significantly awarded the chair to an Indian, Antonio Lopez.

The antagonism between the Peninsular and American elements, always latent in University questions, promptly emerged. The selection of Lépez, an Indian, thus had implications beyond the mere decision

to continue the chair. Unfortunately, if the supporters of Lépez had any idea of vitalizing the chair and furthering democracy by giving it to a Cakchiquel-speaking Indian, they made an unhappy choice. Ldpez loved to tip the cup that cheers. Common reports of his imbibing and neglecting his class came to the attention of the full cloister in 1810.°° That body voted (eight to seven) to deprive Lépez of his chair and declare it vacant. Of the dissenting seven, six thought that

dismissal. ,

the rector should suspend the professor and continue the investigation, while one thought that the record so far did not justify suspension or

, 55 The cédula of January 29, 1787, was part of the file. 7 56 Libro de claustros, 1790-1808, fols. 151-15lv., 154—154v.

57 AGG, Al. 8, 18025, 2378. Consulta del rector de la Real Universidad en orden a la Catedra de Idioma Cakchiquel con motivo de haber faltado el cate-

dratico propietario. Afio de 1803. |

— 58 AGG, Al. 8-1, 12282, 1886. Real provisién que declara que la Catedra de idioma Cachiquel debe continuar en los mismos términos que antes conforme a la Real Cédula de 29 de enero de 1787. Guatemala, 9 de octubre de 1804. 59 At a meeting on November 19.

NATIVE TONGUES US. CASTILIAN 21 The action did not stop with this meeting of the cloister. Instead, the rector launched an investigation that, in its various ramifications, did not end until the chair was utterly abandoned. Early in the Lépez case, the rector of the University asked the rector and vice rector of the Colegio Tridentino to report on the rumors that Lopez had an unsatisfactory record. These men answered that the “method” practiced

in the chair was bad; that for a long time Lépez had not had any students; that he used to check by the porteria occasionally; and that, neglecting his classes for long periods of time, he finally disappeared altogether, and had not been seen in four months. They added that they had creditable information that Lépez was seen “dead drunk” in

the town of Jocotenango. It was on these grounds that the rector opened the formal case against him. In the Convent of San Francisco, where the professor of Cakchiquel was well known, all agreed that Lopez more than tippled, some having heard that he drank himself into unconsciousness in his cell.® All repeated mere hearsay except one person who claimed to have seen him “half drunk.” With this information in hand, the rector decided to question Lopez personally. The professor of Cakchiquel denied all the charges about missing his classes, claiming that he was absent because he was sick, that on those occasions he left a substitute, and that it was not his fault if the substitute did not appear. Besides, he had never come to class drunk, no one had so testified, and his students could be examined on that particular at any time. As to drinking immoderately, was it not enough

that the ecclesiastical curia had investigated and acquitted him of these charges?

In his written defense *t Lépez made an even more spirited vindication of himself, which, for what it reveals, leads one to believe that in the interest of history as well as of destruction, the gods occasionally make a man angry. He was “enormously put out of countenance” by such charges against his honor; he remarked that he was “reared at the side of Goicoechea,” who stressed the sense of responsibility, and

that he had tried to do credit to his mentor. After pointing out that he had not missed a class, except when he left a substitute, and that 60 As conventional in such matters, the professor of prima of laws, Don Crisanto de Tejada, was appointed fiscal in the cause. It was he who advised investigating the charge against Lépez among the Franciscans. Accordingly the friars entered their testimony in the record. 61 Entered in the dossier August 21, 1811.

22 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA he had even arranged his schedule to fit the shorter holidays of the Colegio Tridentino, he asked why other rectors, who were not lax in their duties, had not complained about him? Why had not the bedels charged with reporting attendance made any report against him? As for his method, it was the best available for teaching a language. If no one wanted to learn Cakchiquel, it was not his fault. In the closing sentences of his rebuttal, Lépez raised a broad ques-

tion reflecting still another cleavage between the American and the Spanish elements. Many enemies wished to malign him and, although the situation was the same when other professors held the chair, “because they were old and because they were Spaniards,” nobody had tried to deprive them of it.6 Because he was an Indian, he was treated differently.°* This trend naturally led him into a lengthy complaint about the hard lot and oppression of the Indians of Guatemala.** He also gave the lie to the charge that he had been drunk in the streets of Jocotenango during vacation. He was not even there, and the reports against him were based on the mistaken assumption that “the chocolate of the Indians” was chicha. He ended by challenging the authorities to name him librarian so that all could see him work and

know the truth, for vice could not be hidden. But in the long run Lépez thought best to withdraw, which he did on August 21, 1812.°% The cloister accepted his resignation and declared the chair vacant, but reserved judgment on whether to abolish or fill it.°* The papers gathered together in this spicy clash were soon used in the course of an investigation aimed at abolishing the chair. After the next election for rector,*” Dr. Diego Batres succeeded Dr. Simeén Cafias and as one of his first acts declared that it was his con-

stitutional duty to justify the chair of Cakchiquel or prove its uselessness. One of the witnesses summoned for this purpose, Presbyter Dr. Don Calixto Paz y Davila, swore that, some ten years before the “ruin” of 1778, he knew Fray Ildefonso de Flores as professor of Cak62“. | . porque eran ancianos y eran espafioles.” 63 “A mi si se me debe quitar porque soy Yndio.” 64 “Pero yo digo, que asi conviene a los pobres indios que sean felices, que sean siempre oprimidos por los de aqui: no siendo asi la voluntad del Soberano.” 65 AGG, Al. 3-20, 138158, 1956. Causa contra don Antonio Lépez por fallas en

su catedra de lengua, por no observar método en su regencia, y por su conducta

viciosa. Afio de 1810. ,

66 AGG, Al. 38-4, 12340, 1892. Libro cuarto de claustros, 1808-1831, fol. 26v. (Hereafter Libro de claustros, 1808-1831. ) 87 In November, 1812.

NATIVE TONGUES US. CASTILIAN 23 chiquel and that, of the clergy obliged to take this course, only one was interested enough to stay in the class to learn the “art,” and that one finally had to go into the villages to learn the language properly. Maestro Pablo Huertas testified that, since he began taking courses in the University in 1770, he did not know one person who had learned to “minister” from this chair. Bachiller Don Manuel Maria Secefia and Presbyter Antonio Corral confirmed this testimony. Esteban Josef Pérez, secretary of the University, whose acquaintance with the institution ran back to 1766 when he became a student and who had known four professors of Cakchiquel, gave the fullest and most concrete testimony. He reported that only two or three students, and sometimes none, ever took the course in Cakchiquel and these for a short time only. Just one man, to his knowledge, had stuck it out for some years, and even he had to go into the pueblos to perfect himself in this tongue. For such reasons as these, the cloister allowed the chair to remain unoccupied for a while each time after it became vacant for want of a proper person to teach it or because there was no demand for it. It was at such a low ebb as this, he reported, that the chair was transferred in 1789 to the Seminario Tridentino, which institution applied one hundred pesos of its income to the salary of the professor. But not even this arrangement increased the enrollment. Nor had any professor ever presented any student in the University for examination in the subject.®* After this testimony the cloister concluded early in 1818 not to fill the chair.® The strategic aim now was to keep the chair unoccupied. A confused administrative situation contributed beautifully to this design.”

However, a less devious rector, Dr. José Valdés, appealed to the president or captain general of Guatemala in 1816 to learn whether or not to fill the chair pending receipt of an opinion from Spain. The problem was still more aggravated—and this might have been the factor behind the rector’s sudden activity—by the decision of the archbishop to cut off the subsidy, paid from the income of the Seminario

Tridentino. The University made no complaint against the decision 68 AGG, Al. 3-8, 12605, 1905. Diligencias practicadas de oficios, sobre la utilidad, o inutilidad de la catedra de la lengua Cakchiquel. Afio de 1812. 69 Libro de claustros, 1808-1831, fols. 3lv.—38.

70 The University supposedly sent this decision to the Regency in Spain, but received no acknowledgment from there. Indeed, there is no certain indication that the secretary copied and submitted the record of investigation to the royal government.

24 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA

of the captain general to suspend the chair and await orders from Spain.’! Copies of the record of the investigation four years earlier were now made for the information of the Spanish government. | When the crown at last got to the matter in 1819, it also decided to continue the chair without filling it and asked the Superior Govern, ment to investigate *? and submit a memorandum on the best disposition of the income released.”* The University cloister "* proposed using the two hundred pesos paid by the University for the chair, and the hundred pesos from the Seminario Tridentino, to establish a chair of rhetoric compulsory for all students of theology and “both laws.” 7° The archbishop took the position that, since the king had put a junta to work drawing up a plan of studies for all universities,"* anything now started would be in operation only temporarily. He agreed that the chair had shown itself useless and renewed the subsidy of one hundred pesos from the Seminario so long as it was useful “for an ecclesiastical career.” 7’ The fiscal emphasized the value of “rhetoric,

the art that regulates and perfects all languages and facilitates the knowledge of all sciences and arts.” He thought, however, that only the crown, not the cloister or captain general, could compel law and theology students to take the course. When, in 1820,"* the Superior Government put these recommendations into effect,”? the chair of

Cakchiquel was no more. | , ,

Contributions by the professors of Cakchiquel to the world’s knowIedge of Central American languages in some measure relieve this dis-

mal picture. On the other hand, there is no special reason to believe that holding the chair of Cakchiquel inspired the studies and compila-

fiscal. , ,

71 AGG, Al. 8-8, 12615, 1905. Sobre la suspensiédn de la cAtedra de idioma Cakchiquel mientras se consulta a S.M. la supresién por inutil. Afio de 1816. Libro

102.

| de claustros, 1808-1831, fols. 67v.-68. |

72 Calling upon the archbishop, rector, and cloister of the University, and the

, 78 AGG, Al. 8-8, 12615, 1905. Real cédula al presidente de la audiencia de Guatemala. Palacio, 18 de junio de 1819.

In a consulta of April 24, 1820. 75 AGG, Al. 8-8, 12615, 1905. Also Libro de claustros, 1808-1831, fols. 101v.— 76In a real decreto of February 1, 1815, followed by a decree of October 27,

1818, saying the commission was at work. . :

- 17In his informe of May 19, 1820. 78 Auto of July 24. |

— 79 AGG, Al. 3-8, 12622, 1905. Autos acerca de la supresién de la catedra de Cakchiquel, estableciendo en su lugar la de Retérica. Afio de 1820. For the continuation of this story in the establishment of the chair of rhetoric, see Chapter II.

NATIVE TONGUES US. CASTILIAN 25 tions in the native languages. Contributors were usually members of missionary orders and, more likely than not, drawn to compete for the chair and to write grammars after practical experience in the field. Fray José Angel Zenoyo, a native of Quetzaltenango, a missionary, and the first professor of Cakchiquel in the University of San Carlos, was notable for his proficiency in the native languages.*° Fray Idefonso José de Flores, O.F.M., who held the chair of Cakchiquel from 1762 to 1772, became the best known and most applauded linguist of colo-

nial Guatemala. He was the author of a grammar of Cakchiquel,* drawing a parallel between this language, the Quiché, and the Tzutuhil, which was published by Sebastian Arévalo in Guatemala in 1753, nine years before Flores became professor of Cakchiquel in San Carlos. He likewise wrote works designed to help with interpreting theology and teaching the natives. Others, who were never professors of Cakchiquel in the University, did important work.*? Fray Esteban Torresano, another Franciscan, the next year produced a grammar of Cakchiquel and included a parallel similar to that of Flores.** Fray Antonio Vico, a studious friar who mastered seven languages, produced some vocabularies and grammars of aboriginal tongues. Some of the friars branched out from the more

general Quiché and Cakchiquel. Fray Tomas de Cardenas wrote a grammar of the Cachi language—not to be confounded with Cakchiquel—still spoken in San Pedro Carcha and Coban.** Occasionally a friar moved into the front rank of intellectual activity. The Dominican, Fray Francisco Ximénez (1666-?), not only com-

posed a voluminous chronicle of Chiapas and Guatemala, but made archaeological discoveries and extended and perfected his knowledge 80 Francisco Ximénez, Historia de la Provincia de San Vicente de Chiapa y Guatemala de la Orden de Predicadores (Guatemala, 1929-1981), III, 410. Chapter 86, which enlarges upon this subject, was not printed in this book but can be seen in manuscript in the museum in Guatemala. 81 Arte de la lengua metropolitana del Reyno Cakchiquel, 0 Guatemalico, con un parallelo de las lenguas metropolitanas de los Reynos Kiche, Cakchiquel, y Tzutuhil, que hoy integran el Reyno de Guatemala . . . (Guatemala, 1753). 82 For those who held the chair of native languages in the University of San Carlos, see Provisiones de catedras (AGG, Al. 8-8, 12434-12622). 83 Esteban Torresano, Arte de la lengua Cakchiquel (Guatemala, 1754). Salazar supplies the information but does not say definitely that the work was printed. See José Toribio Medina, La imprenta en Guatemala, 1660-1821 (Santiago de Chile, 1910), p. 121. (Hereafter Medina, La imprenta en Guatemala.) 84 Ramon A. Salazar, Desenvolvimiento intelectual de Guatemala (Tomo I: La colonia, Guatemala, 1897), pp. 164-165. (Hereafter Salazar, Desenvolvimiento. )

26 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA of native languages, which resulted, among other linguistic studies, in

his Tesoro de las lenguas Quiché, Cachikel y Tsutuhil, since lost. Ximénez, however, while curate of Santo Tomas Chichicastenango, gained immortality among Americanists by his discovery of the PopulVuh, the book of myths and historical doings of the Quichés, and his translation of it for the first time into a European language.®** This was

the kind of zeal which led Fray Juan de Torres to pray only in the words of the latest native language with which he had become enamored.** The inescapable verdict is that scholarly work of this type was only incidentally a product of the University.

The chair of Cakchiquel illustrates in tragically clear colors the cardinal defect of colonial administration. It was entirely out of keeping with the scholastic teaching methods of the seventeenth century

to bring Indians into class or send students among the Indians “to learn by doing.” The uselessness of the chair was patent from the beginning. It never turned out a single student who had the preparation the chair was established to provide. All of this was known both in and out of the University in Guatemala City. Yet 145 years after the failure of the chair was evident, and 52 years after the Council of the Indies was fully informed of its uselessness, the crown had taken no action. The chair, symbolically enough, faded from the picture in just the same way and almost at the same time as did Spanish sovereignty in the Kingdom of Guatemala. Thus the one original American contribution to the scholastic formula of the medieval university—that of teaching a living language—is only a depressing story of atrophy and

ineffectiveness. 86 Ibid., p. 140. | 86 Ibid., p. 164. ,

“School Latin” Spanish chool Latin” versus Spans

THERE were two stages in the history of Latin in the educational structure of colonial Guatemala. In the first, there were not enough chairs to teach Latin, the accepted language of learning and instruction. In the second, Latin was not satisfactorily taught, and an unexpectedly virile campaign was waged in and out of the University to abolish it as an outmoded and artificial tool of teaching. Not much was achieved during the first stage, when conscientious priests and bishops of the Central American dioceses begged plaintively and perennially

for chairs of Latin grammar in their provinces* to enable the young 1 In response to an overture from the bishop of Honduras for a chair of Latin grammar in 1602, the crown enjoined the captain general of Guatemala to provide two hundred pesos “de Tipuzque” from the next encomiendas to fall “vacant” for the establishment of such a chair in connection with the cathedral in Honduras;

but when, by 1606, the order had not been put into effect, the king asked for a report on the matter. (AGG, Al. 23, 10069, 1514. Cedulario de la Real Audiencia de Guatemala, 1600-1615. Reales cédulas. N.p., 29 de septiembre de 1602, 13 de febrero de 1606.) It does not appear from this evidence when, if ever, the desired chair was obtained. Not long after this unsuccessful overture, Fray Don Tomas de Blanes, bishop of Chiapas, reported that two aging priests had left an annual income of two hundred pesos, turned over to the Dominicans by the cathedral chapter. Fray Juan de Santa Maria had already begun reading moral philosophy, and Latin could begin as soon as the encomiendas became vacant. Instead of complying with this request of the bishop of Chiapas, the king made his customary demand for a report from the audiencia of Guatemala. (Ibid. Real cédula a la audiencia de Guatemala. San Lorenzo, 16 de octubre de 1610.) Later in the century the bishop of Leon, alleging ignorance of Christian “doctrine” 27

| 28 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA | laymen “to exercise themselves in letters and occupy their youth” and

to permit those “inclined to become ecclesiastics to prepare themselves.” The lack of “grammar” was a severe handicap in the training of the American clergy outside the capital cities. Those not secretly convinced that a strong clergy depended principally upon recruiting in Spain wanted the language tool of the church made readily available. It was bad enough, they said, to neglect the souls of mulattoes, Negroes, and Indians, but an unbearable shame to produce a new generation of “descendants of Spaniards” as ignorant of Christian doctrine as heathens.

Mastery of Latin was the first indispensable condition for a university life. No one—and this is the essential point—could legally obtain admission to the University without a certificate of proficiency in

Latin. In 1783, long after the first shot had been fired to dethrone Latin itself, the University was still begging for a chair of elementary _ Latin (minimos y menores) and another of advanced composition and

Latin letters (medianos y mayores). Since the cloister wanted the right to select men not offering themselves as candidates in order to get competent teachers, it asked permission to elect professors for the proposed chairs. A university whose language of instruction was Latin had no chairs in either the grammar or the literature! Wherever there was a friary, then, Latin was rarely taught elsewhere, save by private

tutors.’ Oo

Aristocratic parents (“fathers,” they said in those masculine days), living almost along the walls of a university, so late as 1789 still faced

the prospect of having their sons turned away from “the beautiful _ portals of Academe” because they knew only the vernacular. This was

a problem to trouble the ever-zealous town council, whose syndic, Vicente Ayzinena, made a special plea to the crown for the establishment of elementary schools and chairs of Latin grammar. The aldermen were so exercised that they implored the full cloister of San Carlos to join the petition. Ayzinena placed the population of the City at from eighteen to

1670. ,

not only among Negroes and mulattoes, but among descendants of Spaniards, made a plea for a chair of Latin and Indian language. The chief fruit of this effort was a royal cédula asking the audiencia of Guatemala for more information! (AGG, Al. 23, 10075, 1520. Cedulario de la Real Audiencia de Guatemala, 1671-

| 1676, fol. 73. Real cédula a la audiencia de Guatemala, Madrid, 10 de agosto de

O Libro de claustros, 1756-1790, fols. 170-172v. -

“SCHOOL LATIN US. SPANISH 29 twenty thousand and charged that only one school—that of the Convento de Belén—undertook to teach the young of the City to read and write. The school was overrun by more than four hundred students and the “master” was almost trampled under foot. The want of Latin threatened to make it impossible for religion, the bar, or medicine to make recruits. Fathers were distressed that they could find no other

place where their sons could get the proper instruction. Ayzinena therefore proposed the establishment of an elementary school in each of the four quarters of the City to replace upwards of twenty schools of all types in Antigua. One result of this growing pressure for instruction was that the chair of elementary Latin (minimos y menores) in the Colegio Tridentino was overcrowded. In 1789 the professor, Antonio de la Fuente, asked the ayuntamiento to supplement the salary of 125 pesos a year he got from the college. He taught up to fifty-three students, but this petition went the usual rounds and after two years De la Fuente learned that the money was not available.®

Hostility of the Enlightenment to Latin By this time exponents of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment were already hostile to Latin as a required tool of science and learning. For the last fifty-one years of the colonial period, in wave upon wave, critics assailed Latin as the language of university instruction, because, although corrupt and half-learned, it “veiled” the ignorance and bolstered the “pretentiousness” of the “learned,” encouraged the artificial, retarded the growth of modern literature, handicapped the study of science, and, since the vernacular had already clandestinely taken over in the classroom, fostered dishonesty. Although each attack reproduced these basic ideas, the opposition to Latin in San Carlos had a history so representative of universities throughout the Empire that it is worth tracing at the risk of some repetition of the ever-recurring arguments. While the University was still in Antigua, Dr. Juan de Dios Juarros, professor of visperas of theology, began (1769) to conduct his classes in Castilian. This heresy upset the even tenor of the professorial ways.

Every course felt the impact of this violation of the statutes, and the Latinists, “with their backs to the wall,” prepared for battle in the 8 AGG, Al. 8, 16438, 2264. Solicitud del Presbitero don Antonio de la Fuente sobre dictacion de la Catedra de Gramatica en el Colegio Tridentino. Afio de 1789.

30 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA Seminary. So, when these intransigent professors were pressed to admit

students to the chair of moral philosophy without Latin and philos-

| ophy (in the arts course), they proposed certain reforms to the cloister, strongly insinuating that the “disorders’—a frightful word to the

| Spanish colonial—were owing to Dr. Juarros. , | Although Dr. Juarros, as an interested person, retired from the cloister meeting when it became plain that he was the object of the attack, he struck both heat and light from the controversy when he

, replied. He chided his fellow professors for turning out bachelors of arts who could not handle Latin. To this fact, and not to the method of teaching moral philosophy, he attributed the decadence of letters. As a reply, the professor of Latin grammar in the Seminary, acting on the same conviction, petitioned that no student be permitted to enroll in philosophy without first taking his subject. The cloister agreed — with Juarros’ denunciation of the poor quality of Latin in the University. A proposition from the professors of arts to forbid enrolling those students in that faculty who lacked certification in Latin re_ vealed that the authorities had neglected Statute 184, requiring the examination of students in Latin before their admission to arts or any other faculty. Likewise in 1792 the full cloister voted to uphold this | requirement by demanding the Latin certificate as a prerequisite of matriculation.*® In 1805 the cloister ruled that a junta composed of the

professor of arts and a doctor appointed by the rector (who himself voted only in cases of disagreement) should conduct these examinations to determine the proficiency of applicants for admission.’ The most interesting fight, to the modern student, broke out when

the liberal faction, at the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth, started a running controversy ending only

, with the dethronement of Latin and, incidentally, much of the scho| lastic system of which it was a part. At this stage the liberal professors | within the University and the progressives behind the Sociedad Economica and the Gazeta de Guatemala made common cause. To carry , 4 The king authorized a second chair of Latin grammar in the Seminario Tridentino in 1787 with the understanding that it would handle “rhetoric” also. (AGG, Al. 3-1, 12236, 1882, fols. 150-158. Real cédula al rector y claustro de la

| Universidad de Guatemala. El Pardo, 29 de enero de 1787.) 5 AGG, Al. 3-8, 12529, 1920. Autos acerca de que sea cambiada la hora en que

es servida la catedra de Moral, etc. Afio de 1769.

6 Libro de claustros, 1790-1808, claustro de 5 de junio de 1792, fols. 17v.-18v.

7 Ibid., claustro de 16 de diciembre de 1805, fols. 164v.—166.

“SCHOOL LATIN US. SPANISH 31 an academic act to the public—even a select public—outside the clois-

ter was in itself a radical departure from custom.’ “D. Pacoro,” spokesman of the reformers, in a series of articles in the Gazeta reflecting the frustration of Latin America in the field of language, waxes philosophical and complains against the confusion flowing from the Tower of Babel. Translators, he says, either are servile

literalists or take too many liberties, but his proposed escape is modern enough. He agrees with Descartes that the solution to this double evil is a universal language.® Once having admitted the various ad-

vantages of knowing Latin, the author observes rather plaintively that “up to this point” all would agree with him, but from there on he

obviously expects to run counter to academic prejudices. He then goes directly to the heart of the language problem and observes that understanding a written language and speaking it are different things. To D. Pacoro a reading knowledge, based upon grammar and _ bolstered by reading good Latin authors, is as much as can be expected, since it is “impossible to converse with anyone speaking Latin” as a live language. He is so satisfied that the point does not need further debate that he proposes the renunciation, forthwith, of spoken Latin. The continued practice of speaking Latin will result in another language, but hardly one of a Cicero or of a Quintilian. Not knowing the

proper value and measure to give Latin vowels and characters, the Spaniards give their own—a vitiation they are wont to carry over into modern languages and which makes them “speak Italian and French a little badly.” There is no way to deduce or divine the prosody of Latin. This attack upon Latin by D. Pacoro contains enough concessions to

the language of the Romans to lead one to believe that the author was himself more than a casual student of Latin.!° D. Pacoro then poses the issue without equivocation. He thinks the

lessons of science should be taught in “the vulgar tongue.” And he proposes to demonstrate that this method will facilitate the grasping 8 On March 28, 1798, Don Luis de Franco and Don Mariano de Larrave, students of Dr. Narciso Esparragosa, in the “Primer Examen de Cirugia,” offered in good Castilian to defend in that language principles as recent as those contained in the publications of the Royal Academies of Surgery and Medicine in Paris. (AGG, Al. 8-12, 12819, 1929.) 9D. Pacoro, “Estudios,” Gazeta de Guatemala, II (5 de noviembre de 1798), 997-298; ibid. (1 de diciembre de 1798), 326. 10 This fact points to Jacobo de Villa Urrutia as the author under the pseudonym of “D. Pacoro.”

82 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA of science, for it will open the doors to all who wish to learn, and be-

| cause, in this way only, can the public tell whether progress is being made or not. Use of the everyday language will strip learning of the superfluous and pretentious, save the time put in to acquire an unnecessary tool, and make explanations clearer. Since the “shortest line is always the straightest,” Castilian—which Alfonso el Sabio has used as “the key to his sanctuary’—should be adopted. If it were not possible to learn in Castilian, then it would be necessary to spend valuable time learning Latin. Languages are not sciences in themselves. D. Pacoro is convinced that each nation should prize its own language, although he admits that under this plan scholars would have to be more universal and should study and use modern languages in their scholarly efforts.* |

| | The attack in the Gazeta continued with regularity and increasing irritation after 1798. With the new century, it tears into Latin with sur-

prising fury as “the most arid, dry, metaphysical, and vexatious” of all languages, and, for that reason, the most difficult to present to youth. The dryness of Latin makes the brightest students the first to recoil from it. How can a student, unable to manage nuances, respond

, to his emotions, show any spontaneous vitality, or prove convincing _ so long as he has consciously and mechanically to bring up every word and inflection? For, if Latin does not give him a better, easier grasp, to what purpose is his effort? He only crowds his head with the many

rules of Latin syntax. | | |

Science, according to the Gazeta, when presented in Latin, is but

: “nebulously understood” and the ideas confused. Consequently, the necessity for using some Castilian results only in a barbarous idiom called “the language of the school.” Thus, in running the gamut of an | academic exercise, no one—the person presenting a problem, the one listening, or the one replying—understands what is going on.1? On the

other hand, the sciences—“irresistibly attractive from the moment their study is undertaken”—are perfectly comprehensible in Castilian. |

The student, with his intelligence thus illumined and his curiosity aroused, will look for books, a passion better satisfied in one’s own lan- -

guage. Textbooks not available in Spanish can be translated. In this way the door will be open to all and not to Latinists only. Such a course will benefit everybody from artisan to merchant and from

11 Gazeta de Guatemala, III (13 de enero de 1800), 147-149,

12 [bid. (20 de enero de 1800), 151-152. ,

“SCHOOL LATIN US. SPANISH 33 merchant to scholar. Those who aspire to high office can meet their obligations without the need of consulting attorneys and clerks—now necessary in the most trivial matters. And think of the advantages an academic examination will offer! People eager to form some idea of the merit of the examined—or even

the examiners!—will have the opportunity to do so. Public opinion will then overwhelm unfounded private opinions. Education will be carried into the homes and into the streets. The bitterness of Alejandro Ramirez, the editor of the Gazeta, is most evident in D. Pacoro’s attack upon the monopoly and artificiality of entrenched Latin. In the arts, as well as in the sciences, “exclusiveness” produces only “mouldiness and paralysis,” leading directly to retrogression and ignorance. In this state of monopoly and captivity, with some bodies trying to perpetuate it, inventiveness and originality receive no

incentive, and some of the old school are as jealous of their opinions “as the most presumptuous army officer.” After all, the routinists need no guide.** Nothing can happen but the triumph of ignorance over

enlightenment when it is taken as an incontrovertible axiom that knowledge is the peculiar province of those who have trod the flagstones of the universities,** and that everybody else ought to bow the head, renounce the right of discussion, and throttle reason before their very eyes. Such a despicable manner of thinking can only suffocate and wither the most talented and produce pedantry and presumption

terbanalities.” 1° | “bristling with opinions, citations, countercitations, banalities and coun-

Since the sciences, “with the exception of theology,” are the product of human understanding, all human beings who can should contribute

to them. It is beginning to become apparent that those condemned to silence might think and talk better *® than those wearing the in138 [bid. (8 de febrero de 1800), 159-162.

14“. . . y el que se reciviese como se recivio por un incontrastable axioma, que el saber era propio y peculiar de los que habian pisado las losas de las Uni-

versidades ...

15 “Fiste ruin modo de pensar debia sofocar y marchitar 4 lo menos los mejores

talentos, y producir en conseqiiencia el pedantismo, ese raro fenomeno de un magisterio herisado de opiniones, de autoridades, de citas y contra citas, de comunes y contra comunes &c. &c.” (Comunes probably refer to “common syllogisms,” having for their middle terms general terms. ) 16 “iNo estamos y viendo 4 muchos que apenas rota la valla que los detenia, y condenaba al silencio, hablan y escriven arto mejor que muchos condecorados con las insignias del saber? La Real Sociedad tiene de ésto muchas pruebas, y nuestro

periodico suministra echos subrados, que alexan toda duda.” ,

34 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA | signia of learning.17 D. Pacoro concludes this opening blast against Latin as the language of higher education by observing that the Ro- mans acquired Greek as a live, learned, and beautiful language to perfect their own. They certainly did not use it the way their own language is being used—as the only depository of science. Their lessons and writings are in Latin and not Greek. This analogy suggests to the author of the articles that, if the promise of the vernacular language in the sixteenth century had been followed, Spanish would have been the most studied language in Europe. In conclusion, he ventures the opinion that the grandsons of his generation, when they come to

write the history of that period, will go to histories written in their

own language.*® ,

After this initial attack, the editors of the Gazeta, while advocating the study of English and French,?® combined their assault on Latin, as a whole, with a campaign to dethrone a poor Latin text and enthrone a good one—translated by one of the interested parties. They concentrated criticisms on Antonio de Nebrija’s Latin grammar because it had been written in Latin, saying that with such stilted textbooks and poor and ineffective teaching, most students could write Latin only by filling it with Hispanisms, and none of them could write or speak it half as well as Castilian.”° The Gazeta took every opportunity, after the appearance of D. Pacoro’s articles, to praise students and professors who fell in with their

ideas on the use of Castilian in studies and to detract from the literary exercises of those who did not. The reformers preached that the perfection of their own language was the measure of their knowledge

and that, when this fact was realized, functions in the University

, would be “in the sonorous, clear, and beautiful language of Castile.” , These men had a sense of realism and taste, for they complimented Fray Matias de Cordoba and the University of Guatemala for encouraging a simple style instead of a pompous, artificial one, shot through

with words and “pregnant with wind.” 74 oe The editors particularly emphasized the need of holding examina17 Gazeta de Guatemala, III (3 de febrero de 1800), 162-165.

, 18 Tbid., IV (3 de marzo de 1800), 175-177.

19 Ibid. (8 de diciembre de 1800), 375. , | 20 Ibid. (12 de enero de 1801), 384-385. (The author cites Benito Jerénimo

enero de 1801), 888. 21 Ibid. (14 de julio de 1800), 293. |

Feijoo, Teatro critico, VII, Discourse X, in support of this statement.) Ibid. (19 de

“SCHOOL LATIN US. SPANISH 35 tions in Spanish. To illustrate their point they selected the examination 2? of Miguel Talavera.?? They were careful to point out that the candidate wanted to present his introductory discourse in Spanish but was compelled to present it in Latin and that only this circumstance made the occasion incomplete. However, the questions both in the morning and the afternoon were proposed and answered in Spanish in the Socratic mode without the ergos of the tired scholastic method. If

all the functions in the University were conducted this way, “we would avoid the trouble of retching.” The writer could point to some of these Castilian-language functions in the field of medicine, but lamented that no one had been bold enough to do the same thing in the rest of the faculties. The Gazeta singled Talavera out to lead the way and suggested that he might be the first in Spain or America to bring the light of reason to this exercise.** And, to make their triumph complete despite the University, the editors published the opening discourse of Talavera’s examination, given originally in Latin, in the Castilian language.” The next year (1802) the Gazeta reported an academic act of the student, Francisco de Urrutia, following an opening oration by Fray José Antonio Goicoechea. Because of the youth and immaturity of Urrutia, or perhaps because of his family connection with two of the moving figures of the Gazeta—Alejandro Ramirez and Jacobo de Villa Urrutia—the editor declined to eulogize the act, confining himself to

the remark that the “concourse was numerous.’ He did, however, stress the fact that the quaestiones were printed and distributed “in Castilian.” 2° No opportunity was ever missed to praise a student who managed to use Castilian instead of Latin.

Such an occasion presented itself when Bachelor Don Juan José Saravia, defending a point from the municipal laws,’’ began the function °° with a eulogy in Castilian, “celebrating the nobility and personal merit of Maecenas.” Three doctors “opposed” and the candidate 22 Held March 23, 1801. 23 “Secretario de la Subinspeccion general de este Reyno.” 24 “Todo pues acredita las buenas luces, y mejores ideas, con que se ban recti-

ficando nuestros juicios, y proporcionando rapidos progresos a nuestra juventud en la Universidad de Guatemala, la primera acaso entre las de Espafia, y America, donde empezaron 4 rayar, y fueron bien acogidas.” 25 Gazeta de Guatemala, V (18 de abril de 1801), 439-441; ibid. (20 de abril de 1801), 445-446.

26 [bid., VI (1 de febrero de 1802), 21. 27 Tit, 34, Partida 7. 28 On October 31, 1803.

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72 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA a | the first-year work repeated every year and the other two years progressive, a student could begin any year he was prepared. This was vital to the health of the whole University, since the arts degree was a prerequisite to study in all other fields. But the innovation went far beyond convenience in the schedule. The introduction of mathematics and experimental physics into philosophical studies would make

it possible for students to develop their minds and interests in completely divergent ways.** With Goicoechea and this plan the modern mind at last completely arrived. While the program was not officially established, it actually triumphed. Unpaid volunteers often presented themselves to the cloister to start the introductory course every year. ‘When prepared, they were accepted. That the course was now critical

and experimental, there can be no doubt. a ,

Goicoechea's Technique , , , The teaching technique of this most modern thinker in the whole faculty of San Carlos is instructive. The chair of moral theology, held by Goicoechea in 1782, was not the best post for the exercise of his particular talents. But, as liberals everywhere in the Empire learned

in the eighteenth century, any chair sufficed for the introduction of new ideas if the professors but had the mind and _ inclination. Goicoechea oriented his students during a preliminary period in which — he taught them “concisely” the principles of natural law, the Lugares

teoldgicos, and “the method of studying rights,” and he ended the initial phase with a brief history of the origin and development of canon and civil law. Since the lessons which followed “conformed” to canon law, and, since it was “impossible to know moral science” without it, he found these preliminaries prevented embarrassment

| when the students came at last to the meat of the subject. Unable to find sufficient copies of any one text to go around in his class, he used various authors,®** whose works the students read in the library , 61 Carmelo Saenz de Santa Maria, S.J., La cdtedra de filosofia en la Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, 2d ed. (Publicaciones del Seminario de Santiago, No. 2; Guatemala, 1942), p. 36. (Hereafter Saenz de Santa Maria, Cdtedra. )

, 62“,63.Honoré . derecho natural y de las gentes.” , Tournély (1658-1729), professor of theology in the Sorbonne (Cursus

, theologicae, 1710); John Colet (1467-1519), the English theologian who, independent of the scholastics, was in touch with Erasmus and remarkably advanced for his time; Franciscus Hennus ( -1720), the Franciscan whose Theologia moralis

, et scholastica became celebrated because of its “probabiliorista” theory; Geneto (probably Francois Genet [1640-1707] ) who, although a Jansenist, published the

REFORM FROM WITHIN 73 of the Seminary. Each day he assigned a question, some by one author and some by another, and the students responded the following day. Thus his followers knew not only the view of one author but that of many on a given problem. The professor, still remembering that he was suspect in some quarters, did not admit any conclusion in these exercises, however, that was not founded “in right reason or authorized by sacred canons and fundamentals of revelation.” ®** Care-

ful as this report is, it shows that Goicoechea welcomed the escape from a single stereotyped text, and that he regarded the orientation in natural law and in the history of canon and civil law as a beneficial innovation. He leaves the impression that he thought the scarcity of texts, which obliged him to use many books, was an ill wind blowing him much good.

The American Modernization of Goicoechea It is sometimes taken for granted that Hispanic Americans in the pre-independence period never developed modern ideas without going

to Europe. Because many interested in the scientific age did visit there, particularly from Guatemala, the inevitable conclusion is that any advanced idea was garnered abroad. Writers sometimes assume that all intellectuals who had brilliant careers in America had been in Europe, when, as a matter of fact, such was often not the case. Those

who take this view forget that it was intellectual curiosity that inspired the trip to Europe. Goicoechea is a case in point. In the very year that the Aleas case was finally settled—1787—Goicoechea, then professor of visperas of , theology, informed the civil government that the Franciscan order had decided to send him to Spain “on the business of the province.” ® Spain in 1788 was favorably disposed toward Americans who were widely used Théologie morale; Concina and one or two other authors whose identity, because of the casual, one-word bibliographies then conventional, cannot be established. 64 AGG, Al. 3-9, 12633, 1905. Innovacién de los estudios de filosofia por Fray Liendo Goicoechea, referida por el mismo. Afio de 1782. 65 Although the rector and cloister of the University were disposed to declare Goicoechea’s chair vacant, the audiencia issued an auto giving the Franciscan the right to turn his chair over to a substitute for a year without losing it. Goicoechea,

who did not return at the end of the year, petitioned the crown for retirement (jubilacién) without the necessity of teaching twenty years consecutively in a proprietary chair. But since the petitioner had served the chair barely five years, his request was rejected by the king.

74 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA carrying on in the New World the reforms Charles III had instituted — in the Spanish universities some eighteen years before. So, notwithstanding Statute 120, which absolutely prohibited a professor's going

to Spain without royal license while holding his chair, the king extended Goicoechea’s leave for another year with the understanding _

that this was to be the last concession.*° Two weeks after the extension expired, the cloister in Guatemala met and declared the chair

vacant, notwithstanding Dr. Flores’ request that the time limit be extended four months.* In Guatemala they did not realize, of course, that the Spanish government had turned down Goicoechea’s request for retirement and had left him the choice of returning to his chair

or giving it up. |

It is possible to put two constructions on this episode. It can be

said that Goicoechea, as the mentor of the progressive scientific group, was being persecuted. Yet the statutes of the University, framed long

before academic reform was any problem, were specifically against him. If the cloister was reactionary, why did the Spanish government, then sponsoring the new learning represented by Goicoechea, also fail to co-operate with him in his retirement scheme? Why did the fiscal of the Council of the Indies declare that among the religious, civil, and learned bodies Goicoechea “enjoyed high esteem’? ® Besides, Goicoechea, his predilection for science reinforced by what he had seen in the Spain of Charles III, returned to receive the plaudits of the University. With him he brought the equipment for the conduct

of the arts course as he had planned it before he left Spain—a “cabinet” of equipment for experimental physics, mechanics, and chemistry, an armillary sphere, and other materials for the study of 66 AGG, Al. 3-1, 12236, 1882, No. 60. Real cédula al rector y claustro de la Real Universidad de San Carlos, Aranjuez, 14 de marzo de 1788. Libro de claustros,

| 1756-1790, fols. 227-228, 230-231, 255-256, 268-268v. |

87 Libro de claustros, 1756-1790, fols. 267v.-268, 268v.—-269v. a 68 AGG, Al. 3-1, 12236, 1882, No. 61. Real cédula al rector y claustro de la

Universidad de Guatemala. Madrid, 26 de enero de 1789. , ,

69 AGI, Guatemala, Legajo 412. Consulta del Consejo de Indias, 22 de enero de 1788. In presenting his opinion (Madrid, January 11, 1788) the fiscal told how Goicoechea sent medicinal plants and woods to Spain, how he advanced science, “corrected the errors” of physics, and became the “first professor” of the subject, and how “todas estas circunstancias le hacian acreedor de una encarecida estimacion de su orden, y de todos los cuerpos de aquella Republica, que conocian bien su merito, y virtudes; y bosquejaban con equidad, y justicia, sus laudables pro-

piedades en los informes que acompafiaba en testimonio” =

REFORM FROM WITHIN 7) astronomy, mathematics, and natural history.° Dr. Juan José Gonzalez Batres, who was repeatedly elected rector of San Carlos between 1756 and 1791, aided the mentor in every possible way.”

In the University records, except for the oblique reference to the resentment of the Peripatetics, one can gather nothing except support and admiration for Goicoechea in the cloister. And, as the coterie of liberals and the advocates of useful knowledge increased, and the Sociedad Patridtica was founded, Goicoechea emerged more and more

as the most significant figure in the intellectual life of colonial Guatemala. His personal influence was undoubtedly increasing, for, | like a good Franciscan, he was jovial and gentle, as well as brilliant and persistent.”? As “Viejo Licornes” or simply “Licornes,” he sometimes appeared in the revived Gazeta. In an essay on mendicancy in Guatemala and the best methods of remedying it, he attacked the

one-crop system. Two years later he finished and illustrated the memoria of José Mariano Mocifio on indigo. That people turned to him constantly in a variety of matters is proved by the frequent allusions to him in the Gazeta and the occasional summaries of his discourses published there. Students disclosed their high esteem for him by dedicating theses to him as their “Maecenas.” One of the greatest tragedies of the terrible earthquake that destroyed Antigua Guatemala in 1778 is that the intellectual and academic reform, symbolized in Goicoechea and begun so auspiciously before the disaster, had both to overcome the natural, but not very insistent, conservatism of those whose learning was perfunctory and also to surmount the worst imaginable practical and physical handicaps. Goicoechea’s report on his work in 1782 came at the peak of 70 Rodriguez Beteta, Evolucion, pp. 14-15. 71 Gonzalez Batres demonstrated his enthusiasm for the subject in his personal

work. He invented a pneumatic machine, introduced an electric one, and was responsible for the erection of a monument to the discoverer of smallpox vaccine which stood in the Plazuela de San Sebastian until the earthquakes of 1917. (Ibid., p. 16.) 72 It is an academic legend of Guatemala that when a judge in Goicoechea’s

doctoral examination placed an “R” (reprobado, failed) in the voting urn and friends hastened to report and condole with him, he laughed and said: “Me alegro, ayer no era mas que docto, pero estos sefiores con su R me han convertido en docto R.” (Salazar, Desenvolvimiento, p. 47.) This story has the ring of fiction. It is unlikely that a doctoral committee from San Carlos, where Goicoechea was universally respected, should have tried to hold him up. Besides, the voting was secret.

| 76 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA | } those extraordinary troubles. Despite these, little Guatemala, academi- _ cally speaking, was ahead of the cloister of the University of Mexico. Little wonder that the Gazeta should synthesize Goicoechea’s educa-

| tional reform by referring to him as the “Aurora de la Filosofia en | Guatemala” and that Francisco Beteta should dedicate an act in the University to him.” Goicoechea, moved by the sentiments and emo-

, tions of an old man who had seen his defamers fold up under his © | persistence, good cheer, and the eternal soundness of his principles,

| _ responded in verses which, though more scholastic than most of his

, academic career, revealed ineffable gratitude to Guatemala. While it is not certain that José Cecilio del Valle had a hand in the composi-

, tion of the plaudits that the student Francisco Beteta presented on this occasion, there is no doubt that Del Valle did give a spirited account

in his Elogio funebre, delivered the month after the death of the , distinguished teacher ’* and mentor of the revolutionary generation. 738 June 15, 1814. Fray Ramon Casaus y Torres, archbishop of Guatemala, when _ he received the handbill of this act, greeted it with verses which, perhaps because

. Goicoechea died a little over two weeks later, were not only published in the , Gazeta, but undoubtedly enjoyed extensive hand-to-hand circulation:

Es el Padre Goicoechea . :

. por lo festivo del genio , por sus sales y agudezas | comparable con Quevedo. ,

-

Mas el sabio en Guatemala a

| con su peregrino ingenio ,

_ dallamase campo a Cartesio. naturaleza a| -oe 7 y asi De Estagira los secuaces Oo

, . por de pronto sedesengajiados, enojaron ! , pero al fin, | de sutilezas maestros -

, _a Goicoechea siguieron: o bien temiendo sus chistes , |,

po | o bien sus luces bebiendo, a pues no hay hombre que resista —_— , OO

si no quiere ser jumento, — Oo , . , a las armas que maneja | oe juntas Quevedo y Cartesio. , , , ,

| a —Rodriguez Beteta, Evolucién, p. 19. -

_ 74°) Padre Goicoechea, 8 mayo 1735-2 julio 1814,” Apéndice al No. 2, Afio

pS II de la Revista de los Archivos Nacionales (San José, 1938), 7-20. |

| REFORM FROM WITHIN 77 The changes uncovered by Aleas and epitomized by Goicoechea prove that San Carlos played a vital part in the cultural and professional life of the country, and they illuminate many aspects of academic

life. The sneering attitude of the crown lawyers when the University undertook a judicial proceeding makes it clearer than a dozen formal opinions that the medieval autonomy still printed in the statutes was

as out of date as Amadis of Gaul. Dictation and rote memory as pedagogical techniques survived only in canon law and Institutes. Thomas Aquinas ‘held his own as “the pure fountain” to cleanse and resolve conflicting conclusions in theology, but there was no longer

any patience with opposing one “system” to another. Yet the fact that the king had in the beginning sponsored teaching such “contrary doctrines” gave every modernist a comprehensive explanation, sophistical in the circumstances, for all advancements introduced into his course. So modern learning enjoyed the hearty approval of everybody in 1782 except a few carrying no more weight than fundamentalists among intellectuals in the United States today. San Carlos thus certainly preceded the University of Mexico in its open abandonment of static scholasticism. In this way the universities in the provincial capitals of the Spanish Empire underwent an intellectual revolution earlier and faster than those in the large centers.

IV Reform from Above and from Without —

THE reign of Charles III had three aims in academic reform: (1) to defend the prerogatives of the crown, (2) to substitute the scientific _ method for decadent scholasticism, and (3) to establish simple taste in place of “weary pomposity,” “tired rhetoric,” and “servile flattery.”

Censores Regios An alien political philosophy was menacing the old Spanish authoritarian system and Spanish churchmen remained willing to challenge

_ the supremacy of the state. After the American and French revolutions, anxious ministers felt an increasing need to censor the theses defended in the colleges, seminaries, and universities. The threat to the crown was alarming, the persistence of outmoded methods in the university often distressing, but there was a purer motive for

| intervention: to see that simplicity and directness, at least where the government was concerned, should prevail instead of the ridiculous “alabanzas cansadas’ (tired praises) and “adulaciones manifiestas” (transparent adulations). To a modern American, these purposes will appear contradictory, yet, unless they are reconciled, it is not possible to understand the progress of learning and philosophy in the Spanish Empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. | The immediate excuse for extending the censorship* of academic 1 The system was already established in Spain. See the Real provisidn de S. M. y sefiores del consejo en la qual se da regla para preservar las regalias de la corona, 78

REFORM FROM ABOVE AND WITHOUT 79 theses and conclusions to the Spanish Empire overseas was found in a threat to regalism in faraway Paraguay. The governor-intendant of that province, late in 1797, wrote the king that he had been obliged to suppress a conclusion defended in the Seminario de San Carlos as

opposed to the “fundamental laws of the kingdom.” The zealous governor had also taken it upon himself to order the heads of religious communities to submit all conclusions for examination in advance of

any literary acts. The Council of the Indies not only approved the conduct of this governor but made use of the incident to extend to America ? the system of censors (censores regios) established in Spain by 1770.8

The censors had the prime duties of reviewing and examining the theses defended in the public universities and schools of the regular and secular clergy before printing and distribution in order to prevent any teaching against the “authority and regalia of the crown.” Ideally, they reported each case to the Council of the Indies for the appropriate punishment, and each offender was immediately disqualified for any promotion. The civil fiscal was the censor regio in all university towns where there were chancelleries or audiencias. Where there was

neither, it devolved upon the cloister to suggest three names to the governor who, after hearing the asesor, submitted the slate to the viceroy or president for an appointment. The instructions issued to this officer ranged over various subjects, but when the king’s men got orders, they were always possessed by

one thought—royal supremacy. Conclusions useless to dogma or morality were disapproved. Propositions not relevant to the chair from

which the thesis emanated were forbidden. Conclusions opposed to papal bulls and royal decrees treating of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady were inadmissible. But the major emphasis was upon

the protection of the regalia of the crown, laws of the kingdom, concordats, and national rights. No doctrine inimical to these was defensible. And naturally no postulate favorable to those two bugaboos y de la nacidn en las materias, y questiones que se defiendan y ensefien en las universidades de estos reynos; con la creacién de censores regios en ellas, y demds que contiene (Madrid, 6 de septiembre de 1770). 2 In a decree of May 19, 1801.

8 Real provisién de los sefores del consejo por la qual se manda observar y guardar la Instruccién inserta para gobierno de los Censores regios de todas las Universidades del Reyno y desempefio de su encargo con lo demds que se expresa (Madrid, 25 de mayo de 1784).

| — 80 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA | of the Spanish crown, tyrannicide and regicide, or “other doctrine of similarly low and pernicious nature,” was thinkable. — | The new literary watchdog read the dedications to prevent syco-

| _ phantic praise of a Maecenas as “a method opposed to philosophical simplicity” of the learned man, who should explain without affectation and with naturalness in honest, decent, and concise terms. The censor -

a ities.”* Oe

even had to see that the Latin of the conclusions was correct and

appropriate and “without double meanings and mysterious obscur-— | _ In Guatemala, these royal commands fell among officials highly -_ congenial to them. The act of obedience carried not only the name of —

| the captain general and president, Antonio Mollinedo Gonzalez , Saravia, but that of the famous regent, Ambrosio Cerdan y Pontero, _ who had fought Peripateticism as a member of that progressive band publishing the Mercurio peruano in Lima during the early 1790's. The _ vigor of these exponents of the new methods in circulating the cédula and instructions concerning the censors is sufficient indication that the ~

| liberals understood that the censores regios were the sponsors of the

and authoritarian. , ee

new, simple, and experimental as against the scholastic, complicated,

The Superior Government printed and dispatched copies to the

, _ prelates of the religious orders in Guatemala, and to the suffragan bishops and intendants of Ciudad Real, Comayagua, and Leén.* The - crown attorney ruled ®* that both the cédula and complementary in-

, structions were applicable to the University acts, especially the quodli| betos and other conclusions looking toward degrees, and that they should be posted for the guidance of students and professors.’ He _ particularly stressed Article 7 which inveighed against artificiality _ and fulsome praise. The touchy cloister did not “obey” until nearly two years after the fiscal had noticed that the University remained uninstructed. The imprimatur of the rector, however, remained the _ only authorization necessary for printing theses in Guatemala, a fact

| indicating a rather remarkable liberty of the press in the Spanish

colonial universities. = =| a 7

_ # AGG, Al. 8, 1175, 46; Al. 28, 10091, 1536. Gazeta de Guatemala, VI (17 de ) mayo de 1802), 117-118. Real cédula circular. Aranjuez, 19 de mayo de 1801. ,

5 AGG, Al. 3, 1175, 46. Real provisién, 29 de marzo de 1802. . | |

- 8 Fiscal Pilofia on November 8, 1802. (AGG, Al. 3, 18024, 2378. Cumplimiento

Afio de 1802.) 7 a '

de la cédula de 19 de mayo de 1801, que trata del gobierno de los censores regios.

7 Libro de claustros, 1790-1808, fol. 131. |

REFORM FROM ABOVE AND WITHOUT 81 Inquisition The Inquisition played a relatively inconspicuous role in Guatemalan academic life. The bulk of the population was Indian and not subject to the Inquisition. And, in the next place, the Spaniards had practically no doctrinal aberrations. Dissensions that did develop were usually

the sterile controversies between the Jesuits and their rivals, the Dominicans. Guatemala, moreover, was not, like Mexico and Lima, central and populous enough for a regular tribunal nor at the crossroads of Protestantism and heterodoxy like Cartagena de Indias.

One year after its establishment in Mexico, the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition extended its jurisdiction to Guatemala.® The members of the town council received the first commissary and,

like the man who signs his letter “your obedient humble servant,” perfunctorily expressed their happiness and gratitude to His Majesty for remembering them. Salazar judges from this and other documents, which he says he saw, that the Guatemalans were delighted with the arrival of the agent of the Inquisition.® It is perfectly obvious that the householders of Guatemala felt none of that horror which the mention of the institution provokes in some quarters. They were not particularly concerned one way or the other. Although there was occasional inquisitorial activity in Guatemala,

it rarely, if ever, impinged upon the orthodox academic life of the University. Thomas Gage, about the year 1627, publicly defended the thesis that the Virgin Mary was born in original sin. He appears not to have apprehended prosecution. Indeed, the Dominicans, who opposed the Jesuits on this point, urged him on and enjoyed the discomfiture of the followers of Loyola. The Inquisition was too much of a

domestic relations court, too interested in the morals of the clergy, to menace the intellectual life of the captaincy general in the first century or so.?° During the last 110 years of the Inquisition fewer than two cases a year on the average—195 in all—were heard. These,

too, were mostly the common run of offenses heard everywhere— 8 The first commissary in Guatemala, Don Diego de Carbajal, presented the cédula of his appointment to the cabildo in Guatemala on February 18, 1572. 9 Desenvolvimiento, p. 175. 10 [bid., p. 176. Martin Mérida, “Historia critica de la Inquisicién en Guatemala,”

Boletin del Archivo General del Gobierno, III (1987-1988), 80 et passim. The researches of E. Chinchilla Aguilar in the Mexican archives (La Inquisicién en Guatemala [Guatemala, 1953]) show that liberals sometimes enjoyed the preferment of the Inquisition in Guatemala.

82 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA _ | | superstition, blasphemy, sacrilege, pacto-explicito (with the demon), polygamy, Judaism, offense against the state, and solicitation in the

confessional by priests. — | - |

The cases affecting members of the learned community before the restoration of the Inquisition by Ferdinand VII were practically nil. The University, without being directly involved, was, upon occasion, the scene of an auto de fe. Such was the case when one Manuel Antonio Azafiudo, self-accused of saying mass and conferring the eucharist, was sentenced to a year in a jail of the Tribunal situated in the Recoleccién, required to fast and practice spiritual exercises, and — banished twenty leagues from Guatemala City, Madrid, Mexico City, or the places where he committed his crimes. That he lost his property naturally follows. From a closed jail, in a closed carriage, a tipstaff brought this “Waldensian, heretic, apostate, scandalous drunkard, liar, counterfeit, false and diminute confident” to the salén de actos of San Carlos.11 There the commissary was Dr. Antonio Garcia Redondo, the president Dr. Bernardo Martinez, and the alguacil mayor, Dr.

| _ José de Ayzinena—all well known names in the cloister. Arranged on the sides were the familiars of the Holy Office in their special suits and insignia. Twenty-four members of the secular clergy completed — the two files in the salon. In a sambenito, “amidst the most profound silence,” the culprit heard his sentence and “was in accord” with it. Although this ceremony was held in the University, there is no reason to believe that the cloister was behind the prosecution. The salén de actos of the University was the most dignified place that could be found for the ceremony, since the Inquisition was not rich and well

established in the country. | | , ~Heterodoxy did not frighten Guatemalans, and few were ever exercised by it. To most, this was merely a vague, distant problem, much on the lips but lacking in reality. When the liberals suppressed

| the Tribunal of the Inquisition in 1818, the chief concern of the | cloister of the University of Guatemala was to secure the income of an annexed benefice to finance a much-needed “teaching canonry” for Dr. José Bernardo Dighero.* When the Inquisition went out, as well as when it came in, the cloister did not feel that it made much

difference. , , | It is true that Archbishop Fray Ramdén Casaus Torres y Lasplazas

11 September 23,1805. =. 12 Salazar, Desenvolvimiento, pp. 176-181. , 13 Libro de claustros, 1808-1831, fol. 35-35v.

REFORM FROM ABOVE AND WITHOUT 83 paid his respects to the philosophes as men who, among other things, “defame the proceedings of the Holy Office with insolent libels” and

who did not deserve the grace of pardon. But it was when Viceroy Francisco Xavier Venegas of Mexico, alarmed by Hidalgo’s uprising in the “back country,” called upon learned men to compete with essays against the revolutionary manifesto that Casaus outdid himself with a _ forty-six-page pamphlet. His outburst was certainly no more puerile than that of the famous Mexican botanist and chemist, Luis Montafia,* written on the same occasion. The same atmosphere that electrified the archbishop into pamphlet-

eering brought a poor talkative woman, who might otherwise have gossiped her head off in obscurity, before the Inquisition for making favorable report of Hidalgo’s horde of rebel Indians bearing down on

Mexico City. Ten years later the outbreak at Totonicapan quickened _ in Guatemala this same thought: “It can happen here.” Nothing in American history, not even servile insurrection itself, has deprived men of their reason like the fear of servile insurrection. Even so, in the midst of his tirade against this dire prospect, Casaus

could still refer to the revolutionary phenomenon as something “with , no more truth than four scholastic sophistries.” By now even the exponents of the status quo and of political reaction fancied themselves

much too good for scholasticism. The pressure against prohibited books increased to the point that it occasionally proved irritating to the learned, especially after the government set up book-inspection points between cities.

The Coterie of the Gazeta When the Gazeta de Guatemala appeared in its truly modern series in 1797, it was no mere accident. Far from being isolated, the City of Guatemala was, by colonial standards, already the center of important intellectual activities. The first number of the Gazeta, of the

set housed in the Sociedad de Geografia e Historia in Guatemala, carries a manuscript list of the subscribers of the utmost significance to the intellectual history of Guatemala. Ambrosio Cerdan y Pontero,

who had fought the Peripatetics in Lima while the Sociedad Académica there was publishing the Mercurio peruano, entered in the list 14 Luis Montafia, Reflexiones del Dr. D. Luis Montaia. Sobre los alborotos acaecidos en algunos pueblos de tierradentro. . . . A costa de los doctores de la Real, y Pontificia Universidad (Mexico, 1810).

84 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA for three subscriptions. Needless to say, the name of the Real Sociedad

Econémica de Amigos del Pais was included. The Real Consulado, as a part of the phase of commercial reform, took a subscription. It would be hard to find a person of mature age in 1797 that achieved fame who was not listed among these indirect supporters of a bold

| and enthusiastic venture. José Antonio Goicoechea’s name appears , along with that of Dr. Fermin Aleas, “prior of Santo Domingo’— another indication that Aleas’ criticism of “systematic theology,” as

, taught in the University in 1780, sprang in some measure at least from his liberal sentiments and associations. And there is the name of Dr. Narciso Esparragosa y Gallardo, a man who would have been a _

_ grace to medicine anywhere at that time; of Dr. Simeédn Cafias who | _ was destined to lead the fight for the liberation of the slaves in Guate-

mala; of Dr. Antonio Larraz4bal, who was elected to the Cortes of _ | Cadiz; as well as of José Mariano Mocifio and José Longinos Martinez, naturalists of the royal botanical expedition of New Spain and Guate-

mala. Among the subscribers from other cities and provinces were Canon José Mariano Beristain, famous bibliographer, and Don Vicente

Cervantes, professor of botany, of Mexico.*® - Much in this atmosphere suggests that the spirit of intellectual curi- _ osity, so obvious in the Gazeta, which wrought radical changes in the academic life in such conservative places as Lima and Mexico, was in

. part grafted onto Guatemala. Goicoechea himself had come from | Costa Rica, but he was a mere student who developed in Guatemala City. Esparragosa had already reached the degree of master of arts in Caracas before coming to Guatemala. Dr. Ambrosio Cerdan y Pon_ tero, while in Lima, was for a time president of the Sociedad Académica de Amantes del Pais, writing for the Mercurio peruano over the pseudonym of “Nercadio.” Cerdan published some interesting works and pro-

- moted academies in company with Dr. Hipolito Unanue (“Aristio”) and

| Dr. Toribio Rodriguez de Mendoza, rector of the Convictorio de San. , Carlos in Lima. Rodriguez was then openly defending the introduction

~ mala.?¢ a - ,

| of the modern curriculum into this “seed bed” of Peruvian revolution

, when Don Ambrosio was appointed regent of the audiencia of Guate-

15 Listed in longhand on the flyleaf of the Gazeta de Guatemala, I (Sociedad

- _ de Geografia e Historia, Guatemala). | . |

16 William Pratt Dale, “The Cultural Revolution in Peru, 1750-1820” (Duke _

_ University Ph.D. thesis, 1941), p. 96; Manuel de Mendiburu, Diccionario

REFORM FROM ABOVE AND WITHOUT 85 A most critical role in Guatemala was that of Don Jacobo de Villa Urrutia, a Spaniard, born in Santo Domingo and brought to Mexico early in life and returned to Spain by Archbishop Lorenzana. In the

Peninsula he studied at the University of Salamanca and felt the currents of controversy set in motion by Charles III around 1770. There he translated treatises and edited periodicals, beginning with Correo de los ciegos and continuing with Correo de Madrid. Appointed oidor of the audiencia of Guatemala in 1798, he brought just the right

degree of iconoclasm to the kingdom and brought it in the person of an oidor, who held the highest civil office in the land save that of

the captain general. |

Antonio Garcia Redondo, who along with Matias de Cérdoba, became Guatemala’s champion of the Indian before and around 1800, came from New Granada, where he undoubtedly knew José Celestino Mutis, the botanist and astronomer. Garcia Redondo’s advocacy of an astronomical observatory in Guatemala was most likely in imitation of Mutis in Bogota. Important as that was, it is more likely that he fell under the sway of Francisco Moreno y Escand6n, “Fiscal Protector of the Indians,” whose efforts on behalf of modern education and the natives of New Granada in the time of Mutis 17 made him the most effective advocate of the natives. Just as Cerdan y Pontero, in the controversies of Lima, had felt the repercussions of the Tupac Amaru uprising,** so Garcia Redondo inevitably reacted to the suffering and turbulence of the Comuneros in New Granada. He is best known for his Memoria sobre el fomento de las cosechas de cacaos . . . (Guatemala, 1799). Although a member of the regular clergy, he collaborated with

Goicoechea in his memoria on the extinction of mendicancy.’® He thoroughly identified himself with the country of his adoption. He took the licentiate and doctorate in theology in the University of San historico-biografico del Pert, 2d ed. (Lima, 1887), IV, 140-142. See also José Toribio Medina, La imprenta en Lima (Santiago de Chile, 1902-1907), III, 167, 237, 238, 514, and Gabriel René-Moreno, Biblioteca boliviana (Santiago de Chile, 1879), n. 1365. 17 John Tate Lanning, “El sistema de Copérnico en Bogota,” Revista de historia de América, No. 18 (December, 1944), p. 279. 18 There is reason to believe that Cerdan y Pontero followed the liberal wing when the intellectuals of Lima, upon the occasion of José Baquijano’s denunciation of the Spanish handling of the Tupac Amaru case, divided into opposing camps.

19 Medina, La imprenta en Guatemala, p. 341.

&6 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA Carlos in 1791, became canénigo magistral of the cathedral, and rector

of the University in 1804.?° | | The association of men like Garcia Redondo, Goicoechea, and Cordoba would naturally lead the Sociedad Econémica to take up

the cause of the Indian. At the instigation of the Sociedad, the Dominican, Cordoba, prepared his famous memoria, holding that the indigenes should be shod and dressed as Spaniards.” Support of the natives was a tradition of the Dominican order. Cérdoba was, therefore, the culmination of the two distant lines of development—the

Dominican and the secular—which resulted in the Sociedad Econémica. No servile exponent of the misconceptions of the “Enlightenment,” Cérdoba even recognized and combated the Buffonian thesis of the debility of Americans.?? Cérdoba, or at least somebody writing under the pseudonym of “Bondesir,” went so far as to recommend that, instead of isolating the Indians, the two civilizations in Guatemala should be mixed. This point of view was representative of the Sociedad Econémica. Cérdoba’s enthusiasm for this society can be gleaned from the fact that he actually founded a sociedad in Chiapas.”®

The government, alarmed at the “tendencies in favor of the Indians,” _ such as the advocacy of Spanish dress for them, suppressed the organization. The rector of the University, Dr. José Bernardo Dighero, as an ex-officio member,” accepted formal notification of this drastic

step.”° | ,

. Guatemala, then, in the middle of the 1790’s saw the convergence of a group of distinguished Spanish-American intellectuals under no need

of making obeisance to the learned men of Mexico City or Lima. It certainly was no coincidence that Ignacio Beteta founded and published a progressive journal, the Gazeta de Guatemala, when these 20 AGG, Al. 8-18, 12985, 1945. Grado de Licenciado y doctor en Teologia de Antonio Garcia Redondo. Afio de 1791. AGG, Al. 3-18, 12965, 1945. Razén de

Claustros. oe

los Rectores que han sido de esta Universidad que constan de los Libros de | 21 Rodriguez Beteta, Evolucién, pp. 148-149. 22 “Desmienta este reino la ignorancia de los enciclopedistas de los filésofos superficiales que pregonan la debilidad del talento americano. ... .” (Ibid., p. 155, quoting from the Gazeta de Guatemala. )

23 Tbid., pp. 147, 160, 173. . | 24 When the society was founded in 1796, the University named two ex-officio —

, members, (Libro de claustros, 1790-1808, fols. 56v.—57. ) —

| 25 AGG, Al. 8-8, 12578, 1904. Se comunica la supresién de la sociedad econdmica por sus tendencias en favor de los indios. Afio de 1800. Real cédula, San Lorenzo, 23 de noviembre de 1799.

| REFORM FROM ABOVE AND WITHOUT 87 men got together in Guatemala City. The Gazeta, under Beteta's editorship, immediately became an organ dedicated to the satisfaction

of curiosity about philosophy and to the dissemination of “useful knowledge,” which included bringing to light articles on economic, medical, literary, and commercial affairs.2* Dr. Narciso Esparragosa contracted to digest information on medicine and surgery at home

and abroad. Dr. José Felipe Flores, while traveling abroad for the purpose of study, wrote a letter to the president of the Real Sociedad Economica, extracts of which appeared in the Gazeta, discussing water

tanks, beehives, and a way of making pigskin shoes, a thing most necessary to protect the barefoot population from parasites.?” Another

article told how to dye cotton black with pyroligneous acid as had been done “with happy results” in France. Still another item told of a machine “invented” by a Mr. Bruman for multiple writing or drawing *°—the kind of thing attributed to Thomas Jefferson. José Celestino

Mutis, who led the royal botanical expedition in New Granada and established the first American astronomical observatory there, wrote occasionally for the Gazeta. There were, of course, other contributors whose identities are mys-

teries because of the custom of writing over pseudonyms, which prevailed in all the journals closely related to the “Economic Societies.” Some of these pseudonyms were obvious; others are still unsolved.” 26 Other evidences of the many-faceted campaign of the Gazeta for reform in Guatemala can be seen in Chapters II, VI, and IX. 27 Gazeta de Guatemala, I (22 de mayo de 1797), 123-124. 28 [bid., VI (3 de mayo de 1802), 107. 29 This table contains all the information available to me on the pseudonyms of contributors to the Gazeta:

El Viejo Licornes or Licornes ...... José Antonio Goicoechea Bafioger de Sagellii y Gielblas ..... Simon Bergafio y Villegas

I, B. ow... eee. eee sees eess+ Ignacio Beteta (?) D. A. BR. ........................ Antonio Garcia Redondo (?) Jaime Villa Lépez ................ Don Jacobo de Villa Urrutia

Bondesir ........................ Matias de Cérdoba (?) D. Pacoro ....................... Don Jacobo de Villa Urrutia (?) El Hermano Serapio ............. Fray Serapio Sanchez (?) Engafiado ....................... Simé6n Bergajio y Villegas (?)

It is possible that Bondesir was the pseudonym of Matias de Cérdoba, one of the most gifted of Guatemalan colonial writers and a man deeply interested in the welfare of the Indian. On the other hand, it seems to me that Bafoger might have used the pseudonym of Bondesir in order to talk with himself. Bondesir states the opposite case in such perfect contradistinction to the editorial policy. So does Engafiado.

88 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA _ The Gazeta marks the point in Guatemala where advanced intellectual interests—not just the University cloister—became the basis of the association of learned men. Though many of its members were

graduates and professors of the University, this faction was not an academic group. The periodical collaborated actively with the best

a products of the University of San Carlos, but it stood apart from the institution, the reform of which, even more than that of commerce, it wished to achieve. The University faction working with the Gazeta, therefore, fought the use of spoken Latin, advocated simple style in

literary functions, and impugned dogmatic philosophy as opposed

to scientific principles. | |

Ignacio Beteta, the founder of the Gazeta, was not of the University

| cloister and held no degrees from San Carlos. It was he who, from _ 1793 on, sought a license to start a periodical. The oidor Villa Urrutia undoubtedly urged him on in his efforts until finally the second series *° of that weekly publication began its appearance in 1797.*1 The author-

ities soon suspended the magazine on the pretext that the war with England made paper scarce but renewed the license in F ebruary,

| 1798, no doubt as a result of influence, and publication continued

| until the “gazette” amounted to eighteen volumes. |

The twenty-year-old Alejandro Ramirez, who had come to Guatemala in 1794, assumed direction of the journal. The Guatemalan writer, Rodriguez Beteta, who calls this youth “Ignacio,” conjectures without

| - much proof that Villa Urrutia brought him out to the Indies. Ramirez and his pariente, Villa Urrutia, had exceptionally strong ideas on the

intransigence of higher learning and on free commerce, since rigid — controls had done so much to stultify the economic life of outlying

| Guatemala. Ramirez, a modernist in philosophy, was also a bold | spirit in love. An embarrassing affair forced him to give up the editor-

| ship of the Gazeta in 1802 and to take ship for Cuba. At this point he | falls into an obscurity which has stimulated legends and conjectures. The direction of the periodical then came either completely or in part into the hands of Simén Bergafio y Villegas, himself a beardless youth, whose name, like that of Ramirez, has come down to us in _ exceeding obscurity. After 1803 the Gazeta was redolent of the ideas of Bergafio. Stripped of flesh, and crippled in one leg as a result of The first series appeared in the first half of the century, but the new publica} tion80 was entirely new in outlook. ae ,

_ 81 February 18. , Fo

REFORM FROM ABOVE AND WITHOUT &9 a fall from a jocotal tree, Bergafio y Villegas, secretary in the presi-

dencia, revealed himself a sour and talented writer. He was more bitter against the intellectual atmosphere, and, one imagines, even the society in which he lived, than Ramirez was. Batres Jauregui classifies him as Voltairian and fellow traveler of the encyclopedists *

—a distinction conferred without discrimination in a later day upon any irascible intellectual or radical. That he was not Voltairian, or at least was discreet, is proved by the admission that his ideas were “respectful of God and of religion.” In those days there was ample evidence of familiarity with the Cartas eruditas and Teatro critico of Feij6o—a typical, not a Voltairian, thing. The situation, the training, the alert mentalities, the unhappiness and radicalism suggest

that both Ramirez and Bergafio were well-born but illegitimate. Guesses of this type often prove wrong. But the mystery and the vicissitudes of the Gazeta did not end with the unfathomable backgrounds of Ramirez and Bergano y Villegas. The physical defects, the intellectual assets, and the social obscurity of Siméon Bergafio y Villegas were ideal revolutionary ingredients. In the Gazeta he delighted to answer Engafiado—quite possibly a straw

man of his—on the subject of modern learning. He reserved his impatience, if one can say he reserved anything, for the full, stereotyped writing of the scholastic. But he continued Ramirez’ antipathy for wasting time with badly learned Latin at the expense of Castilian— although he favored the study, properly managed, of Greek, Latin, French, and English. He highly favored useful studies, such as ge-

ometry, and regretted, especially if the student might have to go into debt, that formalism and professionalism could take seven years out of a man’s life for a licentiate in law. While a degree may confer honor, it “does not confer science.”

A factionalism difficult to understand, which certainly lessened, if it did not actually ruin, the intellectual influence of Villa Urrutia and Ramirez, came to a climax in 1802. Don Ambrosio Cerdan y Pontero, regent of the audiencia, taking his cue from a cédula of 1798 ** recommending a careful watch over the press of Guatemala, denounced *4 his colleague, the oidor Jacobo de Villa Urrutia. The oidor was the literary patron of Ramirez and later, perhaps, of Bergafio, although he 32 Antonio Batres Jauregui, La América Central ante la historia (Guatemala, 1916-1920), II, 514. (Hereafter Batres Jauregui, La América Central.)

88 Dated August 25, 1798. 84 November 8, 1802.

90 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA was commissioner of the press (juez de imprentas). Ramirez figures — in the denunciation as the co-editor, fellow-diner, domestic, and kinsman of Villa Urrutia. By his untiring efforts to fix his maxims and ideas

in the minds of the people, and by invectives and sniping at wellknown figures, Ramirez had brought on controversy, especially in his defense of free commerce.** Since Cerdan y Pontero was one of the staunchest enemies of Peripateticism in Peru before his appointment to Guatemala in 1795, it is hard to understand how he could

: attack Villa Urrutia and Ramirez on principle. It could easily be that the canker of professional enmity, as sometimes happens in modern

university faculties, became larger than principle. , , Indeed, it would have been difficult for two important judges, both bent upon being the center of any progressive coterie, to have gotten along perfectly. This was especially true of Villa Urrutia. The regent Cerdan y Pontero outranked him as an oidor, but working through — Ramirez and the Gazeta, he struggled successfully to establish the

Sociedad Econémica in Guatemala which Cerdan y Pontero had headed in Lima and became the acknowledged and respected unofficial leader of Guatemala’s important progressive faction. Such petty considerations could easily have weighed even heavier with Cerdan when combined with the barbs of Villa Urrutia’s protégé, Ramirez, whom Cerdan must have regarded as a presumptuous and callow youth. Licentiate J. Mariano Gonzalez later lent some support to this thesis, but without offering documentary support, when he stated * that “envy supported by arbitrariness” was the cause for the transfer of Villa Urrutia to the audiencia of Mexico as alcalde del crimen in 1805, although he had been senior judge of the audiencia in Guatemala since 1803.°7 Powerfully placed, Cerdan y Pontero made a welcome ally of the intransigents and other mediocre and conventional people in the University cloister, in the church, and in the religious orders. That the controversy could easily have been pure factionalism

is supported in some degree by the fact that one Manuel Beteta, , undoubtedly a son or a relation of the publisher of the Gazeta, Ignacio 35 “| . . a su coeditor, comensal, doméstico y pariente, Don Alejandro Ramirez,

por sus tentativas incansables para solidar en el publico sus maximas e ideas singulares, no menos que por invectivas frecuentes y tiros demasiadamente conocidos, que han causado no pocas quejas, sentimientos y disgustos, y especialmente su defensa del libre comercio.” Batres Jauregui, La América Central, II, 514.

a 36 Before the Junta Publica de la Sociedad Econémica on April 25, 1852.

37 Rodriguez Beteta, Evolucidén, pp. 74, 79, 84n. :

REFORM FROM ABOVE AND WITHOUT 9]

Beteta, in 1817 dedicated his thesis to Villa Urrutia—by then an oidor in the royal audiencia of Barcelona.*®

Villa Urrutia had scarcely departed for Mexico in these disappointing circumstances, leaving the Gazeta in the none-too-gentle hands of Bergafio y Villegas, before the archbishop of Guatemala denounced the Gazeta anew *° for its articles contrary to religion and theology, for its satires on certain persons, and for other articles “that

excite the carnal passions.” The archbishop, in his last clause, was referring to an article on hermafroditas. He supplies a little information in support of the view of Bergajfio’s obscurity and arrogance when

he refers to the young editor and writer as “a youth of unknown origin, full of self-love and not of good thoughts.” It is a relief to find the president of the audiencia, Don Antonio Gonzalez Saravia, eulogizing Bergafio in a letter of 1810.*° This was a year or so after Ber-

gafios arraignment by the Inquisition, when the testimony of the witness, Manuel Diaz, revealed that Bergafio y Villegas was twentyfive and that he worked in the secretariat of the presidency. He was imprisoned, and from the charge it appears that he was arraigned for “his peevish nature and pernicious ideas which made his presence unwelcome in this Kingdom of Guatemala.” Bergafio, according to one authority, was sent to Spain but on the way he became sick in Havana. The audiencia there, since the banished editor did not enjoy the amnesty of 1812, consulted the government in Spain to determine whether to press the case there or to take some other course. In the midst of these delays, while still engaged in his wonted literary activities there in Havana, the Guatemalan gadfly died.*t Thus ended

the career of the writer who “doubted until he came to doubt his own doubts.”

Curriculum Reform For about a hundred years after the establishment of the University

of San Carlos de Guatemala the curriculum went without basic changes. There was no means to finance many of the traditional professorships—not to mention the innovations. As a result, the cloister 88 [bid., p. 75. AGG, Al. 8-12, 12841, 1936. Don Manuel Beteta acredita que ha cursado el Bachillerato. Afio de 1817. (Beteta’s name does not appear in the list of bachelors graduated in this year in the University of San Carlos. Hojas sueltas in the Archivo de la Facultad de Leyes, Guatemala City. )

39 On January 8, 1806. 40 Batres Jauregui, La América Central, I, 514. 41 [bid., p. 525.

| 92 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA , could add only chairs taught free by the friars. A current against tradition was already running strong when the criticisms of Aleas at last brought the prospect of change within the realm of possibility. The Aleas controversy and Goicoechea’s plan of studies were not, | however, the first landmarks in the effort to reform the curriculum. To the petition of the University for the modification of its statutes, — some of which had been reformed and some tacitly dropped as inap-

plicable, the king answered in 1719 that he “should be kept in- | formed.” #? Thus, although additional chairs were recognized as

| necessary from the beginning, the cloister made no substantial efforts , ; to secure them until the very eve of the Aleas complaint, which had , led indirectly to Goicoechea’s plan. On the basis of the most mature. judgment in 1778, it appeared that chairs of anatomy, clinical surgery and botany, sacred scriptures, Decreto,** Inforciado ** or Cédigo,* - mathematics, rhetoric and eloquence were necessary. In. view of the

| total lack of funds and prospects for endowment, the cloister appealed _ to the king to establish and endow such of these chairs as “accorded

, with his royal pleasure,” and suggested that the suppression of the | | chair of Cakchiquel would save two hundred pesos for this purpose.*® | Thus the cloister was far from unaware of the shortcomings of the oo University offerings. Its treatment of curriculum problems in 1783, when it met to discuss the various points of the report requested by , _ the king, showed reasonableness and awareness of the tendency of

} the times. The modernists overrode the wishes of “Dr. and Master” Fray Juan Terrassa and Dr. Domingo Pastor when they declined to add a chair of theology of Melchor Cano“? in the University. The cloister decidedly opposed any more chairs of theology. On the other , hand, it vigorously recommended endowing a second (visperas) chair

| of medicine for instruction in anatomy and surgery. While showing

rst. : | . |

no disposition to abolish the two chairs of philosophy taught gratis ) | 42 AGG, Al. 3-1, 12236, 1882, No. 40. Real cédula a la junta formada por el presidente y oidor mas antiguo de la audiencia de Guatemala y decanos de la

a Universidad. Madrid, 18 de marzo de 1719.

_ 48 Of the six collections of the body of canon law the Decreto of Gratian is the

- . “ Second part of the Digest or Pandects of Justinian. oO

45 Collection of imperial constitutions formerly found in the Gregorian, Hermo_ genian, and Theodosian codes. es - 46 AGG, Al. 3, 1162, 45. El Rector de la Universidad, Dr. Manuel de Jauregui,

theology. |

| propone la creacién de nuevas catedras en la Universidad. Afio de 1778. 47 They quibbled that Cano’s Lugares teoldgicos was taught in visperas of

REFORM FROM ABOVE AND WITHOUT 98 by the Dominicans and Franciscans, the cloister agreed to convert the regular endowed chair of philosophy into one of experimental physics.*® Every member except one maintained that the most needed

chairs were: one of mathematics, one of rhetoric, and two of Latin —one elementary (minimos y menores) and the other advanced -(medianos y mayores). This was not unrealistic, wishful thinking; the cloister saw the absolute need of endowment and begged permission to elect the professors of Latin in order to choose or “draft” people

who might not enter a contest. This firmness is a sure sign that the professors were unhappy with the Latin their students knew and their own ability to teach in it. The majority voted against recommending

a chair of liturgy.‘ As the century wore on, the necessity of reforming the curriculum forced itself more and more upon the somewhat somnolent cloister. Dr. Simeon Cafias, with no false respect for tradition, proposed reforms

in 1799 and served on a committee with Goicoechea and Dr. Juan de Dios Juarros to study the problem and present recommendations for improvements.*° There was considerable uneasiness lest the commission suit its recommendations to the interests of the few faculties it represented. To avoid conspiracy, the audiencia required the University to name a representative from each faculty *1 and demanded a new report from the cloister on the reform and methods of study.®? The men then selected by the various faculties included some of the most distinguished names in the colonial history of Guatemala,®? and 48 At a meeting the next month, nevertheless, a majority of the cloister decided

that, notwithstanding this decision, the professor should go on teaching the Sumulas, logic, and metaphysics, and “adorn” physics with modern experiments. It resolved, however, to ask the king to endow a chair of experimental physics. Goicoechea registered the opinion that, in any event, the chair should be one of experimental physics adapted to the principles of Nollet. 49 Libro de claustros, 1756-1790, claustro pleno, 11 de febrero de 1783, fols. 170-171. Ibid., claustro pleno, 26 de marzo de 1783, fols. 177-178. 50 Dr, Antonio Carbonell dodged the assignment with the demure explanation that his instruction was too limited for the honor. (Ibid., 1790-1808, claustro de 23 de julio de 1799. AGG, Al. 8-9, 12640, 1905. Sobre reforma del servicio de las catedras. Ano de 1799.) 51 In February, 1800. (AGG, Al. 8-25, 18267, 1962.)

52 Libro de claustros, 1790-1808, fols. 106v.—107. :

58 Dr. Fray Mariano Rayon and Dr. Don Antonio Garcia for theology, Dr. Bernardo Pavén and Antonio Larrazabal for canons, Dr. Bernardo Martinez and Dr. José de Ayzinena for law, Dr. José de Cordoba and Dr. Narciso Esparragosa for medicine, Dr. Mariano Garcia and Fray Juan Gonzalez for philosophy. (Ibid., fol. 107—107v. )

94 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA , still accomplished nothing.’ When the Junta de Catedraticos met late in 1802, as required by the statutes for the assignment of teaching , materials during the following academic year, it deferred any decision until it could consult the files relating to the reform of studies.* ‘If

| they never got anything done in those days, they at least had their expedientes. The matter of basic reforms, after 1787, was to come up

_ time after time before independence, only to fade out of the picture without accomplishment. Guatemala was too far away and too poor to be deflected by the spurts of enthusiasm experienced in Spain.. The Guatemalans, nevertheless, felt that many of their academic chairs were out of date. The Gazeta de Guatemala offers a more adequate reflection of such liberal opinion among the professors of San Carlos than the University records could possibly do. Bondesir, writing in the Gazeta in 1804, gave every indication of close agreement with | the reformers. After an extensive survey of elementary education, he

prescribed his curriculum through the twelfth course. | Bondesir is one with Goicoechea in his determination to replace Latin with the vernacular as the language of instruction. Anyone who

oo can “see two fingers in front and who has not studied too much scholasticism” knows that the spoken and written language should

, be Castilian. The purpose of Latin is to understand Cicero, Titus, Rufus, and so forth, as well as the works of the Holy Fathers, the church councils, and other good works in that language. The student

will learn Latin by translating and studying the authors of the “Augustan century.” Of course, a scholar wishing to be a perfect humanist will need to perfect himself privately in Latin, as well as Greek, to the point of writing in it. Nevertheless, the case continues, it will be better if such a scholar writes in his own language—even if

, his work has to be translated into other live languages—for then he _ will be understood in his own country. No purpose can be served by speaking Latin—not even when spoken well. Thus, it will be far — better to spend the time perfecting Spanish without further thought _

of speeches and orations in Latin. , | oO

, To Bondesir, the old chairs are no more untouchable than Latin. 54 In the next month, April, 1800, we find Dr. Fray Juan de Terrassa, professor of prima of theology, ever zealous for the conventional form, demanding that. the doctrine of Scotus be taught in the chair of theology of Scotus or that the chair

| not be considered prima. He was moved to make this suggestion since the reforms

59 Ibid., fol. 183v. |

were still pending. (Ibid., fol. 108-108v. ) oe

REFORM FROM ABOVE AND WITHOUT 95 In the first and second years he proposes teaching cosmography, geog-

raphy, esfera (globe, astronomy), ancient and modern history, and a résumé of church history. While the studies of these two years are in progress, students will attend classes two hours in the morning and one in the afternoon. Half the time will be devoted to presentation

and the other half to clarification and answering questions. The would-be reformer sets aside the third course in his scheme for mathematics—arithmetic, geometry, and algebra to second-degree equations; arithmetic and geometric proportions; progressions and logarithms. These subjects, thoroughly mastered in the mother tongue, form an excellent base for the fourth course, already in the curriculum —logic, metaphysics, and moral philosophy. “General and particular”

physics, already gaining importance in the arts course, will be the sole subject of the fifth year. The sixth course is an entirely new approach to laws and canons, including natural and customary law.*® Evidently intended as a kind of blend of political science and law, the textbook will be Condillac’s work on commerce and government in their reciprocal relations, “the best summary of political economy.” *”

For the seventh year Bondesir proposes the study of the “institutes of civil law” and suggests that “until there is a better book” the students should study the inaccurate and unsatisfactory “Aso y Manuel” °*

and should examine and explain the corresponding laws, pragmatics, and cédulas. Canonical decrees *® will come in the eighth year if it is possible to translate a good textbook into Castilian. Otherwise, the __ subject will follow Latin and rhetoric, the ninth course.” At the end of this program—so far on paper only—the candidate will be eligible for the two bachelor’s degrees. He will stand an ex-

amination in which, for example, he will recite from memory an oration of “Marcus Tullius Cicero” and translate and analyze, as requested, from this oration or from other Latin eloquence. On a later day six doctors with fifteen minutes each will ply him with random 56“, . . natural y de gentes.” 67 Ktienne Bonnot de Condillac (1715-1780), Le commerce et le gouvernement

considérés relativement lun a lautre (1776). 58 Ignacio Jordan de Asso y del Rio (1742-1804) and Don Miguel de Manuei y Rodriguez, Instituciones del derecho civil de Castilla (Madrid, 1771, 1775, 1780, 1786, 1792, 1805, 1806). His reference is obviously to the civil law of Castile and not to the Institutes of Justinian. 59 Instituciones canoénicas.

60 This is the only year, except the first and second, where it will be necessary to have two hours in the morning and one in the afternoon instead of two daily.

96 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA | questions on the subjects covered in courses six, seven, and eight. The examiners, two doctors, and the chancellor or vice chancellor are to

| be the judges. Success here means that the student gets two bachelor’s degrees. No student may go on for advanced work in the faculty of | his choice without a qualifying examination, lasting half an hour * and conducted by the professor in the subject and another doctor. After introducing Latin, Bondesir designs the last three years— ten, eleven, and twelve—to prepare professional men in law and theology. He says nothing of higher degrees in arts and medicine. In

| the law course the candidate will read sacred scripture in the tenth | category, ecclesiastical discipline and councils in the eleventh, and law in the twelfth. In this last course the student will not only learn

| “the 83. of Toro” ® by heart but explain and analyze them as well. However, the honor of national law and good taste require banning the commentaries of Gémez. In all this change of language and substance there is much that is

| new in method. During these three proposed courses all students must attend the Academy of Jurisprudence on Sundays, Thursdays, or ‘some holiday occurring during the week. Each candidate will present

, a dissertation in Castilian on some point in civil or canon law, given him a month in advance, and will satisfy all objections (réplicas), none to exceed fifteen minutes. Another practical exercise. proposed is a mock tribunal. After all this the candidate will receive the de-

grees of licentiate in canons and laws. But Bondesir will have nothing to do with the sterile theses so often defended in the repeticiones and

printed. | , a _ _

, borlas; he prefers subjects useful to the public and he wants them Theological students with the bachelor’s degree take Latin and , | rhetoric in the sixth course, the Lugares teoldgicos of Melchor Cano

356-359. 7 - ! in the seventh, sacred scriptures in the eighth, and ecclesiastical dis-

| 61 Bondesir, “Deseos literarios,” Gazeta de Guatemala, VIII (9 de julio de 1804), 62 At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the want of a systematic arrangement of the numerous and often contradictory codes and laws in Spain led to

| the creation of a commission to codify them (1502). The resulting “88” basic

laws, drawn up by a group of jurisconsults such as Drs. Lorenzo Galindez Carvajal and Juan Palacios Rubios in imitation of the “decisory constitutions” of Justinian,

; were approved by the Cortes of Toro (1505) and published. That this celebrated code was incorporated without modification in both the Nueva (1567) and the

Novisima recopilacién de las leyes de Espafia (1805) is an indication of its

, enormous influence upon the history of Spanish civil law. _ } |

REFORM FROM ABOVE AND WITHOUT 97 cipline and church councils in the ninth, after which they are eligible for the bachelor’s degree in the faculty. Courses ten and eleven are devoted to dogmatic theology, while moral theology is taken up in the

twelfth. These students will attend their own academy just as the law students do. Their first weekly exercise will be a sermon based on the gospel assigned a month earlier, and the second, a dissertation on a point assigned with an equal interval. As in the case of the law students, no réplica may be over fifteen minutes. A sermon of thirty minutes duration, with eight days’ notice, will take the place of the exhausting repeticidn. This is to be followed, after forty-eight hours’ warning, by a dissertation on theological questions, read and defended against any four arguments the “doctors” might care to make. All will be public, at convenient hours, and, it goes without saying, in the language the people understand. Official action on the subject of university reform got little beyond this purely unofficial concern of Bondesir. True, the home government issued a plan of reformed studies * in 1807, but rescinded it or, apparently, allowed it to lapse in the political disturbances consuming the next fourteen years. In Guatemala, the wars of independence

had been under way for a year when the president of the audiencia asked the cloister of San Carlos for a report on the state of studies and an opinion of the reforms in methods and teaching materials “dictated by true wisdom and not by mere indiscreet love of novelty.”

The president had received notice of the establishment of a chair of mathematics and wished to know how to finance it and set it up permanently. The cloister resolved that committees from each faculty should hold meetings, moderated by the rector, to hear students and

take a stand on this important matter. But, like nearly all efforts at reform, which were casually handled or neglected altogether, this good resolution evidently became lost in the more stirring events in the political arena of Latin America.® The Spanish government, in the fall of 1820, re-outlined the terms 63 Bondesir admitted that, if he should attempt to set up a program of medical studies, he would have to consult someone who knew something about it. He refused to get mired down in bibliography, but he felt that the most suitable works should be used even if they had to be translated and the most superfluous parts dropped. (Bondesir, “Deseos literarios,” Gazeta de Guatemala, VIII [16 de julio de 1804], 861-362. ) 64 Published in a royal cédula of July 12, 1807. 65 Libro de claustros, 1790-1808, fols. 19v.—20.

98 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA | | of reforms in the overseas universities. The Cortes then provisionally re-established the plan of 1807 in all universities, seminaries, colleges,

and convents. According to this enactment, Derecho natural y de gentes superseded the Novisima recopilacién ® while the “Political Constitution of the Spanish Monarchy” (1812) took the place of the Siete partidas in the law course. The scheme reduced the preparation for a career in civil law from ten to eight years, despite the plan of

| 1807, and made corresponding reductions in the preparation for canon law. A junta of professors named by the cloister in each university

| would administer this decree.®” | |

The efforts to reform studies, beginning in the middle of the eight-

eenth century had borne singularly little fruit in the production of books suitable to the scientific age. For this reason, the government in 1820 assumed the responsibility of designating the texts “for this one time only.” Acceptable books were not always available either in Spanish or in Latin, outmoded as an academic language anyway. The only works at hand were those representing another age of learning.

This lack began in the middle of the eighteenth century when important changes were first made in studies, and it continued with increasing pressure with the great increment of knowledge in all fields during the next two generations. The reduction of learning to simple, natural terms was needed above everything else. The reformers believed that authority had tyrannized over studies and led them astray. The Spaniards believed that the uncertainty, the little ambition for learning, the slight application to produce it within, and lack of will

tractions of war. , | | !

to introduce it from abroad sprang from the misfortunes and dis-

The points upon which the new Spanish textbook commission touched reflected in some way what it regarded as the chief evils of a decadent scholastic system of education. With respect to languages, the government made it clear that putting books in Latin was now an “absurd and repugnant method,” and it then left. the selection of elementary texts to the teachers. In philosophy, the Spanish commissioners thought the need for a “well-ordered book” was

greatest, for this was a basic subject which, when well taught, en66 Novisima recopilacién de las leyes de Espafia (1805), the latest systematic

arrangement of Spanish law. = | | 87 The 1820 project allowed the teaching of medicine to continue in those | universities which had already installed the subjects, provided they conformed to —

the regulation of 1804. ,

REFORM FROM ABOVE AND WITHOUT 99 abled the student to correct books and even professors in more advanced work. They would only mention Jacquier,** adopted in nearly all the Spanish schools in the reform effort, although experience had

shown its inadequacy more and more. They threw out the parts of the plan of 1807 dealing with physics and mathematics as inadequate in 1820. For the new mathematical part, the Elements *° of Juan Justo Garcia continued as the text. In logic and metaphysics, these officials also recommended the Institutiones of Jacquier but cautioned that “the

idle and ridiculous” scholastic method vitiated logic and made it comical. This defective work then gave way to that of Baldinotti.”° For the purposes of psychology, the commissioners preferred a com- _ pendium of Locke, with something of Condillac and Destutt ™ and the

“philosophy lessons of Mr. de la Romiguire,”*? none of which, unfortunately, were in Spanish. Jacquier’s Moral, regarded as defective because of its want of principles, its scholastic method, and its occasional disposition to declaim, was, nevertheless, retained. Any suggested changes involving experimental physics and chemistry are apt to reflect more fundamental changes. In this case the commission discarded the texts of Musschenbroek 7° and Fourcroy ™ in favor of the “Elements of M. Libes” > and the chemical principles of Don Mateo Orfila (1787-1853 ), whose nomenclature was the latest thing.” 68 Francois Jacquier (1711-1788), Institutiones philosophicae (Valencia, 1769, 1782, 1815; Alcalé and Madrid, 1794-1795). There were many other editions. 69 Juan Justo Garcia, Elementos de aritmética, dlgebra y geometria (1782; 5th ed., Madrid, 1821-1822). 70 Cesare Baldinotti, De recta humanae mentis institutione libri IV (Padua, 1787).

71 Count Antoine Louis Claude Destutt de Tracy (1754-1836). Because of his psycho-physiological leanings, or attempt to explain the “soul” on a mechanistic basis, his Traité de la volonté et de ses effets (1815) and his Elémens didéologie were put on the Index. 72 Pierre Laromiguiére, Lecons de philosophie (Paris, 1815, 1820, etc.). 73 Pieter van Musschenbroek (1692-1761), Epitome elementorum physicomathematicorum (Leyden, 1726), Elementa physicae conscripta in usus academicos (Leyden, 1734). 74 Antoine Francois Count of Fourcroy (1755-1809), Lecons dhistoire naturelle et de chimie (Paris, 1781), revised and enlarged as Systéme des connaissances chimiques (1801-1802). 75 [Antoine Libes], Physicae conjecturalis elementa, juxta recentiores chimistarum et physicorum inventiones elaborata, et in usus academicos conscripta ab Antonio

Libes . . . (Toulouse, 1789). 76 The reference is probably to Elémens de chimie médicale (Paris, 1817; Spanish trans., 1818), although Orfila published about half a dozen books in as many years.

100 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA | In botany the commission recommended the text by Cavanilles,”7 used in the botanical garden of Madrid. So scarce were good texts that the advocates of the vernacular found themselves compelled

to adopt books in Latin and French. ,

Thus for lack of sufficient copies of texts in Spain, changes in medicine were very slight. The compendium of physiology, following Dumas,’* published in Spanish by Don Juan Vicente Carrasco,

and the principles of hygiene by Tourtelle"® supplanted the treatises of Caldani* in this branch. In surgery, works in Latin such as that of the German, Sprengel,** were too extensive or too infrequently found in Spain. Consequently, Caldani’s work was retained, pending the publication of the “principles of M. Chomel.” ® Bails’s

compendium was best suited for the study of astronomy.** | In the part on civil and canon law it becomes apparent that the commission was dominated by legal talent—inevitable in any age in Spain. The section is long-winded and not particularly illuminating. The inclusion of Heineccius’ ** Derecho natural y de gentes, however,

shows an adjustment to the growth of liberalism necessary after the uprising proclaimed by Colonel Rafael Riego on January 1, 1820, to restore the Constitution of 1812. The section on theology, in the nature of things, could not include sweeping changes.®® 77 Antonio José Cavanilles (1745-1804). Works of Cavanilles suitable for this purpose are: Descripcidn de las plantas que D. A. J. Cavanilles demostré en las lecciones publicas del afio 1801 (1802) precedida de los principios elementales

—Montpellier, - 1801). | , 1806). - a

de la botdnica (Madrid, 1802); Icones et descriptiones plantarum, quae aut sponte in Hispania crescunt, aut in hortis hospitantur (6 vols., Madrid, 179178 Charles Louis Dumas (1765-1818), Principes de physiologie (Paris, 1800;

79 Etienne Tourtelle (1756-1801), Elémens dhygiéne (Strassburg, 1797). 80 Leopoldo Marcantonio Caldani (1725-1813), Institutiones pathologicae

(Padua, 1772), Institutiones physiologicae (Padua, 1773), Institutiones anatomicae (Venice, 1787). — a | , 81 Kurt Policarp Joachim Sprengel (1766-1833).

(Paris, 1817). , ,

82 Auguste Francois Chomel (1788-1858), Eléments de pathologie générale

83-'The item referred to may have been Benito Bails (1730-1797), Principios de matemdticas, donde se ensefia la especulativa con su aplicacién é la dindmica, hidrodindmica, dptica, astronomia, geografia, gnoménica, arquitectura, perspectiva,.

(1795). . a

y al calendario (3 vols., Madrid, 1776), or Instituciones de geometria prdctica

84 Johann Gottlieb Heineccius (1681-1741).

85 For documentation on the Spanish Comisiédn de Instruccién Publica, see AGG, Al. 3-9, 12642, 1905. Plan de estudios y de los autores que deben estudiarse

REFORM FROM ABOVE AND WITHOUT 101 This plan to revise the curriculum, however, came to naught. Guatemala got fifty-two copies in March, 1821. A meeting of the cloister *

decided to appoint a “Junta de Catedraticos” to revise and establish the plan of studies and to see what inconveniences its establishment might bring. The last day of April, while the cloister still had the plan under consideration, it received a request from the Provincial Delegation to the Spanish Cortes for its view of measures most suitable to improve the education of youth. Those commissioned by the cloister, and the vice rector, Dr. Pedro Ruiz de Bustamante, did not favor putting the plan into operation until the proper commission arrived and recommended that the vice rector in consequence admit those presented for degrees according to the statutes of the University and in conformity with the old plan of 1807.%"

Six days after the declaration of independence, the cloister voted unanimously that, since the new plan was not in operation,** the local commission appointed to establish the plan should cease its functions, while the University should proceed under its own laws and economic set-up.°® However, the Jefe Politico Superior, as the president and captain general was regularly called in the days immediately after the declaration of independence, asked the cloister °° to report to him on the work done by the men appointed to study the plan “formulated by the Spanish government.” The Jefe Politico Superior also asked the cloister to designate one individual who would, along with others, compose a commission of public instruction to make recommendations to the Central American congress “in this interesting field.” * Thus in Guatemala the history of the colonial university merged with that of the national period. interinamente en las universidades, segun la exposicién de la Comisién de Instruccién Publica de 15 de septiembre de 1820. 86 Libro de claustros, 1808-1831, claustros de 12 y 28 de marzo de 1821, fols. 121-12]lv., 122. 87 [bid., claustro de 8 de mayo de 1821, fols. 128-124v. See also AGG, Al. 8-14,

13075, 1959. Citacién de los catedraticos para tratar de la implantacién del nuevo plan de estudios. Afio de 1821. The “Junta” included Dr. Buenaventura Rojas, Dr. Mariano Galvez, Dr. Fray Luis de Escoto, Brother Pedro Molina, and Brother Ramon Solis, 88 The plan was scheduled to take effect on October 18, 1821.

89 Libro de claustros, 1808-1831, claustro de 21 de septiembre de 1821, fols. 128-129. ®0 On September 380, 1821.

®1 Libro de claustros, 1808-1881, claustro de 8 de octubre de 1821, fols. 130v.— 181.

“Political Economy” and Law

an the Unwersity , UPON the re-establishment of the Sociedad Econémica de Amigos del Pais in 1811, the cloister of San Carlos named Fray José Antonio Goicoechea and Dr. José Bernardo Dighero as ex-officio members to attend the meetings of the society and “promote its useful objectives.” ! An economic society, with University delegates, was a standing in-

, vitation to establish more practical courses. Indeed, a decree of the _

| Cortes? establishing new societies in the principal districts called | for the erection of chairs of political economy in all the universities in the Empire, not to mention practical schools of agriculture. Guatemala, having already shown its predilection for the society, responded immediately with the creation of the chair of political economy.? The full cloister of the University convened ‘* to decide upon the nature

of the competition, the income of the chair, and the type of committee to judge the contest. But alas, there was nothing in the Uni-. versity Chest to pay the salary. If there were any willing to serve free, the cloister would post “edicts” announcing the oposicidn on several —

oe conditions. The contest must be in the Spanish language. After twenty-

| | four hours’ notice, contestants should hold forth one hour—one-half

2 Of June 8, 1813. | , oo

, 1 Libro de claustros, 1808-1831, claustro de 14 de enero de 1811, fol. 18-18v. 3 AGG, Al. 3-8, 12609, 1905. Por decreto de las Cortes se funda una catedra

, | 102

| de economia civil. See also AGG, Al. 23, 10094, 15388. - ,

4In April, 1814. The Jefe Politico Superior dispatched the decree to the Univer-

sity and the councilors turned so important a matter over to the full cloister.

“POLITICAL ECONOMY AND LAW 103 hour for a discourse on a topic from the Politics of Aristotle and another half hour for questions and answers. Prospective students might attend the affair.® The modernist cloister, departing from the routine methods of choosing professors, designated Dr. Dighero and Dr. Rafael Garcia Goyena as examiners.® Francisco de Paula Garcia Pelaez was the sole contender to answer the call. A boy of twelve inserted a knife three times into Aristotle’s Politics, thus presenting the candidate with a choice of three texts.

The candidate decided upon Salus navigationis opus est omnium hoc enim desiderat unusquisque. The winner then issued a broadside binding himself to defend certain works and to prove that transportation by water was most advantageous. He would even account for the wealth of nations on the basis of their seas, lakes, rivers, and internal canals. The contestant won, the University records meticulously point out, not because he was the only candidate but because of his training and showing

in the examination.’ After kneeling before the rector and councilors, making his profession of faith, and taking the accustomed oath, he proceeded to the sala de leyes (law classroom) where he took over his chair “peacefully and without contradiction.” * The cloister gratefully accepted the offer of Archbishop Casaus, one of the distinguished group of voting judges, to supply one hundred pesos toward a salary. Garcia Pelaez’ surviving notes ® on Adam Smith, while they show a timely concern with the eighteenth-century turmoil in economic

thought, are elementary and indicate no profundity or originality. After some jejune definitions of agriculture and industry, the instructor, finding himself off the beaten path, paraphrases a few ideas contained in the first five chapters of Book I of An Inquiry into the Nature and

Causes of the Wealth of Nations, published in Spanish for the first

time in 1794. The author's gloss covers the advantages of the division of labor, tells how the extent of the market limits the division of labor, explains the origin and use of money and fluctuations in its value, and, finally, presents Smith’s ideas on the value of commodities.

Pelaez made no attempt to correct or challenge Smith. He even repeated the dilemma of Smith on value; that is, that labor is the measure of all value, although the rate at which one commodity exchanges for another in the market must be accepted as a measure 5 Libro de claustros, 1808-1831, fols. 38v., 39, 40v.-41. 6 Ibid., fol. 45-45v. 7 Ibid., fols. 45v.—46. 8 Ibid., fol. 46-46v. Also AGG, Al. 3-8, 12609, 1905. 9 AGG, Al. 3-8, 12609, 1905. Apuntes de economia civil tomados de Adan Smit.

| 104 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA _ | | of value, whether or not there is any balance between the amounts of labor going into the respective commodities. Peldez’ preoccupation _

, with transportation undoubtedly was born of the isolation of Guatemala. In this respect, the situation of Guatemala between two oceans

| was enviable. That the only candidate to come forward was unanimously , approved and that the archbishop lent the dignity of his presence to the oposicién tend to show that the contestant was regarded as a person versed in political economy—apparently the only one in the

- country. Indeed, his first work, published in 1823, bore the title: Observaciones risticas sobre economia politica.’

| The chair, inaugurated with so much fanfare and taken as a symbol of a significant educational reform, soon gave evidence of the sterility —

and. «indifference induced by the long-continued formalism of the University. The subject was upon everybody's lips, but Pelaez complained to the rector that, although he had “affixed” bulletins and done his best to publicize the chair and explain its importance, he waited a whole month after August 3, the beginning date, without enrollment. He then sought to change the hour from 3:00-4:00 p.m.

, to 4:00-5:00 p.m. Up until then only a pasante in law had indicated _ a desire to take the course. Now two other students appeared. | | _ Peldez passed out his extracts from Adam Smith and the class began. After three days, one of these students dropped out. Presently _ another withdrew because he was leaving the city. Pelaez remained with only the first student. In order not to “mortify him,” the professor

- suspended the chair on November 8, reported to the rector, and asked formally for release from his obligations. The demise of this chair goes _

far to explain why colonial universities had to lapse into complete _ decadence before modern subjects would take hold. The old scholastic curriculum, making little allowance for electives, left the fate of such

courses dependent upon the intellectual foresight of such immature

| people as students. It was bound to fail so long as the curriculum | was part peripatetic and part speculative and experimental. = =s—

; ee Legal Studies | OS

| No fundamental change in the curriculum of the faculty of law was made in the first hundred years of the existence of the University | 10 Francisco de Paula Garcia Peldez, Memorias para la historia del Antiguo Reino -

de Guatemala (Biblioteca “Payo de Rivera”; Guatemala, 1943), I, 9-10. . 11 AGG, Al. 3-8, 12609, 1905. F. Garcia Pelaez to the rector (n.d.).

“POLITICAL ECONOMY AND LAW 105 of San Carlos. During that time the candidates for the bachelor’s degree studied the Institutes, Inforciado, and Cédigo.” This, even more than the chair of philosophy, was scholastic and not practical, for these codes were not in force in either Spain or America. The student did not systematically study the absolutely essential laws of Castile and of the Indies—these latter issued in four impressive editions before the war of 1898—until after 1802. Aside from the ceremonies,

examinations, and fees,1* to earn the degree of licentiate in law one had only to qualify as a pasante and spend two to four years with a lawyer licensed to practice before the audiencia. All this simply meant

that the law student sallied forth from the University with a rotememory erudition in Roman law and without any formal training in the laws of the Indies or of Castile. Two factors combined to force the observance of these years of apprenticeship after getting the academic degree—rivalry of those already in the profession and the anxiety of the crown officials to force

lawyers, by the apprenticeship method, to learn the absolutely essential Castilian codes and procedures they had not learned in the University before beginning to practice in the king’s courts. Thus in 1768, when Estanislao del Puerto who had obtained the degree of bachelor of canon law in the Jesuit University of Mérida, Yucatan, presented himself in Guatemala for examination to practice, the crown attorney ** opposed his admission because, among other reasons, the

applicant had not had the minimum apprenticeship of two years with an established lawyer. It was necessary to appeal to the king for a special concession. The king issued the license, but ordered the audiencia of Guatemala not to make a precedent of the case or allow anyone to practice law unless he had had the full four-year term of apprenticeship with a lawyer after getting his degree in the University, instead of the two years formerly necessary. Exemption could be had for only one year, and that only in special circumstances.*®

Although the apprenticeship was prolonged, no one tampered with the curriculum and the law chairs until 1802. This resistance to change 12 Respectively, elements of Roman law, second part of the Digest or Pandects, and the compilation of the emperors drawn up in the time of Justinian. 18 See my The University in the Kingdom of Guatemala, Chapters XI and XII. 14 Fiscal Felipe Romana y Herrera. 15 AGG, Al. 28, 10084, 1529. Reales cédulas de la audiencia de Guatemala, XVI, fols. 156-158. Real cédula a la audiencia de Guatemala. San Lorenzo, 19 de octubre de 1768.

106 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA

in Guatemala was conscious. When Aleas blasted legal instruction in San Carlos as “some laws unfruitful to youth,” ** the rector hoped that the chairs of “laws” and “Institutes” would “continue as hereto_ fore.” The cloister supported this no-change policy and mildly wished

that, as found convenient, the professors in these chairs would explain the royal law.1”? The everyday law was not yet quite respectable —

for an exclusive academic subject. , a

In 1802 the crown began to clamp down. Henceforth no lawyer who

| resided in an area where chairs in these subjects existed and who had not studied the laws of the Spanish monarchy for four years could — expect a license to practice. Guatemala had no chairs in the “laws of the kingdom” and hence legal instruction in San Carlos changed little, and that only when some professor might give a slight deflection _ to his offerings in Roman law. Nevertheless, the decree of 1802 en| couraged the iconoclastic to attack legal education. “Dr. Abril” strongly suggested for use in schools and universities the actual law and statutes of the “kingdoms of Spain,” authoritatively prepared, instead of those fragments of writing taken “or torn” out by Roman doctors in com-

gest.” 18 |

menting upon the Roman law and “falsely called Digestos, for so undigested and confused a mass could not be formed into a diUnfortunately, there was no chair in the University of Guatemala to meet the new requirements of the crown. The professor of prima, with his ancient outline well established, was not likely to introduce much of the law of Castile and the Indies into his hoary syllabus. Perhaps it was just as well that the law student should leave his legal — training with the clear knowledge that he would have to master these two fields. Upon graduation he could do one of two things: he could rest on his oars and become a mouthy and superficial lawyer ** or he could turn to and master on his own the laws governing America. | 16 AGG, Al. 8-1, 12236, 1882, fols. 147-148. Real cédula a la Universidad de

Guatemala. El Pardo, 23 de febrero de 1782. .

| 17 Libro de claustros, 1756-1790, fols. 166v.—167: “. . . que no se haga novedad y que asi en una como en otra se explique el derecho Real, segun convenga.”

confusa. ...” }

18 “Errores en el Derecho Civil,” Gazeta de Guatemala, VII (18 de junio de

, 1803), 245: “. . . pues no se pudo formar en derecho cosa mas indigesta, y mas 19 Salazar (Desenvolvimiento, p. 115), who can be counted upon not to over-

look anything to discredit the routine of colonial days, concluded that these, instead of becoming jurisconsults, deserved the name of “leguleyos, 6 aun de

rabulas, salvo pocas, pero muy gloriosas excepciones.” ,

“POLITICAL ECONOMY AND LAW 107 The latter ones—for it is difficult to imagine many students undertaking the necessary years of self-discipline—were the “glorious exceptions.” The basis of such a self-education was the various strata in the order

of laws applicable to America which the judge and the competent practicing lawyer in the New World might need to know to unravel a difficulty. The colonial judge would need to know (1) the latest edition of the Recopilacidn de Indias, and all the cédulas and decrees coming after that date. If he could find nothing in these that resolved

the question at issue, he proceeded in order through (2) the Nueva recopilacion de Castilla, (8) the code of the Visigothic kings and the famous Siete partidas,®° and (4) municipal statutes and fueros (the privileges, exemptions, and special titles which Spanish cities enjoyed as an heritage of the more anarchical middle ages ). After going through “that forest of codes, pragmatics, royal cédulas, decrees, and circular

letters,” 24 he could have recourse to the king. Despite all the possibilities for solution, the chances of confusion were so great that appeals went with stifling frequency to the king. There was no adequate book for the student who wished to get through this welter of material with some kind of guide to the theory, spirit, and interpretation of the law in force.”? At last, in 1818, Dr. José Maria Alvarez proposed to supply this crying need.

Alvarez won the chair of Institutes of Justinian in 1804, in the oposicién against Bachelor José Santiago Milla, and served it for sixteen years.” Like Goicoechea, Larrazabal, and José Cecilio del Valle,

he enjoyed the deep respect of the modern intellectuals of Central America and was, after the liberal Riego revolt of 1820 in Spain, elected a deputy from San Salvador to the Cortes. It was in 1818 that this same Alvarez presented a text on the civil law of Castile and 20 Drawn up as an ideal code in the time of Alfonso the Learned. 21 Salazar, Desenvolvimiento, p. 116.

22 A work by Ignacio Jordan de Asso y del Rio (1742-1804) and Don Miguel de Manuel y Rodriguez, Instituciones del derecho civil de Castilla (Madrid, 1771, 1775, 1780, 1786, 1792, 1805, 1806) was, according to Salazar ( Desenvolvimiento, p. 116), inexact and full of errors.

23 AGG, Al. 3-8, 12590, 1904. Provisién de la catedra de Instituta. Afio de 1804. The background of Alvarez is typical of his class. With primary studies in the school of Belén, the only school for boys in Guatemala, he came to the University of San Carlos with a certificate of proficiency in Latin. He then won the degree of bachelor of arts (1792), of theology (1795), of canon law (1799), licentiate and doctorate in theology (1801), and licentiate of laws (1806).

| DON JOSE FELICITAS JALON, —

a : Colegial del Seminario Concilicr, se pre —gentara el dia 16, del presente Mayo , ee en el General dz esta Real Vniversidad § — co secitic el grado de Bachiller en cl Dere«

_ ho Civil, despues de haber manifestado | ' Jo que estA dispuesto pur los Codigss de” | | nuestra Legislacion, y ultimas Reaks re« - soluciones & cerca de las susceciones ab = inte:tato. Bajo Ja direccion del Dr. D. Ras |

| Gel Goyena, OS

ss Guatemala afio de 180g, i

| | | , Imprimase. a _ Dr. Garcia Rect. , /

| | Arevalo. OS

Thesis Sheet of José Felicitas Jal6n in CivilLaw Fo

“POLITICAL ECONOMY AND LAW 109 of the Indies * roughly formed from notes given his students.”> José Cecilio del Valle, when called upon to appraise this work, admitted that there was no departure from the organizational plan of the Institutes of Justinian but insisted that the author had had the patience to incorporate the relevant laws of Castile and the Indies.?* Other contemporaries were far more enthusiastic, and fifty years after the appearance of the work, the University adopted it again as a text.?”

Salazar, who published his work in 1897, complained that Father Alvarez did not know the famous Code Napoléon, which brought so many reforms in the civil law, and quoted him extensively to show how backward he was in the matter of slavery. Alvarez did, however, achieve a certain immortality as the author of the first text written in Guatemala on jurisprudence. An abiding respect for him is evident in the hanging of his portrait in the school of laws.

Reform Ceremonies in Legal Education The University cloister was an unsatisfactory forum for the expression of dissatisfaction with University education. It was, therefore, left to the Gazeta de Guatemala, at the beginning of the century, to wage

an intense battle on behalf of Castilian as the language of the academies. No editor could wish for more beautiful illustrations to emphasize his point than the two falling to the Gazeta at the end of 1804 and the beginning of 1805. Dr. Bernardo Martinez put up “Wenceslao de Villa y la Urrutia y la Puente” in November, 1804, to defend the first six titles of Giulio Lorenzo Selvaggio’s Instituciones candnicas.?* This was an enlightening situation. The youth was only fourteen years of age, his father was an influential judge of the audiencia on the verge of leaving for Mexico to accept a promotion as judge of the audiencia there, and Dr. Martinez was an ambitious professional academician. If the professor could only show off the oidor’s son as a prodigy! But

the editors of the Gazeta, who hated all the overripe forms of the 24 Instituciones de derecho real de Castilla y de Indias (Guatemala, 1818). 25 Medina, La imprenta en Guatemala, p. 617. 26". . . pero ha habido la infatigable paciencia de acopiar leyes, reales érdenes y cédulas aplicables 4 cada uno de ellos; hay discernimiento en las citas y eleccién en las doctrinas.” (Salazar, Desenvolvimiento, p. 117.) 27 A second edition, edited and enlarged by Doroteo José de Arriola, appeared in 1854, 28 Institutionum canonicarum libri III (1766, 1770; Padua, 1771).

110 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA _ scholastic past, and who were also cautious men, observed that the little publicity they were giving the examination would be worth while should the youth develop himself in some of the many ways open to him, but they would say nothing more of the examination since their

reluctance to hurt anyone was well known.*® | | When a program appeared announcing that Don Pedro José Chamorro would defend not only the 8,886 canons compiled in the Decre-

tals of Gratian but the “conclusions deduced from them in the parts which conform to the Catholic doctrine and with the laws, usages, and customs of our nation, according to the best authors,” the editors of the Gazeta proclaimed with great gusto that the broadside did not “abound in superfluities.” This was their way of saying that “superfluities” were all that one could ordinarily expect. They disclosed in their statement that, “in order to make the examination clear to the auditors,

it will be expounded in the Castilian language.” And, as an afterthought, they explained that it would “also” be conducted “in Latin in

| the syllogistic form” for the examiners. The editors, to avoid offense to the much-hooded professor, Dr. Martinez, praised him profusely and said that their lauding one student was not to disparage another but to give both their due.*® This is the general note of reform in the

University, articulated by the Gazeta, as it touched the field of law. _

Professional Exclusivism | | Unfortunately, a reactionary as well as a reformist tendency appeared in legal education and the legal profession. The colonial University turned out at least 464 bachelors, seventy-three licentiates, and _ sixty-eight doctors in civil and canon law in contrast to thirty bach-

elors, twelve licentiates, and twelve doctors in medicine. The professional men from Spain who were not clerics were lawyers.. The relative overproduction of lawyers in the University stimulated the —

profession at the beginning of the nineteenth century, to seek the “glory and lustre” already enjoyed by the occupation in Lima and Mexico City. Oidor Don Antonio Norberto Polo, a somewhat puffed-

up man, assumed the leadership of the lawyers to set up the Ilustre _ 298i . . . se hiciese con el tiempo digno de la memoria de los hombres por alguno de tantos loables caminos que hay para merecerla, ésta noticia de su temprana aplicacién no dejara de tener utilidad. Nosotros no diremos mas de su examen, por motivos de ternura bien notorios.” (Gazeta de Guatemala, VIII [5 de

noviembre de 1804], 496.) —s 80 [bid. (25 de febrero de 1805), 583-584.

“POLITICAL ECONOMY AND LAW 11] Colegio de Abogados to debar others from the practice of the profession. This was the epoch when, throughout the Spanish Empire, the lower classes—in some cases mulattoes—began to put on pressure to practice the professions, especially medicine.** In Guatemala, despite the fact that there was a surfeit of lawyers and an acute shortage

of doctors, this pressure was felt principally in the legal profession. Thus, when in 1810 Polo and his cohorts finally succeeded in getting approval from the audiencia for their organization, Article 18 read: “No one who is not matriculated in this college shall in any manner whatsoever exercise the profession of law in this capital.” * The difficulty lay in meeting the conditions for matriculation. Degrees from the University, where obscure birth was generously passed over, were not enough; the applicant must present a certificate of baptism of his parents and four grandparents, prove he was the legitimate

son of known parents—i.e., not a bastard or espurio, and that his grandparents on both sides were “old Christians,” free from all stigma

of being a Moor, Jew, mulatto, or a recent convert to the Catholic

faith. An applicant could not pass this hurdle if either he or his parents had been engaged in any “vile trade.” Once accepted, however, he could wear the bolillo—ruffles of blue muslin or taffeta on the cuffs—a privilege enjoyed by no one in the colonies save those of the royal tribunals. This exclusivism ran straight through the period of in-

dependence. Could it be that the aristocratic straight jacket the lawyers fashioned for themselves left the glory of revolutionary agitation to such persons as the illegitimate physician, Pedro Molina? The Colegio de Abogados went beyond its own statutes in protecting itself. An affiliate organization, the Junta Académica de Jurisprudencia Tedérico-Practica, sought to oblige pasantes in law to attend its lessons and exercises for three years in addition to the apprenticeship spent with a reputable lawyer. This time afforded the neophytes practice in formulating cases (instruir procesos) from materials drawn by lot on slips of paper and gave them some training in royal and munici-

pal law and in the operation of the tribunals of the country. In this respect the Junta Académica de Jurisprudencia recognized, albeit in a rather ineffective way, the shortcomings of the old theoretical 81 John Tate Lanning, Academic Culture in the Spanish Colonies (New York, 1940), pp. 89-42. (Hereafter Lanning, Academic Culture. ) 82 Salazar, Desenvolvimiento, p. 121. See also Estatutos del Ilustre Colegio de Abogados del Reyno de Guatemala (Guatemala, 1810).

112 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA training and tried to give some practical instruction in procedure and in Castilian and American law—a deficiency which, as we have seen,

Father Alvarez tried to remedy with his text. Two months after the declaration of independence the University thought well enough of

its meetings.**

this effort to give the “Academia de Derecho Tedrico-Practico,” when it lost its room in the audiencia, a salon “next to that of theology” for

Thus every aspect of academic reform bore the earmarks of the Enlightenment. The change from Latin to the vernacular, the bitter attack upon the old curriculum, the erection of censorship to insure simplicity of expression, the advocacy of laissez faire to lift the suffo-

cating economic barriers around the University, and the emphasis upon the up-to-date and practical in legal education are all of a piece. Behind these ideas, and generally taken for granted even then, was the fundamental revolution in philosophy and science, the natural sub-

ject of Part III of this work, = | 7

134v.—135. |

88 Libro de claustros, 1808-1831, claustro de 13 de diciembre de 1821, fols.

Part Three

CHANGING INTELLECTUAL

STANDARDS

ty

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Introduction GUATEMALAN students in 1785 had an infinitely more varied and adequate grasp of the problems of the learned world than any scientist with teaching experience would expect of undergraduates today. From the methodical doubt of Descartes, or the gravitation of Sir Isaac Newton, to Franklin’s experiments in electricity, or the latest developments in hydraulics, there was scarcely a problem not defended or reviewed in some examination in the University of San Carlos de Guatemala in the last half of the eighteenth century. The colonial professor made thoroughgoing moderns of at least 95 per cent of his students without dependence upon prohibited books—generally regarded as the prime intermediary between American and European centers of research. Indeed, the intellectual revolution in the Spanish colonies depended very little upon the exuberant radicalism of the philosophes. What boots it that an Olavide moved in the salons of ParisP He was educated in America and what counts is that the whole creole element revised its ideas at home, openly and above board. Looking under the carpet, more romantic and scornful though it is, is neither a satisfactory nor a necessary method. The chapters of this part are, therefore, written from orthodox student records. This procedure permits infinitely more minute documentation and uncovers a different manner of intellectual emancipation in the Spanish colonies from the one gen-

erally envisaged. | 115

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VI

Philosophy from Peripatetic to Modern

THE Spanish American has always been addicted to philosophy. Much of this predilection goes back to the Greek and scholastic background of his culture. The respectful schoolboy definition had it that philosophy was “knowledge of truth and good derived from right reason and instituted for the true happiness of man.” + The subject embraced not only metaphysics but the whole arts course (logic, ethics, physics, metaphysics) as it was then offered. A bachelor’s degree in philosophy was prerequisite to study in any field. The statutes * of the University accordingly provided for a proprietary chair of philosophy,

which was promptly started, and a second chair of opposing, and therefore stimulating, doctrines. The burden of this second professorship, never actually established, was assumed largely by the Scotist

and Thomist chairs filled without charge by the Franciscans and

Dominicans.

Bachelor of Arts Theses , Merely to say that the philosophy of the colonial period was scholastic is not sufficient. How can one know without study that the Latin1AGG, Al. 3-12, 12822, 1980. Thesis of Mariano de Ezeta, July 10, 1801: Phylosophia est cognitio veri, & boni ex recta ratione deribata & ad veram hominis felicitatem instituta.

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PHILOSOPHY 119 shrouded theses are pure Peripateticism? Yet this is implied by the failure of historians to read through the propositions defended by the students on graduating. The assertions defended in the faculties of theology, canons, and law are predictable, orthodox, and their study generally unrewarding. The extraordinary vitality of the faculty of medicine in the second half of the eighteenth century is occasionally revealed in a study of their theses, but it is in the faculty of arts that an examination of the records pays such handsome dividends.

Here in the theses of the elementary degree of bachelor of arts nearly all the indications of progress in philosophy and science are found. The arts theses (assertiones, quaestiones, propositiones, or conclusiones) were always in manuscript on a single large sheet in the early days. From 1770 to the end of the colonial period, they were printed * with increasing frequency and, still on one page (broadside), carried from one to three or four propositions under each of the four fields covered in the arts course. After 1785, while the famous Mercedarian eclectic, Fray Mariano José Lopez Rayon, was substitute professor, a student sometimes defended as many as eight hundred propositions on forty closely printed pages. In the two decades immediately before independence it became more or less conventional for

the candidate merely to print a statement that he would defend such and such sections of the works of Aristotle, Lugdunensis,* and Theodoro d’Almeida. During the first four decades of San Carlos, the names

of the poor defenders are never recorded, although those of the professors and presiding officers are infallibly there. By the time the theses become vital to a study of philosophical doctrine in the second half of

the eighteenth century, however, it is easy to tell who held the chair at the time and to trace his influence through the ideas his students undertook to develop. The fact that many youths obtaining the degree of bachelor of arts at the University actually did their work in the Seminary increased the number of professors having an inspirational influence upon the graduate.* It is more difficult to trace this influence, 8 The printed ones bore the imprimatur of the rector. 4 Antoine de Malvin de Montazet was the archbishop of Lyons (“Lugdunensis” ) who certainly sponsored, if he did not actually compose, the 5-volume Institutiones

philosophicae (Lyons, 1784) for use in the schools of his diocese. (Hereafter Lugdunensis, Institutiones philosophicae.) The edition cited in this book is dated vo The professors in the Seminary were not always mere professors of theology; sometimes they were the most progressive teachers of secular subjects.

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| PHILOSOPHY 121 however, since the lists of professors in the archives of San Carlos include only those in the University.

“Contrary Doctrines” and the Eclectic Method Although drawn from Aristotle, the arts theses in the first half of the

eighteenth century, in the section on metaphysics at least, had a decidedly theological and religious twist. Everybody repeated Aristotle perfunctorily and the constant reference to “entity” and “substantial forms” prepares one to believe that the traditional picture is correct. Scholastic modes of thought and expression dominated the University of San Carlos for the simple reason that the system was the one in vogue in the universities of Spain itself until the time of Charles III. . At the same time, scholasticism, as brought to focus by minds like those of Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas, so familiarized students with exceedingly refined terminology and philosophy that they were infinitely better adapted to understand the innovators than are university students today. The greater care of these colonial students with postulates and definitions stood them in good stead. Unconsciously, however, they fell victim to the greatest evil of scholasticism—controversy.

It was an axiom of scholastic education that heated argument stimulated learning ° and, in the late decadent period, the greatest weakness of this axiom was its failure to recognize that no argument, beyond mere syllogistic refinement, can prove that which is not conformable to fact. Since controversy was a principle of education, it was natural for the king to provide for the teaching of “contrary doctrines” when he approved and reformed the statutes of San Carlos.’ The chair approved for this specific purpose never came into being, but ever after those departing from philosophical orthodoxy blithely explained that they were supplying the “contrary doctrine” the king demanded. Therefore, no one ever attempted to establish a censorship to support an ex-

clusive philosophical system. The Inquisition proper, then happily quiescent and ineffectual in keeping out books, might guarantee “simple faith and good customs.” Within very wide limits, therefore, the professors could teach what 6 AGG, Al. 3-9, 12633, 1905. “A mas de lo dicho, uno de las Constituciones de esta Universidad ordena, que se lean en ella alternativamente doctrinas contrarias

para que el zelo de la disputa sirva al adelantamiento de la Juventud. . .” (Goicoechea ). 7 See Constitucion 107.

122 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA , they preferred. For example, in 1783 the cloister voted not to compel the professor of prima of theology to follow St. Thomas Aquinas to the letter, but to leave him free to follow the Angelic Doctor or any other equally sound.* Advanced academic philosophy was therefore largely promoted by the outlook of the individual professors. And, of course, the reverse was true. Fray Juan Terrassa, holder of the proprietary

chair of philosophy after 1767, and author of a course in Thomist philosophy, apparently conducted his chair along the true peripatetic paths until substitutes took it over in 1784 and controlled it until his _ death. Terrassa was probably one of the academic figures to make , trouble when Goicoechea, irritated with what he called the “trials, anxiety, work, and contradictions of Peripateticism,” introduced the experimental method into university teaching.» Fray Félix de Castro, Franciscan professor of (Scotist) philosophy in the University in 1782, explained in the Aleas inquiry without any reference to Aristotle that in logic and metaphysics he followed the doctrines of Mastrius, Villacastin, and Hernandez, while in physics he used the work of Fortunato de Brixia in order to give his students instruction in both Scotism and experimental physics. All this he had done of his own accord. His justification, like that of Goicoechea, was that the king in Statute 107 had authorized the University to teach one doctrine in one chair and _ another in another. Besides, as everybody could see in the eighteen public acts over which Castro presided, the students had profited by the variety of method.’® Nearly three quarters of a century before the Franciscans Castro and Goicoechea had taken refuge behind “con-

| trary” systems, Don José Sunsin de Herrera, according to the allega| tions of the disgruntled Dominicans, was already teaching Suarist or

“Jesuit doctrine.” ™ , |

And in the early days (c. 1627) when the privileges of a “university” were held by the Dominican order, Thomas Gage “was graced” with a “publick act of Conclusions of Divinity” clearly revealing the great 8 This heresy was opposed by the reactionary Dominican, Fray Juan de Terrassa, professor of prima of philosophy, by Fray Domingo Pastor, and by Fray José Antonio Mufioz. Their only satisfaction, however, was to have their dissent

recorded. (Libro de claustros, 1756-1790, fol. 171-171v. ) ,

9 AGG, A1. 3-9, 12633, 1905. Proyecto presentado por Fray José Antonio Liendo y Goicoechea, innovando los estudios universitarios. Afio de 1782. 10 AGG, Al, 8-9, 12635, 1905. Fray Félix de Castro expone el método con que

, ha ensefiado filosofia en esta Universidad. Ano de 1782. 11 AGG, Al. 8, 1142, 45. Autos acerca de la solicitud de los PP. Dominicos acerca de que se les permita leer una catedra de filosofia. Afio de 1718.

PHILOSOPHY 128 lengths to which it was possible to go with “contrary doctrines,” as shown also in the history of religious orders in Europe. Under the direction of “Jacintho de Cabannas,” “chief Master and Reader of Divinity in the University,” Gage argued, as he himself described the occasion,

in the face of the whole University and Assembly of Doctors and Divines, against the Tenents of Scotus and Suarez. But the principal and head conclusion was concerning the birth of the Virgin Mary, whom both Jesuits, Suarez, and Franciscans, and Scotists hold to have been born without original _ sin, or any guilt or stain of it, against whose fond, foolish, and ungrounded fancies, I publickly defended with Thomas Aquinas, and all Thomists; that she (as well as all Adams posterity) was born in Original sin. It was an act, the like whereof had not been so controverted in that University with arguments in contra, and their Answers and Solutions, and with reasons and arguments in pro, many years before. The Jesuits stamped with their feet, clapt with their hands, railed with their tongues, and condemned it with their mouths for a Heresie, saying that in England, where were Hereticks, such an opinion concerning Christs Mother might be held, and defended by me who had my birth among Hereticks, but that Master Cabannas, born among Spaniards, and brought up in their Universities, and being the chief Reader in that famous Academy, should maintain such an opinion, they could not but much marvel and wonder at it.

Gage’s success with Cabafias and the Dominicans as a result of this act was so great that for twelve long years he was favored and, indeed, was made their “reader in arts.” ?”

Not only were contrary theological doctrines maintained in those early times, but as shown above, the philosophical outlook varied from the tenets of the individual professors, The Scotist professors supplied by the Franciscans depended upon the principle of contrary doctrines for innovations. So did the professors of other subjects, for the Franciscan Goicoechea was professor of moral philosophy. And when the

philosophy of methodical doubt had thus wedged its way in, everybody was glad to take credit for introducing experimental philosophy. In those days when the laboratories to test all statements did not exist, eclecticism, the daughter of “contrary doctrines,” came into vogue as the only practical way to advance. Scholars throughout the Spanish

Indies had shown an extravagant attachment to the Spanish eclectic, 12 Thomas Gage, A New Survey of the West Indies (London, 1677), pp. 266—267.

124 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA Feijéo.1* And in Spain itself the writings of Feijoo so much enjoyed the _ real agrado of the king and the favor of the learned that F. Soto Marne

plaintively inquired whether by chance Feijéo’s doctrines had been

a canonized.** After 1788 when Ldépez Rayén became substitute professor of prima of philosophy, students roundly declared that the eclec-

tic method was to be preferred to all others.1® After Simedn Cajias had served two four-year terms as substitute professor of prima of — philosophy and Lépez Rayén had returned again to the chair, the arts students began to harp anew on the theme of eclecticism.** This selective method remained the vogue in Guatemala from the time of Ldépez Rayon until independence. Lugdunensis and Almeida,*” the authorities so universally respected and used in Guatemala during the last years of the colonial period, were themselves eclectics and adaptors. In 1800 _ Francisco de Urrutia merely offered to explain and defend sections of the works of these two authors in philosophy, mechanics, hydrostatics, and the perennial problem of the commerce of mind and._body.** Candidates following him, among other things, simply and without fanfare selected passages to defend from Lugdunensis in logic and Almeida in

physics.** , | ,

_ The Franciscans, quick to adjust their teaching of natural philosophy

to the requirements of Charles III, were especially progressive in Guatemala. Men like Goicoechea and Fray José Antonio Orellana made every effort to keep their students abreast of developments abroad in physics and philosophy. Students working under Orellana in 1805 offered to demonstrate the propositions contained in a certain 18 Lanning, Academic Culture, p. 65. 14 “yPor ventura esta canonizada su doctrinaP” (M. Menéndez y Pelayo, Historia

de los heterodoxos espafioles, 2d ed. [Madrid, 1917-1983], VI, 88.) 15 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12810, 1926. Thesis of Valerio Flores, December 22, 1791: Potamonica sive Eclectica secta omnibus preferenda. AGG, Al. 3-12, 12811, 1926. Thesis of José Pérez, February 15, 1792: In nullius ergo Magistri verba juramus;

sed eclectica secta omnibus alijs juremerito est praeferenda. 16 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12823, 1931. Thesis of Francisco Garcia, February 20, 1802: Ecclectica ergo phylosophandi methodus omnibus praeferenda. AGG, Al. 8-12, 12827, 1932. Thesis of José Bernardo Asmitia, February, 1804.

century. — , ; | | In examine de rebus philosophicis. | a |

17 Almeida was the most renowned Portuguese physicist of the eighteenth _

18 AGG, Al. 8-12, 12821, 1930. Thesis of Francisco de Urrutia, January 7, 1800: ©

19 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12824, 1931. Thesis of José S. de Sanchez, February, 1803:

| (Ex Logica) Publico examini subjicimus paragraphum quartum dissertationis secundae Archiepiscopi Lugdunensis. . . . (Ex Physica) Propugnabimus propositiones quae, in primo et secundo volumine Patris Theodori de Almeida continentur.

PHILOSOPHY 125 volume of the Institutiones philosophicae of Lugdunensis and from the letters of Almeida.?° That they declared their program in Castilian is ample proof that they were conscious of that group of progressive, energetic men who had so often emphasized in the columns of the Gazeta the need for using Spanish." It was perfectly natural, then, that the Junta de Catedraticos should unanimously select the Institutiones as the text in the chair of prima of philosophy then held by the Dominican Fray Luis de Escoto.” The practice of using Lugdunensis and Almeida continued ** and the Gazeta, usually so sparing in its praise of academic ceremonies, now thought fit occasionally to bestow its accolade.** Fifty years of growing liberalism between 1770 and 1820

produced, for so small a Spanish center, as remarkable a group of learned men in philosophy and medicine as could be expected. There were some, however, who remained rigidly scholastic and authoritative even after the drift was plainly skeptical and experimental.

Terrassa fought hard for the retention of the customary authorities after becoming proprietary professor of philosophy in 1767, but he made no contributions to learning, and all the useful work in his chair was done by his substitutes between 1780 and 1808. His active but conventional Dominican forerunners, Pedro Zapiain and Miguel Francesch, had blazed no fresh trail for him. Zapiain, a native of Guatemala, doctor of theology in San Carlos (1722), and reader in arts at the Dominican Convent, became the author of a work on the philosophical doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas ** that was typical of the unreality characterizing much of the texts on the eve of this change. Francesch, a Dominican who got his doctor's degree in Spain and who lived to

become prior of his convent in Guatemala and superannuated professor of theology in the University, published a four-volume work ”° in Barcelona in 1762. Salazar, who is dyspeptic when it comes to scholastics of that day, thinks this work is in good Latin, rather free from 20 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12828, 1932. Theses of Francisco Guillén and José Francisco Aqueche, January 30 and February 12, 1805.

21 See Chapter II. 22 Libro de claustros, 1790-1808, fol. 168. 23 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12898, 1956. Theses of José Vicente Orantes and Joaquin de Beltranena, February 24, 1809, and July 18, 1809. 24 Gazeta de Guatemala, XI (27 de marzo de 1809), 348, 344. 25 Cursus philosophicus juxta miram, praecelsamque Angel. Doct. Divi Thomae Aquinatis doctrinam (2 vols., Mexico, 1754). 26 Philosophia scholastica quatuor partibus comprehensa, in qua brevi, ac perspicua methodo Aristotelica, Thomisticaque, dogmata exponuntur, & propugnantur (Barcelona, 1762).

126 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA | |

worthAnti-Peripateticism study.’ |

, overrefinements, and that the last volume—on moral philosophy—is

_ The only bit of contemporary evidence on the relation between the pupil Alexander and the teacher Aristotle comes from a letter to the famous student from the Athenian publicist, Isocrates, who referred , disdainfully to “logic-choppers.” ** The attack on Aristotle as a mentor of youth therefore began in his own day. Even in that age, there was a certain impatience with the quibbling which was the natural result

, , of the Greek effort to reach by abstract thinking alone conclusions we now know could only be reached by experiment. Aristotle himself

recognized this defect through his observation of nature in his biological studies and when he dismissed exclusive reliance upon abstract

thought with this remark: “To rely on mere thinking is absurd, for | then the excess or defect is not in the thing but in the thought.”

| But Aristotle’s treatise on physics was the béte noire of his reputation in the modern university. Like his De caelo, it was a long, sustained . argument on the most abstract plane; it looks ridiculous beside a mod-

, ern text in physics or even beside the beautifully engraved figures il- _ _ lustrating mechanics, optics, and other principles of physics in Diderot’s encyclopedia or in the works of Fortunato de Brixia and Theodoro _

| d’Almeida, which the Spaniards in the late eighteenth century translated and had at hand for comparison.®° This is not to say that Aristotle was not one of the most famous early advocates of observation, but he

was authoritarian in his constant appeal to other thinkers. He was always saying “Empedokles held” or “Leukippos thought.” Some, of course, he mentioned only because he disagreed. He loved to differ and to argue and refute. His thoughts on purely physical questions

, would today be called doctrinaire. A Platonist in the time of Marcus - Aurelius, in making an onslaught against Aristotelian astronomy, “re-

- marked that Aristotle never understood that the true task of the physicist is not to prescribe laws to Nature, but to learn from observation

27 Salazar, Desenvolvimiento, p. 62. | , | 28 A. E. Taylor, Aristotle (London, 1919), p. 14. (Hereafter Taylor, Aristotle. )

29 Physica, bk. III, ch. 8. (Hereafter Roman numerals after Aristotle’s works _

refer to book and Arabic to chapter. ) oe | ,

80 Theodoro d’Almeida, Recreacdo filosofica, ow dialogo sobre a filosofia natural, para instrucgdo de pessoas curiosas, que nao frequentdrdo as aulas (5 vols., Lisbon, 1786-1796 ). The third Portuguese edition was published between 1757 and 1768.

PHILOSOPHY 127 of the facts which the laws followed by Nature are.” *! There could be no more exact statement of the reaction of anti-Peripatetics in Spain and America in the eighteenth century. That deficiency of scholasti-

cism became more and more baneful after scientists like Newton rescued physics from doctrine and subjected it to examination, but the difficulty still lay more in tradition than it did in Aristotle.

What the Reformers Disliked about the Peripatetics Educational reformers in eighteenth-century Spanish America inherited the dross of scholasticism. Their impatience was bitter, their re-

action satirical. Medieval philosophies, highly respectable in their time and context, had by the eighteenth century often given way to uncritical copying one from another. The “learned” fell back upon glosses, citations, and marginalia. Guatemalan critics surrounding Goi-

coechea and the Gazeta de Guatemala could only gnash their teeth when, in full nineteenth century, even “eclectics” like Lopez Rayén presented students in examination to defend the principle that truth is arrived at either by “meditating” or reading the works of others.*? Aristotle was the prince of philosophers to many; to the eighteenthcentury Spanish liberal he was also the symbol of this authoritarianism. One satirical writer in the Gazeta de Guatemala wryly observed that “old Aristotle” was not so forsaken as some believed, because cardinals, bishops, and “many other people of character” still studied him.

But this type of writer, a second pointed out, was careful to put a note at the bottom of the page to this effect: “Aristotle should not be confounded with the Aristotelians. Aristotle was a great philosopher.” *

Continuing his resentment of irresponsible gibes, the second writer denounced this kind of footnote as pure irony aimed at the partisans of Aristotle. Although unwilling to rush to the defense of Aristotle, he would have nothing to do with satire, much less the calumny contained in the contention that these partisans of Aristotle knew no better than

to argue that the possible was impossible and vice versa. This, he said, could not be the doctrine of any human being. Besides, to calumniate cardinals as unwitting upholders of such doctrines was injurious 81 Taylor, Aristotle, pp. 71-72.

32 AGG, Al. 8-12, 12822, 1930. Thesis of V. Sanchez de Perales, May, 1801: Veritatem reperimus vel meditando vel aliorum scripta legendo. AGG, Al. 3-12, 12824, 1931. Thesis of José Ignacio Oliver y Asturias, February, 1803: Ratio ergo et auctoritas in philosophia locum sibi vindicant. 38 Gazeta de Guatemala, V (8 de agosto de 1801), 580-581.

128 | THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA — | | to the church and to other bodies. This second wit and critic had studied the peripatetic philosophy, that of Plato, as well as the teachings of Descartes, Gassendi, and Newton, but since he had always veered off from any system, he never stopped to ask in the modern fashion whether something was new or old, but followed the dictum of the

mosquito: a a | Bad wine I decline, | | Good wine I find fine, |

And have no penchant | |

To know if it’s modern or ancient.*4 ,

In fact, there was less tendency among the Guatemalan progressives

than among those of Lima and Caracas to blame Aristotle for the disappointing progress of learning between antiquity and the Enlightenment. One of these Guatemalans published a poem in the Gazeta that told of the Stagirite’s return to the world (from hell, to be sure), his acknowledged shortcomings, and his utter astonishment at the dis-

tortions of his sectaries.** | |

At least one satirist in the kingdom understood that the most degrading moment in the history of the Spanish university came just

| 34 El mal vino condeno | , le chupo quando es bueno, | y jamas averiguo |

—lIriarte, fab. 63. | , si es moderno o antiguo.

(“Critica literaria,” ibid. [3 de agosto de 1801], 580-531.) ,

85 Salio del infierno ciegos se apellidan

el Estagirita, y en mi dicho apoyan

buscando las obras sus necias porfias.

, que nos dejé escritas. Vuélveme al infierno ,

Le manifestaron _ con tedio y mohina, , algunas doctrinas - , que aunque alla padezco , que alegan ser suyas: , inmensas desdichas, , |

y él dijo: Mentira. al menos no escucho

Yo tal no ensefié la filosofia — , oo

en toda mi vida, , que estos peripatos

_ pues aunque de errores a dicen que fué mia: ,

- dejé mil semillas, que si ellos supieran

son mas disparates todas mis doctrinas .

los que ahora me aplican. _ fueran mas sensatos

,

Yo usé en mis discursos que lo son hoy dia OS , —locucion genuina, los que preocupados y no esos enredos créen que no deliran, | , ; que usaneneldia —> , y niellos se entienden _ los que mis sectarios , en su algarabia. OO (Gazeta de Guatemala, VIII [19 de noviembre de 1804], 510.)

PHILOSOPHY 129 before the dawn of the new when the old could only go on as a farce. El Hermano Serapio, who engaged in a running discussion with Beato Procopio in the Gazeta, told his correspondent of a man who, when he

learned that one could graduate from Montpellier for 128 livres of Tours, presented himself with his 128 livres and got his degree. He returned and explained to the rector that he wished to have done for his donkey the same as had been done for him. The rector replied that there was a statutory provision against awarding degrees to two asses in one year, “even if you should assume his power of attorney.” El Hermano Serapio placed this anecdote at the head of an essay he

wrote on the University of Guatemala, although he was careful to hope that the anecdote would never, never be applied to the University of San Carlos where the doctors and scholars were pious and taught science in the most solid way. The Wolff-Locke-Condillac philosophy, to which he seems to allude with respect, was based upon

the conviction that, without extensive reliance upon mathematics, philosophy would be neither philosophy nor anything else sensible. To him arithmetic, geometry, optics, statics, and geography should compose the major part of a good arts course. He felt proud that the time had passed when the controversies of Thomists, Scotists, and Suarists made more noise than Newtonian attraction, but a few things did remain to remind him of the backwardness of former times and, although in lower degrees it was still necessary to dissemble in some particulars,

the University was substantially abreast of modern learning, “thank the Lord.” *°

After thirty years of effort, then, the new century dawned in Guatemala with a fully developed keenness to keep abreast of advancements in physics and philosophy and to replace hoary, entrenched authors who elbowed out the useful, scientific ones. There is no better way to appreciate this keenness than to look for the reasons for the growing bitterness against Peripateticism. In a “prescription” for a new course in philosophy,*’ a writer in the Gazeta de Guatemala in 1802 thought that brains and common sense were the keystone of the philosophy to be built over scholasticism.** Under that “almost forgotten” peripatetic 86 E] Hermano Serapio, “Al Beato Procopio,” ibid., V (21 de agosto de 1801), 241-242.

de 1802), 253-257. | | : 87 “Receta para hacer el plan de un curso filosdfico,” ibid., VI (11 de octubre 88 He illustrated his point with precepts: “Del escribir con propiedad y peso, el principio y la fuente es tener seso.” “Vana es la habilidad del cocinero, si para la comida no hay dinero.”

130 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA method one did not consult works in order to understand them, nor to promote useful knowledge by a single step, “but in order to confound the world with torrents of citations, glossaries, concordances.”

The mentor behind this outspokenness, it is easy to see from the frequent reference to El evangelio en triunfo o un filosofo desengafiado ... ,*® was Pablo de Olavide y Jauregui (1725-1803). The author of the recipe was extremely impatient with aspersions upon Wolff, Locke, and Condillac, facetiously contending that because _ Wolff had a “W” in his name and Locke a “K” they were “wicked and impious men who could not know, and much less teach, that they had

been born with an immortal soul.” An attack by a Peripatetic upon Locke, whom he regarded as the only true Aristotelian in many years, he could not fathom. Did not Locke write a book solely to prove the axiom of Aristotle that there was nothing in the intellect which was not first in the senses? *° He could not understand why the Aristotelians should oppose such a doctrine. Was it because Locke was English? ** _ It did not follow that all Aristotelians were materialists because the doctrine of Aristotle produced some who denied the providence of God

and the immortality of the soul. Neither did it follow that, because some modern philosophers had been impious, religion could not be taught without Peripateticism. Although the philosophy of Aristotle, especially his physics, might lead to atheism, as was the case with Vanini and others, this was not true of philosophy founded upon analysis, the enemy of all “spirit of system.” *? He ended with the thought

that many modern authors, including Locke, Wolff, and Condillac, were systematic. “Systematic” was a word used to stigmatize intransigents in the Spanish vocabulary of the eighteenth century. The au39 Madrid ed., Vol. IV, Carta 40. Olavide y Jauregui, the protégé of Count Aranda, was a Peruvian encyclopedist, an educational reformer, a colonizer, a , radical publicist, and a precursor of South American independence. After becoming oidor of the audiencia of Lima at age twenty, the young creole, Olavide, ruined his career on the bench by spending church money on a theatre. He staved off disaster by marrying a wealthy widow in Spain. Thoroughly “emancipated,” he read prohibited books, especially Voltaire and Rousseau. Imprudently airing his views, he fell afoul of the Inquisition and went to France. There he was a favorite in the salons of the philosophes; even the great Napoleon thought half a dozen like him could revolutionize the Spanish Empire in America. Like Thomas Paine and Francisco de Miranda, he was caught by the “Terror” and imprisoned. Back in | Spain again in 1798, he became as conservative as he had been rash and, in this

book, published a recantation of his former radicalism. . 40 “Nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu.”

41“Receta ... ,” Gazeta de Guatemala, VI, p. 255, n. 4. , 42 Ibid. n. 5.

PHILOSOPHY 131 thor of the recipe, by prescribing readings from Olavide and El viagero universal,*® showed that Guatemalan liberals disliked the very things that their more famous Spanish compatriots detested. There was even a Guatemalan counterpart of Iriarte, Cadalso, and Olavide. Dr. José Simeén Camas protested ** that the cloister should

disqualify Luis de Escoto, elected substitute professor of philosophy, because the greater part of his trial-lecture consisted of apostrophes and declamations against modern philosophy and abounded in improbable propositions such as that the happiness of the country and the well-being of religion were buttressed by an unintelligible Latin definition of movement. At the margin of this dissent appeared the signature of Ambrosio Cerdan y Pontero, who had fought against the Peripatetics in Peru the previous decade. Even the students, in “scholas-

tic’ theses, were often ashamed of decadent scholastic pronouncements. *°

During this squabble, as a part of a campaign to promote the most “useful knowledge of which the human genius is capable,” the Gazeta reprinted a Spanish translation of the theses advanced by Goicoechea in 1769. The year 1769 was a time when the plan for the reform in the universities of Spain had passed the Supreme Council of Castile only to fail of execution. The editors of the Gazeta took advantage of Goicoechea’s liberalism to say that “some” of the principles expounded

by him were worthy of the generation of 1803. This re-publication was only an excuse to repeat the reference the original Spanish plan had made to “error and darkness,” *° to say that instead of promoting useful knowledge professors spent the time—“as it is still spent in some houses of study from Salamanca to Sonora’—in droning out “the quiddities of entity.” *7 The Gazeta apologized for the already outmoded propositions of Goicoechea by saying that it was not possible to jump from one age to another in one leap.*® As if the repetition of Goicoechea’s arguments were not enough, the 43 El viagero universal (48 vols., Madrid, 1796-1801). 44 March 14, 1803. (Libro de claustros, 1790-1808, fol. 136-136v. ) 45 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12816, 1928. Thesis of José Tomas Ruiz, January 15, 1796: Ad veritatis inquisitionem, aut ipsius demonstrationem Socratica methodus utilior est Scholastica. AGG, Al. 3-12, 12824, 1931. Thesis of Miguel Rivera, February, 1803: In rebus conferendis methodus Socratica utilior est, scholastica. 46 “Error y tinieblas.” 47“, , . en vocear las quididades del ente, o el principio quod de la generacién del verbo.”

48 “Aurora de la filosofia en Guatemala,” Gazeta de Guatemala, VII (28 de marzo de 1808), 65-66.

| 132 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA | | Gazeta kept the matter uppermost by reprinting early the next month | a passage from Cadalso’s Cartas marruecas under the title, “Scholastic disputes.” The impatient Spanish intellectual reformer there referred _ - sarcastically to those “who make a profession of argument.” To clinch his point, Cadalso told of some “meetings of the learned” called “con-

clusions,” which he attended but did not understand. Neither did he know whether the participants themselves understood. And did , they later make up after coming to daggers’ points before a multitude of people? “One of these, who was more than six feet tall, and about as

| broad, with powerful lungs, voice of a giant, and look of a lunatic, undertook to prove in the morning that a thing was black and in the

- afternoon that it was white.” A spectator at Cadalso’s side informed — him that this was defending a thing problematically and that the per_ former projecting his problematical genius was a youngster of many endowments and great promise waging his first battle—against veter-

| ans at that. The informant had himself spent seventy years in these , tournaments. Cadalso felt that controversy concerning things not demonstrable was useless and all argument indecisive. In such a case the

| vanity, ignorance, and preoccupation of man would never let him confess himself conquered. He would always contend that his antagonist did not understand the question. The implication is clear that the

ground, | | a a i

| editors wanted the illustration studied against a Guatemalan backSimon Bergajio y Villegas, with the obvious connivance of a Uni-

, versity faction, continued to press the theme of the ridiculousness of the gibberish going by the name of philosophical discussion. He pub- lished, and probably planted, a story, “Caso literario de conciencia,” signed by “El Engafiado.” In three brief pages,*® Engafiado summed up the objections to the traditional peripatetic cavillings and, in a note,

| offered a year’s subscription to the Gazeta for the best answer or, — failing this, he would undertake to reply himself. Engafiado began by

saying that it had been some seventy years since he learned the “tran- __ scendencies of entity—in case of a universal a parte rei” and other _ philosophical questions of equal importance. These had possession of

, his understanding and he was satisfied that there was nothing further for him to learn in the world. Up to the moment “ergotism” had not been of any use to him, either for the administration of the sacraments or for any other purpose, but this, he believed, was because he did not _ 49 Gazeta de Guatemala, VIII (2 de abril de 1804), 27-29. - | |

PHILOSOPHY 183 understand those profound questions. He confessed that he thus lived for forty years without dreaming “even in his sleep’ what had hap-

pened to him. |

Then one day a well-instructed youth came to the village, and Engafiado, thinking the youth was given to reading, gave him the run of his library of some four hundred volumes. The young man began a superficial examination of the books, opened up that most famous orator, “the Wonder of Madrid,” and then, after looking all the books over, turned and said: “My dear father, here you have no books of any use to me except the breviary and this is not enough for me. All the rest is chaff and nonsense. They go up like rockets which explode

in the air and not even the echo is heard upon the earth.” The poor | septuagenarian, who felt that he had the best library in the kingdom, was terribly deflated and told the young man that he was making fun of him. Indeed, how could the works of the greatest philosophers in the world be useless? The man who had supplied the library, and only asked a thousand pesos for it, had described it as a treasure bound in parchment. “Fraud, father, fraud,” the youth replied; “you bought gold and got copper. Ask for your money back. Consult the editor of the Gazeta de Guatemala and you will get an opinion from which there can be no appeal.” The youth then invited the deceived father to visit him. He opened his trunks and displayed books which had cost him “perhaps” two hundred pesos. Among these titles were the works of Massillon,®® Olavide’s El evangelio en triunfo, the Confessions of St. Augustine, an unbound set of El viagero universal, the Logic of Condillac,®* the Marquis of Caracciolo,®? Fénelon’s El Telémaco,®? and the

Memorias politicas of Larruga,** where the young man pointed out a | 50 Jean Baptiste Massillon (1663-1742), celebrated pulpit orator whose reputation was matched only by that of Bossuet and Bourdaloue. He was extravagantly praised, even by Voltaire.

51 Etienne Bonnot de Condillac (1715-1780), La logique, ou les premiers développemens de Vart de penser, ouvrage élémentaire . . . (Paris, 1780). 52 Domenico Marquis of Caracciolo (1715-1789), noted and cultured friend of the encyclopedists, specialist in political economy, who, as his first act as viceroy of Sicily, abolished torture in getting evidence (1781). He took part in the dispute between Gluck and Piccinni, favoring the latter. He is especially noted for his correspondence with Diderot, D’Alembert, Marmontel, and Grim. 58 Francois de Salignac de la Mothe Fénelon (1651-1715), Aventures de Télémaque, a celebrated book written for the education of the Duke of Burgundy, at first banned in France. An official edition was not brought out until 1717. 54 KHugenio Larruga y Boneta (1747-1803), Memorias politicas y econdémicas

sobre los frutos, comercio, fdbricas y minas de Espafia (Madrid, 1787-1800),

134 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA passage which read: “I have no doubt that infinitely more useful things have come to humanity and to the sciences from the mania for change

than from all the disputes and cavillings of all the scholastics.” Not hesitating to shock, he went on breezily: “I have more in these four books and these sheets of the Gazette of Guatemala, to which I am a subscriber [!], than you with your four hundred books.” The good father then appealed to “Mr. First Chief of Things Literary,” in whose “tribunal there were no lobbyists,” to tell him the truth, for if he had been cheated in the purchase of his books, he had also been deceived in what he had been taught at an expense to his parents of 4,000 pesos,

when a boy could now learn more with an expenditure of 500 pesos for books. Until the editor handed down his opinion in the suit for restitution of money spent for a useless library and a wasted education,

the old man would wait among his books. , Bergafio y Villegas, using the pseudonym, Bafioger de Sagelliu, announced six weeks later *> that he would submit an answer to Sefior

| Engafado although he thought that others in the City might do it better, His wrath was such that he could not wait to say that ignorance, malice, vanity, corruption, and artifice had led the pseudophilosopher to say, not what he felt, but what was suitable. When his complete answer did come * it was strong and, for a man who had apparently started the whole thing in a facetious vein, it was extremely serious. He informed Engamfiado boldly that he had wasted his time.

Discourses not directed toward usefulness were unworthy of the intelligence of man. Like thieves introduced into the sacred temple of understanding, they deprived the intellect of the uses for which “God intended it.” Bafioger asserted with passionate intensity that nature was so marvelous, and the time to master it so short, that one could weep to see the masters resolving questions useful neither in the moral

nor the physical sphere. He admitted the value of recent reforms, quoted Caracciolo to the effect that the truth was far from “systems,” and reiterated his conviction that no more useful effort had been made than that looking toward the teaching of the sciences in the vulgar

| tongue—without lowering the merit of Latin. The reformer approved the study of eloquence because “persuasion is the master of truth,”

de Espaiia e Indias. ,

which came to forty-five volumes. Larruga was cofounder of the Correo mercantil

55 “Literatura—Primer concurrente al premio ofrecido en el No. 340,” Gazeta de Guatemala, VIII (14 de mayo de 1804), 89.

56 Ibid. (21 de mayo de 1804), 97-101. ,

PHILOSOPHY 135 and because the “art of teaching is a science itself,” but it is quite likely that the fact that the University had always lacked a chair of rhetoric had something to do with his zeal. In an assault such as this, Aristotle and the artificiality of academic discourse could not escape severe analysis. On this subject Bergafio y Villegas recalled the belief of the ancients, as well as some contemporaries, that many systems lessened the merit of Aristotle. But nobody could know what pains it had cost to convince them that the loss of prestige suffered by “Peripato” was not so much the fault of Aristotle as of the “airy inventions” of later sectaries in treating his writings. To clinch this point, Bergafio called upon eminent authority °’ to establish that while such “fantastic inventions” had something solid they were also beset by “an armory of voices” which obscured, confounded, and made disputes interminable. “Oh Aristotle, Aristotle! Thou didst

only raise up crows so that they could later pick out thine eyes... . Just the same thou wilt live in the memory of men, and reason will always give thee thy just place. Because, in respect to thine own time

thou wert a prince and in ours a sage.” At least, it could be hoped that the death of the irreconcilables would once and for all put an end to those “eternal and everlasting” disputes. Then instead of fantastic inventions, ridiculous and irritating conclusions dishonoring the universities, both by their puerility and their improbability, new and useful propositions would command attention. Reason would then not require taunts and sarcasm and, least of all, fall into the very vices it sought to combat, for good taste would require moderation.** Thus could end the cries, kicks, and blows making the academic chairs re: sound and quake. When the tongues of the irreconcilables were silenced, and irritating and pedantic expressions such as “simpliciter, virtualiter, sed sic est, secundum quid &” (often from the mouth of some hobbledehoy!) no longer echoed in the halls, then would be fulfilled the poetic prophecy of a celebrated Spaniard: Que ya llegara el dia En que las ciencias valgan, Y en que los hombres salgan De la ignorancia que antes los cubria Pues se veran los hombres 57 “Cast. Dios. y la Nat., IV, 440, Disc. sob. la Etic.” 58 Bergafio y Villegas decried the tarja, or thesis sheet, with crude insults—in Latin! It was common for a callow young student, in his tarja, to assert with the

vanity that was so noisome to Bergafio: “We reject . . . We assert .. .”

136 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA Ir desponiendo preocupaciones;

Y buscando ocasiones , | De eternizar sus nombres mostraran su talento _ ,

En otras cosas de mayor momento. . | . , _ -—-Gazeta, VIII, 101.59 | Since Bergafio had published a general plan for schools,®° he con-

fined his second installment to a general plea for education, which

, the public appreciated least of all, although nothing concerned the — public more and nothing was so essential to the happiness of the state. In the third installment of his answer *! to Engafiado, he placed his

| educational philosophy upon an unbelievably humanistic footing. He | would educate to persuade that the Negro, the zambo, the mulatto, and all the other castes are different in nothing beyond their pigment and their fortune; that nobody should be treated with contempt; that all are endowed with the same spirit, with equal rights to reward and | punishment, and that if Providence should give those taught some advantage over others, they should not vaunt it, but use it in modera-

tion as a gift of God. ,

If any additional evidence were necessary to suggest that this ques-

tion had been raised by Bergafio himself in order to answer it, the solitary reply of Diego Lozano supplies it.*? Lozano doubted that Engafiado was really deceived, but hastened to observe that that whole generation was deceived and that if a curate as old as Engafiado

_ did not know of the progress made in the arts both in Spain and in

America he deserved to suffer for his ignorance. , Bergafio y Villegas in some respects was to Guatemala what Feijoo,

Cadalso, and Jovellanos were to Spain. Feijé6o in his essay on the causes of the backwardness of Spain in the natural sciences ** made many charges like those leveled at Guatemala. Logic and metaphysics 59 “May the day arrive when science and learning are appreciated, and in which _ men emerge from the ignorance formerly engulfing them—for [only] then will men be seen to cast off preconceptions, and, looking for occasions to immortalize their

, names, show their talent in things of greater moment.” | 60 See Gazeta de Guatemala, VIII (Nos. 354 and 855). :

457-461. ! oe | 1804), 1381-138. | , 61 Ibid, (17 de septiembre de 1804), 438-436; ibid. (24 de septiembre de 1804),

441-448, For the conclusion of his statement, see ibid. (8 de octubre de 1804), | 62 “Literatura.—Otra respuesta a la carta del N. 340,” ibid. (18 de junio de

63 “Causas del atraso que se padece en Espafia en orden a las ciencias naturales,”

, Obras escogidas del Padre Fray Benito Feij6o y Montenegro, in Biblioteca de autores espafioles, LVI (Madrid, 1863), 540-546.

PHILOSOPHY 137 had given way to purposeless abstractions, and even the new philos-

ophy underwent an analysis which did not get beyond irrelevant clichés. Thus, Feijéo felt that because of long misdirected study the graduates of the old school were unable to distinguish between the true and false and were often indifferent to the distinction. These extremes, according to Feijéo, worked in another way against the natural

sciences in Spain. On the one hand Spaniards were guilty of a nearservile emulation and on the other either ignored or denied the importance of discoveries made outside Spain, as in the tendency to condemn Descartes without studying him.** Cadalso, in Eruditos a la violeta, made fun of the quiddities of the perfumed scholars in the same language Bergajio used to describe the turning of his stomach.®

In many respects, therefore, every argument made in Kurope against

the scholastics in the decadent period was repeated in America. But what the antischolastic most hated was the artificiality which, according to Descartes, “gives one the means of talking plausibly of all things, and of extorting the admiration of those less learned than one’s self.” * This is in no wise different from Juan Luis Vives’ denunciation of the

“dialectical dissoluteness” of the University of Paris whose masters “rave and invent absurdities, and a new sort of language that only they

themselves can understand.” * And how different from complaints against the mounting academic jargon heard today?

Transitional Doctrines As the campaign developed, particularly the one conducted by the Gazeta, the professors of philosophy began to make extensive use of the Institutiones philosophicae (1784) authorized for instructional purposes in the diocese of Lyons in France by Archbishop Antoine de Malvin de Montazet (1712-1788), referred to by the Spanish student

64 [bhid., pp. 544-546, ,

65 José de Cadalso, Eruditos a la violeta 0 curso completo de todas las ciencias, dividido en siete lecciones para los siete dias de la semana (Madrid, 1772). 66 Friedrich Ueberweg, History of Philosophy from Thales to the Present Time, trans. by Geo. S. Morris (New York, 1890), II, 46. (Hereafter Ueberweg, History of Philosophy.) 67 For this reference to Vives, the famous sixteenth-century Spanish scholar and

humanist, see M. de Wulf, Scholasticism Old and New: An Introduction to

Scholastic Philosophy, Medieval and Modern, trans. by P. Coffey (Dublin, 1907), p. 4.

138 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA as Lugdunensis. His election to membership in the French Academy established his standing as a scientist, and a strong, easy style in both

Latin and French make him a very influential writer. Though a prelate, Malvin de Montazet was no servile conformist. He was an irreconcilable enemy of the Jesuits and a declared partisan of the Jansenists. His Institutiones theologicae (1782) was on the Roman Index and was banned in France. With Lugdunensis, the Guatemalan student began to use the work of the Portuguese scientist, Theodoro d’Almeida, as a text in the field of physics. As a rule, the graduating bachelor offered in his examinations to defend the Physico-mathematical letters °° prepared as a complement to the work known to the Spaniards as Recreacion filosofica. Almeida, the founder of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Lisbon, a

man who disagreed with his king on the powers of the Pope, spent eighteen years in France and returned to Portugal in order to devote himself to correcting and modernizing his books. Students using Almeida were, therefore, well guided. In contrast to the old days of dead

authors they studied Almeida’s work during his lifetime. In the first month of 1800, a Guatemalan student, Francisco de Urrutia, offered to —

defend a section of the Letters of Almeida, and treatments of mechanics, hydrostatics, metaphysics, and the question of the souls of brutes from Lugdunensis.®® From this time until the end of the colonial

period, the approach of Malvin de Montazet and Almeida remained paramount in the arts courses of the University of Guatemala.

After the prolonged reign of Aristotle, nothing was more natural than some disturbance at the collapse of his authority. Since scholasticism was founded upon divine revelation, the professors had their students hasten to reassert their faith in revelation and to regard theology as the science of everything known by divine revelation,”® but the 68 Cartas fisico-matemdticas de Teodosio d Eugenio . . . traducidas al castellano

1803. ! | |

(segunda impresién, corregida y aumentada; Madrid, 1792).

69 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12821, 1930. See also ibid., thesis of Juan Altamirano, March 17, 1800, and AGG, Al. 8-12, 12824, 1931, thesis of José de Aparicio, March 4, 70 AGG, Al. 8-12, 12818, 1927. Thesis of Manuel de Ugalde, February 23, 1794:

Revelatio est manifestatio a Deo hominibus facta, ut certos eos facia de rebus credendis et exequendis. Lugdunensis, who now in large part replaced Aristotle, supported divine revelation and miracles. For example: Deus potest quasdam veritates revelare supra rationem humanam positas. (Institutiones philosophicae, III, 288.) Miraculum est possibile. (Ibid., III, 263.) AGG, Al. 3-12, 12823, 1931. Thesis of Francisco Garcia, February 20, 1802: Possibilis est, & valde necessaria

PHILOSOPHY 189 point was certainly not labored. Indeed, the proviso was added that God could not and had not revealed things contrary to reason.” Human authority was fallible and warranted acceptance only to the extent the author proceeded by reason.”? And, in doctrinal matters, ar-

gument based upon authority was of no weight,’* but conclusions based upon reason were the soundest.7* Concerning nature and in reaching knowable truths, evidence and reason were the most depend-

able.7® Both reason and authority had a place in reaching truthful conclusions.’* Taken all together, it is evident that students were taught

to respect authority, but not at the expense of reason or of the evidence from observation and experiment.

Authority of the Holy Fathers Aristotle conceived a magisterial role for a great man and, as his own case showed only too well, the master was likely to become the irrefutable authority. For two centuries it had not been conventional for the student to go behind the master or his commentators, least of revelatio. . . . Thesis of Francisco de Urrutia, Gazeta de Guatemala, VII (21 de febrero de 1803), 30: “Es la teologia una ciencia en que se comprende todo lo que se sabe por revelacion. .. .” 71 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12822, 1930. Thesis of José Ignacio de Rivera, April, 1801: Plurium veritatum naturalium a Deo per revelationis lumen, maxime oportuit, manifestationem fieri. Deus non potest, nec minime quidem potuit, quae evidenti

rationi adversentur revelare. |

72 AGG, Al. 8-12, 12810, 1926. Thesis of Miguel de Aragén, August 23, 1791:

Ut de humana auctoritate merito duvitemus sufficit Auctorem fallere possit, aut falli. AGG, Al. 3-12, 12811, 1926. Thesis of Francisco Martinez, March 27, 1792: Plurima existunt vel intra naturae metas, quae ad satietatem concipi haud possunt. Ut de humana auctoritate merito duvitemus suflicit auctorem, fallere, posse aut falli. 73 AGG, Al. 8-12, 12822, 1930. Thesis of Gregorio de Beltranena y Llano, May 9, 1801: In rebus doctrinalibus argumentum ab auctoritate nullius momenti est. AGG, Al. 3-12, 12828, 1931. Thesis of José de Vasconcelos, June 18, 1802. 74 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12816, 1928. Thesis of José Tomas Ruiz, January 15, 1796: In doctrinalibus phylosophiae non authoritas; sed ratio est amplectenda. AGG, Al. 3-12, 128238, 1931. Thesis of Martin Valdés, January 23, 1802: In rebus doctrinalibus argumentum a ratione majoris ponderis est, quam ab auctoritate. 75 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12898, 1956. Thesis of José M. Carrillo, September 6, 1809: In rebus tum naturalibus, tum philosophicis evidentia est veritatis regula. Ibid. Thesis of José Maria Aldana, December 2, 1809: Pro veritatibus intelligilibus dijudicandis optimum criterium est evidentia rationis. 76 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12822, 1930. Thesis of Gregorio de Beltranena y Llano, May 9, 1801: Ratio & auctoritas viam ad inveniendam veritatem aperiunt. AGG, Al.

3-12, 12823, 1931. Theses of Martin Valdés, January 23, 1802, and José de Vasconcelos, June 18, 1802.

140 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA | all when the master or the commentator was a Holy Father whose works had been virtually sanctified. Universities throughout the In-

dies, including that of Guatemala, were warned in 1768 to be on guard against probabilism.’” Although the Spanish conviction that this dangerous fad was the work of the Jesuits prompted this warning, what matters here is that by this doctrine any opinion held by a recognized doctor of the church was “probably” true. The unpopularity of this casuistical reasoning had little bearing when the intellectual system supplanting stereotyped scholasticism came into vogue, for the authority of the saints was allowed no greater weight than any other

human authority well based upon reason. The authority of the Holy | Fathers was now held to be no greater than that of the philosophers from whom they took their dogmas and the reasoning upon which they depended.”* Whether a few or many Holy Fathers gave their testimony on a point, the case still had to rest upon reason,”® and such

_ testimony could not be taken as an irrefragable argument.®° But it was unreasonable to assume that, after taking the necessary safe-_

1768. ,

guards, the testimony of saints and men was of no value,** for in such

circumstances reason and authority were essential to philosophy.* "7 AGG, Al. 8-1, 12236, 1882. Real cédula circular. El Pardo, 18 de marzo de

78 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12797, 1923. Thesis of Domingo Canfas, March 16, 1785: Authoritas SS. PP. non est major quam Filosoforum, a quibus sua dogma didicerunt; et quidem pro re filosofia in illis non tam authoritatis pondera, quam rationis

momenta quaerenda sunt.

79 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12810, 1926. Thesis of Miguel de Aragén, August 28, 1791: Sanctorum Auctoritas, sive paucorum, sive plurium in conclusionibus pure phylo-

sophycis certa argumenta non suppeditat; sed tantum pollet, quantum eorum persuacerit ratio. Ibid. Thesis of Ignacio Avila, November 28, 1791: Sanctorum auctoritas in conclusionibus pure philosophicis tantum valet, quantum eorum persuaserit ratio. Nihilominus ab eorum auctoritate summa modestia recedendum. AGG, Al. 3-12, 12822, 1930. Theses of Manuel José Ferrandiz, April 27, 1801, José Ramon Zelaya, May, 1801, and José Rafael Bertran, May, 1801. Ibid. Thesis of José Leandro Pais: In rebus pure philosophicis tum plurimorum, tum paucorum, SS. auctoritas nobis firmum non erit argumentum. 80 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12822, 1930. Thesis of José Ignacio de Rivera, April, 1801: In rebus pure philosophicis authoritas Sanctorum, tum plures, tum pauci sint,

, non nobis debet esse firmo, ac irrefragabili argumento. : ,

, 81 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12823, 1931. Thesis of Francisco Garcia, February 20, 1802: Sanctorum itaque PP. auctoritas in rebus pure phylosophicis tantum valet, quantum

ratio suppeditaverit. Hominum testimonium, possitis necessariis conditionibus,

tutum est veritatis argumentum. 82 AGG, Al. 8-12, 12824, 1931. Thesis of José Ignacio Oliver y Asturias, Febru-

ary, 1803: Sanctorum P.P. auctoritas in naturalibus tantum valet, quantum ratio

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184 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA who hammered in the “universals,” was still in vogue at San Carlos in

| 1782. To show the tenacity of this procedure, we find Sir Isaac Newton complaining that even the Cartesians proceeded from synthesis to analysis instead of vice versa. If the Cartesians, whose master had so systematically doubted everything, could not escape this tradition,

| how much less could students brought up with scholastic books, — scholastic professors, scholastic buildings, and scholastic theology do so! With the basic concepts of science—first philosophy to Aristotle—

the arts student continued to deal.

_ Matter, which seems to compose our universe, was the first concern of scholars in the scholastic tradition. So we find students, thousands of years after Aristotle and Plato had first clearly stated the concept of matter, giving solemn peripatetic definitions of it.*° Matter, in contrast to mind or spirit, was capable of extension in three dimensions—up, _

down, and out.” Material, such as steel, could be made or welded into a vessel, which was the form. Thus the “matter and form” upon which the Aristotelians loved to dwell.”1 Matter is the indeterminate substance, whether corporeal or not, shaped into form, as copper is

shaped into a sphere.” | _ The first inquiry of Greek philosophy was, therefore, after first

principles, “the original reality from which other things are derived.” ”

First principles, or elements, were those things which could not be further reduced and of which the world was composed.” In funda, 689 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12797, 1928. Thesis of Francisco Ayerdi, April 5, 1785: In primis materiam primam, pariterque formam dari, citra disputationis aleam supponimus. Materia est quaedam substantiae portio omnino vaga, & indiferens, quae per modum primae potentiae sese habet in composito. Forma item, alia est substantialis portio, quae utpote primus actus, materiam determinat, inspecieque

substantiali constituit. |

70 Ibid. Thesis of José Francisco Gonzalez Castro, February 10, 1785: Corpus |

} esse substantiam natura sua solidam, adeoq. entitative extensam, ac propterea divisibilem in partes, mensurabilem, capacem cujuslibet configurationis, combina-

tionis, sive texturae propugnamus. ... Figura nihil est aliud, nisi certa ipsius corporis modificatio, quatenus secundum trinam dimensionem extensum est. 71 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12810, 1926. Thesis of Francisco Quifiones, August 19, 1791: Omne corpus materia et forma naturaliter constat. AGG, Al. 3-12, 12798, 1924. © Thesis of José Domingo Vandin (1786): Jam ergo compositum ex materiae, for-

maeque conjunctione resultare censemus. AGG, Al. 3-12, 12813, 1927. Thesis of Don Francisco Cisneros, November 24, 1794: Omne compositum naturale neces-. sario habere debet materiam & formam. Materiae combinatio est forma corporum.

72 Taylor, Aristotle, pp. 52-56. 73 Baldwin, Dictionary, II, 342. 74 AGG, Al. 8-12, 12797, 1928. Thesis of José Francisco Gonzalez Castro, February 10, 1785: Principia intrinseca compositi naturalis ea omnia dicuntur,

SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION 185 mental matters such as this, it is natural to find a student following Aristotle and taking into account the ancient disagreements about what constituted the elements, as well as certain modifications of the concept by modern chemists.”° Even those students like José Domingo Vandin, who deliberately took the peripatetic view of every important question—including, as we have seen, the Copernican system—were obliged to acknowledge the point of view of modern chemists in their efforts to reduce matter to its elements. Naturally, Vandin went along with Galen, who held to earth, water, air, and fire. Some students recognized that the four “elements” were no longer in a true sense elements,

because they in turn were composed of other substances.” The substance of the earth, for example, was a natural composition of salt, sulphur, and mercury. No eighteenth-century student ventured, however, to add Aristotle's fifth element, ether, to the list.

Empty Space: Vacuum Coacervatum The problem of void or vacuum, since it involved both spatial rela-

tions and matter, ran the whole gamut of Greek philosophy, where all the problems still troubling scientists at the beginning of the nineteenth century were raised. Scholastics like Thomas Aquinas naturally kept the subject alive because of the close connection between theology and the problem of space. The ideas of the ancient atomists in Greek ex quibus compositum ipsum essentialiter constituitur. Principia corporis naturalis primaria sunt illa, ex quibus ipsum corpus ita constituitur, ut ea simul, ex aliis, in quae resolvi possint, minime componantur. . . . Physica natura materiae primae in eo posita est, ut sit substantia natura sua impenetrabilis, indefinite extensa. 75 See, for example, Physica, I, 7, and Metaphysica, IV, 1. 76 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12798, 1924. Thesis of José Domingo Vandin, December 9, 1786: Elementi definitionem ab Aristotele editam: id ex quo aliquid fit primo inexistente, & in quod ultimo fit resolutio optimam propugnamus. Circa certum elementorum numerum maxima fuit etiam inter antiquiores Philosophos contraversia. Phaeretides solummodo terram elementum vocat, sicut & Thales Milessius aquam. Anaximenes aerem, Heraclitus ignem tantummodo in elementorum

numerum adscribunt. Hipocrates, Hempedocles, & Galenici quatuor statuerunt elementa, terram, scilicet, aquam, aerem, & ignem. Nonnuli Recentiores ab elementi ratione ignem expellunt ut Purch. & alij. Chimisi caput mortuum, plegmam, salem,

sulfur, & mercurium, ut certa elementa agnoscunt. Nos autem Principe preside, quatuor Galenicorum elementa propugnamus. (Cf. Metaphysica, I, 3; IV, 3.) 77 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12797, 1923. Thesis of José Francisco Gonzalez Castro, February 10, 1785: Sola quatuor vulgaria elementa, terra scilicet, aqua, aer, & ignis, non sunt immediata intrinseca principia compositorum naturalium. Terra, aqua, sal, sulphur, & mercurius sunt principia intrinseca immediata compositorum naturalium,

186 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA —

Newton. , , 7 ,

philosophy attracted the most attention in the changing world of the eighteenth century because of their similarity to those of Sir Isaac The atomists asserted that, in order to have a multiplicity of moving atoms, it was necessary to presuppose the existence of empty space 'that separated them and in which they could move. Even the opponents of this theory, like Empedocles, held that pores were necessary to explain change. In discussing space, Aristotle took the position that the limit of the world—absolute space—is the rim or surface of the outermost heaven. Within this limit, space was a kind of vessel and, within this place, was like a portable pitcher—a portable place—which contains either water or another body, air. Hence, since place was a boundary surrounding a thing in space, the definition excludes the possibility

| of empty space. This was one of the neatest triumphs of “logic-

chopping” in Aristotle.*® a

Descartes, by tying matter in with extension, made the idea of

vacuum self-contradictory and absurd, yet it was Descartes more than

Newton who for a long time influenced the formulation of ideas in colonial Guatemala. Many cited Descartes’s view that a vacuum could

not exist either naturally or with divine help and, at the same time, called attention to the Newtonian assertion that vacuum was not only possible but necessary in the nature of things. The student, Domingo Cajias, disagreed with Newton's view, and stated that, in a dispute concerning the power of God, “it is permitted us to depart from the _ Cartesian position.” 7° Another felt that Newton had not advanced convincing enough reasons for the existence of vacuum.®® Vandin the

IV, 6-9. |

next year admitted the possibility that there was no vacuum in nature 78 Baldwin, Dictionary, II, 747. Taylor, Aristotle, pp. 73-74. Aristotle, Physica,

79 AGG, Al. 8-12, 12797, 1923. Thesis of Domingo Cajfias, March 16, 1785: Cartesius, utpote internum locum a locato omnino indistinguens, nedum naturaliter;

imo vero nec divinitus, existere posse contendit. Newtonus tamen e contra, non solum, possibilem; verum etiam in rerum natura prorsus necessarium locum vaquum affirmavit. Nos ergo si de fysica possibilitate loquamur, contra Newtonum, minime

dari posse contendimus. Sin vero de potentia Dei habenda sit disputatio, a sententia Cartesij, nobis discedere liquet. Illa insuper spatia, quae extra universi ambitum imaginamur; licet nullum corpus contineant, non propterea vaqua dicenda,

defendimus. 80 [bid. Thesis of José Francisco Gonzalez Castro, February 10, 1785: Newtonus

docet, non solum non repugnare vacuum coacervatum; sed reipsa in mundo existere,

sed nulla firma ratio est, quae nos adducat, ut illum credamus. ,

SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION 187 and held that, through the power of God, void could in the nature of things be established, whatever Descartes might say.*

Guatemalan arts students under Simedn Cafias, substitute professor of philosophy, differentiated two types of void. Vacuum coa-

cervatum, conceived by the Greeks, was sensible and perceptible vacuum, such as physicists have in mind when they undertake to pump the air from a tube. By vacuum disseminatum, the other type, the scholastics referred to the empty spaces scattered around the atoms of material. Thus the fledgling philosophers denied the Cartesian

position which had reduced the idea of a vacuum to an absurdity and held not only that a vacuum coacervatum was possible metaphysically but that in fact a vacuum disseminatum did exist.*? Under the same tutelage the arts student for the last thirty years before independence accepted the idea in principle and, as a natural concomitant, insisted upon the great porosity of bodies.** That there was no coer-

cion, and that different opinions could come to the top, is evident, however, in the stubborn retention of the Aristotelian view by Pablo Rivas, a student of Father Cayetano Diaz, who was not a holder of the proprietary or temporal chair in the University.** The general support of Newton’s view of the vacuum during these last years of 81 AGG, Al. 8-12, 12798, 1924. Thesis of José Domingo Vandin, December, 1786: Vacuum sic definiri solet: locus nullo corpore repletus, aptus tamen repleri. Nullum vacuum in rerum natura, est naturaliter possibile. Ergo Newtonis, Democritique sententiam omnem vacuum amplectentem jure merito refellimus. Pariter etiam sententiam Pythagorae, Leucippii Metrodori, Epicuri, Gazendi, Duamelis, Maynan, Saguens, Tosca, caeterorumque Recentiorum vacuum disseminatum admit-

tentium. Sed de potentia Dei omne vacuum in rerum natura verificari potest, , quidquid Renatus Descartes reclamet. In 1788 Francisco de Fuentes denied Newton’s contention that a vacuum coacervatum could exist. (AGG, Al. 8-12, 12799, 1925. Thesis of Francisco de Fuentes, 1788. ) 82 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12811, 1926. Thesis of José Venantius de Alcantara, February 17, 1792: Corporis essentia constituenda non est in actuali extensione, sive trina dimensione. . . . Vacuum coaserbatum methaphysice non repugnat, disceminatum-

que de facto existit. .. . 83 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12813, 1927. Thesis of Antonio de la Fuente, January 28, 1794: Validissimis rationibus probatur vacuum. Corpora omnia innumeris poris pertusa sunt. AGG, Al. 8-12, 12827, 1932. Thesis of Vicente Merino (Triden.), August 13, 1804: Possibile est vacuum coacervatum. AGG, Al. 3-12, 12834, 1935. Thesis of Antonio de Garos, April 4, 1810: Existit vacuum disseminatum, vacuum

coaservatum tantum est posibile. Quantitas pororum non potest absolute determinari. 84 AGG, Al. 8, 12817, 1929. Thesis of Pablo Rivas, 1797: Principia Cartesiana non

sunt prima corporum principia, sed materia et forma Aristotelica. Naturaliter non datur vacuum, nec coacervatum, nec diseminatum.

«188 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA the colonial period could possibly be due to the introduction of the Lugdunensis text, which discussed the history of the question and pointed out that most scientists adhered to the idea of the vacuum.*®

, Porosity: Vacuum Disseminatum , , Invariably any discussion of the elements of material composition |

| or of vacuum was followed by a statement on density, rarity, and a porosity,°® for some ancient philosophers discussed by Aristotle had attempted to reduce all matter to one irreducible element, explaining _ _ changing bodies on the basis of density and rarity.87 The view that there was no absolute dense body prevailed, and since every body was

in some degree porous (vacuum disseminatum), the subject of porosity was well nigh perennial in scientific theses. Pores, small spaces

, between the component parts of a body by which the solid particles _ were caught up,** were a subject of controversy among the ancients and many opinions on the subject were revived and discussed, including that of Epicurus, who thought that the extension of bodies resulted from the dilation of empty pores and that density was the result |

of the closing of pores by encroaching particles.*

| Even the “moderns” were reviewed. Descartes attributed rarity 85 Lugdunensis, Institutiones philosophicae, IV, Dissertatio Vv, pp. 47-55. An possibile sit vacuum: Possibile esse vacuum negant Cartesiani. Quae sententia necessario cum ea colligatur, qua materiae essentiam in extensione constituunt.

, Vacui nomine, inquiunt, intelligitur extensio quae a materiae extensione prorsus , distinguitur: at qui repugnat hujusmodi extensio, . . . | Utrum existat Vacuum: Longe communior est eorum sententia, qui contendunt inter varias mundi partes disseminata esse spatia quaedam vacua. Quae opinio ad

verum magis accedere videtur. |

86 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12797, 1923. Thesis of Domingo Cafias, March 16, 1785: Corpus illud rarum apellamus, quod sub magnis dimensionibus tantillum habet , materiae, Ergo densum, quod raro.contrariatur, multam materiam, etiam sub parvo volumine, complexatur. . . . Cum vero haud sit corpus aliquod, vel ad minus, non cognoscimus, quod nullum non habeat porum, hinc omne corpus absolute

rarum | 7| , | 87 De defendimus. caelo, III, 3-8. .wt 88 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12797, 1923. Thesis of José Francisco Gonzalez Castro,

} February 10, 1785: Pori sunt exilissima quaedam spatia, conponentibus corporis | particulis interjecta, ac per totam illius mollem disseminata. AGG, Al. 8-12, 12813, __ 1927. Thesis of José Cecilio del Valle, 1794: Porositas illa proprietas est qua

corporum solidae particulae intercipiuntur. : , - ,

_ 89 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12798, 1924. Thesis of José Domingo Vandin, December 9, _ _ 1786: Epicurei a dilatione pororum evacuorum, corporis extensionem provenire

arbitrantur. Densitatem vero in occlusione pororum ex partibus accedentibus

dimanante, consistere censerunt. —

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190 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA | to the struggle of “subtle material” to emerge from the pores of a body.®*® Other “more recent” thinkers attributed rarity to the acquisi-

tion of greater ubicatio. Vandin, ever eager to agree with Thomas Aquinas, took his position that rarity came from the admission of air into the pores of a body.*! Since modern science is so intimately and tragically tied up with the “fission” of hitherto irreducible substances, it is refreshing to find the colonial student, as the period wore to an end, admitting frankly that the absolute could not be determined.” If the question of pores gave rise to so much speculation, the true

nature of the smallest parts of matter was thus even more troublesome. Students under the influence of men accustomed to think in terms of an experimental age showed a very grateful tendency to admit that they did not know the true nature of porosity. They were not so modest, albeit just as helpless, in appraising the beginning of “entities.” Their only recourse was to fall back upon historical opinion,

this view. ,

and, where this involved ancient times, their source was invariably Aristotle. Thus Democritus, under the influence of Leucippus, held that entities generated from atoms, and Epicurus supported him in This line of thought remained static until the seventeenth century,

when a number of distinguished thinkers returned to it. Gassendi held that all came from the smallest bodies, or atoms, which, flying around in void, finally came together. Descartes took the view that matter had been divided by God into angular particles which were made round by rubbing,®? and from these sprang the stars and planets. Although admitting that many thinkers sustained Descartes, the stu90 Ibid.: Carthesiani raritatem, a materia subtili poros corporis subeunte, eosque dilatante evenire contendunt. Densitatem etenim in exclusione ejusdem materiae,

exterius comprimente. | ,

91 [bid.: Aliqui autem Recentiores raritatem ab acquisitione majoris ubicationis,

dependere judicarunt. Densitatem ergo ab amissione talis ubicationis provenire censerunt. Nos vero Thomistae in ingressu aeris in corporis poros, poros tenentis,

stare propugnamus. , ,

82 AGG, Al. 8-12, 12818, 1927. Thesis of Juan Miguel de Fiallos, February 11, 1794: Materiae quantitas absoluta, corporisque absolutum pondus prorsus ignoratur. AGG, Al. 3-12, 12822, 1930. Thesis of Manuel Jestis Diaz, April 30, 1801: Quantitas absoluta meatuum determinari non potest. AGG, Al. 3-12, 12834, 1985. Thesis of Antonio de Garos, April 4, 1810: Quantitas pororum non potest absolute determinari. AGG, Al. 3-12, 12853, 1937. Thesis of Tomas Quintana, July 23, 1821: Porositas

relativa potest satis demonstrari minime vero absoluta. : ,

93 Aristotle in his De caelo had denied that the difference in bodies could be attributed to the shapes of atoms. |

SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION 19] dent Vandin, who is followed here, preferred to fall back on “first matter” and form of Aristotle as the explanation of the beginning.” Students duly noted the Leibnitzian revision of the Cartesian view, with the monad—neither material nor extended, but both corporeal and spiritual—taking the place of the mechanists’ infinitely divisible atoms. Thus it is not surprising to find them denying that matter consisted of the “inextended points” of Zeno or the monads of Leibnitz.* Sir Isaac Newton had revived the atomic theory of Democritus. Stu-

dents, following Aristotle in insisting that matter was divisible to 94 AGG, Al. 8-12, 12798, 1924. Thesis of Dionisio José Mensia, April 30, 1787:

Elementa non atomis Gazendi, nec particulis Carthessis sed materia et forma Aristotelica constant; duoqe sunt graviora duoge leviora. Ibid. Thesis of José Domingo Vandin, December 9, 1786: Democritus Duce Leusipio ex atomis entia compaginari sustinuerunt. Epicurus etiam hanc sententiam, olimpiade CIX. iterum evulgavit. Haecque sententia (Multos per annos) fuit oblibione sepulta. Donec saeculo XVII. Gazendus, & Obbessius hanc emortuam sententiam a feretro suscitarunt. Praesipui istius novitatis authores, Petrus Gazendus, Renatusque Descartes, qui quidem prorsus disparate relatam sententiam explanarunt. Gazendus omnia ex corpusculis tenuissimis entitative prorsus in ceptilibus, compaginari asseruit. Ipsaque corpuscula alia denominavit quadrata alia hamata plena uncinulis. Exquibus volantibus in vacuum, atque sese invicem comprehendentibus, omnia entia naturalia coalescerent. Carthesius vero unam rerum omnium fuisse materiam, valdeque extensam, extensione quidem indefinita cogitavit. Hanc a Deo in minutissimas partes a principio, fuisse divisam asseveravit. Siquidem vacuum impossibile judicat,

& in angulosas partes solum dividi potuisse. Ipsisque Deum duos impraesisse motus, quibus ad peculiare, communeque centrum moverentur affirmat. Caeterum in perenni motu, attritis angulis partium, rotundas partes, evasisse commemorat. Sedenim ex continua partium fractione, tria elementa emanasse propugnat. Primum, materia subtilis, ad instar exilis pulveris ex contussis angulis efformatum. Secundum,

globulosa materia, ex rotundis partibus constitutum. Tertium, ramenta decisa, cornum plena, hisque partes sese connectunt. Exparticulis ergo horum elementorum omnia entia naturalia fieri voluit; verumtamen non omnia ex omnibus fieri statuit. Igitur ex materia primi elementi solem fieri afixas Stellas Ignita, lucidaque omnia censuit. Ex secundo Aeterea corpora, sicut ex tertio omnia Opaca, Terram, Planetas quoque produci meditatus est. Has praefatas jam sententias acriter recusamus, etsi Pater Maynam, Saguens, Habert, Bochart, Votius, & alij ob certas, verasque collaudent. Praeter jam dictos, plures inveniuntur Philosofi prima principia nostris opposita propugnantes. Thales Milesius aquam rerum omnium esse principium substinuit. Phaerecides Terram, Anaximenes, aerem, Heraclitus ignem rerum omnium esse principia stabilierunt. Xenofanes, Parmenides, & Melissus quatuor elementa cognoverunt esse prima rerum principia. Enipodes ignem, & aerem, Hippo ignem, aquam, & terram prima entis principia defensarunt. Nos demum cum Phylopho materiam primam, formamque substantialem principia entis sustinemus. 95 AGG, Al. 8-12, 12834, 1935. Thesis of Martiniano Garcia, July 20, 1810:

Materia non constat ex puntis inestensis seu Zenonicis, neque ex monadibus Leibnitzianis. Materia est in infinitum dividua. AGG, Al. 8-12, 12831, 1934. Thesis of Juan Esteban Milla, February 12, 1807.

| 192 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA | infinity, by implication contradicted Newton. At the same time, they could say that the elements of bodies seemed indivisible.** Evidence of unrest and uncertainty, and absence of the old stilted peripatetic - complacency, crops up in the students’ admission that they “by no means” rejected certain “great ingenuities” of the ancients which were followed by such moderns as Gassendi and Newton.*? Openminded_ ness is as much as could be expected on such a subject at that time.

| Heat

It was a doctrine of the ancients, especially of “atomists” like Leucippus and Democritus, that the differences in substances were due to the relative rarity or density of particles or atoms. Heat and cold, having such an obvious relation to contraction and expansion

were, therefore, bound to take a well-nigh dominant place in the discussions of Peripatetics. In the Aristotelian tradition fire was itself an element, an irreducible substance, and cold, as the opposite of heat,

was “an absolute accident.” | a | When Guatemalan students discussed the phenomenon of heat

in 1785 and 1792, they took care to point out that they did not agree with the scholastic view. On the other hand, they clearly indicated that they shared the caloric theory of heat, with just a touch of the less plausible Cartesian explanation, to which most of the learned world subscribed until the middle of the nineteenth century. Under

this caloric theory, heat was a highly elastic fluid having minute par7 ticles which every combustible body must contain and which were attracted by matter, repelled each other, and supposedly had weight.

Thus a substance without heat could receive it from the outside, and the particles now in fierce agitation and conflict created heat which | | flowed into the pores of other bodies with varying degrees of rapidity, , thereby establishing equilibrium of heat between the hot and the | cold body. Acceptance of the caloric theory meant the contradiction of the more modern view of Robert Boyle (1627-1691), developed by

Joseph Black (1728-1799) and Count Rumford (1753-1814), that

insecabilia. , a -

96 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12853, 1987. Thesis of José Maria Cacho y Morejon, September 6, 1821: Materia est in infinitum dividua. Corporum elementa videntur physice

| 97 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12797, 1923. Thesis of Domingo Cafias, March 16, 1785: , Hune magni ingenij Filosofum ex veteribus aliqui; ex Recentioribus Petrus Gazendus, atque Newtonus sequuti fuere: id nos ipsi neutiquam improbamus, ,

SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION 198 heat was a kind of motion.®* In the case of cold, the students asserted

categorically that they did not now subscribe to the view that cold was the “absolute accident” of the scholastics, but when they first began to discuss the question they did regard cold as something positive, consisting of particles.°° This was a natural counterpart of the caloric theory. It is illuminating to see how easy it was for the Guatemalan student to accept an improvement upon Aristotelian physics. One can hardly blame him if he did not go beyond the prevailing doctrine in the most advanced circles of the learned world. By the end of the eighteenth century, signs of shifting from the caloric theory appeared. Less emphasis was placed upon the substance, so essential to the exponents of the caloric theory, and more and more upon movement per se. After 1800 the definition of heat became standardized on the basis of the physics of Almeida,’ although

the caloric theory which this authority accepted had been common 98 [bid. Thesis of Juan Francisco Gonzalez Castro, February 10, 1785: Calor non consistit in motu celeri, perturbato, & expansivo partium corporis incalescentis.

Calor in ea entitate positus formaliter est, cujus vi, & energia, dilantur corpora, quaeque, eorumque internae partes perturbate agitantur. Definitio caloris, quae vulgo a Scholasticis traditur nobis minime placet. Calor nihil est diversum a corpusculis molle exilissimis, figura rotundis, celerrimo expansivo, perturbatoq. motu affectis. Corpus itaque actu calidum est, quatenus plura in se continet corpuscula, praedictis motibus agitata. Calorificum dicitur corpus, quatenus ex illo erumpunt quoquoversus supradicta corpuscula. Substantia omni penitus calore destituta, calorem recipit ab extrinseco, quatenus per actionem extrinseci agentis, illi adveniunt, ejusque poros subeunt rotunda corpuscula, celerrime agitata. Particulae, in quibus celerrime, expansive, & perturbate agitatis calor consistit, sunt corpuscula sulphuris elementaris. Calor non aeque facile omnia corpora penetrat, sed difficilius pervadit dura quam fluida. Incalescere nequeunt fluida, quin minimae illorum partes tumultuarium motum concipiant. Calor est substantia impenetrabilis; non vero accidens absolutum in sensu scholastico. AGG, Al. 3-12, 12811, 1926.

Thesis of José Maria Alvarez, April 23, 1792. |

99 AGG, Al. 8-12, 12797, 1928. Thesis of Juan Francisco Gonzalez Castro, February 10, 1785: Frigus in sola ignis, sive caloris privatione haudquaquam consistit. Frigus est aliquod reale positivum, quod minime inter accidentia absoluta Scholasticorum locum habet. Frigus consistit in corpusculis, molle exilissimis, eaque figura affectis, quae sit planis superficiebus, acutos, aut rectos solidos angulos constituentibus terminata. 100 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12822, 1930. Thesis of José Patricio Villatoro, August 26, 1801: Calor consistit in minimarum corporis partium motu tremulo agitatarum.

... AGG, Al. 3-12, 12824, 1931. Thesis of Lino Garcia, January, 1803: De Physica generali P. D. Theodori Almeida, ex primo volumine operis sui petita, dabitur roganti. . . . Calor, ab insensilium corporis partium motu tremulo, ab igneis particulis affecto, procedit.

194 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA | property of Guatemalan students since the time of the Aleas controversy in the eighties. Either the students said that heat consisted of the tremulous motion of the smallest parts of the body or they simply cited Almeida or gave his definition without explanation.*™

Mechanics | As in the case of astronomy, there is much evidence that mechanics, particularly optics and hydrostatics, was taught before Goicoechea’s personal reforms and certainly before theses in these subjects were

defended in the University. Fuentes y Guzman claims that the religious, including his teacher, the Jesuit Salvador de la Fuente, had taught these subjects before the expulsion of the Society and before Goicoechea had received his first degree.‘ The simple principles of hydrostatics were eventually stated and defended in examinations | for the degree of bachelor of arts under the heading of physics.*°* The

| problem of the weight and pressures of liquids continued one of considerable interest to students down to the independence period,’™ although before long candidates ceased to state the principles they

intended to uphold and simply agreed to defend the sections in mechanics and hydrostatics appearing in Lugdunensis and the Recre-

traduntur. ationes philosophicae of Almeida.1”

| 101 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12823, 1981. Thesis of José Manuel de Cafias, January 15, 1802: Quae de Calore et Frigore in Tom. 2 Vesp. 8. Pat Teod. de Almeyda 102 Francisco Antonio de Fuentes y Guzman, Recordacidn florida, discurso historial y demostracién natural, material, militar y politica del Reyno de Guatemala, — _ 2d ed. (Biblioteca “Goathemala,” VI, VII, and VIII; Guatemala, 1932-1933), ITI, 485. See also AGG, Al. 3-9, 12633, 1905. 103 AGG, Al. 8-12, 12818, 1927, Thesis of Francisco Antonio de Merino, January, 1794: Quando corpus ejusdem est gravitatis specificae, ad fluidum in quo immergi-

tur, tunc debet in aequilibrio constitui, quocumque in fluidi loco versetur. Si fluido specificae gravius est, fundum petat necesse est: si vero levius, debet sursum

ascendere. Corpus eam amittit ponderis sui partem, quae aequalis est gravitati paris voluminis fluidi, cujus locum occupat. Si corpus diversis immergatur fluidis majorem sui ponderis partem debet amittere in fluido graviori, quam in leviori. 104 AGG, Al. 8-12, 12822, 1930. Thesis of José Ignacio de Rivera, April, 1801. AGG, Al. 3-12, 12826, 1932. Thesis of José Bernardo Asmitia, February, 1804: Aeque premunt liquida sursum, deorsumque, et versus latera. Pressio autem eorum in basim ex eorumdem altitudine aestimanda est, et basi. Aer est gravis, ut ex Toricelliani phoenomenis tubi comprobatur. AGG, Al. 3-12, 12840, 1936. Thesis of

Melchor Sandoval, March 17, 1813. . .

105 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12822, 1930. Thesis of José Leandro Pais, June, 1801. AGG,

Al. 8-12, 12824, 1931. Thesis of José Maria de Estrada, February, 1803. AGG, | Al. 3-]2, 12827, 1982. Thesis of Miguel Gonzalez, May 2, 1804. ,

SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION 195 Electricity Discoveries in electric phenomena aroused curiosity everywhere. Experimentation with generated electricity, rather than with lightning, looked to an explanation of the nature of electricity. Nevertheless, in Guatemala the earliest references to the subject in the records of the University concern lightning, which was regarded as a kind of sulphurous fume exploded by fermentation. Shooting stars, burning suddenly aloft, were mere “igneous globules” and _ therefore related to lightning.1°%° It seemed perfectly natural, following Aristotle,°’ to distinguish the “flashing flame of lightning” from the “violent

breaking of the air.” *°* But electrical research had made such unprecedented progress in the course of the middle eighteenth century that Spanish-American students were still taking up and repeating some of the preliminary hypotheses. Franklin had supposed, in the case of storms, that the electricity, created by the friction of salt and water, had been carried to the clouds by vapors from the sea. That this concept was restated in Guatemala in 1794 by José Cecilio del Valle,*°° a young student who was destined to become a precursor of learning and independence in Central America, is but another proof that the eighteenth century did not lack the means to make the latest discoveries available and that those connected with Franklin were almost worshipfully received. The belief that electricity was a form of matter or, as the seventeenth-

century physicists had conjectured, a kind of effluvia, was naturally transferred to America. A related theory that electricity or other physical

phenomena which could not be weighed were “imponderable substances” required an enormous amount of experiment to dislodge. Electric “fluid,” as Franklin had called it when developing his one106 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12797, 1923. Thesis of José Francisco Gonzalez Castro, February 10, 1785: Fulgur oritur ex sulphurea exhalatione, quae simul in aere collecta repente fermentationis ope accenditur. Stellae decurrentes sunt ignei quidam globuli, qui in sublimi aere repente accenduntur. 107 De mundo, ch. 4. 108 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12798, 1924. Thesis of José Domingo Vandin, December 9, 86.

re AGG, Al. 3-12, 12813, 1927. Propositiones de rebus naturalibus defendendae a D. Josepho Cecilio del Valle. Sub disciplina D. Josephi de Leon & Goicoechea Th. Doct. & Ph. Prof. Guatemalae, M.DCC.XCIV.: Electrum est bitumen sive cinereum sive flavum, e sinu maris ad littora ascendens, liquidi primum, duri deinde speciem repraesentans.

PF.OPOSITIONES PHILOSOPHIC AR, Pro Baccalaurcatés gradu obtinendo @ D, Ludovico Quintanilla,

EX LOGICA —

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. | Bheephemns EX ETHICA | peecat contra virtutem religionis. a Tlicitum cst suieidium. | -

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_ Imprimatur. Oo Dr. Batres. Hord ona. Apud Bracamonte.

| Bachelor of Arts Theses of Luis Quintanilla ,

SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION 197 fluid theory of electricity, was a very delicate body which attracted

or repelled and was created by the friction of two bodies rubbed together.""°

Cecilio del Valle showed that he understood the nature of positive and negative electricity, which he called ideoelectric, or vitreous, and

anelectric. He discussed conductors as developed up to that time and explained the use of the principle of lightning rods—pararayos —as conceived by Franklin for the protection of houses. His contention that electricity aided vegetable growth—perhaps by affording more warmth—indicates that he was aware of the experiments undertaken along this line by the Abbé Nollet.*** As natural in a country

where the capital had been destroyed three times by earthquakes, he discussed the relation between “electric fluid” and earthquakes.1” The subject of electricity was so complicated that, when discussed, increasingly long propositions were devoted to it. Theses on the subject, appearing with increasing frequency after 1785, took on something of the nature of a dissertation. In 1806, Juan Fermin de Ayzinena, who launched such a diatribe against the Copernican and Newtonian systems, dropped the disdainful tone he generally used on the great

discoverers and discussed electricity with respect. He gave every evidence of following the eighteenth-century experiments when he defined electricity as that property which, when bodies such as amber are rubbed together, attracts and repels, producing negative and posi-

tive qualities, and when agitated in a machine gives off sparks. In fact, he referred specifically to the “experiments of the learned” which

had reduced the phenomenon to a set of rules. He took the position that electricity varied with the condition of bodies, weather, or climate,

and that the intensity of gravity varied in proportion to the distance from the poles and the equator.'* 110 [bid. See also ibid. Thesis of José Maria de Beltranena, November 14, 1794: Fluidum electricum est corpus subtilissimum, ignitae conditionis, attrahendi repellendique vim corporibus concilians, quae aut perfricata sunt, aut perfricatis conjuncta.

111 [hid. Thesis of José Cecilio del Valle, 1794: Quod attinet ad aeconomiam animalem & vegetalem, electricitas promovet vegetationem plantarum, contra easque affectiones vim maximam habet, quae contractionis, paralysis, suppressionis, aliisque id genus titulis donantur. 112 [bid.: Non levis pariter est similitudo inter fluidum electricum & causam terraemotus. 113 AGG, Al. 8-12, 12830, 1933. Thesis of Juan Fermin de Ayzinena, July 21, 1806: Electricitatis Vocabulo intelligimus proprietatem illam, quae in aliquibus

offenditur corporibus, quae defricata, levia ad se trahunt, qualis est ambar, seu Succinus.

198 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA , On the cause of something as spectacular as electricity every experimenter pondered. To the scholastic mind, especially a neoscholastic like Ayzinena, accustomed to think in terms of a hierarchy of “causes, the nature of electricity was an absorbing subject. He believed that the cause of electric phenomena was not the emission of material effluvia, friction, the vibration and equilibrium of the air,

or disseminated fire, but the vapors in the air ignited around the rubbed bodies.*** Here he was apparently discounting some of the earlier thinkers in the field of electricity, and his reference to the disturbance and equilibrium of the air was aimed to counter Euler and Huygens that the source of electric energy was the ether. Electric phenomena were so demonstrable and visible that not even the favorite pupil of the intransigent Fray Luis de Escoto dared to contradict them altogether as he did in the case of the theories of Copernicus and Newton. It was when he reached the medical pros-

pects in electricity, which he, as a candidate for the degree of bachelor of arts, gratuitously introduced as a subject of concern to all, that he allowed his spleen against the modernists to re-emerge. There is little doubt that Escoto held a grudge against all who protested his appointment in 1803 and that every true modernist in Guate-

mala was against him. Among these, medical men like Flores and Esparragosa stand out most conspicuously. Flores, attracted by the electrical experiments of Galvani with dead frogs, had gone to Europe

to pursue “Galvanism” and to collect improved apparatus for the Experientia eruditorum, ope & studio comparata, haec jucunda electricitatis —

praesentat phoenomena. : I. Corporum quaedam originaliter electrica, seu ideoelectrica: quaedam simperielectrica, anelectrica, seu electrica per participationem. II. Electricorum originaliter, tres esse ordines. III. Juxta Anonimum quemdam, electrica originaliter v. g. Christallum, non nisi

aegre fieri anelectrica, seu participare electricitatem. , IV. Attrahunt, & repellunt levia; prodit lux quaedam in corporibus vexatis in machina, quae Flocus, & scintilla audiunt. V. Electricitas variatur pro varietate aeris, climatum, tempestatum, corporum, colorum: variis, miris, sed certis propagatur legibus: corpora originaliter electrica, in quibus plura instituta fuerunt tentamina, anno sequenti veluti mortua, hoc est anelectrica, sine excitabilitate etiam post diligentissimas experientias apparuerunt, imo, ni fallor, varia est pro distantia a polis, & aequatore. 114 Ibid.: Propositio: Causa verosimilior horum phoenomenorum non est efluviorum emissio, e corporibus vexatis, non vibratio admosphaerae, aerisque aequilibrium, neque ignis ubique disseminatus: sed explicari debent, nosque explicabimus, per exhalationes, quae sunt in aere, & circum corpora vexata accenduntur.

SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION 199 study of physics in Guatemala. A symbol of the modernists, he was expressly interested in the possibilities of the use of electricity in medicine. So Ayzinena, while admitting that it was a common hope of moralists, theologians, and scientists to treat diseases with electricity, to accelerate the pulse, to remove some parts of the body, to give life to the lethargic, to relieve gout, and to create fever with electric force, nevertheless, thought all of this was a mere concoction of dotards and idiots. Post-mortem experiment was meaningless and experiment with live human beings was difficult. He therefore closed his arguments against the “miserable experiment” of Turrius along these lines with the thoroughly scholastic observation that, in the cure of the sick, to choose the less probable instead of the more probable was not admissible. Ergo, curing the sick by electricity was not licit.145

Light and Color The phenomena of light, sight, and color have been analyzed from such varying points of view that the changing ideas concerning them are a good index to the whole philosophical and scientific transition of

the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The ancients passed on to the modern world two theories of light. One, that of the Epicureans, held light to be “a succession of thin films” which made a “continuous impression” upon the eye. The other, that of Aristotle, regarded light

as a condition of the medium between eye and object. Francesco 115 [bid,: DIGRESSIO-MEDICO-PHISICO-MORALIS: Phisicam, Theologiae, morali, coe-

terisque scientiis, medicinae, praecipue, inservire, communis est omnium hominum idea, & judicium: tali absdubio principio ducti plures phisici, tentarunt vi electrica curare morbos, experientia ipsa magis ac magis eos impellente: pulsum accelerari, partes corporum abradi, vitam letargicis, & podraga laborantibus restitui, & tandem febrim creari vi electrica, res est, de qua etiam vetulae, & idiotae fabulantur. Igitur Turrius experimentis electricismi ab ipsomet institutis binos homines curandos suscepit: sed quam infausta minerva! ambo in pace requiescunt, Accedit testimonium celeberrimi viri medici Wanswietem, qui post mortes, combustiones, & varia spectris magicis non dissimilia de electricitate relata, subnectit: haec tamen docent summa hic cautela opus esse, nec in humano corio ludendum facile novis experimentis.

His minime obstantibus, homines scimus, quibus novitatis idolum tanti est, ut desiderio captandae futilis laureae omnia subjiciant, sacrificentque. Istis ergo praesentem proponimus discussionem: eorum successibus fortunatissimis, Turrii miseram experientiam contraponimus; & suis quibuscumque argumentis clamamus: in medicinae praxi, haud licitum esse sequi opinionem minus proba-

bilem, probabiliori relicta: ergo in medendis morbis, vis electrica illicita est? illicita.

200 ‘THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA

Maria Grimaldi (1618-1663) had first suggested that light was wavelike and periodic in its nature. The Newtonian theory that light was a an emission of corpuscles or particles stirred up in the luminous body,

while long since abandoned by modern theorists, was already the vogue in Guatemala when light first began to be discussed in the University. Not only did the students there adhere to the view that — light consisted of corporeal particles,1‘® to which Hooke and Newton

subscribed, but they distinguished “first light’ (lux primitiva) from “derivative light” (lux derivativa)—the one, the nature of a body

by which it gives light, the other consisting of the vibratory motion of a very subtle fluid of agitated parts of the luminous body. The

| substance of the medium, it must be noted, was an otherworldly element separate from the air, a distinction that students who had | read of ether in Aristotle’s Physics had no difficulty in understanding. —

, But, as experience here in the United States with the theory of evolu! tion so fully shows, there are always those who oppose a change in . | the concepts of nature as somehow sinful, especially when advanced by people they dislike. So it was in Guatemala that the reactionary student Vandin rejected the emission theory of light in an act presided over by the Dominican friar, Felipe Gutiérrez.1™’ , Guatemalan students not only subscribed to the corpuscular theory,

but they followed Grimaldi and his disciples in suggesting that the | propagation of light was periodic or successive in its nature.‘** They also understood the principle that the intensity of light decreases as

| . 116 AGG, Al. 8-12, 12797, 1928. Thesis of José Francisco Gonzalez Castro, February 10, 1785: Lux primitiva est illa affectio, per quam formaliter corpus est - luminosum. . . . Lux derivativa consistit in motu vibratorio cujusdam subtilissimae, fluidissimae, apprime elasticae, atque in immensum quoquoversus diffusae

, _ substantiae, ab agitatis innatantis lucidi corporis partibus illi impresso. Haec sub, stantia ab aere prorsus diversa, creata fuit a Deo, replet immensa coelorum spatia - exilissimosque cujus vis corporis poros penetrat. . . . Luminis propagatio ex eo non fit, quod subtilissima quaedam corpuscula ex lucido corpore erumpentia, per

medium, qd illuminatur, continué diffundantur. —- . |

117 AGG, Al. 8-12, 12798, 1924. Thesis of José Domingo Vandin, December 9, 1786: Lux est qualitas nobilissima, & omnium pulcherrima omnino a_ substantia distincta. Ergo non est minutissima substantia, quae caeleriter agitata vibrationem _

in nostris oculis efficit. | So 118 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12811, 1926. Thesis of José Maria Alvarez, April 28, 1792:

Lux constituenda est in particulis corporeis. Lux consistere videtur in particulis

substantialibus,. quae a corpore luminoso profluentes, ab eo veluti a centro, _ difunduntur celerrimo motu. Lucis propagatio sit successive. AGG, Al. 8-12, | 12818, 1927. Thesis of Antonio de la Fuente, January 23, 1794: Lux in particulis corporeis est constituenda. Lucis. propagatio non instantanea, sed successiva est. |

OR PRO EXAMINE Ad Bacce. in philosophia obtinendum D. Josephus Cornellius Ballesteros defendet Sequentes propusitiones

Ex Legica

Voces non sunt signa naturalia, sed artificialia. Cum sola recentiorum regula quicumque sillogismi defectus invenirl potest. Ex Metaphysica

Nulla est natio in omni Orbe terraquxo, qu existentiam aliculus ents sopremi negare, audeat. Absque Dei providentia admirabilis hujus universi machina existeTe non potest. Ex Ethica Licitum cst pro vita defendenda, iniustum aggressorem occideret cum moderamine inculpate tutelz Ad dandum verum Deo cultum, non solum requiruntur actus externi, sed etiam iiterni. Ex Physica

Lux non est materia ztherea, sed ipse ignis ut sentiunt Newtoniani.

Dum major est velocitas, in corpore circulariter moto major est ejus vis centrifuga. _

In R. et Pont. S. C. Guat. Academia. Sub dicsiplina, P. Fr. Josephi Antonij Orellana,

Mensis Jannuatij Dies Anni DD M.DCCCIL - _[mprimatur.

Dr. Garcia Rector.

SPDPOUP PDIP O MOSS Ex Thypographia beredum de Arevalo. Examination Handbill of José Cornelio Ballesteros

202 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA the square of the distance from the luminous body.’*® Abandonment of Aristotle is plain in the thesis of Juan Miguel de Fiallos, a student

working under the direction of José Simeon Cafias. His view on the subject of light, as well as the many other points of modern science

which he discussed in his long thesis, was up-to-date. The retina, not the “christalin” and “choroid” humors of the scholastics, was the most “powerful organ” of sight. Light was not a quality, but a substance coming from a luminous body.'?° In Guatemala, then, in the. late eighteenth century the corpuscular theory of light was fully accepted. The eighteenth-century physicists of Europe, convinced that Newton was on their side, accepted some form of this hypothesis, but

they ignored the important place he gave etheric waves in the ex-

planation of the phenomena of light.1*+ | ,

In the conception of color these colonial students had to face less difficulty. Down to the time of Kepler there was no satisfactory explanation of color. Such explanations as there were did not change

the Aristotelian concept that color was the result of a mixture of light and dark.’?? When the student broke with Aristotle, therefore, he was brought up to date with startling rapidity and completeness. As late as 1785 and 1786, he was still troubled with Aristotelian views,

and some, like the misguided Vandin, openly denied that color consisted of the modification of light.1?* However, the constant refrain of students was that color was, as Newton had shown by dividing white light with a prism, merely modified white light.17* One reason

lucido. . .

119 AGG, Al. 8-12, 12811, 1926. Thesis of José Gabriel de Santa Cruz, March 6, 1792: Vis, seu densitas luminis, decrescit, prout crescit quadratum distantiae; id est, vis luminis semper est in ratione inversa quadrati distantiarum a corpore 120 AGG, Al. 8-12, 12818, 1927. Thesis of Juan Miguel de Fiallos, February 11,

1794: Retina videtur potissimum visus organum; non humor christalinus, nec choroides. . . . Lux non est qualitas; sed substantia a luminoso corpore profluens. 121 Abraham Wolf, A History of Science, Technology, and Philosophy in the

122 Ibid, p. 244. 7 | |

Eighteenth Century (New York, 1939), p. 161. |

123 AGG, Al. 8-12, 12798, 1924. Thesis of José Domingo Vandin, December 9,

1786: Quinetiam Color non consistat in certa lucis modificatione, ut Epicurus, Democritus, Gazendus, pluresque Recentiores fatentur. Verum nec in motu recto |

luminis circulari plurium particularum radiorum, ut Carthesius docet. | 124 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12800, 1925. Thesis of José Valdés, January 29, 1790: Color non est nisi lux modificata. AGG, Al. 3-12, 12813, 1927. Thesis of Juan Miguel de

Fiallos: Colores sunt ipsius lucis radii modificati. ,

SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION 208 for the contradictory presentation of so important a theme as light may be that Lugdunensis vacillated. Descartes’s views were “ingenious, but not proved experimentally. Newton’s theory “involved him in difficulties.” +*5 Very little was known about light and this emphasis upon ignorance was not unbecoming. 125 Tugdunensis, Institutiones philosophicae, V, Pars III, Dissertatio I, pp. 129, 184-186.

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Part Four

ACADEMIC MEDICINE

ay

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Introduction

IN AN unpublished letter found in the Trent Collection, Edward Jenner tells an English nobleman (presumably the Duke of York) that “among other documents you will find one from Spain, in the form of a Supplement to the Madrid Gazette which will account for the rapid manner in which the Vaccine Practice was disseminated throughout South America. The Spaniards, whom one would have thought would have been the last people to take up this matter with any degree of ardor, were in reality among Europeans, the first.” Guatemalans, in spite of their relative isolation, had a part in such extraordinary medical developments. They first suggested the Balmis smallpox-vaccinating expedition to which Jenner alludes, without doubt

the most spectacular medical event in the Americas up to that time. The tragedy was that the supply of physicians and surgeons never even approximated the need in Guatemala or any other kingdom of the Empire. With one doctor to each 50,000 population, and these nearly all in one or two cities, the masses, if anything, benefited from medicine

less than from any other branch of higher education. It is, nevertheless, whimsical to say with the satirists that since doctors killed more than they cured, this lack of medicine was a blessing. Though the science was limited, a trained physician could have helped in the many towns where there was none at all. Teachers in the University of San Carlos tried valiantly and alone to make up this deficiency. In their dedication, they carried on re207

208 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA

search at their own expense. Surviving student notes and medical theses show that medicine, even more than physics, kept abreast of European advancements and made modest contributions to anatomy and obstetrics. The faculty of medicine, without help from European doctors, finally developed a series of physicians who would have been the jewel of an English colony and a credit to any mother country in the eighteenth century. Despite the low prestige of the profession, medicine eventually won respect, became the best index to the penetration of the Enlighten-

ment, and, as a hint of the future, even achieved political power. _ Every progressive coterie in the country numbered a medical doctor among its members. The brilliant conception of the protomedicato died aborning, yet colonial medicine did reach a climax of influence when Pedro Molina emerged as the republican leader after the constitutional convention in 1821.

Vil The “Latin”? Physician and

the Char of Medicine

A NOTE of scarcity runs through the whole medical history of Guatemala. The shortage of academic or “Latin” physicians began with the Conquest. In 1541 a “famous physician, surgeon, druggist, and herbalist” appeared there and set up a drugstore. Naturally he wrote the

prescriptions, tended the sick, and “examined pulses.” So many of his patients died that, regardless of the absence of any other medical help, he was forbidden to attend the sick. But in March of 1542, the town council agreed that, since there was no doctor, people might call this man at their own risk.

First Physicians and the Chair of Medicine Getting a doctor to come from one city to another was so momentous

that only the town councils negotiated the transfer. Thus, in 1595, the town council (ayuntamiento) of Mexico reached an agreement to pay the physician, Diego de los Rios, the sum of 1,200 ducats annually to serve in Guatemala? In 1616, the municipal government assigned a salary to the doctor in medicine, Lope de Ruiz, to attend the malefactors in the city jail. A few persons with medical education 1 Antonio de Remesal, Historia general de las Indias Occidentales, y particular de la Gobernacién de Chiapa y Guatemala, 2d ed. (Biblioteca Goathemala, IV, V; Guatemala, 19382), I, 255. 2 Pardo, Efemérides, p. 33. 209

| 210 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA a who appeared “accidentally” in Guatemala petitioned the ayuntamiento to accredit their titles.®

These expedients were obviously inadequate to take care of the European population of a single town and, in consequence, the town council (ayuntamiento ) found itself forced to return to the old device

of looking for doctors in Mexico. The outbreak of a great plague in Guatemala City in 1647, which carried off more than a thousand people, forced the city government to ask the audiencia and the religious orders to make contributions toward bringing in a Mexican physician.* Epidemic or no epidemic, the Mexican—Dr. Bartolomé Sanchez Parejo—would not come until, two years later, he got his traveling expenses. Even then the city attorney caused a complication when he went before the audiencia and opposed the naming of Sanchez Parejo as protomédico. In that capacity the newcomer had immediately issued a sweeping edict requiring all doctors, surgeons, physicians, druggists, and barbers to present their licenses to him. The town council was not a little nettled to find the whole medical life falling into the hands of an ungrateful outsider, especially since the ayuntamiento felt that, until the king named a protomédico, it retained its ancient right to review licenses and titles.® It was, perhaps, this custom of drawing upon Mexico for physicians that suggested the whole idea of holding oposiciones in Mexico City for the first chairs of the University of San Carlos.° The only candidate of the Mexican oposiciones actually named, José Salmeron y Castro, became the first professor of medicine. Since he never came down from Mexico, the Bachelor Nicolas de Souza took over the chair in 3 Bachelor Cristébal Tartaxo (1624), Bachelor Pedro Ramirez Delgado (1627), holding a title of April 6, 1614, from Valencia, Spain; Dr. Alonso Aragén (1683),

with title from Valencia. Ibid., pp. 48, 46, 48, 50. | |

4 As a result of the overtures of the ayuntamiento, the fiscal of the Mexican audiencia arranged in June of 1648 with Dr. Bartolomé Sanchez Parejo to come to Guatemala. The audiencia had to authorize the ayuntamiento to assign six hundred pesos for travel. It was not until January 18, 1650, that Sanchez title was accredited. 5 Pardo, Efemérides, pp. 58, 59, 60. In 1675 Sebastian de Sotomayor, also brought from Mexico, was received by the ayuntamiento.

6 For the story of these oposiciones, see my The University in the Kingdom of Guatemala, Chapter IV. The audiencia of Guatemala (Carta a S. M., 19 de julio de 1683. AGI, Guatemala, Legajo 186) proposed that the king send from Salamanca, Valladolid, or Alcala three professors—one for medicine, one for canon law, and one for civil law.

THE CHAIR OF MEDICINE 21] 1681, held it in a substitute capacity for seven years,” but prepared no students to practice. Between 1704 and 1821 the University awarded

the degree of bachelor of medicine to thirty candidates, the licentiate to twelve, and the doctorate to twelve. The authorities were so worried about the lack of physicians that they made extraordinary concessions. Even practitioners without formal training or titles sometimes got permission to “cure” at the risk of the

patient. When the bachelor in medicine, José Fernandez Guerrero, reported to the municipal government in 1669 that he could not care properly for the sick on account of the noise of horseshoeing and hammering, the ayuntamiento ordered the blacksmiths to leave the center of the City for the “Calle Ancha” of Jocotenango.®

Bickering and Strife in the Chair of Medicine The history of the chair of medicine, even more than that of arts or prima of theology, was torn by strife. Joseph de Medina, as a simple

bachelor of medicine (1712), became interim professor of medicine sometime within a year or two after Miguel Fernandez, a professor brought from Spain in 1688, retired into a religious house. One of the five bachelors of medicine trained by Medina, and certainly the most mean-spirited and ambitious, was Pedro Palacios y Cébar (B. Med., 1723 ).° In 1721, he had taken the bachelor of arts degree and, in 1722, the bachelor of theology.

As an ostentatious collector of degrees, Palacios became the first to aspire to the doctorate of medicine in the University of San Carlos. And he was the least qualified, for every man with a medical degree

on his bachelor’s committee put the brass “R” (“failed”) in the urn; | only the laymen voted “approved.” 1° Medina later accused Palacios of plagiarizing the disquisition he delivered on the occasion of his licentiate. Palacios’ intention to surpass the old master aroused the resentment of the easygoing Bachelor-Professor Medina, who himself had been eligible for two decades to try for the doctor’s degree. In

colonial days threatened prestige would arouse the indignation of 7 That is, until Miguel Fernandez, the proprietary professor, arrived from Spain. 8 Pardo, Efemérides, p. 79.

® The others were Manuel de Avalos y Porras (1723), Cristébal Hincapié (1724), Blas Rodriguez (1724), and José Antonio Estrada (1725). 10 Martinez Duran, Las ciencias médicas, p. 144.

212 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA the most somnolent. Thus forced, Medina took his licentiate and doctorate in 1733,1 but not until he and Palacios y Cobar had engaged

in a campaign of mutual defamation. When, after the death of Interim-Professor Medina, edicts announced the proposed filling of the chair of medicine, there began another controversy which reveals the acrid and—so it seems at this distance—petty rivalries often marking the professorial competition. While most of the members of the University community were out of town, Palacios, with his flair for the subterranean stimulated by his controversy with his old professor, began a plot to get the chair before a cloister meeting put an end to his chances. In that crucial interval he “went about publicly seeking votes,” as he had done in the cloister itself when he first solicited the chair. Dr. Manuel Trinidad de Avalos y Porras, the other candidate, suspecting “other collusions” might prejudice his chances, petitioned the president and audiencia to suspend the meeting of the cloister until enough of the absentees returned to afford a plurality in the voting.** The secretary of the University, Dr. Matias Sunsin de Herrera, as instructed, then made a census of the cloister to determine how many members were out of town. He reported more than ten absent, while the bedel who actually collected the data for him reported six absent and six “sick or busy.” Among these latter, surely, were some of the collaborators in Palacios’ scheme to grab the chair before the cloister could fully realize or control what was happening. So Palacios tried every legal trick to have the cloister called and the chair filled immediately. Thus hemmed in between the two contenders, the full cloister of doctors, masters, and councilors met on February 22, 1744, “around ten in the morning.”

To avoid deliberate absences, the University announced a fine of four pesos, deductible from the professors salaries or from the first fees _ ordinarily payable to members of the cloister, to be imposed on those

who did not attend. ,

Dr. Avalos y Porras was alarmed lest these deliberations end in

victory for the machinations of Palacios. He worked with zeal to see that the called meeting of the cloister was conducted on ethical stand. 11 Medina received the licentiate on April 8 and the doctorate on November 26, . 1733; Palacios y Cébar on April 12 and December 21, 1738; Avalos y Porras on

September 24, 1738, and March 9, 1734. | 12 AGG, Al. 3, 1149, 45. Autos fechos en Razon de la Provicion de la Cathedra de Medicina segun la determinacion de esta Real Audiencia Por el Claustro de esta Real y Pontificia Vniversidad de Sn. Carlos de esta Corte. Afio de 1744.

THE CHAIR OF MEDICINE 218 ards. He charged that Palacios was in “notorious collusion” with certain members of the cloister, that he was making every effort to get those not committed to him to absent themselves, as they had pre-

viously done. The bedels, too, were suspect. They either failed to notify many members of meetings or else notified them when it was too late to attend. They did not make the summonses in person, until the rector, in writing, required them to deliver the citations personally on pain of six pesos fine.

The fact that the audiencia intervened and ordered the chair filled favored Avalos. However, Palacios still hoped that by getting the election made in the cloister he could win by surprise when his friends

were in a majority there. This he did in November, 1743, when the cloister agreed by simple majority vote that it should fill the post. Palacios contended that since he had a suit pending, the place could only be filled ad interim. The cloister of February 22, 1744, reversed the November decision, since the voters then had been Palacios’ collaborationists, and voted eight to five to name a professor according to the statutes of the University, even though the appointment should be provisional. Palacios claimed, however, that, since the cloister could revoke its own act only with a three quarters vote and for just causes, he was the rightful holder and should not even pay a substitute while the suit was pending. After some slight delays, the University ordered * edicts posted calling for oposiciones within three days. In such a case,

the chair was bound to go to Dr. Avalos, who has the distinction of being the first to win this chair of medicine by oposicion.

Upon his death in 1776, the cloister voted to name the professor of prima of medicine ad interim, as well as those of canons and visperas of Institutes, without posting edicts for the oposiciones. The rector vetoed this infraction of the statutes on the grounds that the cloister had no authority to alter the regulations and that to maintain the chairs without filling them would only accentuate “the decadence the University was undergoing.” Nor could “the lack of medical stu-

chair vacant.'4 . dents” be taken as a justification, for fewer would appear with the 13. On March 10, 1744.

14 Libro de claustros, 1756-1790, claustro de consiliarios, 6 de abril de 1776, fols, 111v.—118. ,

214 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA

Scarcity and Prestige of “Methodical” Physicians Evidence of the scarcity of physicians after the founding of the University, and the trust placed in their science, appear in various pathetic little ways. The ayuntamiento in 1686 granted to Dr. Sebastian de Sotomayor “the grace of a fourth of a real of water” ** as a token

of its appreciation of his services. The ayuntamiento in 1694 refused to honor a permit from the audiencia enabling Miguel Fernandez to leave the City on the ground that the “inhabitants would be without

a doctor.” The presence of at least one doctor was a matter of life and death. In 1704 the physician and protomédico, Vicente Ferrer Gonzalez, petitioned the ayuntamiento for the favor of a “real” of water. When he died, he was interred in the temple of the College of Christ Crucified, with the members of the cloister of the University

and the town council in attendance upon his funeral. Dr. Cristobal de Hincapié Meléndez went to his final rest with great honor in the temple of the Mercedarian friars, yet in life he had a printing shop to piece out the income derived from the practice of medicine." Medical education, in a colony with a limited white population and relatively little produce that could be profitably exported, was bound to disappoint the more progressive spirits which the colony produced

in the last part of the eighteenth century. Pedro Molina, physician and precursor of the independence movement,!’ stepped into the breach on the very eve of independence, with a complete critique of medical education and a set of proposed reforms equally revealing. So, let us go to 1820, look back, and appraise colonial medicine with the eyes of Guatemala’s most famous living physician, and prescribe for the future. In that year Molina, a man with a conscience,**

reported that for the million inhabitants of the captaincy general there were “perhaps” eighteen physicians in the capital and all the provinces. The bulk of the inhabitants, owing to the poverty of the provinces, had as little medical attention as before “methodical medicine was invented.” This could only mean that the people were left

to a “blind empiricism.” Dr. Mariano de Larrave, nearly a decade 15 That is, as much as a pipe one-fourth the size of a real would carry into his house. It might run all the time. :

16 Pardo, Efemérides, pp. 103, 114, 181, 169, 243. 17 Carlos Gandara Duran, Pedro Molina (Guatemala, 1936). 18 AGG, Al. 4, 5824, 265. Plan que el Dr. Pedro Molina formuld para organizar

| el Real Colegio de Cirujia. Guatemala, 8 de abril de 1820.

MBDICAE Pp SUBST . GRADU IN FADE ACN ™ INENDAE PRO BACCALAUREATUS | LTATE OBTINENDO 4 D. PETRO JOSEPHO MOLINA

D8 REBUS NATURALIBUS. IX. . & ; LIBUS. DB BXPURGATIONE. M-tuum, sensationum origo ab igne Emeti b : gag

electiico cerebri repetenda enca ab SPontanco vomitu indicane

7" ° tur, si ultimus a causa facilé moe

DB REBUS NON NATURALIBUS. venda proveniat.

Campeotris aée sanitati tuendse est ape DB x sraus.

praegnatum seperimus. 1; :; iil acilis , liber , constansfacilis , ubique .aequalis, tior vital enim sive oxigeno illum ime Pulsus plenus , mollis, leniter repulsans, DB REBUS PRAGTER NATURA M, morbos pectorali evacuatione judicandos

Aliqui morbi ab excessu circulations F¢0tat. Solano ubs. 13. del pulso pece

orti, naturae molimina mortem avertere *°Fal- x

conantis esse demonstrant. DE URINIS,

DB FEBRIBUS, Urina tenuis , ruta , non subsidens in acue

tempore ab initio ad finem eaque soli Mee t©™ portendit. Boerh aph. 1016. 0. 4. dicus praesentem febrim judicat. Boerh. DB DIEBUS DBURBTORIS BT CRISL

aph. 570. In febribus ardentibus, si quarto die parca DE Locty APPECTIS sit haemorrayia earum exitum laethale Dolor est in ratione directa nervosae denotat. id. aph. ab compagis affectae quoad extensionem; in DE ANATOMB BT CHIRURGIA,

iuversa vero quoad intensitatem. In vulneribus pene omnibus sutura vitan« DE METHODS MEDENDI da. Pibrac mem. Sob. el abuso de las

Specificum medicamen praeter opium, COSturas. xIV. aliud hucusque inventum oullum. DE VIRIBUS MEDICAMENTORUM.

VIL. Mefitici :éris anticeptica vis putrefactio~ y PUTREDINE., . DBE. CO:TIONE, ET nem coércet. Inflammationis effectu mortuae 4 vivis DE sit L Separantur partes, efunditurque serosus Vermes reperiuotur in intestinis , caete~ humor, qui calore loci fermentationet: risque corporis partibus non ex putredine

pautur, & cheitur pis. nati, sed cibo , potu , vel aere ingest. XVL Helmontius erravit asserens, inedia cons Generantur animalia ex seine manu sequi, quod sanguinis missione efficitur: in feminarum ovis foto, o& enutrito.

-———— ne ee SS eee

In R. ac PB. G. Academia: Praeside D.D. Josepho A ntonio de CN Ncdico De 16,

Cath, per substitutionem Moderat. atque hujus Regal Act, Proto - Medico. ”

Mensis Junii ann. 3798. Imprimatur , Hora ya verpertion Dr. Ayzinena Restor. Bachelor of Medicine Theses of Pedro Molina

, 216 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA _ before, had categorically asserted that a return for medical services sufficient to allow the doctors to live with “decency and decorum” would at the same time free them from “distractions,” such as the , printing business of Dr. Hincapié Meléndez, and allow them to perfect

themselves in their field.1® Now Molina added his own jeremiad to this lament of poverty: Medicine has never enjoyed any prestige, and this is the greatest obstacle to its progress in Guatemala. His solution, despite his complaints against the age, is most typical of the time—he would concede honors and distinctions to deserving physicians. The man who relieves sick- _ nesses, in the public concept, is nothing more than un hombre vulgar,

perhaps because he is as much the servant of the beggar as of the powerful. Such a concept keeps many young men from studying medi-

cine, especially those who, considering themselves noble from the cradle up, do not wish to dim the lustre of their birth by dedicating themselves to servile employment. Neither can those who hope to

| achieve nobility through their money be persuaded to take up medi| cine as a profession, for they do not wish to lessen their social prospects. One is unable to resist the temptation to think that Molina, while undoubtedly telling the truth, here reflects a hypersensitiveness

springing from his illegitimate birth and, at the same time, takes a slight dig at families like the Ayzinenas, who acquired their titles

through wealth and educated their sons to law. The only remedy is for the government to extend to the medical profession the “distinctions which the rabble knows how to appreciate.” And the basis for this recognition should be public service, scientific accomplishment, probity, and application. The “professor” of medicine

should be no less than a model of culture—sensitive, honorable, industrious, and honored. The old legal requirement calling for reports ©

| on “the good customs” of the doctors has proved insufficient. a Molina feels that the matter of prestige has an economic significance

, as well. The chairs of theology and law have always carried higher. salaries than medicine in the scholastic universities. There is only one

chair of medicine in San Carlos and that badly provided for—four hundred pesos per annum for the proprietary professor and one hundred for his substitute. With the professor keeping three hundred, Molina, as substitute, can expect only one hundred. Such a penurious , 19 Archivo de la Facultad de Ciencias Juridicas y Sociales, Universidad de San Carlos. Plan del Dr. Mariano de Larrave. Guatemala, 28 de junio de 1811.

THE CHAIR OF MEDICINE — 217 salary causes disrespect for the chair—so much so that after the retirement of Flores, Dr. Larrave, who took it over with full salary, left it.

After him there was no one who would trouble to go through the oposicién and serve the chair until the rector and cloister decided to honor Molina by making him interim professor. After six years, no one has thought it worth while to call for and enter an oposicién. In short, since the reward is slight and the chair burdensome, none of the rest of the professors care for it.

Molina is colonial enough to know that it is in vain to suggest reforms unless he can offer means of financing them not involving the king’s exchequer. To make medicine more widely available, since every

village cannot have a doctor, he proposes to have one in the head town of each district (partido) who, in addition to working with people in general, will treat judges and curates. Besides, this official professor of the partido can assume the task of vaccinating the populace. In short, the work will assume the pattern already created in the practice of Cirilo Flores in Quetzaltenango. Thus the medical students, more numerous than ever, may quickly find good posts, once they are out of school, without congregating in the capital. The natives can pay from community funds designed to meet such special needs. Besides, each patient can pay the doctor in proportion to what he has. As in the case of every institution planned for the Indians, Molina proposes setting aside a tract of land for cultivation to support the doctor and to attach him more firmly than ever to the vicinity.

Since not even this will suffice to place medical men everywhere , needed, Molina accordingly believes that Leén, which has a new university with a chair of medicine, can provide many facultativos (trained medical men) if it is raised to the status of a protomedicato with the same privileges as that of Guatemala. Indeed, those who prepare to teach or practice medicine in Leon have to make the long, expensive trip to Guatemala to take the examinations. Unwilling to do this, many never come at all and proceed to practice without the license of the

protomedicato. This falsely stigmatizes them for their whole lives as quacks. But with a protomedicato they can take the examinations, get the required license, and practice with honor and self-respect.

Pedro Molina and the College of Surgery Molina’s solution of the problem of adequate medical personnel in Guatemala, however, turns principally upon the establishment of

218 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA

a College of Surgery and its proper adaptation to the medical curriculum of the University. He recalls that this college, which the king

ordered erected upon the basis of the statutes of those of Madrid, Cadiz, and Barcelona, is supposed to have nine professors, six regulars

(de ntimero) and three supernumeraries, with a librarian, director, anatomist, and secretary. But this institution, although authorized for

| years, has not materialized. ,

The first vice director of the College of Surgery, who was in effect director, Dr. Narciso Esparragosa, fully appreciated the financial and personnel difficulties of such a large establishment in Guatemala. In a plan addressed to the Junta Gubernativa de Cirugia, he reduced the number of professors to five, suppressing the other four and distributing their functions among those whom he would appoint. Eventually he cut the figure to three, including his own portfolio, financed with Indian-community funds. These means, of course, were not sufficient to support a college of surgery even on a limited footing. Faced with the failure of his dream, Dr. Esparragosa could think of nothing

better than to tax chocolate which, with reason, was disapproved. After the rejection of this levy, he proposed that the provinces pay the costs of sending some students who would eventually return and practice in these regions. But the provinces also were hard up, and nothing came of this reasonable idea. The College of Surgery had failed to avail itself of a fund of fifty thousand pesos in the “Casa de

Juarros,” intended for the foundation of a college of medicine but

allocated to it by the crown. 7 |

Molina admits that the college is not very useful as it is and frankly states that in the circumstances it will not be possible to set it up as projected. He recognizes that such establishments are secondary to

the growth of population, agriculture, and commerce. In short, the richest nations are the most cultured. Such reasoning leads him to believe that a college of surgery like those of Madrid, Cadiz, and Barcelona is not possible in Guatemala. In the eighteenth century nothing did so much to create interest in

surgery as military requirements, and few other pursuits provoked quite so much activity in this field. Molina knows of a military establishment in Spain which requires surgeons and forces adequate provision for them. Guatemala, on the other hand, has no such military — organization. Besides, Guatemala does not have the nine facultativos called for in the organization of the College of Surgery. It would be

THE CHAIR OF MEDICINE 219 ridiculous to strip Leén and San Salvador of theirs to complete the complement in Guatemala, even if there were funds to pay them. Surgeons in a place like Guatemala should be physicians as well and should not be clustered in one place. It is, then, the medical practitioner and the romancista (Romance surgeon—not educated in Latin) who fill the gap in Guatemala. And, of course, the medical man should enjoy any preference shown between these two. Of the three professors in the College, one, the vice director, teaches

operations, the second, the “five parts” of medicine, and the third, anatomy. Thus the student who has not studied in the University can-

not meet the requirements of the crown for practicing. For another thing, the complete separation of the College of Surgery from the University also separates the study of medicine from surgery. The professors of the College do not want to accredit University courses and expect the students to take anatomy and “elements of the faculty” over again with them. This repetition makes the course so long that it

discourages students. For example, in the fourteen years since the foundation of the College it has examined only four or five surgeons. Only one of these, a student who studied in the University, can qualify as a “Latin surgeon.” Molina concludes with the sorrowful reflection

that it is impossible to make a good living practicing in just one of the faculties. The logical conclusion is that they should be reunited. Molina wants some of the approved courses in medicine and surgery taught in the University to avoid duplication, rivalry, and confusion.

To this end he recommends the establishment of two new chairs in San Carlos, one of anatomy and one of surgery. The proper curriculum

will start the student with a complete year in anatomy. Those who merely want to be physicians will take a second year in surgery to acquire some idea of illnesses indicating surgery. Those desiring to be mere surgeons will take all four years in their own “halls.” If, how-

ever, they wish to become latinos, they may take two years in the chair of medicine after the initial year in anatomy in order to permit them to acquire the “elements and theory” of “mixed and internal diseases.” The romancista will take only the class in surgery. Those who want to be both physicians and surgeons should take one year of anatomy, two of medicine and surgery, and a fourth of medicine. All those aspiring to be both physicians and surgeons will, under this

plan, go to the hospital and hear the lessons on clinical practice and materia medica. Clinical practice for “Romance surgeons” will last

| 220 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA OO four years and begin simultaneously with the third year of studies. Latinos will “intern” for three years, and those combining both medi-

cine and surgery will serve the same length of time. } , The obligations of the professors, as set forth by Molina, reveal the up-to-date views of this precursor in clinical matters. While the

, duties of the professor of medicine are stated in the statutes of the | University, Molina is free to suggest new duties for the professor of surgery. Over and above the regular “reading” days in class, he would oblige the professor of surgery to make a dissection of a cadaver every fifteen days to supplement the knowledge the student might see in the artificial members and anatomical illustrations. To guarantee a certain fruitfulness, the professor of surgery will present one or two students in a public examination in anatomy and surgery, alternating the

subjects in his class. — | a |

The suggestions for the conduct of the clinical observations could hardly be more modern. The professor in this branch of study, while

alternating his instruction between practical medicine and materia medica, would designate patients best suited for observations in both

| pathology and therapeutics. But most surprisingly, all practicing doctors and surgeons would keep the most exacting history in these cases,

given him. , ,

both of the condition of the patient and the medicine and treatment __ Reformers in American universities felt that failure of the professor to submit his charges to public examination and exhibition was a sign

| of decadence. Molina plans, in keeping with this tradition, that every semester one practicante will undergo an examination at the hands of

all holders of medical degrees and explain the illnesses and the reme- :

dies or operations indicated. , ,

Under Molina’s plan regular students of medicine and surgery will continue to graduate in the University. However, the University will incorporate in its statutes the proper article 2° of the ordinances of the royal colleges of surgery in Spain to govern the awarding of the bachelor’s degree in surgery. Although all the pomp and circumstance _

, _ prescribed in the University statutes will be faithfully observed in | _ the ceremonies, the doctor’s degree in surgery will be based on an

, adaptation of the same ordinances. The candidate will deposit one hundred pesos fuertes for the money box of the University. Chapter 7

20 Article 6, Chapter 9. ,

THE CHAIR OF MEDICINE 22] of the ordinances of the College of Surgery will govern the conduct of “oppositions” (competitions ).

Salaries throughout the colonial period remained static, but it is obvious from Molina’s suggestions that the time has come for change. By such devices as paying four hundred pesos to the chief protomédico, who actually collected a salary as professor of prima of medicine, by combining two salaried posts, and by making some slight increases, he hopes to raise professors salaries from eight hundred to a thousand pesos a year. Some eagerness to make the benefits of medical education available

to the common people is discernible in all this. Under the plan, the protomédico will see that the master bleeders have their students learn

to pull teeth, put on caustics and cupping glasses or leeches, and master the art of phlebotomy under the direction of a master of surgery. Likewise, the master or chief surgeon (cirujano mayor) will teach obstetrics privately in his own house and assign a midwife to each beginner so that she can begin to learn the details of the office.

In the case of the death of a pregnant woman in the hospital, the master surgeon shall perform an autopsy of the uterus and related parts, and the prospective midwives shall attend. To prevent abuse, after this teaching is once begun, no bleeder or midwife may practice

independently until after three years of apprenticeship. Then the protomedicato will examine and license the candidates. Once all the reforms proposed are made, four hundred pesos will still remain in the ramo de comunidades. Molina proposes turning this sum over to the University to replace the library, which is lost for lack of funds and still remains without a librarian. The king should

turn over to the University the stored library which the late Dr. Esparragosa bequeathed the Royal College of Surgery, as well as the five hundred pesos he left “to keep it clean.”

The Protomedicato: | The Government, the University,

and Public Health _ EVERY sizable Spanish colony eventually had a board (Real Tribunal del Protomedicato ) of doctors (protomédicos) to examine and license druggists, physicians, surgeons, and bleeders, as well as to perform administrative, judicial, and scientific duties connected with medicine.

During much of the long period before the establishment of this

tamiento and audiencia. — tribunal in Guatemala (1798), its functions were borne by the ayun-

a Drugs, Druggists, and Drugstores — | In 1617 the town council, charged with licensing druggists in the early days, informed the pharmacists of the City that, since there were only two of them, both could not absent themselves from the City at the same time. And when, six years later, Juan de Santos closed his establishment, he got orders “to put the said drugstore back in opera-

tion.” Since, in the absence of a tribunal of the protomedicato, the

| 299 | |

audiencia was charged with the visitation and inspection of drugstores, _ the audiencia of Guatemala by common consent appointed Licentiate Sebastian de Medina to inspect drugstores and the supplies of surgeons

THE PROTOMEDICATO , 228 and curanderos (unlicensed practitioners) “in order to establish the quality and weight” of their drug products." Before the founding of the protomedicato, pharmacists presented their documents to the Superior Government, submitted to an examination by “experts,” and received their licenses. Thereafter, applicants to practice pharmacy were expected to present their qualifying docu-

ments to the solicitor (promotor fiscal) and consultant (asesor) of the royal protomedicato, but not to submit to examination. Despite all this, Mariano de Lara in 1799 went before the alcalde in ordinary to accredit his documents and, apparently, to “suffer” an examination. The procurador sindico then licensed him to practice pharmacy, but did not accredit the candidate, who was illegitimate, for “other civil offices.” The pharmacists, Isidro de Soto, Mariano Francisco Zenteno, and Francisco Ramirez were quick to protest to the protomedicato.? The royal notary, José Diaz Gonzalez, testified that there had not been a case of licensing a druggist on the basis of an examination since the establishment of the protomedicato and that the titles had been is-

sued to candidates upon the basis of the documents of merit and proficiency.

The solicitor of the protomedicato, Dr. José Vicente Sorogastia y Carranza, thought that it was neither customary nor necessary, as the litigants urged, to follow the statutes of the Tribunal del Protomedicato of Mexico. This weakening of their case led the jealous trio to come out into the open. They had tried to be moderate, they piously protested, but they would assert categorically that Lara's certificate of practice had been improperly gained. It was notorious, they said, that the accrediting documents had reference to Lara’s father and should

in no wise accredit the son. Besides, since the litigant was a natural brother of the physician, Santiago Celis, the latter would now have both brother and father as druggists—a circumstance still further pointing up the collusion. Thoroughly irritated with the protomedicato for not protecting their professional monopoly as they thought it should

be protected, they weakened their case by pointing to Dr. Toribio Carvajal, who had a drugstore and compounded drugs in his house— both against the law. Moreover, the protomédico was not accompanied by a druggist, as required by law, but only by a scribe when he made his 1On January 8, 1660. See Pardo, Efemérides, pp. 48, 46, 69.

2 AGG, Al. 4, 13781, 2004. Sobre la profesién de Boticario . . . y método empleado para obtener el titulo desde la ereccién del Protomedicato. Afio de 1799.

- 224 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA visits to the drugstores. And, as an afterthought, could something not

be done about the price of drugs? Upon the insistence of Soto, Zenteno, and Ramirez, the Tribunal of the Protomedicato conducted an official investigation in the Spanish style—with a series of questions put formally and officially to a number of witnesses. The questions were designed to ferret out information on (1) the number of drugstores and duly qualified pharmacists,

(2) whether these had the dress to appear “decently” before the protomedicato if called upon to do so, (3) the number of practitioners _ whose competence was as yet unestablished, (4) whether or not drug- — gists accompanied the visitors of pharmacies before the establishment

of the protomedicato, and (5) whether any of these had required or

accepted gratuities. === This questionnaire * revealed six drugstores, in contrast to three of former days, and “a few other masters.” All wore the ordinary dress, but Ramirez, Soto, Francisco SAnchez, and Eugenio de Lara could

| promise to present themselves properly attired for an act of the Royal Tribunal of the Protomedicato, although Sanchez, Lara, and José Ignacio de Larrave as much as admitted they would have to bor-

row their outfits. A few men had a couple of apprentice druggists.

| Although most of these pharmacists dodged or could not answer the question about whether any of their kind had ever accompanied

the protomédico on his rounds of the drugstores, Larrave, who volunteered information on collusion in this case, stated unequivocally

that no druggist ever accompanied the visitor. In olden times this inspection was made by the alcalde in ordinary, a commissioned medical doctor, another who served as fiscal, a scribe, and a tipstaff, who stood at the door. Dr. Flores, in a praiseworthy effort to keep the

peace, had not taken a druggist—only a scribe and a tipstaff. The | visitors had neither required, nor been given, any gratification at all.

| The hubbub about Lara’s application, if it did not cancel out his limited license, did at least lead to an elaborate inspection of the “house and store” of “Master Toribio Carvajal” by the protomédico,

| Dr. José Antonio de Cordoba, and the closing of Lara’s business. Besides—a result they hardly expected—the protomedicato subjected the titles of Soto, Larrave, and Zenteno to detailed scrutiny. Pharmacists Sanchez, Lara, Larrave, and Zenteno, who did not have ap8 Answered by Francisco Ramirez, Mariano Francisco Zenteno, Isidro de Soto,

Francisco Sanchez, Eugenio de Lara, and José de Larrave. ,

THE PROTOMEDICATO 225 propriate dress for the functions of the protomedicato, got instructions to provide for this contingency in the future. Ramirez, an “examined pharmacist of the court of Mexico,” and one of those complaining about Lara, was at the same time pressing a case of his own. As far back as 1796, he had asked to have “Block 195,” situated at the “back of the Cerro del Carmen” and still undeveloped by the holder, reassigned to him so that he could grow medicinal herbs without going a vast distance into the country. As it was, he said, it served only for “excesses,” the torpezas of “both men and women,” thievery, and murder. The captain general turned the matter over to the “Distributor of Sites” and the “Judge of Police,” who agreed with the applicant. Yet they did nothing until the petition was renewed in 1806 after a lapse of ten years.‘

Race and Color For some reason, perhaps because they were less dignified professions for the sons of the aristocrats, medicine and pharmacy in colonial days proved unusually attractive to mulattoes. At the beginning of the nineteenth century a number of illuminating examples appeared— one of them in Guatemala. The crown had issued a special cédula that, by definitely setting the price for the lifting of many legal handicaps, encouraged mulattoes.® Francisco Fernandez, a druggist of An4AGG, Al. 4, 1218, 48. Dn. Francisco Ramirez sobre que se le conceda un terreno que se halla decierto situado a espaldas del Serro del Carmen, para formar en él un plantillo de plantas medicinales en auxilio del Publico y de su Botica. Afio de 1806.

5 Capitulo 69, Real cédula de gracias. Madrid, 8 de agosto de 1801. In this cédula (Para que se publique en los Reynos de Indias e Islas Filipinas el nuevo Arancel con el aumento de que se expresa de los servicios pecuniarios sefialados a las gracias Ilamadas al sacar [AGI, Ultramar, Legajo 733]) the crown attempted under seventy-one headings to fix the tariff for the removal of all kinds of legal disqualifications in accordance with administrative experience. The revenue from this source had been specially assigned and virtually banked upon. In one of the few items involving the removal of racial disqualifications, the “condition of mulatto” was lifted for seven hundred reales—a figure so low among the others in the schedule of rates as to be almost nominal. (Item 69: “Por la dispensacién de la calidad de Pardo debera hacerse el servicio de setecientos.”) In all cases of awarding degrees or permitting entrance to the professions, the applicant was required to be of good character and sound preparation. The payment of some hundreds of reales did not exempt a man from the intellectual and professional requirements of the post sought nor imply that the concession was not really a case of royal grace. The cédula of February 7, 1811 (AGG, Al. 8-1, 12291, 1886), bears on the same problem.

226 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA

tigua Guatemala, was eager to help his poor parents with their large family of seven children—‘up to now.” His request was simple: he merely wanted exemption from the disabilities of a mulatto in order

| to practice pharmacy. Although the cédula required such applicants to get exemptions from Spain, Fernandez asked the captain general to make the dispensation instead of the Council of the Indies on account. of the war in Europe and the consequent delay in maritime communications. Fernandez, declaring that he was ready to meet the “pecuniary” stipulation, learned from the fiscal that this “service” was seven hun-

dred reales vellon—proof enough that this was a case of gracias al sacar, the crown’s method of selling the privileges of whites to persons of color.

After Fernandez submitted his certificate of baptism and “information of his quality,” his case went before the assessor, who insisted, in the letter-of-the-law spirit, that only the Council of the Indies could

qualify him. Three citizens testified that back to the time of the applicant’s grandfather the family was reputed to be mulattoes, “of honorable forebears and old Christians.” The fiscal now ruled that only the Council of the Indies had jurisdiction, but Fernandez insisted that, “according to the gazettes,” provisional appointees were assuming their posts and that the captain general could exercise war faculties.

Nothing in the Spanish colonies, except the payment of money or the guarantee that a project would cost the crown nothing, so softened the heart of the royal authorities toward office seekers as a long list of “merits and services.” So now Fernandez pleaded that his father not only “practiced the faculty” of pharmacist in Antigua Guate-

mala but also proved his ability in medicine proper in “seventeen years of service on that ruined ground,” curing all with “disinterested-

ness and charity,” as well as when the plague was “obliterating the towns of the Corregimiento of Chimaltenango.” He therefore asked for epiqueya—a mild interpretation of the law—so that he could attach

himself to a Master Pharmacist and get through the four years of apprenticeship.® Finally, in 1811, the government of Cédiz, with a specific mention of the services to public health rendered by the ap-

plicant’s father, exempted Fernandez from the disabilities of the 6 AGG, Al. 4, 1219, 48. Francisco Fernandez sobre que en conformidad del articulo 69 de la Real Cédula de gracias al sacar se le dispense para ser Boticario la calidad de mulato, lo que sefiala dicho articulo.

THE PROTOMEDICATO 227 mulatto for the practice of pharmacy.’ Four months after this cédula was issued, the fiscal of Guatemala urged that it be inserted in the Gazeta for the instruction of judges and others. Although the author-

ities in Guatemala said they could not find the enabling cédula of 1801, they could no longer postpone action now that the unequivocally

favorable cédula of 1811 was in hand. It was over a year, and after the Cortes of Cadiz had decreed that Negroes could enter colleges, however, before the captain general put the royal order in operation ° and ruled that Fernandez apprenticeship should run from the beginning date of the file in the case. Since approximately four years had elapsed, Fernandez was now ready to become an independent pharmacist.®

The case of Fernandez, solved by a militantly friendly decree from the Island of Leon in 1811, came at a critical time. It was less than a year before that this growing liberality toward persons “who fetched

their origins from Africa” won the most critical concession in the history of the Empire. Indeed, early in 1812, the regency government of Spain issued a decree ’° conceding to these people the right of admission to the universities, seminaries, and religious orders, provided

they possessed the other qualities and talents required by the constitutions of the corporations they sought to enter. The audiencia of

Guatemala without question transmitted this information in the summer of 1812 to the hierarchy of the church, the Seminary, and the University of San Carlos.’ Protomedicato The customs of Spain, Mexico, and Lima dictated that the prima professor of medicine in the University should be the protomédico and, after the creation of the Tribunal of the Protomedicato in 1793, the same professor should become its chief officer. In the broad sense the protomedicato, by law and tradition, examined and licensed aspiring physicians and surgeons, inspected drugstores, sat with one 7 AGG, Al. 8-1, 12291, 1886. Real cédula concediendo a Francisco Fernandez el permiso para obtener el titulo de Farmacéutico por ser pardo. Real Isla de Leén, 7 de febrero de 1811. The president, oidores, protomédicos, and professors were ordered to obey this cédula.

8 March 6, 1812. 9 AGG, Al. 4, 1219, 48.

10 Cadiz, 29 de enero de 1812. (AGI, Guatemala, Legajo 674.) 11 AGG, Al. 8-1, 12298, 1886.

228 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA

judge of the audiencia as a court in medical cases, and bore the responsibility for research in medicinal plants and botany in general. So it came to pass that the professor of medicine was called protomédico and enjoyed the honors, if he did not assume all the duties of the office, regardless of whether there was a tribunal or whether he was appointed by the king or by the governor. In June, 1686, soon _ after the University of San Carlos began to function as a royal university, the king promised Dr. Miguel Fernandez, who held a degree from the Medical College of the “Tedlogos de la Madre de Dios de Alcala,” that after five years in the chair of medicine in the University of Guatemala, he would get the title of Protomédico General of the — Kingdom of Guatemala—a promise never kept.*”

In the seventeenth century certain physicians appropriated the “vacant” title of protomédico and, in the eighteenth, after the captain general began to issue titles,1* they began to take their somewhat

nebulous positions seriously. In 1705 Fernandez complained that Nicolas de Souza, who served as interim professor of medicine before

Fernandez arrived in Guatemala and who had somehow become protomédico, in making his inspections of drugstores found in them _ many prescriptions by the prior of San Juan de Dios, Fray Nicolas Lopez de San Xavier, and Don Nicolas de Plaza, neither of whom had a license. Some of these prescriptions had been sent to the Tribunal del Protomedicato of Mexico for its expert opinion. Fernandez was particularly exercised about the frequent prescription of guttabamba ( gamboge, strong emetic and cathartic ) which a “scientific doctor” would use only once in a while.** In 1707 Souza was struggling to gain recog-

nition as protomédico and as inspector (visitador) of drugstores.?®

Three years later he brought suit to see that something was done about the lack of drugs, that the druggists were regulated and visited, 12 AGG, Al. 3-1, 12237, 1883, fol. 88-88v. Real cédula al rector y claustro de la Universidad de San Carlos. . . . Aranjuez, 29 de abril de 1687. His title (Archivo Colonial, Autos sobre ereccién de protomedicato) is dated Buen Retiro, 19 de

junio de 1687. Oo ,

18 Formal appointments made by the captain general of Guatemala before the creation of the Tribunal of the Protomedicato in 1793 included Vicente Ferrer Gonzalez (1711), José de Medina (1783), Manuel de Avalos y Porras (1747).

(Martinez Duran, Las ciencias médicas, p. 217.)

14 AGG, Al. 4, 16484, 2265. El Dr. Miguel de Fernandez se presenta pidiendo que ciertos curanderos no ejerzan el oficio de médicos. Afio de 1705. 15 AGG, Al. 4, 1194, 47, El Lic. Nicolas Souza, pide que se le guarde la preeminencia de Protomédico y Visitador de boticas. Afio de 1707.

THE PROTOMEDICATO 229 and that no practitioners were allowed to ply their trade without the consent of the protomédico.** The cabildo of Guatemala City preferred

to call upon its patron saints to protect the people in and around the City from the “pest” of rabies.‘’ And there is evidence that the protomedicato in 1782 took measures to suppress the practice of medicine by medicasters.1* So the first two professors of medicine seriously _ checked quacks as well as weights and measures and quality of drugs. Notwithstanding the occasional pressure from those honored with the title, only the eminence of Dr. José Felipe Flores (1751-1814) forced

the establishment of a tribunal of the protomedicato in Guatemala. Undoubtedly looking toward this end, Dr. Flores in 1790 collected and presented to the captain general of Guatemala the proofs—one of them from the University—of his “merits and services” with a defer-

ential but well-understood suggestion that the king be informed of his attainments.*® In this the Superior Government, aware of the high

esteem of the distinguished Father Goicoechea and Dr. Cordoba for Flores,2° ordered the “relation of merits and services” sent to Madrid. The audiencia and president of Guatemala, undoubtedly prodded by the eminent group of scientists gracing the capital in 1792, asked the cloister of the University for a report on the degrees and qualifications necessary for the practice of medicine and inquired whether it would be desirable to establish a protomedicato and, if so, under what rules. The cloister authorized Flores, as the professor of prima of medicine, to draw up its answer.”* Flores was the outstanding medical scientist of his country and one of the most curious and energetic in the whole world. He undoubtedly counted upon becoming the first chief of the formal tribunal should it be established. His statement is, therefore, not only a good sum16 AGG, Al. 4, 1195, 47. Autos iniciados por el Lic. Nicolas Souza, protomédico de la corte, acerca de la visita de boticas. Afio de 1711.

17 Pardo, Efemérides, p. 137.

18 AGG, Al. 4, 1197, 47. Providencia del Protomedicato, acerca de prohibir que los curanderos ejerzan. Afio de 1782.

19 AGG, Al. 3-4, 1210, 47. Ynstancia del Dr. dn. Josef Flores Protomedico de esta Ciudad p? q¢ se informe a S.M. de su merito. Afio de 1790. 20 Archivo de la Facultad de Ciencias Juridicas y Sociales de Guatemala. Uni-

versidad. Afio de 1792. Sobre la ereccién del Protomedicato, dictamen del P. Goicoechea y del Dr. Cérdoba sobre los méritos del Dr. Flores. 21 Libro de claustros, 1790-1808, claustro de 5 de junio de 1792, fols. 17v.—18v. This communication is found in Archivo Colonial, Autos sobre ereccién de Protomedicato en esta capital (Guatemala, 1792), fols. 1-16.

280 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA

mary of the history of medical education in Guatemala before his day but a more or less subtle play-up of his refreshing and invigorating role in that story. Flores did more than summarize the statutes of the University to describe medical education; he showed where practice

had departed from the printed ideal. For example, students were legally obliged *? to attend anatomical demonstrations every four months in the Hospital de San Juan de Dios, but, since the thirty pesos assigned to the surgeon who conducted them were not forth-

coming, Flores’ predecessors neglected them. , As soon as he became prima professor of medicine in 1783,?* he Jaunched himself vigorously into the improvement of anatomical studies, which he regarded as basic in medical education. With no public funds for the purpose, he put his hands to the work and for seven years made preparations and models, personally conducted dissections, and spent hundreds of pesos of his own money. This sacrifice

was not entirely without its reward. His wax anatomical pieces, he thought he could say without bragging, were the best ones in America and in Europe, and their like could “scarcely be found until recently in the most brilliant courts.” By correcting his pieces from plates in his collection of the works of the most celebrated anatomists, and by checking his results with actual dissections, he was able to surpass the

requirements of the University statutes and to teach anatomy with great effectiveness, as proved in the acts and examinations held in the general hall of the University. The statutes called for an examining committee of eight, with the prima professor of philosophy serving as the eighth member, but since the University had not had this number of licentiates or doctors ** in medicine at any one time, substitutions were made from the faculty of arts. Once the members of the committee had filed solemnly by the voting urn to place in it the large, bronze, and ominous A (aprobado,

“passed”) or R (reprobado, “failed”), the University withheld the bachelor’s degree for two years, even in the case of those who passed, until the candidate could finish his internship in the Hospital de San Juan de Dios. The degree of bachelor of medicine was “incomparably more serious” than those of the other faculties and, save for the “lesson

175v.—176v. ) , , 22 He refers to Constitucién 186.

23 He took possession March 22, 1788. (Libro de claustros, 1756-1790, fols. 24 At the time Flores was writing there were only five.

THE PROTOMEDICATO 281 of twenty-four hours,” was the equal of the degree of licentiate. Flores let no coy considerations of modesty stand in the way of his appraisal of his own handiwork.

Flores took it for granted that the University of Guatemala, along with Mexico and Lima, enjoyed the liberties, privileges, and exemptions of the University of Salamanca,”® including the privilege of having the office of chief of the protomedicato held by the prima professor of medicine. Although this law had been promulgated before the erection of the University, the king soon thereafter held that the University

of San Carlos enjoyed the same privileges as Mexico and Lima.?¢ Flores concluded, therefore, that the colonial law,?’ stating that the prima professor of medicine in Mexico and Lima should be the presiding protomédico, embraced Guatemala, This was certainly within the spirit of the royal view, for although Don Miguel Fernandez, the first regular professor of medicine in the University of San Carlos, could not fully qualify within the law, he and his successors exercised many of the faculties of the office. Flores emphasized that it was prejudicial to draw into the chair of medicine needy students—and all those going into this field were needy —who, after they had spent six years beyond the degree of bachelor of arts, “were not able to practice their profession freely and legally,” because there was no tribunal to certify them as required by law. Hence the time was spent in vain and was of no value to the public. He did not think this was the intention of the king.?* The Superior Government

of Guatemala had respected the true intentions of the sovereign by asking the professor of medicine to preside over juntas in matters respecting the public health and to visit drugstores and examine druggists °° and surgeons. On such an occasion, although the examiners met with the professor, they did not constitute a protomedicato. Since : the professor could not proceed without further reference to the government to dispatch the title in question, the body was nothing 25 Recopilacion de Indias, Tit. 22, lib. 1, leyes 1, 12. 26 AGG, Al. 3-1, 12236, 1882, fol. 27. Real cédula al Provincial de la Compaifiia de Jesus de Guatemala. Madrid, 12 de agosto de 1687. 27 Recopilacion de Indias, Tit. 6, lib. 5, leyes 2, 8. 28 Here he cites the Recopilacion de Indias, Tit. 6, lib. 5, ley 1. 29 The examinations were practiced in this way: when the candidate was ready, the Superior Government ordered the professor to form a junta and proceed with the examination. He then named the examiners and had them officially notified. After an examination in theory, they moved to the hospital or pharmacy to conduct the examination in its practical aspects.

| 282 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA © |

_ medicine. | | | |

more than a junta of examiners presided over by the professor of

Flores was able to show that the president and the audiencia had agreed that there was need for a tribunal. As the logical candidate to head it, he was harassed for want of authority at the very moment of seeking approval for a protomedicato. In a petulant, competitive spirit, ‘Bachelor Don Manuel de Molina and Licentiate Don Alonso Carriola |

, insisted that Flores needed a license to give smallpox inoculation to those who wanted it, but the audiencia decreed that, “in accordance

with the practice of all the free and enlightened countries of the _ world,” he required no license for this early type of vaccination. Flores harped on the note that it was at his expense and through his efforts that, as things stood, the new discoveries and useful information in medicine had become available. He cited the proceedings of the government against quacks as proof that the Guatemalan doctors had won the esteem of the people and the magistrates. Despite the enlightened co-operation of the government, he insisted, a protomedicato was much needed. He accordingly begged the University to ask the

, audiencia to request the king not only to approve the institution but — a to make provision for the salaries of the officers and minor functionaries. | If this could not be done, he hoped Madrid would confirm the professor .

| of medicine in his former privileges. - | The distinguished Guatemalan medical scientist was both open and

- concrete about his ambition. He straightforwardly petitioned the _ cloister of the University to examine the “anatomical pieces, machines, _ and other things” related to medicine in his possession and “certain documents which prove his merit,” and then to inform the king “in. order that he should concede him the protomedicato of this city.” *°

The cloister approved Flores’ report on the need for the establishment | of a protomedicato,** but it took exception to minor points in his argu-

ment. It denied that anyone had ever disputed the right of bachelors

_ from San Carlos to practice medicine because there was no tribunal _of the protomedicato to certify them. To the contrary, the right was

, universally recognized. The claustro, nevertheless, concurred in the feeling that a Tribunal of the Royal Protomedicato, composed of the professor of medicine, two examining judges, a fiscal, an assessor, sec-

fols. 20-21. | | oe ,

80Libro de claustros, 1790-1808, claustro pleno de 18 de agosto de 1792,

81 [bid., claustro pleno de 17 de septiembre de 1792, fols. 21-22. | ,

, THE PROTOMEDICATO 233 retary, and an escribano, would be very useful. It felt that insofar as possible the rules of the protomedicato of New Spain should prevail in Guatemala. Among the signatures under this University informe was that of José Antonio Goicoechea.*® The fiscal’s expert review of the history of the laws of Castile dealing

with the connection between the universities and the protomedicato is the kind of revealing document only a contemporary could prepare.**

He concluded, after an unusually detailed parade of statutes and cédulas, that universities having chairs of medicine had a right to be-

lieve they could issue titles and that this privilege had never been conceded to the protomedicatos, “in particular,” to the exclusion of universities. In Guatemala the statutes ** of the University expressly stated that the University held the title of bachelor of medicine until the graduate established before the rector that he had had two years practice with a reputable physician whose sworn statement he submitted in proof. The fiscal did feel, however, that to award this title without examination was a dangerous practice and that the establishment of a protomedicato was perhaps the best answer to the whole problem.

In 1798, before the informe based upon this ponderous expediente could possibly have reached Spain, a royal order creating a legal and formal protomedicato ** in Guatemala to follow the laws of Castile, on the model of that established in Caracas in 1777, and another making Flores the first proprietary “chief protomédico,” were on their way to America.®* The full cloister of the University received and accredited these documents without much fanfare. After all this struggle, no basic

change in the pattern of the protomedicato took place. No tribunal was organized before Flores left the “hind end” of the world in 1796 never to return.

In Guatemala, where the protomedicato was so long in arriving, those who expected to be officers of the new tribunal probably had an

exaggerated idea of the powers of the new organization. Although 82 Archivo Colonial, Autos sobre ereccidén de protomedicato.

33 [bid. 84 Constituciones, Tit. XVI, const. ccxiv. 35 AGG, Al. 4, 18033, 2879. Real cédula al presidente y oidores de la audiencia de Guatemala. Aranjuez, 21 de junio de 1793.

86 In mid-October, 1793, the Superior Government, upon the petition of Dr. Flores, obeyed the cédula and gave its exequatur to Flores’ title of first protomédico. (AGG, Al. 4, 1211, 48. Sobre cumplimiento de la real cédula de ereccién del Tribunal del Protomedicato de esta ciudad, y titulo de primer Protomédico al Dr. Flores. Afio de 1793. )

234 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA | extended to Guatemala in accord with the cédula creating the tribunal in Caracas in 1777, the protomedicato in Guatemala was operated on the basis of the statutes of the Real Protomedicato of Mexico. A case arising in Mexico in 1793 and settled by royal cédula in 1798 soon clarified the problem of jurisdiction in criminal cases. In Mexico Don Narciso Aleman was arraigned by the protomedicato as an “intruding quack.” He appealed to the sala del crimen of the audiencia. This body sustained the appeal and passed it on to Viceroy Revillagigedo who, as judge of jurisdiction (juez de competencias), upheld the sala del crimen in its view that the case was appealable. Although, according to a cédula of 1795, the viceroys would not take over the licensing and

| visiting of drugstores, the audiencia did reserve jurisdiction over those practicing without licenses or those guilty of criminal excesses.*’ It had already been established that for the protomedicato to impose sentence an oidor appointed by the president of the audiencia must sit with it as a court. Lacking an oidor, the governor, corregidor, alcalde

mayor, or (wanting these) the justicia ordinario sat in his place. In effect, then, the judgment of the protomedicato was no more than the considered advisory opinion of specialists in the field. Otherwise, the general principle of law and justice that subjects have a right to appeal to one of the corporate tribunals representing the royal person might be abridged. Thus, all claimants had a legal right to take their cases to the viceroys, presidents, and independent governors for information so that the audiencias could pronounce judgment by consultative vote. In the cases involving excesses in practice, however, — the parties must appeal to the sala del crimen and the protomedicato

could enter the case only as the prosecutor of the appellant. To be sure, this litigation concerned Mexico primarily, but conclusions were applicable to all the Indies and, since the institution was just getting under way in Guatemala, it came at a critical time.**

The protomedicato was such a brilliant institution in conception. that one wishes that the king of Spain had allowed it to function, with proper legal advice, as one of the “corporate bodies” representing the

_ 87 “Por no ser esta materia caso ni cosa de Medicina . . .” | 88 AGG, Al. 23, 10090, 1535. Reales cédulas, Audiencia, XXII, fols. 39-42. AGG, Al. 4, 18779, 2004. Real cédula [San Lorenzo] de 27 de octubre de 1798 sobre que puedan ocurrir en algunos casos los examinados al Superior Gobierno sobre lo informativo, y a la Tribunal del Protomedicato. Captain General José Domas y Valle ordered the cédula obeyed on July 8, 1799. See Gazeta de Guate-

mala, III (11 de noviembre de 1799). , :

THE PROTOMEDICATO 235 royal person. Spain would have had full credit for the development of

two singular and valuable institutions which it brought to the New World—the protomedicato and the residencia. However, it appears that the same regalism making the royal officials so jealous of ecclesiastical courts came to apply to the protomedicato. On the surface, the presence of an oidor in the protomedicato when it was sitting as a court was sufficient protection for the crown, but as an absolutist

the king could not allow a tradition, however reasonable, to compromise his aims.

The formal protomedicato, as a new institution for Guatemala, inspired hopes of revolution in medical education. In 1800 the solicitor, Dr. Vicente Sorogastua y Carranza, felt that a protomedicato organized

to meet Guatemalan needs might help. New statutes based on those of Castile were, therefore, required to take the place of the Mexican ones, which, although created in entirely different circumstances, had been applied without the king’s express authority in Guatemala. This

Dr. Sorogastia regarded as absurd and far from the intention of the king, who had ordered that the body be governed by the laws of Castile.

Sorogastua then proceeded to serve the purposes of history by outlining the medical situation in the kingdom. Where they were formerly without medical men altogether, in the year 1800 they had only “the necessary subjects’ in Guatemala City, a doctor in the province of Leon, and a bachelor in San Salvador, with all the rest of the kingdom without medical care at all. In the even worse circumstances of the past, it had been necessary to suspend the laws. Sorogastua felt, how-

ever, that unworthy practitioners who had sprung up should no longer be condoned, and, in like manner, “those of honor and merit” should not get short shrift merely because of the change in circumstances. Refusing to take up his time with lamentations, he proceeded to concrete ideas. In the first place, in view of the “great need of professors,” Soro-

gastua urged that, when certificates of purity of race (limpieza de sangre) were required by law, only the first generation should suffer

“the disability of descendants.” In the case of aspirants to public office, the crown should visit the penalty only unto the first generation—except for Moors, heretics, and those “ignominiously punished” or those “we call mala raza.” Sorogastiia was quick to show, on the practical side, that persons of other racial mixtures had been in no

236 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA | way indecorous. Indeed, in Guatemala, men of obscure, if not of low, birth had enjoyed many benefits and employments, some of them of

the greatest trust. Obscure origin never prevented these men from performing with honor and credit. In short, the medical profession should never exclude any young aspirants if they possessed honor,

ability, and good breeding. |

a Sorogastua was certainly aware that mulattoes had shown a pre| dilection for medicine and pharmacy in the Spanish Empire and that some distinguished white physicians, the great Pedro Molina (B. Med.,

1798) among them, were of illegitimate birth. The harsh laws on the subject were thoroughly out of keeping with the natural, tolerant attitude taken by Spanish Americans who lived side by side with these people. Sorogasttia was also shrewd. He wanted physicians, and to

enable the classes knocking at the doors of the profession for so long to enter freely was a sound, logical step. It is no discredit to Sorogastia that his proposal was a combination of pure enlighten-

ment and expediency. — |

In the sphere of pharmacy, where undoubtedly many people sold impure concoctions, Sorogastia was for a more drastic course. The protomedicato should require the pharmacists to take no one save _ those licensed by it. And, with respect to the inspection of drugstores,

| the most important thing was to establish a tariff “for the honor of

the faculty” and the good of the public.

, The sum total of Sorogastua’s overture, then, was to find medical personnel by creating statutes for the protomedicato on the basis of the laws of Castile, to extirpate the medicasters—hitherto tolerated out of necessity—as termites of the commonwealth, and to institute secret proceedings against Don Toribio Carvajal, denounced for violating

_ the drug laws.*° | Protomedicato: Police Work | | a

| Individuals, under special license, assumed many of the onerous __- responsibilities of the protomédico before the creation of the tribunal proper. The master surgeon, Pedro de Ziviiga, in 1759 complained to _

| the town council that as an “examined surgeon” he had to take care of the worst cases of the wounded. As the only surgeon in town, his principal occupation, he lamented, was repairing wounds inflicted with 39 AGG, Al. 4, 18779, 2004. Dictamen del Dr. Vicente Sorogastia y Carranza.

Nueva Guatemala, 27 de junio de 1800. , es,

THE PROTOMEDICATO 237 “iron clubs.” 4° This was, in effect, to penalize him for being “examined,”

for there was no way to require the unlicensed practitioners to patch

up the skulls of destitute brawlers. Since he had to bear the chief burden, he felt he should enjoy a grant-in-aid for the work. The government accepted his recommendations that all examined surgeons aid in this charity and that those permitted to practice surgery appear before the protomédico for examination.*t And soon after Dr. Flores became primer protomédico we find him certifying the death of the Indian, Guillermo Constantino, from wounds inflicted by the soldier Cayetano Rodriguez.*? One suspects that many cracked heads never came to the attention of the harassed doctors. The medical profession had not yet worked up a sufficiently humane

spirit to aid the injured regardless of the purse of the victim. The authorities, of course, had an interest in the possibility of crime in these cases and accordingly forbade surgeons, quacks, or practitioners

to treat patients with “wound contusions” without a license from a magistrate. Where delay might prove dangerous, however, they were authorized to take provisional measures. In any event, “royal justice” required an immediate report.** However, just like the quacks about whom Pedro de Zufiiga had complained nearly a half-century before, the king’s facultativos continued to show only a slight interest in the wounded, victims of the ever-recurring brawls. The neglect was so

pronounced that at the beginning of the nineteenth century the audiencia passed a law stipulating that licensed specialists could not wait

more than eight hours to attend a wounded man even when the “trouble was light and the hour inconvenient” upon pain of a fine of fifty pesos for the first failure to treat or to give notice, of one hundred pesos and two years’ banishment twenty leagues from the city

for the second, and of two hundred plus four years at hard labor

for the next.*4 , 40 “Palos hierros.”

41 AGG, Al. 4, 16486, 2265. El articulo movido por el Ser Sindico de esta Ciudad, para que se examinen los cirujanos. Afio de 1762. 42 AGG, Al. 4, 18776, 2004. Dictamen del Tribunal del Protomedicato, acerca de las heridas que el soldado Cayetano Rodriguez, infirid a José Guillermo Constantino, de las cuales fallecio. Afio de 1796.

43 AGG, Al. 25, 10357, 1702. Cirujanos y curanderos, auto acordado, 9 de enero de 1799. 44 Ibid. Auto acordado, 23 de febrero de 1801.

238 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA |

Protomedicato: Curanderos _ | | It is not surprising, in these circumstances, that the quacks filled in the gaps and flourished. Despite the ban on these curanderos, the unlettered fellows went brazenly on. One of them, Francisco Antonio de Zufiiga, in 1797 made so bold as to give a certificate signing himself “Professor of Surgery.” Captain General José Domas y Valle (1717-

1803) turned this case over to Don José Antonio de Cordoba, who served as protomédico after Dr. Flores went to Spain in 1796, with a summary order to stop such practices. When these professional ideals came up against human realities, however, they usually gave way. In this case the protomedicato found itself, as well it might, in the role of apologist. The protomédico took the position that, while Zuiiiga had always been taken for a Romance surgeon, he had done much good in the City, had been used by the judges, and that because of his advanced age “and the scarcity of Latin surgeons,” he could only leave the offender in “peaceful possession” of his work. Zuniga was warned, nevertheless, not to issue such certificates in the future.*® The numerous similar documents accompanying this one

indicate that this was no isolated matter. ,

Sometimes the problems were not so mild. In 1799 the ayuntamiento

of San Salvador brought to the attention of the protomedicato of Guatemala the case of the ad interim corregidor, who died while taking tartar emetic, a currently favorite remedy of the physician, Licentiate Nicolas Montero. The tribunal weighed the evidence and called

upon Montero, who had prescribed, to submit an explanation with “the greatest brevity.” Although Montero acknowledged receipt of the file in the case (expediente), and promised to return it with the bearer,** the documentation abruptly comes to an end, leaving the

- case, for history at least, unresolved. A shrewd practitioner would, of course, depend upon delays, vascillation, and loss of interest more

than upon the finest legal brief. | The contempt of the civil government—the audiencia—for any cor45 AGG, Al. 4, 18777, 2004. Sobre que se escarmiente a los que curan y no son facultatibos de que resulto ser cirujano romancista Don Francisco Zufiga. Afio de

| 4 AGG, Al. 4, 18782, 2004. Afio de 1799. Drs. Narciso Esparragosa, José Maria Guerra, Vicente Sorogastua, and Manuel Merlo were soon summoned to the

explanation that he was ill. ,

house of the protomédico for consultation. Merlo excused himself with the

THE PROTOMEDICATO 239 poration claiming medieval autonomy explains both the University’s

touchy defense of its prerogatives and the failure of the medical tribunals to suppress charlatans. Thus the colonial period fades out with the matter of prosecuting curanderos increasing in importance —the upper level of doctors was exceedingly well informed—but

still unresolved. In 1808 Dr. Narciso Esparragosa, protomédico, started a process *” against Don Francisco Ramirez. After the case had lain in the pigeonhole for six years, the Junta de Salud Publica, formally founded in 1814 to look after the public health of the City, took it up again. Protomédico Esparragosa, as a member of this Junta, naturally contrived to get its backing in the contest raging between the protomedicato and the Superior Government. The case must have been embarrassing for the prosecutors, for one fiscal withdrew from the case and another—José Cecilio del Valle—tried to do so. At any rate the eight notable figures of the Junta, in their communication to the Superior Government, railed against the quacks and charlatans who throve among the poor, “the most numerous part of the neighborhood,” because the protomedicato had lost its authority. This overture, unfortunately, reflected colonial touchiness about prerogatives more than it did concern about curanderos—a situation to which the doctors of the Junta must have been thoroughly accustomed. When the Junta sought the opinion of the protomédico in order to incorporate his testimony in their evidence, that worthy testified that the Tribunal of the Protomedicato would have taken the proper steps if the government had not arbitrarily suspended the free use of his faculties in 1806 or 1807. Indeed, the most energetic and continuous efforts that followed to restore these powers came to naught. The audiencia, without hearing the “Junta of Public Health,” passed sentence in the case of the quack druggist whom Esparragosa started out to prosecute.** In matters of the utmost importance the Junta could only abstain from proceedings in order to avoid an affront. From this impasse flowed the deterioration and confusion of the drugstores and

brazenness of the charlatans. Without the authority it had before, or felt it had before, the work of the protomedicato was illusory.

The Junta agreed with this reasoning and abruptly terminated its petition with a plea for the restoration of the authority and jurisdiction 47 AGG, Al. 4, 1226, 48. Providencia acerca de que los curanderos sean perseguidos. Ano de 1814. 48 Martinez Duran, Las ciencias médicas, p. 222.

240 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA | of the protomedicato, whose powers had been so hedged about since | 1797 as to reduce it to the role of prosecuting witness in medical cases. |

If this overture means anything at all, it means that the feeling between the audiencia and protomedicato had reached the point where

| their enmity was more important to them than the advancement of medicine in the kingdom. One does not need much imagination to understand why the attorney for the medical petitioners, José Cecilio _ del Valle, testified that when he took over the assignment he knew that he would run afoul of the audiencia and the protomedicato at

every turn. | | | In the summary of this case,*® drawn up to support this long-delayed

petition of the protomedicato, Del Valle demonstrated that the au_ diencia had ten years before *° made it plain that the Superior Govern-

, ment intended to cling to the advantage which the AlemAn case in Mexico had unexpectedly thrust into its lap. “The juntas or faculties of medicine and pharmacy in these provinces” were reminded on that _

| occasion that they—meaning especially the protomedicato and, perhaps, the junta of public health—should confine themselves to the “care of public health” and to the “scholastic and economic government of their respective faculties,” and not take cognizance of any “contentious cases’°—that is, they should assume no strictly judicial

functions.

In 1814 Captain General José Bustamante y Guerra rejected Esparra- gosa’s overture once and for all by declaring that, since the jurisdiction | of the audiencia was limited to “contentious cases of the protomedicato, ** the problem presented by the protomedicato was not one which concerned the civil government. He ordered the papers re-

, turned to the protomedicato so that the proceedings could. follow legal channels. But he must have known that, with a hostile if not — supercilious Superior Government, and without the capacity to secure convictions except through the audiencia, the fight begun by Esparra-

gosa against the curanderos, as well as the authority of the protomedicato, was as good as lost. Little wonder that Del Valle knew he © was putting his head against two rocks—the audiencia and the proto-

medicato. And this.is the note upon which he ended his work on 49 Informe, 7 de julio de 1814. 50 Auto de 12 de julio de 1804. 51 The process had begun under Captain General Antonio Gonzdlez Mollinedo y Saravia. The Superior Government strongly protested at this late date, however,

that it never had intended to replace the protomedicato in the field of public health. A “contentious” case merely represented litigation in which two or more parties sought to establish their respective positions.

THE PROTOMEDICATO 241 the case. It is tragic indeed that the protomedicato, when it had the political authority, lacked the science, and that, when the age of science began to dawn in medicine, it lost its political position.

Special Licenses There were so few doctors in Guatemala that the authorities constantly found themselves obliged to wink at illegal practices. On the other hand, the royal government nearly always issued its royal decrees in absolute terms: if there were quacks, they should be driven

out of business. Yet, nothing was done to fill the gap thus created. In 1652, long before there was a chair of medicine in Guatemala, the king heard that many persons were practicing medicine and surgery without official examination and approval and ordered that the proper official should examine such persons or impose the penalties fixed by law.*?

Actually, physicians and surgeons from abroad were especially wel-

come, not only at the time of the founding of the University, but as long as the Spaniards controlled the country. In 1765, the Superior Government notified the ayuntamiento that it was issuing licenses “to practice their ministries and faculties” to Dr. José Salomén, “native of Valencia, surgeon, and professor of medicine,” and to Don Marcelo Hastolpho Salomon, “surgeon and native of the kingdoms of France.” *

The laws relating to foreigners (ley de extranjeria) permitted persons having a “useful art . . . necessary in this capital and kingdom” to remain in the country once they found themselves there.** Such is the case of Don José Alejo de Julian, “professor of surgery,” who turned

up in Guatemala in 1787 with a title from the protomedicato of Havana which enabled him to practice surgery “in all the kingdoms”

of Spain. He had already practiced in Havana, Veracruz, Mexico City, and the port of Campeche. When all this and the fact that he was

neither vagabond nor fugitive had been established, the Superior Government of Guatemala gladly extended a license to him.®* It was 52 AGG, Al. 28, 10078, 1518. Cedulario de la Real Audiencia, 1651-1658, fol. 59. Real cédula. Buen Retiro, 16 de junio de 1652. 58 Pardo, Efemérides, p. 228.

54 After the French surgeon “Don” Raynaldo Thomas and the physician Francois Desplanquez came to Guatemala in 1768 they were arrested on suspicion

of being spies, but Desplanquez, who was single and had a medical education from Montpellier, was allowed to remain in the country. See Chapter XI below. 55 AGG, Al. 4, 1209, 47. Licencia concedida a Don José de Julian para que pueda usar en este Reino su facultad de cirujano. Afio de 1787.

242 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA _ quite different with suspicious characters of “the French nation.” One _ of these, appearing in Guatemala in 1785, petitioned to practice sur-

gery, but he was sent to Spain under partida de registro”®

| “The professor of medicine,” John MacImery, whom the Spanish scribes bandied about as Don Marcos Imeria, Ymeri, and Makimery, was “captured” about 1796 by the alcalde of San Miguel. MacImery professed to be Irish and Catholic, although Captain General José Domas y Valle, in an order to the alcalde of San Miguel respecting him, referred to him as an “Englishman pretending to practice medi-

cine.” Maclmery must have established his Irish origin to the satisfaction of the authorities, for Dr. Flores, the protomédico, and Dr. Joaquin Lindo, recommended that in view of the scarcity of trained people he might have a license to practice in the district involved. Captain General Domas accepted this recommendation and allowed

Maclmery to practice in Nicaragua.” ,

Deviations from the strict letter of the law were sometimes permitted Guatemalans. José Antonio de Cérdoba, as holder of a bachelor’s de-

gree in medicine, found himself in a dilemma. The statutes of the University of San Carlos required him to practice two years under an approved physician before receiving his title. The physician of the Hospital de San Juan de Dios, where his predecessors had “interned” and where there was the greatest variety of diseases for clinical observation, did not belong to “this most noble body” of approved physicians. The claustro of the University exempted Cordoba from this regulation provided he produce proof of two years’ practice in the hospital, certification from physicians approved by the University, and proof that he had accompanied a physician on visits to

the sick at least once a week.*® i Public Health and Medical Learning

_ It would be easy to assume that the Spaniards were so eager to exploit America materially that they neglected public health. The 56 AGG, Al. 1, 251, 4. Don Gabriel Ronsil de nacién francés, sobre ejercer la cirujania. Y se manda remitir a Espafia bajo partida de registro. Afito de 1785. 57 AGG, Al. 1, 532, 19. El Profesor de Medicina don Marcos Imeria fué capturado y remitido a esta ciudad, por el Alcalde Ordinario de San Miguel.

58 Libro de claustros, 1756-1790, claustro de 4 de diciembre de 1779, fols. 136-1387. The examination and licensing of surgeons seem to have been carried out with punctilio, even in the case of such prominent figures as Dr. Narciso Esparragosa and Francisco Quifiones. See AGG, Al. 4, 18779, 2004, and Gazeta

de Guatemala, II (16 de julio de 1798), 184. , |

THE PROTOMEDICATO 243 calamitous state of public health in colonial days easily adds support to this natural hypothesis. Only those who know something of the subject throughout the world in the same age and have no unconscious historical bias—two types difficult to come upon—would agree that the situation was not the result of the depravity of the Spaniards. Whole shelves of documents—without a contradiction among them —show that the Spanish officials, from the Council of the Indies to

the town council, were extremely interested in public health and did everything that public spirit could dictate and political agencies accomplish. If there was little achievement, it was the fault of medical science and medical ethics in the western world, not just in Spain. From the earliest days the ravages of disease deeply disturbed the government of Guatemala. The town council appropriated money to bring physicians from Mexico. Medical doctors made reports on sanitary conditions, such as their vision allowed them to see, in the various neighborhoods of the capital.®° The colonial ayuntamiento of Guatemala approached the epoch of independence still making appeals and showing its perennial concern for the health of the people.” The protomedicato of Guatemala, upon the occasion of an outbreak

of measles in Ciudad Real (Chiapas), prepared a set of simple instructions for use where there was no physician. The editors of the

Gazeta de Guatemala, with typical zeal for the spread of useful knowledge, printed the pamphlet.®!

It is a melancholy thing to see colonial peoples helpless in the throes of smallpox epidemics. These plagues proved especially harrowing and devastating in the Indian communities everywhere—so ravaging that at the beginning of the nineteenth century Dr. Flores laid the blame for the “destruction” of the American Indians and the dislocation of the country, not upon the much-bruited Spanish cruelty, but upon smallpox. “How often,” he later related, “have J passed these ruins and paused to contemplate the sky, the loveliness of the country, its fields, its streams, its trees full of delicious fruits,

without noticing in this veritable paradise other inhabitants than 59 See the reference to the informe of Dr. Miguel Fernandez, January 17, 1708, in Pardo, Efemérides, p. 185. 60 AGG, Al. 2, 15858, 2214. Instancia del Sindico del ayuntamiento de Guate-

mala, para que este tome medidas para proteger la salud publica. Affo de 1803. 61 “Modo facil de conocer y curar el Sarampién acomodado a la inteligencia y escazez de auxilios en los partidos de Indios,” Gazeta de Guatemala, VIII (19 de marzo de 1804), 9~12.

244 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA tigers and serpents!” ©? With the physicians all over the world impotent to cure it, the town council of Antigua Guatemala resorted to prayers —

before the images of Our Lady of Succor and Our Lady of Mercy when the smallpox “increased alarmingly” in 1696.°* An epidemic in

1725 brought the ayuntamiento back to its knees before Our Lady of Mercy.*t The town council considered itself economically liable when whole quarters of the City were laid low by disease, as during the smallpox epidemic of 1761, when it appropriated three thousand

pesos from a slender treasury to aid the afflicted.®

Inoculation | |

The only help of scientific importance ever available to these people

in the long centuries before Jenner, when smallpox time and again swept uncontrolled over them, was the practice of inoculation. This

| process consisted of opening the skin and passing the virus of a _ diseased person to a well one in the hope of giving a light case which

would provide immunity against future attacks. This method was — practiced in outlying areas of the Spanish Empire as early as 1765. Bad results had often been reported, probably for want of steriliza-

surgery. }

tion of instruments, a thing natural enough in those days before aseptic |

In June, 1780, Dr. Flores pioneered in asking Captain General Matias de Galvez’ permission “to cure and prevent smallpox, using the method called inoculation, which has given such good results in other countries and could be applied in Guatemala.” ** The govern-

ment, on account of difference of climate and other factors, consulted the corps of physicians. The reaction was not unanimous and _

inadequate. ee

the fiscal left it to Flores who,°’ although gratified at the government’s

- speed in clearing his project,** felt that the measure was late and | On this occasion, Manuel de Molina, when pressed for his opinion, hedged like a true academic. He hesitated to oppose those who had —

favored and written about this method. He testified—and it is easy , 62 AGI, Indiferente General, Legajo 1558. Informe del Dr. José Felipe Flores.

Madrid, 28 de febrero de 1803. oO 63 Pardo, Efemérides, p. 118. | 64 [bid., p. 159.

65 Ibid., p. 219. 66 Martinez Duran, Las ciencias médicas, p. 191.

67 [bid. Dictamen of June 26, 1780. |

, jet aoe Indiferente General, Legajo 1558. Informe del Dr. Flores, 28 de febrero |

THE PROTOMEDICATO 245 to subscribe to his fears—that the method could produce various kinds of infection. He was, as we can better see now, not far wrong when he quoted Fisot to the effect that the misfortunes of inoculation were due “more to the inexpertness [impericia] of the inoculators than to the operation itself.” The tone of opposition to inoculation which,

in Molina’s case, at first expresses itself in deference, reaches the resounding scholastic conclusion that the operation of “inoculation is vain, superfluous, and useless.” °° Nevertheless, the Superior Govern-

ment of Guatemala in 1785 circulated a royal order requiring—this is inferred from the document—inoculation among all the curacies of

the kingdom. A “dissertation” telling in detail how to inoculate ac- , companied the order.’® Misgivings on the efficacy of inoculation were

still evident in 1792 when Dr. Flores, asked by the cloister of the University for a report on certain points which it wished to incorporate in an informe requested by the audiencia, asked the Superior Govern-

ment to turn over to him the file on the problem of inoculation and the epidemic of 1780.7

Vaccination: A “Philanthropic Expedition” | Owing to the extraordinarily active coteries of intellectuals which, among other things, had produced the famous sociedades econdmicas and progressive reviews before 1800, the discovery of vaccination by Edward Jenner came at a time when the Spanish Americans were re-

markably ready to profit by it. The Gazeta de Guatemala treated vaccination as the life-and-death matter that it was. Guatemala itself was singled out virtually as a model for the remarkable vaccinating expedition conducted by Francisco Javier de Balmis between 1803 and 1813.7? 69 AGG, Al. 1, 350, 6. Testimonio de lo determinado sobre la inoculacién de la viruela en la epidemia padecida el afio de 1780. Afio de 1792. 70 AGG, Al. 1, 248, 4. Providencia acerca de las medias que se debian tomar para evitar la propagacién de la peste de viruela. Afio de 1785. 71 The occasion was Dr. Flores’ petition to establish a protomedicato, 72 AGI, Indiferente General, Legajo 1558. Expediente sobre la introduccién de

la vacuna en América, 1802-1813. This story is also told by Gonzalo Diaz de Iraola, La vuelta al mundo de la expedicién de la vacuna (Publicaciones de la Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos, Seville, 1948). This work is, in the main, a summary of one legajo (AGI, Indiferente General, Legajo 1558) which itself includes two contemporary summaries of its contents, a long one entitled “Expedicién filantrépica de la vacuna. Extracto general,” and another called “Brevisima resumen del extracto del expediente general de la vacuna en Ultramar.” The book also contains instructive maps and a useful chronological table.

246 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA By 1802 the momentous news of smallpox vaccination had reached even the remote cities of Spanish America. All treatises of importance

on the subject were rushed there as soon as translated and printed. But often before these arrived the journals had already prepared the way. And the first thing to be overcome was the incredulity of the people who, having often been promised universal remedies, might very well have reserved judgment. With the greatest alacrity, the Gazeta de Guatemala undertook to

fill this need. Its numbers come alive with anxiety, and the bated

breath of the editors can almost be detected on the pages. “It can no longer be doubted,” they triumphantly proclaimed, “that inocula-

tion with vaccine keeps one from getting the smallpox.” A junta of forty-eight professors, recently established abroad, had finished dem-

onstrating it in the months of “October and November last.” One hundred and two children had “suffered” inoculation with vaccine and then with smallpox virus without ill effect and—more important— without smallpox.”* Convincing evidence came from Paris, Marseilles, Geneva, London, and other places. Yet the singular triumph of smallpox vaccination aided and abetted a scientific evil of the eighteenth century—the inclination to ascribe

universal efficacy to a remedy which, at best, might help with only one disease. All wild claims, even in the most scientific environment, needed checking. In Guatemala, where smallpox was only one pest, there was every reason to share this expansive mood. Had not word come from Havana that an eminent doctor “discovered” that those vaccinated for smallpox, if they had yellow fever, produced only | mild symptoms of the disease? ** Even José Mocifio, one of the members of the botanical expedition of New Spain, found it necessary to

take part in setting limits to the discovery. For that purpose he sent to Alejandro Ramirez, editor of the Gazeta de Guatemala, the first report of the Louvre Society to the Medical Society of Paris, which ~ disclosed that, while vaccination protected one from smallpox not previously contracted, it was not known to protect one from anything else. At the same time Mocijfio sent along a practical set of instructions for vaccination, bringing up to three the sets from which Dr. Esparragosa and his fellow-experts could choose for publication.7® Such in73 “De la vacuna,” Gazeta de Guatemala, VI (26 de abril de 1802), 97-98.

74 Gazeta de Guatemala, VI (14 de junio de 1802), 259. :

75 Ibid. (21 de junio de 1802), 147.

THE PROTOMEDICATO 247 structions were not long in appearing in the columns of the Gazeta,”

where Dr. Esparragosa carried the burden of editing the medical information now pouring in at an unprecedented rate. With the idea accepted and the methods of operation fully known, Guatemala, as well as other parts of the Empire, waited with evergrowing anxiety and tension. Lives depended upon the speed with which the vaccine (pus de la vacuna) could be delivered. Don Tomas Urdiroz de Trujillo, “among those charged with securing the pus de la vacuna from Havana or some other place,’ had already indited a letter saying that the doctors whom he had approached in Havana ex-

plained that the “pus” brought from Spain between two pieces of glass had been applied to four youths without effect. He could only wait until the doctors had succeeded in making the vaccine from Spain “take.” From Mexico came word that there they had sought a start from “Spain, Havana, and foreign colonies” and that as soon as any vaccine arrived they would send some to Guatemala.” While the Guatemalans waited anxiously, an epidemic of smallpox, arising in

Petén, pushed south, forcing the protomedicato to halt travel and to take such measures as were then in its power.’* Meanwhile why not regale the people with a summary of the progress of this exciting discovery? 7° During this tense waiting, it would be difficult, if not

impossible, to find a number of the Gazeta de Guatemala without

some reference to smallpox. , The watchful waiting came to a climax when, on the night of December 16, 1802, the fluido vacuno arrived from Oaxaca for the 76 “Breve instruccién sobre la vacuna, medios de comunicarla, y observaciones de sus efectos, publicadas por una junta de médicos establecida en Paris, con el fin de propagar este preservativo de las viruelas,” ibid. (5 de julio de 1802), 161-165.

77 Gazeta de Guatemala, VI (26 de julio de 1802), 188. In his letter Urdiroz sent still another set of instructions—this one by José Ledesma, port physician of Havana. 78 Al. 1, 24914, 2818. Providencia del Superior Gobierno en conformidad de lo prevenido por el Real Tribunal del Protomedicato sobre que sufran la quarentena los efectos conducidos de la ciudad de Campeche practicandose las operaciones y precauciones para preservar la epidemia de viruelas. Afio de 1802. Flores had introduced the method of Francisco Gil which, among other things, provided for a cordon sanitaire. 79 “Tdea concisa de los hechos mas importantes que hasta ahora se han dado 4

luz sobre el descubrimiento Jenneriano. Por C. R. Aikin, del Colegio Real de Cirujanos de Londres, &c. [Second American edition],” Gazeta de Guatemala, VI (20 de septiembre de 1802), 229-281. See also ibid. (27 de septiembre de 1802), 239-241; ibid. (2 de octubre de 1802), 247-250.

248 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA

oidor, Don Jacobo de. Villa Urrutia. Immediately Dr. Esparragosa vaccinated the son of this man, as well as three sons of the contador de cuentas, Don Tomds Wading, and others. As the hours ticked | slowly away, people waited for signs that the vaccination was “taking.” — But the “fluid,” brought from New Orleans via Veracruz and deterior- _

ating every day, “did not take the slightest effect.” *° The interim of waiting was consumed in giving publicity to two “small treatises” on vaccination which had just reached the country.*t Among the latest

observations included in the second of these were four plates, two showing cowpox and the pustule on a human being in its different sizes from the fourth to the eleventh day.*? Such visual instruction was

highly useful on the eve of the introduction of the vaccine. _ The medical editor of the Gazeta promised to summarize these two works should they “contain anything new,” but he added wistfully that “further theoretical explanations” were probably no longer necessary

and that what was really necessary was the fluido to vaccinate the _ whole kingdom immediately. The Gazeta, once having opened the subject, continued to build up the idea of vaccination. Dr. Jenner had ~

been voted £10,000 or “about 48,000 pesos fuertes.” Vaccination had

| so spread among the Turks that they had abandoned “Kismet,” their : fatalism or “system of predestination.” If vaccination worked, they ‘were not predestined to die at that time. A commission of the govern-

ment of Prussia, where the greatest progress had been made, composed of seventy-one physicians and thirty-six surgeons who had been collecting data at home and in the other countries of northern Europe, had concluded that vaccination was just as efficacious as the -

old inoculation and not as dangerous when complicated with other diseases. The editor doubted whether there was a single periodical in

Madrid not containing articles in favor of vaccination, which now

| extended to nearly all the provinces of Spain under the special , patronage and protection of the king, And he laughed gently at the Prussian doctors who, carried away by their enthusiasm, “declared

that vaccination made blockheaded children sharp!” ** oS a

} 80 Ibid., VII (31 de enero de 1808), 5. | a 81 Dr. Francois Colon (1764-1812), Ensayos, etc., translated from the French , (Essai sur Vinoculation de la vaccine) by Francisco Piguillém of the Academia de _ la Medicina de Barcelona; and Origen y descubrimiento de la vaccina, etc., trans_ lated from the French by Dr. Don Pedro Hernandez, “with the latest observations.”

82 Gazeta de Guatemala, VII (7 de febrero de 1803), 11. 88 Ibid., pp. 12-18. Even the Balmis round-the-world philanthropic expedition was recruited from mortal man. (AGI, Indiferente General, Legajo 1558, Brevisima _

THE PROTOMEDICATO 249 In such an atmosphere of intense expectancy and hopefulness, with an epidemic bearing down from Petén upon a population which had not suffered one since 1780, the people could not wait. Dr. Cordoba, the protomédico, looked in vain for cows with cowpox and even tried the inoculation of sheep. Dr. Esparragosa, not later than October of 1802, promoted a subscription to send an “extraordinary mail” when he got word that vaccine had reached Mexico or Veracruz. The mail returned without the “pus.” Such as had reached Mexico was dead.

The universal cry now was that whoever should bring the vaccine into Guatemala would render the country an inestimable service.**

Then potentially explosive news reached Guatemala on February 13, 1808, in the mail from Oaxaca. The “news” was a “duplicate” of the vaccine sent to the “Sr. Ministro D. Jacobo de Villa Urrutia.” This too came to naught, but it proves that vigilance was still the order of the day and that the senior oidor, Villa Urrutia, one of the three or four most progressive figures in Guatemala, while pressing hard to

protect his own children, was throwing the weight of his official position behind the advocates of vaccination. The Gazeta, with that

element of bated breath it could develop in those days of slowtraveling news, promised to keep the public posted on the success of the new experiment.®

There now took place the most extraordinary series of events in the history of colonial medicine in America. In the promotion of this medical achievement the Guatemalans played a more important role than any other American people. In the course of this development, resumen. . . .) As thousands of persons were vaccinated, the doctors succumbed to the natural temptation to see what, besides smallpox, vaccination prevented or cured. Balmis reported from Venezuela that it stopped headaches in women. Salvany believed it arrested toothache. Both he and Romay in Cuba thought it cured itch, “a disease common” in the tropics. On his own, Romay went so far as to say that it “gave proof” of being anti-venereal and that it prevented yellow fever, although he admitted that this latter was not definitely established. One could put a finger on the uncontrolled afflictions which tormented mankind by listing the diseases his imagination leaped to include among the things every new medical discovery in the eighteenth century would cure. 84 AGI, Indiferente General, Legajo 1558. Expediente sobre la introduccién de la vacuna en América, 1802-1818. Informe del Dr. José Felipe Flores. Madrid, 28

de febrero de 1803. Dr. Flores says that “near the end of August, 1802,” Dr. Esparragosa vaccinated various children with “pus” received from New Orleans

via Veracruz, but that it, too, turned out to be “inert.” If this is the case, the

vaccinations of December 16 represented a second failure with a virus from this source,

85 Gazeta de Guatemala, VII (21 de febrero de 1803), 25,

250 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA ss” the Balmis maritime expedition for smallpox vaccination reached the uttermost limits of the American empire of Spain, carried to Canton ~ in China, the Portuguese East Indies where the archbishop of Goa — was the first vaccinated, and even to the English island of St. Helena.

: There Balmis had to talk the governor and the doctors into accepting | the vaccine discovered by an Englishman which the Spaniard, unmindful of the state of war existing between Spain and England, had thought to provide. This disregard of national boundaries is a peculiar demonstration of Spanish pride and the disinterested scientific spirit

in which the expedition was conceived. Se |

_ The story starts in this fashion. With vaccine already distributed throughout Spain, the government, in keeping with the enthusiasm , the crown had so often shown for the dissemination of important pre- _ ventatives in the eighteenth century, turned its attention to the problem in America. The Junta de Cirujanos de Camara, composed of _ Antonio de Gimbernat, Leonardo de Galli, and Ignacio Lacaba, began to turn the matter over in their official heads. The first concrete steps

resulted from a representation from the ayuntamiento of Bogota*® _ that it was menaced by an epidemic of viruelas naturales. On Christmas day following, the Secretariat of State consulted the Council of _ the Indies on whether or not vaccine could be sent overseas to prevent |

a the ravages of the disease, It responded, March 23, 1803, with the informe of Dr. Flores—first proof that the authorities were turning

to famous doctors with American experience. Oo Flores had left Guatemala with a certain disdain for his fatherland seven years before. Now, after studying medical learning and medical

| facilities throughout Europe, he was back in Spain and in intimate contact with Gimbernat and, perhaps, with the king. Undoubtedly, no

doctor had talked with so much information and conviction about | America as this medical zealot and eminent scholar from the Kingdom ©

of Guatemala. So it came about that he was invited to “inform” on this vital and pressing question. No one can tell where an idea comes |

, from in a situation like this, but Flores’ fervid response embraced, almost in detail, the essential structure the “philanthropic expedition of smallpox vaccination” ultimately took.*

Disillusioned with medical progress in Europe and full of pride _

| 86 June 12, 1802. (AGI, Indiferente General, Legajo 1558.) _ - | |

28 de febrero de 1808. | , a |

: 87 AGI, Indiferente General, Legajo 1558. Informe del Dr. José Felipe Flores,

THE PROTOMEDICATO 251 in the innovations in Guatemala, Flores began his project by referring to his own teaching and research, especially his wax anatomical figure which, he said, “was in a class by itself.” With nostalgia he recalled: “I left my country, gave up my comforts, asked His Majesty to give me a license to travel; I toured Europe in dangerous circumstances; I examined her most celebrated schools. And what was my surprise, when finding myself in them, to discover that my faculty in Guatemala was lacking in nothing, and, in respect to method, could even set the rules!” Thus fortified with pride in his home and in his own scientific | achievements, Flores was delighted upon returning to Madrid to learn

from the “letters and gazettes coming out of Guatemala,” dated as late as October, 1802, of the progress his pupil Esparragosa was making, especially with his “elastic forceps,” and of the zeal with which the protomedicato was working to protect the captaincy general , from the epidemic menacing it from the north. The invitation to Flores to report on the best means of preventing smallpox in America thus reached him when he was in this nostalgic mood. Smallpox, he said, was an exotic disease in America, where the “texture of the cutis and the humors” offered no immunity. It struck the Indians at a time when the extraordinary spectacle of the blazing guns of the Conquest had left them dazed and quite prepared for the

skies to fall upon them. The vociferated charge of Spanish tyranny in America was a chimera; the true cause of the destruction of the Indians in America was smallpox! Then he described how smallpox usually entered America through Veracruz or Yucatan and, “like a hungry flame,” swept over the Kingdom of Guatemala, carrying off a third of the population. To this end Flores added a graphic description of the plague of locusts which, in the first moments, could have been snuffed out with the hands, but which grew and inexorably consumed all before it. Flores was proud to have fought for inoculation

in 1780 and recalled that before he left Guatemala he saw one list of 14,000 inoculated persons of whom only forty-six had died. He

later promoted the method of the cordon sanitaire, proposed by , Francisco Gil and established by the government to combat the spread of smallpox. In the face of the threat of new epidemics, he exclaimed, with the world tottering on the precipice, no arms were strong enough

to embrace and hold it but those of the monarch. The remedy was no longer a problem. Vaccine must be introduced with the solemnity of a religious ceremony for the people to venerate it.

252 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA | : The core of Flores’ proposal was that the ministry should select two ships, so light as “not to involve any interested motives of —

7 commerce,” and dispatch them from Cadiz with all haste. In them | should go some cows “with true smallpox” and some boys to carry ~ the “pus” in their arms while, as an extra precaution, the director. _ should take the actual virus, carefully sealed between two pieces of . glass. The famous College of Surgery in Cadiz could readily supply __

the experts and prdcticos. One ship would proceed to Havana to

- transfer the virus to Puerto Rico, Trujillo, Yucatan, and Veracruz, while the other would proceed to Cartagena and transplant the vaccine

, - from there to Santa Fé de Bogota, La Guaira, “foreign possessions,” Montevideo, Portobelo, Panama, and the “other southern kingdoms.” —

At the end of his plan Flores proposed that the priests should persuade the godparents to have children vaccinated in four to six , months after baptism; that the “Pope should be persuaded” to issue

, a bull to “sanctify the practice,” and that the bishops and archbishops should not only publish this bull but have vaccination preached in _ the very churches. Viceroys, presidents of audiencias, and governors should authorize the practice and set the example. Flores was not indulging in mere fancies, for the bishop of Puebla, where vaccination — -. was much more readily received than in Veracruz or Mexico City, _ issued a printed exhortation to his parishioners.®* Likewise, the tremendous success of the Balmis vaccinating expedition in Caracas

_ and Bogota, where it enjoyed the favor of the civil authorities, and its failure in Mexico City, where the viceroy quarreled with Balmis,

, demonstrate Flores’ prophetic political wisdom. _

| Dr. Francisco Javier de Balmis, who had been twice in America | and who had translated from the French the Tratado histérico | , practico de la vacuna of J. Moreau de la Sarthe,*®® presented a set of rules and an itinerary *° for the proposed expedition to the four | viceroyalties and the Philippines, with himself as director. He, too, suggested keeping the virus alive by taking boys and vaccinating _ 88 Exhortacién que el Ilustrisimo Sefor Don Manuel Ignacio Gonzdlez de | Campillo, obispo electo de la Puebla, hace 4 sus Diocesanos para que se presten

con docilidad 4 la importante prdctica de la vacuna (Mexico, 1804). . . , , 89 It was part of Balmis’ reward to distribute this work liberally as he went

| from point to point in America. He started with a goodly supply but wrote from

the Canaries for 2,000 more copies. , / , 8° Reglamento y Derrotero, 18 de junio de 1803. (AGI, Indiferente General,

Legajo 1558. ) | |

THE PROTOMEDICATO 253 from arm to arm during the voyage. The Junta de Cirujanos de Camara, in a letter to the Minister of Grace and Justice, José Antonio Caballero, approved Balmis’ project as “in line” with what they had been thinking on June 23, 1803, and Balmis became director on June 28, 1808.%!

With the principle of a vaccinating expedition to America already accepted, direct pressure from Guatemala made an impression upon the royal authorities. Captain General Gonzalez Saravia of Guatemala caught the excitement around him and proposed the method adopted,” as the crown admitted.** He particularly emphasized that the country had not undergone a smallpox epidemic since 1780 and stood to lose a third of the population if the menacing epidemic reached it. But the vital decision had already been taken. On September 1, 1803, the king issued a circular order stating his

intention of sending out a maritime expedition to carry smallpox vaccine throughout the Empire to vaccinate the populace, teach the technique to the practitioners, and to establish juntas to keep the virus, like a vestal flame, constantly alive. It would call at Tenerife, Puerto

Rico, Havana, and Veracruz, and spread out from these points. The ship Maria Pita, with this unique expedition aboard, weighed anchor in Corufia for the Canaries on November 30, 1803. The parents of the 61 The personnel of the expedition would be: Ayudantes: Licenciados José Salvany, vice-director, Ramén Fernandez Ochoa [not allowed to sail], Manuel Julian Grajales, and Don Antonio Gutiérrez Robredo; male nurses: Don Basilio Bolafios, Don Angel Crespo, Don Pedro Ortega, Don Antonio Pastor; practicantes: Don Francisco Pastor and Don Rafael Lozano Pérez; the rectora of the orphanage of Corufia, Donia Isabel Lopez Grandalla, and 22 boys. See AGG, Al. 1, 5182, 218. Oficio del Sr. Presidente con un Exemplar sobre la expedicion maritima dispuesta por S.M. para propagar la Bacuna en estos Paises. Afio de 1804. 82 AGI, Indiferente General, Legajo 1558. Diligencias del Presidente Gonzalez Sarabia para adquirir la vacuna. Diaz de Iraola, op. cit., pp. 45-46. 93 “Por la Real Orden de 1. de setiembre préximo pasado habra visto U.S. que anticipandose el Rey a los deseos de sus amados vassallos, y adoptando uno de los medios propuestos por U.S. en representacion de 3 de julio num 42, mando formar

una expedicion maritima compuesta de facultativos habiles y versados en la practica de la vacuna, que conduzcan fresco y con toda su actividad éste admirable descubrimiento no solo 4 este Reyno, sino a ambas Americas é Islas Filipinas,

comunicandolo 4 sus naturales brazo a brazo, como el medio mas seguro, y ensefiando la operacion 4 quantas personas quieren aprenderla. . . . Real orden al Sefior Presidente de Guatemala, San Lorenzo, 16 de diciembre de 1803, in Reglamento para la propagacion y estabilidad de la vacuna en el Reyno de Guatemala ... (Nueva Guatemala, 1805). (AGI, Indiferente General, Legajo 1558. Expediente sobre la introduccién de la vacuna en América, 1802-1813. )

254 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA | boys aboard were left with the assurance that their sons would have

good treatment and instruction. |

Upon reaching Puerto Rico, which could hardly have been before February 27, 1804, Balmis found that Dr. Francisco Oller had already brought in vaccine from the Danish island of St. Thomas.** | This discovery occasioned Balmis a profound disappointment, one _ destined to repeat itself in Havana and Veracruz, for his professional sense was high even for his epoch. He attacked Dr. Oller’s vaccine as false and fell into such a quarrel with him and with the governor of Puerto Rico that he unceremoniously lifted anchor on March 12 for Puerto Cabello, where he arrived on March 20. He was wrong in his attack upon Oller, who stoutly defended himself, for a woman, Dofia Maria Bustamante, vaccinated in Puerto Rico with Oller’s “fluid,” had proceeded to Cuba where Dr. Tomas Romay vaccinated his sons from her arm and thus established the vaccine in the island. For this the crown later honored him as médico de familia. —

From Havana the frigates O and Anfitrite delivered the vaccine to Veracruz. When, therefore, Balmis reached Havana on May 27, 1804, and Veracruz on July 24, 1804, the virus, carried by the enthusiasm of private individuals, had leaped from point to point faster than any

formal expedition could move. The humiliations this proud and professional man suffered in Puerto Rico and underwent repeatedly at the hands of Viceroy Iturrigaray in Mexico, must have galled him exceedingly, for in most places, as Balmis and José Salvany, his second

in command, drew near, the town council assembled to plan the welcome. While thousands of people were being vaccinated, time was

found for the invariable receptions, ringing of bells (repiques generales), “general illuminations and public rejoicing,” Te Deums,

and solemn academic ceremonies. , OO Meanwhile Balmis delivered the virus to Caracas where, by November 5, 1805, after sixteen months, 38,724 people were vaccinated. In

Caracas he established the model of a regular series of juntas dedicated to the task of keeping the vaccine alive. At Puerto Cabello, Salvany parted company with him to head a second expedition bound up the Magdalena and ultimately to Lima, which resulted in 56,327 vaccinations from Cartagena to Bogota, over 100,000 in New Granada, and

197,004 in the viceroyalty of Peru. |

94 AGI, Indiferente General, Legajo 1558. Brevisima resumen del extracto del

expediente general de la vacuna en Ultramar, fol. 1. ,

THE PROTOMEDICATO 255 Balmis moved along the coast of Yucatan, dropped anchor at Veracruz on July 24, 1804, and, after working and quarreling in Mexico

until February 8, 1805, sailed from Acapulco with twenty-six new boys *° to bring the blessing not only to the Philippines but to Macao,

Canton, and the English colony of St. Helena. Two associates of Balmis made a tour of the Pacific islands and there vaccinated more than 20,000 persons. Balmis reached Lisbon on August 14, 1806. When Balmis arrived in Mérida de Yucatan, he dispatched Francisco Pastor with “fluid” and instructions to Guatemala. Pastor did not

reach Guatemala City until the end of July—a month and a half after Esparragosa had executed his first successful vaccinations. While

Balmis was journeying between La Guaira and Havana, the City of Guatemala continued under the excitement that had marked it in moments of hope in 1802 and 1803. Hearing that there was virus in Havana, the Guatemalans were on the verge of sending an expedition to Havana with boys to transport the vaccine arm-to-arm back to Guatemala. Before the expedition could get under way the precious substance, dispatched by a private Guatemalan citizen— Ignacio Pavon y Mufoz—reached Guatemala on May 16, 1804, from Veracruz. The virus had come from Oller in Puerto Rico via Havana. The medical profession, as well as the members of the government,

waited tensely, but their anxiety was not so great as to allow the sons of the humble to get the first “benefits.” The first person vaccinated was Alfonso Wading, the son of the contador de cuentas, who was followed by Eulogio de Villa Urrutia,®* the son of the senior oidor, whose concern had done so much to support the zeal of Protomédico Cordoba and the true scientist, Esparragosa.

Fortunately, in the arm of Alfonso Wading the vaccination took properly. On May 25, 1804, the sore was opened so that the doctors could establish its legitimacy and perform other vaccinations.

So, at long last, the first successful vaccinations were made in Guatemala with virus preserved there. Twenty were vaccinated with the fluid having “all the characteristics of true vaccine virus.” * The editor of the Gazeta could boast—as he was entitled to do—that the vaccine virus had nowhere been awaited with such impatience as in 95 Ibid. Estado que manifiesta el numero de nifios que Ilevo 4 Filipinas con expresion de sus nombres, edad, patria, y calidad. Acapulco, 5 de febrero de 1805. Francisco de Balmis. See also ibid., La vacuna en China. 96 Martinez Duran, Las ciencias médicas, pp. 288-289. 97 Gazeta de Guatemala, VIII (28 de mayo de 1804), 112.

256 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA ; Guatemala and that he had published every possible scrap of informa-

tion from everywhere on the subject.°* , . |

_ Every cultured person in Guatemala was profoundly moved by this sudden relief from a mortal dread. Before this time, in regions which had not recently had a smallpox epidemic, the parents of the young could not feel any sense of security.°? Now parents, especially

the oidor Jacobo de Villa Urrutia, within thirty days of the arrival of the virus, “were enjoying its benefits.” Dr. Esparragosa boasted that he vaccinated nine thousand people in forty-five days. The town. coun-

cil secured the permission of the captain general to celebrate the “happy success of vaccination.” The regent of the audiencia, Don Manuel de Castillo Negrete, and the oidores, Don Jacobo de Villa | Urrutia, Don Juan Collado, and Don Francisco Camacho, unanimously

sanctioned a solemn thanksgiving planned by the ayuntamiento. It was to consist of a pontifical mass and sermon of thanks for “the ineffable benefits which the Divine Providence has just granted to this kingdom in the quick and sure acquisition of vaccine, the most certain and admirable preventive of smallpox,” and would be attended by “both cabildos, the religious communities, and other bodies.” *°°

The great question now was keeping the virus alive and ready for instant use, in the case of an outbreak of smallpox. For this purpose the government set up a Junta Central of Vaccine in the Kingdom of Guatemala (1805) and published an elaborate set of instructions for propagating the vaccine ** after the arrival of Francisco Pastor, who had been with the expedition in Caracas when the model junta was organized there. Although the personnel of this commission changed from time to time, it held in all 156 meetings.1° 98 Ibid. (25 de junio de 1804), 337. Other data on vaccination in Guatemala appeared in ibid., 340-344 (“Diario del Dr. Esparragosa” ); ibid. (2 de julio de 1804), 345-351; ibid. (27 de agosto de 1804), 409. See also ibid. (29 de octubre de 1804;

5 de noviembre de 1804). 7 :

®9 The fact that the daughters of the regent of the audiencia, “en route to this capital,” had smallpox led to the charge that certain documents had been falsified

to evade the quarantine regulations. (AGG, Al. 1, 17999, 2877.) , 100 AGG, Al. I, 24919, 2818. Auto sobre la fiesta de tabla por el feliz éxito de la ~

vacuna. Guatemala, 16 de junio de 1804. |

101 AGI, Indiferente General, Legajo 1558. Reglamento para la propagacién y

estabilidad de la vacuna en el Reyno de Guatemala . .. (Guatemala, 1805). — 102 AGG, Al. 2, 15860, 2214. Libro de Actas de la Junta Central de Vacuna del Reyno de Guatemala, que comienza desde 22 de Marzo de 1805 a cargo del Secretario, Man! Vela. See also AGG, Al. 1, 5242, 223. Sobre dotar tres facultativos de medicina o cirujia en los puntos de Ja vacuna. Afio de 1817. 7

THE PROTOMEDICATO 257 After the original commission charged with “preserving the virus” went out of existence, Don Ciriaco Sepulveda continued to do the work punctually. The sum allotted for this purpose had at first been four hundred pesos, but by 1820 this money was not available. The city government, after reducing the figure to three hundred pesos, found money and finally authorized payment, August 21, 1822, nearly a year after the declaration of independence.*** The increasing importance

of the city government in these last phases of public health work reinforces the conviction that, with the breakdown of the all-pervasive paternal government in Spain, responsibility in such critical matters returned to the municipality where it had been in the beginning. The implication is clear that “municipalities” outside Guatemala City were neglected.

Once the strangeness of the vaccine was over, and when there was no longer such risk of letting it die out, the role of the Commission of Public Health was increased at the expense of the commission on vaccine.*°* The penchant of the Spanish government to have a direct hand in public-welfare measures is visible in the register of vaccina-

tion kept by the cabildo in Guatemala City.’ Since Dr. Esparragosa had played the most active part in smallpox vaccination in Guatemala, it is altogether fitting that, following a smallpox epidemic that broke out on the southern coast of Guatemala,*°* his last published work should be a set of instructions *°’ for

combating the disease. The government had designated experts for vaccination, but Esparragosa went into such detail that his instructions throw much light on the notions of sanitation and epidemiology. Many 108 AGG, Al. 1, 5244, 223. El Exmo. Ayuntamiento de esta Capital sobre concerbacion del fluido, y gratificacién ofrecida a Dn. Ciriaco Zepilveda. Afio de 1820.

104 AGG, Al. 2, 15875, 2215. Libro de Actas de la Junta de Sanidad Publica. The first entry is April 25, 1814, and the last November 4 or 24, 1825. The meetings were very sporadic toward the end. 105 AGG, Al. 2, 15879, 2215. Quaderno de la Vacunacion de Cabildo. Comenzado en 19 de abril de 1815. (Cuenta y registro de vacuna. Ciudad de Guatemala. ) 106 AGG, Al. 2, 15876, 2215. Sobre preservar al vecindario del contagio de la

viruela, por haberse introducido con ella a la ciudad un indio procedente de la costa del Sur. Afio de 1815. 107 Metodo sencillo y facil para el conocimiento y curacion de las viruelas asi de las que se presentan generalmente con un caracter inflamatorio como de las malignas. Acomodado a la vulgar inteligencia de los que no profesan la facultad medica, y la rusticidad de las gentes de los pueblos y del campo. Tambien sobre el modo de precaver las poblaciones de esta plagq desoladora (Guatemala, 1815).

| 258 = ‘THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA _ | of the directions were simple reinforcements of the royal order of April 15, 1815, requiring the isolation of first cases without exception

even if this required caring for the poor at public expense. No persons or merchandise from neighboring towns would be allowed to enter; essential foodstuffs would be unloaded outside town and kept for fifteen days while being thoroughly aired and smoked. Esparragosa —

believed that for want of this precaution smallpox had jumped over the intermediate towns and struck Guazacapan, one hundred leagues distant. The guards or attendants should not be changed, but clothes should be boiled outside of the city and treated with sulphur. After all letters from afflicted cities were fumigated with sulphur, they were to be treated with vinegar. Mail carriers and other wayworn

, travelers should stop at inns outside the city. Inoculation of “epidemic smallpox,” by which Esparragosa probably

- meant the arm-to-arm type of precaution, was absolutely forbidden _ on the basis of royal ordinances and on the ground that it was un-

| necessarily dangerous when the smallpox vaccine, that inefable preservativo, was obtainable throughout the kingdom. Indeed, at the first signs of contagion, the practitioner should vaccinate everyone. Not even the sick and suckling infants were excepted. The instructions

required the “operator” to return on the seventh or ninth day and to

repeat the operation if it had not taken. |

The directive of 1815 discussed the handling of the dead in illumi-—

nating detail. It forbade interment in churches or assembly of , people at funerals and forced burials outside the city. Whether the patient was dead or alive, clothing was boiled with lye and fumigated.

| Even the furniture was subjected to such precautions. | | The decision that the dead should not come to their last rest in the

churches was probably a reflection of the bitter fight waged in France by the exponents of modern sanitation. The Junta de Salud

- Publica in Guatemala instituted proceedings the year before this crisis for the construction of chapels and cemeteries outside town.1°*

| Evidently nothing was achieved, for, when in 1819 a “nervous, inflammatory, catarrhal fever’ struck the lower part of the City, “owing

no doubt to the putrid miasmas,” Dr. Mariano de Larrave, in his efforts to arrest the spread of the disease, began the new file the city _

‘government assembled to press for the construction of suburban 108 AGG, Al. 2, 15872, 2215. Instancia de la Junta de Sanidad Publica, acerca | de la construccién de cemeterios fuera de poblado. Afio de 1814.

THE PROTOMEDICATO 259 cemeteries.'°° The arrival of a royal cédula° ordering the high political and ecclesiastical officials to come to an agreement and proceed

to regulate and reform the cemeteries no doubt increased this pressure. The yen for burial in the proper place, the removal of bodies

to make place for others, and the subsequent loss of bones and mixing of sacred with profane bodies had the crown worried. The archbishop, whose opinion was solicited, wanted the canon law and Roman ritual observed in burials. But the most essential reforms had a way of dying of indecision in the Spanish colonies while the wars of independence were going on, especially in Guatemala during the year before it fell like ripe fruit from the tree of the mother country.

Government Concern for Public Health When an enterprising individual proposed in 1785 to make brandy from the “wild grape” as well as “other medicinal waters,” the town

solicitor asked that the protomédico inspect these “licores,” their “virtue, activity, quality, effects, and [see] whether or not they were injurious or helpful to human nature.” *** This paternalistic outlook at

every level of Spanish colonial administration made the Spanish regime ideal for the dissemination of “useful information” when this became the fetish of the Enlightenment. A striking instance of the usefulness of this public concern was the rapid dissemination of information on a preventive for tetanus, which, with unconscious realism, the Spaniards called the “seven days’ sickness.” This disease had, in part, accounted for the depopulation of the island of Cuba. Infants, soon after birth, when their umbilical cords had been cut with an unsterilized if not dirty and rusty knife, became sick and went into convulsions. A priest in Cuba discovered that if the umbilical cord, after being cut, were anointed with balsam of copaiba, among other things, the disease would not set in. When this information reached Spain, the Council of the Indies ordered *? the American officials, among them the captain general of Guatemala, to publicize this preventive. Dr. Flores, the primer protomédico, immediately made a favorable reply. On the advice of the fiscal, the Superior Govern109 AGG, Al. 2, 15880, 2215. Nueva instancia del Ayuntamiento de Guatemala, para que sean construidos cemeterios fuera de poblado. Afio de 1819. 110 Real cédula. Palacio, 4 de abril de 1819. Obeyed in Guatemala, January 28, 820.

111 Pardo, Efemérides, p. 178. 112 AGG, Al. 1, 489, 16. Real orden. Aranjuez, 25 de mayo de 1795.

260 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA | - ment ordered the precaution put into effect and made known by

, proclamation. _ ee In those days, when obstetrics fell to the midwife, cases entirely

out of the scope of local medicine sometimes developed. With only | a handful of doctors, and those all in the capital, highly specialized

work sometimes was left to laymen. It was so in the case of the Caesarean operation.1*® When, as early as 1762, Dr. Manuel Trinidad

de Avalos y Porras developed a successful method for taking infants | when for some reason the mother could not expel them, the cabildo

sent a notary to take down the information so that present and future surgeons would know “the method of such a useful operation.” 14 |

| This was but a forerunner of the excitement in medical circles when _ word reached Guatemala of the publication of books by Cangiamila and Rodriguez recommending the Caesarean technique, by then almost

forgotten, to save the soul of the infant.1*° In Guatemala, according __ to the Gazeta, Bishop Cayetano Francos y Monroy issued an edict on December 22, 1785, making it a high crime (caso reservado) to bury

, a pregnant mother without performing the Caesarean operation. _ This the bishop’s secretary published **° in the form of a dialogue on _ the baptism of fetuses and the Caesarean operation. Although it only contained notions based upon Cangiamila and Rodriguez, the editor

of the Gazeta regarded it as best designed for the instruction of “ministers” who would have to apply it but who did not know the “master” works on the subject. The Gazeta at the same time recom- _

known.438 , oo mended the summary of the doctrines of Cangiamila made by Father Pedro Mariano de Iturbide **” and hoped that both would become well

p16 oT 7

- 113 For the general authorization of this practice, see Lanning, Academic Culture, .

_ 114 Pardo, Efemérides, p. 221.

-. 415 Father Francesco Emmanuele Cangiamila, Embryologia sacra, sive officia — _sacerdotum, medicorum et aliorum circa aeternam parvulorum in utero existentium salutem (Palermo, 1761). Fr. José Manuel Rodriguez, La caridad del sacerdote para con los nifios encerrados en el vientre de sus madres difuntas (Mexico, 1772).

| _ 146 Pedro José de Arrese, Rudimentos fisico-canénico-morales o glosa al edicto. . . . Sobre el Bautismo de Fetos abortivos y Operacidn cesdrea en las Mugeres,

que mueren embarazadas (Guatemala, 1786). _ | | 117 R, P. F, Pedro Mariano de Iturbide, Compendio para que la operacién cesdrea

se practique conforme a las obras del Dr. Antonio Rodriguez y D. Francisco

_ Cangiamila . . . (Guatemala, 1788). - : 7 ,

de 1799), 124. : | , oT

a 118 Gazeta de Guatemala, III (24 de junio de 1799), 53. Ibid. (21 de octubre

THE PROTOMEDICATO 261 After the Guatemalans first announced the publication of these pamphlets in the Gazeta of June 24, 1799, a letter came from Mexico

stating that, in their anxiety to have the benefits of “the famous” Cangiamila’s ideas, both Lima and Mexico had anticipated Guatemala

by publishing translations of his work.'!® The editors were not disposed to dispute priority; they welcomed the opportunity to reopen the question, strongly recommending that the synods take up the danger and problems involved and that the government make the operation compulsory. It was an opportunity to belabor the intellectual sluggishness of the country. Sufficient time had elapsed, they pointed

out, for the “master works” of Cangiamila and Rodriguez to have arrived, but, could one expect books to arrive when no one looked for them? Books abounded only in proportion to the demand for them. How could one take an examination on a subject when there was no literature on it? '*° The editor was evidently giving vent to pent-up resentments on other scores.

Preventing Contagion from Abroad In the strictly political sense, the Spanish authorities were well prepared to cope with a spreading epidemic. It is strange, however, to see them referring to Philadelphia as the American city “most persecuted” by yellow fever.**! When Spanish American cities were “most persecuted” Americans referred to them as “pest holes.” In 1801, when

a ship from Philadelphia brought clothes and foodstuffs to Juan Bautista Irisarri, someone charged that the ship was infected, The fiscal, however, believed that the charge was a malicious effort to ruin Irisarri.?*?

The machinery of government came into full play when news | reached Guatemala of a yellow-fever epidemic in Cadiz, a city in maritime contact with Guatemala. Captain General José Domas y Valle called upon the experts to counsel him. The protomédico, José Antonio 118 Viceroy Antonio Maria de Bucareli y Urstia of New Spain had issued a circular letter and Archbishop Alonso Nufiez y Haro y Peralta reinforced it with an edict. 120 “Qperacion cesdrea,” Gazeta de Guatemala, III (30 de septiembre de 1799), 113; ibid. (7 de octubre de 1799), 115; ibid. (14 de octubre de 1799), 121. 121 Tt was in an opinion submitted by Alejandro Ramirez and Francisco de Sosa that Philadelphia was dubbed “the most persecuted.”

122 AGG, Al. 1, 611, 21. Pedimiento del Sefior Fiscal sobre lo que se ha divulgado acerca de la Peste de Fiebre amarilla. Afio de 1801.

262 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA a de Cérdoba, submitted elaborate point-by-point advice, but could do little more than recommend watching or closing the roads and rivers leading into the country. The audiencia ordered the documents in the case submitted to the Real Protomedicato and to a commission of experts called to discuss the best methods of protecting the country.”2* In retrospect, these efforts, sensible though they were, look

pathetic. Another century was to pass before the discovery of the peculiar method of contagion made public efforts fruitful, especially

once the disease had penetrated the cordon sanitaire. |

- Whooping Cough , Since there were not enough physicians to prescribe for each case, — it was often necessary to draw up general instructions. These are the

documents, fortunately for history, most often preserved. One of these ?*4 gives a detailed account of the treatment of whooping cough

in 1814. It prescribed a soft diet with no salads, peppers, or strong drinks, and, for those who did not vomit and perspire at each attack,

an emetic. Gentle purgatives were regarded as helpful. , “In order to draw the blood away from the lungs,” it was desirable to rub the feet and legs and use mustard and vinegar plasters on the

_ feet, breast, and shoulders. And, in case of a “vehement” cough in which the patient’s face turned scarlet, the eyes became bloodshot, and respiration seemed entirely lacking, the doctor should take an ounce of blood—always with the advice of an expert—from infants and more from older children. During the month or so of convales: cence, the children were plied with corroborants such as cinnamon — water, peppermint, orange-flower water, cinchona in cold water, poppy

juice, and a little laudanum—from two to ten drops, depending upon the age. All this the Junta de Sanidad proclaimed as “for the common-

wealth, nature, religion, love of country”! |

| Hospitals |

Slim though the facilities were, there was always some conscious- _ ness of the need of hospitals in Spanish colonial towns, Not long after the establishment of Guatemala City, the authorities appointed oo 123 AGG, Al. 1, 617, 21. Sobre epidemia que ha padecido la Ciudad de Cadiz, y providencias sobre precaver este Reino de su contagio. Affo de 1801. — , 124 Biblioteca Nacional de Guatemala, Discursos, I, No. 4. Junta de Sanidad.

, Instruccién que da la Junta de Salud Publica de esta ciudad para la curacion epidemica de los nifios. Guatemala, 1814.

THE PROTOMEDICATO 263 a “physician and surgeon” for the “Royal Hospital of Santiago.” *” A hospital for the Indians, established by the Dominicans, was transferred to the religious order of San Juan de Dios in 1667.17° Although

the Royal Hospital of San Juan de Dios was served by the most eminent physicians of the captaincy general, a regular salary was not attached to the work, for Dr. Esparragosa petitioned in 1791 to have his title confirmed and to get the salary of one hundred pesos, the income of his predecessor, Mariano (?) Berdugo. The file containing this modest petition got stalled along the way, apparently in the office of the clerk Guerra, where, according to Esparragosa, the matter promised to stretch itself out forever. In the course of the preparation of this file, Esparragosa proved that he had responded promptly and ably to the frequent calls from the prison and that he had even volunteered his services for the women in the Casa Nueva. At long last, in the year 1793,"°" he got a draft for this salary. 125 Reyes de Bolafios, January 5, 1595. Pardo, Efemérides, p. 38. 126 Pardo, Efemérides, pp. 76-77. 127 AGG, Al, 4, 1212, 48. Dr. Narciso Esparragosa y Gallardo, solicita el titulo de cirujano de la Carcel de Corte. Afio de 1793.

‘The Progress of Medical Science

DR. JOSE FELIPE FLORES would have been outstanding in any | American country in the last half of the eighteenth century. He was

a person of extraordinary curiosity and was in the vanguard of medical science in his country for many years. Yet he actually began ©

_ his medical career at an unfortunate moment in the history of Guate-

| mala—the eve of the earthquake of 1778. At twenty-two, when the | venerable and learned Dr. Avalos y Porras was alive to preside over , his “act of examination,” he won the last degree of bachelor of — medicine conferred in Antigua Guatemala, and he came up for his licentiate and doctorate (1779-1780) when there were no “Latin _ physicians” to examine him. Mateo Moran, master of arts, as decano, Fray Antonio Lanuza, Fray Miguel Francesch, Fray Juan Terrassa,

a and the learned Fray Antonio de Goicoechea therefore examined - —— him.? This does not mean that his opportunity for a medical education _ __ was not essentially as good as was usual—either in Guatemala or other

: Spanish colonies—for the two higher degrees were the rewards of residence and a certain number of acts and had nothing to do with _ formal courses. Once in possession of these degrees in medicine from | _ the University of Guatemala, Flores plunged into a combination of

- ment everywhere. , ;

_ scientific investigation and fabulous hope so typical of the Enlighten-

264 , , a

. 1 His file is not listed among the “grados mayores’ (AGG, Al. 3-13) of the

- Archivo General del Gobierno, _ - ,

MEDICAL SCIENCE | 265 The Newts of Amatitlan and the “Terrible Disease of Cancer” Jt was a natural climax when the turn of the century produced such a remarkable thing as smallpox vaccination, for the Enlightenment

had only added enthusiasm to the pitiful expectation of a sudden or universal remedy. Flores, energetic, curious, and unhappy at what

he began to think of as his isolation, had the spirit of the inventor and spent a life in pursuit of the extraordinary. One of his random stabs at a cure for the most baneful and incurable of diseases, cancer,

was a little tract,? unfortunately published, on the eating of newts (lagartijas), so abundant on Lake Amatitlan, as a specific for the “terrible disease” of cancer and eventually for about everything else. “A patriotic spirit” published a Mexican edition,? and commentaries followed, some leaving the impression that the remedy had been thoroughly tested and proved efficacious. In Mexico during 1782 no less than four pamphlets appeared which

treated this cure—by now a specific, not only for cancer, but for rabies, leprosy, itch, St. Anthony’s disease, king’s evil, buboes, all kinds of consumption, intermittent fevers, hypochondria, hysterics, and gout.* Two of these works,°® with an air of objectivity, advocated the remedy. Two other specialists in Mexico, however, Manuel Antonio Moreno and Alejo Ramon Sanchez, looked with skepticism upon the reports coming out of Guatemala and the experiments conducted

in Mexico.® In the ensuing controversy they elaborated their first pamphlet,’ casting aspersions upon Flores and accusing Leén y Gama of distorting the sense of their Reflexiones. Leén y Gama thought that the big mistake lay in publishing, as a “specific,” information conveyed by haphazard methods through ignorant persons. He did not believe 2 Especifico nuevamente descubierto en el Reino de Guatemala para la curacion radical del horrible mal de cancro (Guatemala, 1781). 8 Mexico City, 1782.

4 Biblioteca Nacional de Guatemala, Discursos, I, No. 42.

> Antonio de Leédn y Gama, Instruccion sobre el remedio de las lagartijas nuevamente descubierto para la curacion del Cancro, y otras enfermedades . . . (Mexico, 1782). Joseph Vicente Garcia de la Vega, Discurso critico sobre el uso de las lagartijas, como especifico contra muchas enfermedades . . . (Mexico, 1782). 6 Reflexiones sobre el uso de las lagartijas [que escribieron el Lic. Don Manuel Antonio Moreno y el Br. Alejo Ramén Sanchez] (Mexico, 1782). 7 Carta apologetica de las reflexiones sobre el uso de las lagartijas que escribieron el Lic. D. Manuel Antonio Moreno y el Br. Alejo Ramon Sdénchez (Mexico, 1782).

266 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA ~ that Flores would support the conceptions bruited about in Mexico,* but Moreno and Sanchez, resolving to have the last word, published a pamphlet to cap the Respuesta satisfactoria.° The controversy in Mexico reacted upon Guatemala; *° the idea

caught fire in Europe: * Flores’ pamphlet was reprinted in Spain, was translated into French by C. Grasset, into Italian by C. M. Tosca-

nelli; and “experts” conducted “successful” experiments in Cadiz, Malaga, and in France. It turned out, however, that, whereas six newts sufficed in Guatemala, it required thirty or forty in Europe to produce the “perspiration . . . , slavering,” and “copious evacuations of the bladder and bowels” before the patient “recovered.” A reporter, commenting upon the reception of the remedy in Italy, where cancer —

“abounds much more,” related that the pamphlet had been well received,’? but a little later obliquely admitted that skepticism was beginning to set in and complained that the venal Italians “praised only that which paid them” and that all credit went to a Frenchman, whose “only glory was in having translated” Flores’ pamphlet *—_ another proof that Spanish Americans were becoming sensitive to the smug European assumption that nothing of scientific or intellectual

value could come out of America. But the notoriety of the “agile — saurian” did not die down until it had reached the Parisian press, attracted attention in Palermo, Pisa, and Naples, and penetrated a

solemn Prussian dictionary of materia medica.‘ — | If Flores’ presentation of meat balls compounded of newts as a cure for cancer appears strange or reflects discredit upon this exceptional man, be it reported to his credit that in 1803 he said “we perhaps have four drugs worthy to be called remedies and these we 8 Respuesta satisfactoria a la carta apologetica, que escribieron el Lic. D. Manuel.

Antonio Moreno y el Br D. Alejo Ramon Sanchez: y defensa contra la censura, que en ella se hace, de algunas proposiciones contenidas en la Instruccion sobre el remedio de las Lagartijas, que escribio D, Antonio de Leon y Gama (Mexico, 1783). ® Observaciones critico-apologéticas, sobre la respuesta satisfactoria de D, Antonio de Leon y Gama, Y la Instruccion sobre el remedio de las Lagartijas, del. mismo Autor. Por el Lic. D. Manuel Antonio Moreno, y el Br. D. Alexo Ramén

Sdnchez (Mexico, 1783). | 10 Most of the pamphlets in this controversy are bound and deposited in the

178[torn]. a

Biblioteca Nacional de Guatemala ( Discursos, I). 11 Medina, La imprenta en Guatemala, p. 194. a

12 Biblioteca Nacional de Guatemala, Discursos, I, No. 41. MS. Roma, 2 dic.te de

18 Ibid. Roma, 5 de enero de 1785.

14 Martinez Duran, Las ciencias médicas, p. 216. |

MEDICAL SCIENCE 267 have acquired from the savages.” 1° Besides, Flores was not alone. Dr. José Ignacio Bartolache in Mexico at approximately the same time

concocted some iron pellets, dubbing them “martial pills,” to show that he would now bend iron to the good of man and not his destruction. These pellets he defended with great “decorousness” in the salén de actos of the University, answering questions “with urbanity and courtesy.” Whereas Flores’ ideas had led to experiments in France and Italy, the work of Giacinto Gibelli** suggested Bartolache’s idea. Only its interest in monsters outstripped the zeal of “the Enlightenment” for a universal remedy. In far-off Peru the birth of a two-headed

child had characteristically excited interest in these “aberrations of

nature,’ and Pedro de Peralta y Barnuevo had studied the case and. written a report upon it for the authorities.17 By the same token the appearance of a hermaphrodite in Guatemala who copulated with both sexes, set in motion two currents, one scientific, the other inquisitorial. Upon order of the interim protomedicato, Dr. Esparragosa

prepared a report on the supposed hermaphrodite for the royal audiencia which was considered so important that it was published in separate issues of the Gazeta de Guatemala.** According to Antonio Batres Jauregui,’® the archbishop of Guatemala, referring to an article

on hermaphrodites appearing in a later number,?° denounced the Gazeta “for articles opposed to religious devotion and theology, for satires against certain persons, and other [articles] arousing the passions of the flesh.” If the good archbishop had only known it, Esparragosa and the editor Simén Bergajfio y Villegas were but falling in with a universal interest in grotesque forms. An intelligent citizen of New Granada had carefully protected a supposedly hermaphroditic

horse to send to the king of Spain. Actually, the tolerant, objective attitude of Esparragosa's informe could not have been improved upon. 15 AGI, Indiferente General, Legajo 1558. Informe del Dr. José Felipe Flores, 28 de febrero de 1803. 16 Due dissertazioni sopra li vantaggi, che si ottengono in medicina dall’uso del ferro . . . (Genoa, 1767). See Lanning, Academic Culture, pp. 129-180. 17 See Bess Mae Mann, “Don Pedro Peralta Barnuevo and the Culture of His Epoch” (Duke University M.A. thesis, 1937). 18 Gazeta de Guatemala, VII (4 de julio de 1803), 269-272; ibid. (11 de julio de 1803), 277-281. 19 La América Central, I, 514. 20 No. 316 (5 de noviembre de 1804), according to Batres Jauregui.

268 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA Anatomy

The statutes of the University of Guatemala, drawn up in the 1680's, provided for anatomical dissections. It was thus in black and

| white that every four months the professors and students should attend an anatomical dissection in the Royal Hospital on pain of a fifty-

peso fine for the professor and loss of credit for the course on the part of the student. With the system characteristic of scholastic institutions, the University was required to designate a place to keep the skeleton, table, instruments, and the key which went to the professor of anatomy and surgery or, lacking such a post, the professor of medicine. Aside from the quarterly dissection, the professors and students met once a month to learn the use of the instruments in this designated depository.** Well might the editor of the “constitutions”

have worried lest there be no surgeon to perform the “anatomies” so cavalierly prescribed. As an afterthought, he tried to take care of that situation by entering a provision whereby the claustro of the University would elect three surgeons from the best in the City and submit a slate of three (terna) to the captain general, who would select

one *? to serve for thirty pesos per annum. | With the spread of the experimental method, the struggle to establish anatomical work somewhere besides on paper shows plainly the want of clinical experience in all branches of medicine and surgery. | The claustro of the University of San Carlos in 1778 declared “that the chair of medicine was useless without anatomy” and agreed to consult the “Very Illustrious Sefior President.” ?* There was little he or any other official could do short of importing scientists until the aggressive Flores took the matter in hand with the same enthusiasm

shown by Dr. Hipdlito Unanue in Peru, but with a more modern deference to the practical aspects of anatomical work.

Undoubtedly this pressure for improvement came from Flores. In the first place, he constructed a wax anatomical figure with detach- | able parts. He maintained later in life that not even the wax figures — of the famous Fontana could be taken apart and reassembled. It is by no means certain, however, that Flores’ idea was not suggested by the work of Fontana. 21 Constituciones, Tit. XI, const. cxxxvi.

22 Constituciones, Tit. XVI, const. cexv. , 23 Libro de claustros, 1756-1790, claustro de consiliarios, 19 de enero de 1778,

fol. 123-123y, ,

ASSERTIONES PRO OBTINEN! BACCALAUREATUSIN MEDICINA GRADU CBLLEBERRIMO EX BORRHAAVS, A B.D. JOSEPHO JAC( 30CKLIZ SUBSTINENDS

DE REBUS NATURALIBUS. DB EXPURGATIONB. Patet, usum splenis inservire hepati esse, Per alvum seri eductio fit, in ascitide,

Inst. Med. §. 226. per usum largum , expe & breviter reDE REBUS NONNATURALIBUT. petitum summe purgantium Se. de cog, &"

Venti agunt in corpus nostrum vel suo “4 Mord. §. 12.47.

iu , vel quatenus simul nobis 0 BUS.acuta ope motu , velq ve Pulsus durus in advehunt Peripneumoola poxias corporum qualitates § 7 § 3. sbidem. timus, mollis pessimus est. Ibid. inst. Med.

A DE REBUi PRETERNATURAY. §.962. & Hall ° vents

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quam traasmisoria cruoris Consistit inipri- d ha ve nobis were ence ~

mis in augmento, vel decremento eficatiz ofem, Impetam Sc. verum af S08 ex uring

ejusin sanguine. § 820 ibidem Conjiciuntur admodum incerta, &. ridicula

jus gine. fere sunt. Prelect. §- 1017.

DE FEBRIBUS. . ; . D& DIEBUS DECRETORIS & CRISIBUS.

Velotior cordis contractio prin causa Febris ardens 3. & 4. die sxpe lethalis proxima est. §. $73. de cog. cur. mors. . 1264 transit si perfect. § 74%. de cog.

DE LOCIS AFFECTIS. etcur. morb.

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Corde egressum impe $63 fuerit de eorpore, id repleri debet generata DE METHODO MEDENDI. iterum materia simili perditz. ibid. §. 189.

Si causa hydropis ascitis est recens &ec.

statim instituenda paracentesis. §. 1239. D& FACULTATIBUS MEDICAMENTORUM.

hid Sedantium priaceps opium §. 660,

"DE COCTIONE & PUTREDINE. _ Wans. ibid. Actio veatriculi in ingesta multiplex, a EX ARISTOTELE, nulio perficitur fermento. §. 76. usque ad Vermiuin causa dant ova inseCtorunt

89 inst. Med. in aere vel terra viventium adsumpta; hon

ergo ex putredine generantur §.1 360.ibid.

DE SANGUINIS MINSIONE, _ DE GENERATIONE | Pletorz curatio absolvitue missa san- Magni Boesh. senteotiam defendimus

guinis. § 106. ibidem. inst. Med. § 668- & seq.

In R.ac P. Universitate. Praside D. D. Josepho Antonio de Cordova Primaria: Medicinze Cathedrze

per substitutionem Moderatore, atque hujus Regat Archiatro. Imprimatur. Dr. Bousas Re€tor.

Apud Beteta

Bachelor of Medicine Theses of José Santiago Celis

270 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA

Flores was nothing if not an enthusiastic and persistent teacher of anatomy. In 1785 he petitioned the claustro of the University of San Carlos for a certain sum “to construct a skeleton and other instru, ments for the chair of anatomy.” The cloister agreed in principle, but the fifty pesos necessary came from the pocket of the maestrescuela.* _ A year later the University granted > Flores “in principle” the exclusive use of a classroom to keep the things he used in teaching. After five years more the cloister ordered some chests made under Esparragosas direction to keep the “skeletons.” The same meeting resolved

— to require the students “to take care of” the equipment, to accept

, responsibility for any damage done, and, please, to do what the pro_ fessor asked. It was characteristic of the administration to order two

sets of keys, one for the professor of medicine and the other for Esparragosa.”* There is so little relief from ennui in colonial university documents, so little indication of the human nature we know existed,

that it is reassuring to find that the students might “break up” these

precious “skeletons.” |

How little instruction in anatomy went beyond skeletons, if indeed it even got to them, we can see in a petition of Flores, as prima professor of medicine, dated from 1793. In it Flores begged with scientific ardor for the body of the about-to-be-hanged Bernavela Blanco, “beautiful husband-poisoner,” for use in anatomical study and demonstration. He was establishing, he said, “una presa anatémica” in order to teach obstetrics (arte de los partos), one of the things most necessary to enable surgery to benefit the public. He was, however, hardly able to proceed with his demonstrations and the construction of his wax figures for want of cadavers. He proposed that the bodies _ of those executed be submitted to him for this purpose. In this particular case, at least, the audiencia ordered the body sent to the Hospital

~ de San Juan de Dios, where all the clinical work of the University students was carried out.?’

The physical problems of medical study and research, certainly 24 AGG, Al, 8-25, 13262, 1961. El Dr. José de Flores pide que cierta suma sea asignada para construir un esqueleto y otros instrumentos, para el servicio de la Catedra de Anatomia. Afio de 1785. See also Libro de claustros, 1756-1790, claustro de diputados, 1 de agosto de 1785, fol. 212-212v. 25 Libro de claustros, 1756-1790, claustro pleno de 16 de septiembre de 1786, fols, 221v.—222.

26 Tbid., 1790-1808, claustro pleno de 13 de noviembre de 1791, fols. 75-76. 27 Archivo Colonial, Gobierno Indiferente, 58. Papeles del Doctor José Flores. Anios de 1792, 17938, 1794.

BXAMEN ANATOMICO EN QUE EL B. D. MARIANO VISCARRA CURSANTE DE MEDICINA, Y CIRUGIAO; rece demostrar las entrafias contenidas en las tres cabidades del cuerpo humano. I En la Cabeza: el Celcvbro con todas sus partes, y latbeorica de los sentidos.

II En el pecho: eb corazon, ef origen y distribucion de tas arterias y venas,y el pulmon.

WI En et Vientre: el bigado, el vaso, y demas entranas que sirven @ la quilificacion.

IV El uso en general de todas estas partes.

| De la Real, y Pontificia Vniversidad de San Carlos bajo la direccion del Dr. D. Jost Antonio de Cordova Catedratico substituto de la de prima, y actual Protomedico del Reyno.

De la N. Guatemala,

Ajio del S. de M. D. CCC.

PLR, Por los Herederos de D. Sebastian de Arevalo Examination of Mariano Viscarra in Anatomy

272 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA

in their initial stages, demanded the tolerance and support of the government. When the new hospital was under construction in the latter part of 1800, Esparragosa asked the captain general to hasten the building of an adequate place for dissections. This request was granted, but the church complained a year later about dissections in the hospital cemetery in violation of canon law forbidding this on consecrated ground. Since, where there was no sala or amphitheatre, the work on cadavers had to be done in the open, it was probably the olfactory senses as well as the canon law which were offended. The captain general investigated the charge and found the dissecting place had been there before the ground was consecrated. Even had | it not been so, he ruled, it was necessary to conduct this work there, and the church could swallow the canon law.?8 Thus the combined efforts of Flores and of his illustrious pupil, Esparragosa, gradually

produced results, , |

Indeed, in this epoch when Enlightenment was still the watchword, the mother country appreciatively noted the achievements of Flores. In the full claustro *° of the University a communication of the captain general revealed that the king had graciously conferred upon Flores the honor of Médico de la Real Cdémara, carrying with it an income

of twelve hundred pesos paid from the fondo de comunidades of Guatemalan towns. The condition was that he turn over to the University all the skeletons, figures, anatomical pieces, machines, and medical books in his possession. To guarantee the safety of these , things, the cloister appointed Dr. Fray Mariano José Lopez Rayon and Dr. José de Ayzinena to receive them and find the room and cabinet Flores thought necessary for their safety and usefulness. The natural deduction, confirmed later, was that Flores had prepared his pieces at his own expense and kept them. Evidently the oft-expressed hope that the University would provide adequate housing for the medical

equipment remained unfulfilled. ,

Although Flores’ work did not abate after he became Médico de la

Real Camara, his attention turned to the achievement of scientific glory. He began to yearn for ceremonious treatment and to study and to associate with eminent scientists abroad. By March, 1795, 28 AGG, Al. 7, 1840, 58. Gobierno-Hospital. El Dr. don Narciso Esparragosa, Cirujano Mayor, sobre la necesidad que hay de una Sala de Anatomias. Afio de 1800.

fols. 44v.—45, ,

29 Libro de claustros, 1790-1808, claustro pleno de 13 de septiembre de 1794,

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274 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA

Captain General José Domas y Valle had gone into deliberate conference and requested advice on what treatment to accord Flores now that he was honorary physician of the king’s bedchamber.®® In the middle of 1796 the captain general and Flores informed the claustro that the king had conceded Flores a license to go to Spain for four years to see the collections, laboratories, and botanical gardens there and to hear learned professors of medicine.*t Dr. José Antonio de Cérdoba would substitute for Flores in the prima chair of medicine.*? Flores could not wait until he reached Europe, in the scientific correspondence so beloved of the eighteenth century, to lay claim to the glory of several “firsts” in medical research. From Havana he

sent much useful information the following February (1797). In Philadelphia, while en route to Europe, he read the Journal de physique of the Abbé Francois Rozier and convinced himself that, — if destiny had not cast his lot under “the crupper of the world,” the scientific fame going to Giuseppe Balli and Luigi Galvani for their experiments in animal electricity and to the Abbé Fontana ** for his wax anatomical figures might have been his. Galvani had charged the leg nerves of frogs and produced movements in the extremities, and in the world of science, so dazzled by the phenomena of electricity, these experiments had produced a murmur of excitement for which

Flores could scarcely conceal his disdain. He spurned the idea of “animal fluid” and agreed with the Italians that this was an actual electric current. All this he learned “with vainglory,” for these were but. the ideas which he had presented to his students and associates in Guatemala “from the year 90.” In a letter dated in Philadelphia, May 17, 1797, and addressed to his old master, Goicoechea, he begged that any one doubting his contention consult Esparragosa, Sorogastua,

Soto, or Caseros about the papers he dictated to his former students on the difficult points of physiology. At this point he made the claim

that, had he been born in Europe, this original work would not 30 AGG, Al. 3-18, 13121, 1953. Acerca de otorgar el tratamiento que corresponde al Dr. José Felipe Flores. Afio de 1795. 31 AGG, Al. 1, 451, 16. Sobre cumplimiento de la Real Orden (9 de junio de 1796) en que S.M. concede licencia al Sr. Dn. José Flores, para que por solo el tiempo de 4 afios pase a la corte con el objeto de que bea sus Gavinetes, labora-

torios, y Jardines. Afio de 1796. 82 Libro de claustros, 1790-1808, claustro pleno de 7 de noviembre de 1796, fols. 62v._64. Martinez Duran, Las ciencias médicas, p. 224. 83 Felice Fontana (1720-1805).

MEDICAL SCIENCE 275 have been in vain. Little wonder that the man licensed in 1796 to go to Europe to study should never return to his native land! ** When

in 1805 the captain general of Guatemala asked the University to lend its electric machine and thermometer to a hospital, he supplied additional proof of electrical experiments in Guatemala.*°

Since Flores had also made wax anatomical figures in Guatemala some time between 1785 and 1796, and probably “from the year ’90,” he read with avidity of the wax figures made by the Abbé Fontana in 1797 and 1798. He recalled, with a strain of sadness, if not of envy, that the emperor had ordered a figure made in the Fontana labora-

tory and that the French armies in Italy had asked for the same.

This appreciation of wax anatomical pieces warmed his heart. He | did not claim, as some Guatemalan historians have insisted, that he made the first wax anatomical figures, but he did claim that his “three figures” were superior in one important respect to those of the Abbé Fontana—they could be disassembled. While Flores did not doubt that

Fontana’s pieces were “infinitely better” than his, the abbé “had to multiply his pieces,” requiring twenty-four large ones and an “infinity” of smaller ones.** Flores thought his Guatemalan friends ought

to preserve all evidences of his scientific work, because it was done by a fellow countryman. He later wrote to Canon Carbonell *” that he

had seen the wax figures of Fontana and that the abbé was only then working on figures that could be disassembled. On this point his —even if one included Paris!—were unique.

The fact that the wax figures and instruments worth mentioning before Flores left for Europe were his own personal property indicates

that the frequent references to chests, cabinets, and rooms to house

equipment were little more than a pathetic hope. Apparently no provision had been made, as Flores had urged, to care for his work, the cloister commissioning Esparragosa to have chests made to care for the “skeletons” only.** 34 Gazeta de Guatemala, I (8 de diciembre de 1797), 363. 35 Libro de claustros, 1790-1808, claustro pleno de 26 de noviembre de 1805, fol. 164-164v. 86 Gazeta de Guatemala, I (8 de diciembre de 1797), 364. The smaller pieces came to “over 1500.” 87 August 23, 1798. (Martinez Duran, Las ciencias médicas, p. 228.) 88 Libro de claustros, 1790-1808, claustro pleno de 18 de noviembre de 1797, fols. 75-76. Even as late as 1810 the authorities of the University commissioned Dr. Bernardo Dighero and Bachelor Manuel Beltranena to handle the books and other pieces of Dr. José Felipe Flores and to report on the cost of putting them

276 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA

Even after Flores had preached anatomy and practiced it with unusual insight, the dissections authorized by the statutes of the University in 1687 were not being performed, at least not regularly. Upon Esparragosa’s own petition, the full cloister authorized him in February, 1798, to “conduct the anatomies” required by the statutes and to pay for the instruments, all without the stipulated salary.*° And in April the claustro “saw and obeyed” the royal title of “First

Anatomist of the University.” *° , Esparragosa and Medical Progress ,

No sooner was the master out of Guatemala than his most distinguished pupil—Narciso Esparragosa y Gallardo—began to attract attention by his experiments and innovations in the field of medicine. Esparragosa, whose view of his subject was decidedly scientific, now began work never successfully done before in Guatemala. He undertook operations for the removal of cataracts in 1797. He thus successfully restored the sight of two persons, one of whom had been blind five years and the other eight, and presented them in a public demonstration. The Gazeta de Guatemala, reporting these operations with obvious pride, reverted to the subject in 1798 to boast that Esparragosa

“continues to perform the operation for the removal of cataract to good effect,” giving an instance of successful operation on a man of seventy “with small, sunken eyes.” ** The technique was apparently not, as has been alleged, the old, crude “depression” method. In that case, there would be no use in suddenly playing up the operations. Besides, when Esparragosa’s students took their examination in surgery in 1802 they attacked the depression method and defended the

new method. ~

new techniques—perfect evidence that Esparragosa was following the

in order and repair. (Ibid., 1808-1831, claustro de diputados de 19 de enero de 1810, fols. 8v.-9.) Evidently nothing was done, for when the captain general asked for a report on the skeletons and anatomical pieces, the University reported their “deplorable state” and begged the government for the means to restore them. (Ibid., claustro pleno de 14 de octubre de 1811.) _ 39 Tbid., 1790-1808, claustro pleno de 1 de febrero de 1798, fols. 76v.-77. In

Tomas Caseros. | | order to fulfill Constitucién 215 the rector handed the president the following terna: (1) Dr. Narciso Esparragosa; (2) Bachelor Francisco Quifiones; (8) Don

de 1798), 167. , 40 [bid., claustro pleno de abril de 1798, fol. 78. . |

41 Gazeta de Guatemala, I (8 de diciembre de 1797), 370; ibid., II (2 de julio

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. 278 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA At the same time Esparragosa was working on his elastic “forceps” (asa eldstica) for the taking of infants in difficult childbirth (criaturas

clavadas). He was horrified at the use of mangling iron forceps in cases of this kind. Since ancient cloth devices had become limp and | unmanageable from moisture, he contrived an elastic band or “loop” woven of whale bristles to insert behind the head of an infant while the hips of the parturient were elevated to permit the fetus to recede momentarily. He then applied traction in rhythm with the labor pains by pulling the rings at the ends of the loop with the right hand while _ flexing the head of the criatura with the left. Thus the infant was delivered without decapitation, without lacerating or crushing the skull, and, supposedly, without tearing the neck muscles in the case of a breach delivery, and without “offense” to the mother. The Gazeta de Guatemala, duly appreciating this innovation, called attention to an illustrative plate about to be given to the press.4? Esparragosa was

himself eager to put his invention to critical tests and asked the practitioners of Guatemala to call him at any time day or night when

there was a difficult obstetrical case. This contrivance was not an unimportant passing fancy; a pamphlet describing the device and giving instructions for its use was first published in Guatemala in the year 1798 and a second edition in Barcelona in 1816.8 |

, Various happy experiments in the Royal Hospital of San Juan de Dios with the catheter ** and his removal of stones from the bladder give ample proof of Esparragosa’s remarkable versatility.

Esparragosa and Professional Distinctions — Esparragosa resembled Flores in more than his scientific curiosity; he took after him in his thirst for honors. His self-sacrifice in teach42 Ibid., II (16 de julio de 1798), 284. Dr. Martinez Duran publishes the illustration in his Las ciencias médicas, pp. 262-263. In the royal cédula dated Aranjuez, June 24, 1803 (AGG, Al. 3-1, 12236, 1882), honoring Esparragosa for his work, reference was made to a memorial brought out at Esparragosa’s own cost “sobre el medio de extraer los fetos en los partos dificiles sin riesgo a su vida, ni ofensa a la Madre, que se habia recibido como en perfeccion del Arte, pues escusa los horrosos instrumentos de fierro, con que los practicos de todas epocas y Na-

ciones proceden a operar en semejantes circunstancias. . . .” - ,

- 48 Memoria sobre una invencion facil y sencilla para extraer las criaturas clavadas en el paso sin riesgo de su vida, ni ofensa de la madre, y para extraer la cabeza que ha quedado en el utero separada del cuerpo. Por el Dr. D. Narciso Esparragosa y Gallardo, Profesor de Medicina y Cirugia (Guatemala, 1798). 44 Gazeta de Guatemala, V (26 de octubre de 1801), 612.

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280 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA ing the principles of surgery gratis, his cataract operations by the new techniques, his elastic forceps, his inclination to experiment, and his outstanding reputation as a physician and surgeon won him the position of Surgeon of the Royal Bedchamber with increased salary. This, however, was not enough. He approached the captain general for permission to wear the uniform of a physician of the royal bedchamber.

The captain general recommended the petition to the king, first on the ground of the doctor’s merit, singling out particularly the famous obstetrical forceps invented by Esparragosa, and second, “to disabuse _ the public” of “the bad impression it has formed of surgery.” Moreover, the appearance of a gold-embroidered uniform in all private and public acts of the University, in place of the long robe customary

for members of the cloister, would stimulate young men and convince them that merit and industry had their reward. The verdict of the king was that Dr. Esparragosa with absolutely no obstruction, should wear the uniform “TI have lately decreed for the physicians and

| surgeons of my royal bedchamber” regardless of the customs of some universities.*®

This quick solution was not normal, and it was not enough. Esparra-

gosa must needs enjoy the right to be addressed as Sefior or Lord. Indeed, the Council of the Indies, in October, 1806, decided to dispatch to the captain general of Guatemala a resolution of all doubts “over the mode of formal address for Dr. Narciso Esparragoza, Honorary Surgeon of the Royal Bedchamber.” He could now bask in the genial treatment of “Sefior.” But, in one of the few signs of an inclina-

tion to delegate trivial responsibility, the Council gave to the real acuerdo jurisdiction over forms of courteous address or etiquette in

, the future. This was decisive and expeditious, but the next date in this file—March 5, 1813—is on a document disclosing that after seven

years the royal dispatch had not arrived. The testimony was that Esparragosa had produced a letter revealing the existence of the royal dispatch, but not the actual dispatch itself. Poor Esparragosa,

a kind of double foreigner in Guatemala, had to wait for every honor. But the extraordinary delay of seven years astonished even - an age and place never surprised by delays. Everyone agreed that Esparragosa was entitled to the “treatment of Sefior,” but there was | no one to confer it. At long last, on April 24, 1818, after due consulta45 AGG, Al. 8-1, 12286, 1882. Real cédula a la Universidad de San Carlos. Aranjuez, 24 de junio de 1803. Libro de claustros, 1790-1808, claustros de 4 de junio de 1808 y 5 de diciembre de 1808, fols. 140-141, 146-147. _

MEDICAL SCIENCE 281 tion, the authorities in Guatemala decided that Dr. Esparragosa should wait no longer to enjoy his honors.*®

It is a delight to record, however, that the gold-braided uniform and the title of “Sefior,” did not bring to an end the scientific career of Esparragosa. By 1805 he had already “formed lessons” in anatomy. The National Library of Guatemala has preserved five slim volumes

of these, apparently taken down by the student Mariano Zenteno. Among the books, money, and apparatus which he left toward the establishment of a college of surgery, there were some sixty medical papers. To judge by the notes taken by his students, and the author-

ities he quoted, he was master of the principal western European languages as well as of the writings of all outstanding medical and surgical authorities. Indeed, one writer credits him specifically with five languages. And, as we shall see, he did everything he could for the promotion of surgery, until his death in 1819.

Theory and Breadth of Learning in Medicine Medical doctrines in the University of Guatemala were, in the main, scholastic and stereotyped. No traces of dissatisfaction with authoritative medicine are found in the theses of students before 1770. Ten

years after this date the rashness of the Spanish Dominican, Fermin Aleas, in calling the University of Guatemala backward, led to a useful statement of doctrines, authorities, and practices in all chairs. Manuel de Molina, the “professor of medicine,” speaking of a course “explaining all the parts of medicine,” reflected the universal pride in the experimentalism of Goicoechea.*? “All the parts” sounds like the

decadent “system” so deplored by Aleas, but Molina insisted that practice should go along with theory and that, in deference to “experience and reasoning whose premises should be demonstrated definitions, axioms, and truths,” metaphysical disputes should have no place. Although there was in the University only the one professor-

ship of medicine held by Molina, he deplored the lack of chairs of anatomy, surgery, and botany, “without a knowledge of which no one can call himself a physician.” He undertook to teach enough of these subjects to keep his students from graduating “imperfect.” He professed to have taught physiology and covered the other parts of medi46 AGG, Al. 8, 4414, 49. Consulta del Escribano de Camara acerca del tratamiento que debe darse al Dr. Narciso Esparragoza, Cirujano Honorario de la Camara de Su Majestad. Afio de 1802. 47 AGG, Al. 3-9, 12637, 1905. Testimonio de Manuel de Molina, 2 de noviembre de 1782.

‘ CELEBERRIMI HER MANNI BOERHAAVE APHORISML Tum de Instituticnibus Medicis, Tum de cognoscendis ,& curandis morbis, Paucis ad materiam medicam additis, Alusque de re Chirurgica exceptis, Sxcult luminibus illustrandis , Atque rogantibus dicendis , Cum Eruditissimis Tanti Magistri Discipulis HALLERIO NEMPE, & VANSWIETENIO .

A Bachalaureo in Philosophia D. Petro de Molina

Horis Solitis |

| AManeusque ad Vesperam © Et cxponentur, & Substinebuntur.

In Regia ac Pontificia Carolina Academia: Sub Disciplina D. D. Josephi Antoni de Cordova Primariz Medicinze Cathedre per Substitutionem Moderatoris, & hujus Regni A€tualis Proto-Medici. Die XXII]. Mensis Maji Anno Domini M.D.CC.XACVIIL Imprimatur

Dr. Ayzinena Apud Reétor. | , Beteta. SEPOSSSPEPPSSSOOMS SSS SSSI PSPS POOP PS Pedro Molina’s Broadside Announcing His Defense of the Boerhaave School

MEDICAL SCIENCE 283 cal science “with the best observations and experiments found in the most distinguished authors.” Manuel Merlo, a former student, spoke of Molina’s course as “in conformity with many celebrated authors read in other universities and better than that read by the professors who preceded him.” ** Molina’s own list of his “distinguished

authorities” included Hippocrates, Sennert,*® Vallés,°° Sydenham, Sauvages,°* Hoffmann,** Piquer,°* Nenter,** and Boerhaave and his cele48 [bid. Testimonio de Manuel Merlo, “profesor de medicina.” N. Guatemala, 5 de noviembre de 1782. 49 Daniel S. Sennert (1572-1637 ). 50 Francisco Vallés (1524-1592), el Divino, the Spanish Galen, distinguished

physician of Philip II and medical writer who departed from the authoritative method of the period decried by such contemporaries of the Siglo de Oro as Luis Vives and Gémez Pereira. 51 Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689), Observationes medicae circa morborum historiam et curationem (London, 1676) contained the most minute and exacting description of measles yet to appear. 52 Francois Boissier de Sauvages de Lacroix (1706-1767) published a number of books on various aspects of pathology. Pathologia methodica seu de cognoscendis

morbis (Lyons, 1759, and various other editions) was one of the first and best classifications of diseases. The Theoria febris (Montpellier, 1738), Theoria inflamationis ( Bourg-St.-Andéol, 1743), and Theoria tumorum (Montpellier, 1753 )

established his reputation as a pathologist. His study and classification of eye diseases (Nosologia methodica oculorum: or treatise on the diseases of the eyes [London, 1785]) was brought out after his death. Other titles attest to Sauvages’ interest in the scientific hopes and controversies of his age (Motuum vitalium , causa [Montpellier, 1741] and Diss. de hemiplegia per electricitatem curanda [Montpellier, 1749] ). 53 Friedrich Hoffmann the Younger (1660-1742), German physician and adherent of the iatrophysical school and advocate of the systematizing of medical knowledge,

produced such works as Medicina rationalis systematica (Halle, 1718-1740), Medicina consultatoria (Halle, 1721-1733), Theoremata physica (Halle, 1694), Idea fundamentalis universae medicinae ex sanguinis mechanismo methodo facili adornata (Halle, 1704), Fundamenta physiologiae (Halle, 1717). His complete works were published in Geneva between 1740 and 1753. 54 Andrés Piquer y Arrufat (1711-1772), a professor of anatomy in the Uni-

versity of Valencia, and protomédico under Charles III, was an eighteenthcentury savant in the wide range of his interests, but, according to Menéndez y Pelayo, he was a circumspect advocate of the modern in the tradition of Luis

1751).

Vives. The following selected works of Piquer in Spanish will explain why he was used in many philosophy faculties as well as in medicine: Fisica moderna, racional y experimental (Valencia, 1745). Légica moderna, 6 arte de hallar la verdad y perfeccionar la razén (Valencia,

Las obras de Hipécrates mas selectas con el texto griego y latino puesto en castellano é ilustrado con observaciones prdcticas de los antiguos y modernos (Madrid, 1757). Dictamen para la reforma del estudio de la medicina (1767). Discurso sobre el sistema del mecanismo (Madrid, 1768) 55 George Philip Nenter ( ~1721), Theoria hominis sani, sive physiologia

284 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA

brated disciples. But despite his faith in the up-to-dateness of his program, Molina would “blindly follow” whatever His Majesty commanded.

of the Blood ,

“A State of Too Much Blood” and the “Circulation”

The miserable conspiracies of Palacios y Cébar to grab the chair of medicine in 1744 produced some extraordinary documentation for Guatemalan medical history—proof of the demonstration of the circulation of the blood by Dr. Avalos y Porras and his rupture with the _ dominating Galenists. Upon the request of Avalos the University collected affidavits from the medical personnel and former medical students to prove that he was “the first to demonstrate the circulation of the blood.” Avalos felt that these documents should show that the _ frequent vivisections in the Royal Hospital, promoted by his special knowledge and enthusiasm, resulted in many advances, with special benefit to the public and emulation by the physicians, who “were all

Galenists.” , , | ,

Three master surgeons ** then testified that Avalos, as a physician of the Royal Hospital, with instruments and tubes made at his own expense, was the first in Guatemala to demonstrate the circulation of the blood. Using dogs, he applied ligatures or simply pressed on the veins and arteries. In this way he could show how the blood drained out from the veins between the ligature and the heart and how the arteries filled up between the heart and the extremities.*” In these experiments he made transfusions, passing blood from one dog to another by means of a copper syringe with a silver canula, and made a

well dog sick with the blood of a sick dog and a sick dog well by reversing the process. He also introduced purging medicines into the veins of dogs, killing one incontinenti by an injection into the basilic medica . . . (Strassburg, 1714), Theoriae hominis aegroti sive pathologiae medicae pars generalis . . . (Strassburg, 1716), Fundamenta medicinae theoretico-practica

(2 vols., Strassburg, 1718-1721). .

56 AGG, Al. 3, 1149, 45. Maestro Cirujano Mayor Manuel de Artiaga y Carranza,

| “dissector nombrado de la Real Universidad,” forty-three years of age; Maestro de Cirujia Antonio de Mejia, forty-four years of age; Maestro de Cirujia Andrés

Gonzalez, twenty-six years of age. ,

57 He showed how “por medio de ligaduras en las venas y arterias como Ilenaban estas de la ligadura para el corazon, y en las venas al contrario vaciandose de la ligadura para el corazon y Ilenandose de la ligadura para hazia las partes. . . .”

(Ibid. Affidavit of Andrés Gonzalez. )

MEDICAL SCIENCE 285 vein. The experiments on dogs were supplemented by many anatomical

demonstrations which, according to all witnesses, resulted in great profit to the medical profession. Andrés Gonzalez even says his “companions” continued the experiments. The file covering these experiments nowhere mentions the dates they took place, but, since one of the surgeons testifying was but twenty-six years of age when he testi-

fied in 1744, the experiments must have been recent or during the

previous five or ten years. |

If evidence beyond the experiments of Avalos on the circulation of

the blood were needed, it could be found in the use of Hermann Boerhaave (1668-1738) ** in Guatemala not as a mere authority but as a virtual text. Boerhaave, coming as he did in the next generation, put considerable stress on modern discoveries like the circulation of the blood. Professor Manuel de Molina, and perhaps others before him, made use of the great Dutch medical writer. The medical teacher fell back upon him as a bulwark, and students cited him with increasing

frequency toward the end of the eighteenth century. Quaestiones for the bachelor’s examination of Vicente Sorogastua in 1793,°° Luis Franco in 1798,® and Cirilo Flores in 1804 came from him rather than Hippocrates.**

The approach to medicine in Guatemala could not have been more | modern than it was in 1804. Although doctors continued the practice of bloodletting for dropsy (“in a state of too much blood” ),* students, undoubtedly under the influence of Esparragosa, went on from Boer-

haave to cite the many up-to-date medical authorities available to 58 Dutch physician and famous professor of medicine, graduated in philosophy

at Leyden and in medicine at Harderwylk. At Leyden he became professor of botany and medicine as well as rector of the famous university there. He was also professor of practical medicine and taught students sent him by princes through-

out Europe. The works of Boerhaave important to this study are Institutiones medicae in usus annuae exercitationis (1708) and Aphorismi de cognoscendis et curandis morbis in usum doctrinae medicae (1709). 59 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12812, 1926. Propositiones medicae sustinendae pro baccalaureatus gradu in eademmet facultate promerendo a B. D. Josepho Vincentio de Sorogastua. . . . Die 23 Octobris. Anno M.DCC.XCIII. 60 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12819, 1929. Propositiones medicae sustinendae pro baccalaureatus gradu in eadem facultate promerendo a D. Josepho Aloyso de Franco.

. . « Die 31. mensis Martii. Anno M.DCC.XCVIILI. _

61 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12827, 1932. D. Joseph Cyrilus de Flores pro baccalaur. in medicina gradu. sequentes aphor sustinebit. Die . . . Januarii Anni MDCCCIHIII. 62 Ibid. B. D. Marianus Viscarra pro baccalaur. in medicina gradu sequentes assertiones sustinebit [Die 14 Januarii Anni 1804. In Reg. ac Pont. Carol. Guat. Acad.]: Si pletora hydropi conjungitur, missio sanguinis institui debet.

286 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA , Esparragosa. From William Cullen they took the idea, which seems superficially contradictory, that laxatives were the best method of curing dysentery, and from the same author they accepted the salutary view that the simplest medicines are often the best.** Mariano Viscarra went far enough afield to uphold Buffon’s view of generation

rather than that of Aristotle.® Unfortunately, as Spanish—used for the first time by students of Esparragosa in 1798 *°—came to be used more and more in the broadsides of examinations, students were less and less inclined to state in advance all the specific propositions they would defend. Luis Franco offered to defend his thesis in surgery “in accordance with the doctrines

of accredited authors, principally those of the publications of the Royal Academy of Surgery and Medicine in Paris.” ** Pedro Molina, a perfect example of Esparragosa’s teachings, gave an excellent idea of the range of reading the medical practitioner, coming up for examinations in surgery, would present with pride. He would follow Francois Quesnay (1694-1774) on inflammation and gangrene, Benjamin Bell (1749-1806), Edinburgh authority, on tumors and ulcers, Felice Fontana (1730-1805), Italian physiologist, on wounds and poison complications, Pierre Lassus (1741-1807), French authority on typhoid, and

others on surgical methods, and Percivall Pott (1714-1788), Irish author of a work on contusions, dislocations, and fractures.®* A little later another student sustained his tenets, not only with reference to “the pulsist,” Francisco Solano de Luque (1684-1738), but also upon the distinguished experimentalist, David McBride (1726-1778), the 63 [bid.: Laxantium ussu dysenteriae curatio absolvitur (Cullen [First Lines of the Practice of Physic, various eds.], II, Aph. 1080). AGG, Al. 8-12, 12830, 1983. Thesis of Mariano José Suarez, August 26, 1806. AGG, Al. 3-12, 12834, 1935. Propositiones medicas, quas pro baccalaureatus gradu adipiscendo, D. Cristoforus de Roxas in Regia S. Caroli Guathimalana Academia, deffensurus. [Die V. mensis maii anni 1810.] 64 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12827, 1932. Thesis of Mariano Viscarra, January 14, 1804: Medicamentorum simplicissima optima sunt. Introd. a la mat. med. de Cull. 65 [bid.: Celeberrimi Buffonis de generatione sistema, et exponam et sustinebo.

“Buff. t. 3, pag. 52. et seq.” ,

66 AGG, Al. 8-12, 12819, 1929. Primer examen de cirugia que han de sostener los Bachilleres D. Luis Franco, y D. Mariano Antonio de Larrave cursantes de la propria facultad, por direccion del Dr. D. Narciso Esparragosa y Gallardo su

Catedratico. . . . Guatemala, 28 de marzo de 1798. 67 Ibid.

68 AGG, Al, 3-12, 12827, 1932. Medicina Operatoria, examen de Pedro Molina [n.d.],

K

rf Que han de sostener los Bachilleres D. Luis ranco, y D. Mariano Antonio de Larrave cur-

Catedratico. |

ae € ja propria facultad, por direccion del rt. D. Narciso Esparragosa y Gallardo su

Se ofrecen las materias siguientes. 1. Los preliminares de Cirugia: El tratado de inflamacion, y sus di-

ferentes terminaciones; a lo que se agrega la nectdsis de las partes blandas, y de los huesos. 2 El tratado de ulceras, en las que se comprehender3 el cancer, y las demas complicadas con los vicios generales del sistema, como venereo , escorbutico &c.

3- Las suturas , sin embargo de que su uso esta quasi abolido en la practica; en donde se incluira la ligadura de los vasos, y la reunion de los intestinos 6 heridos, 6 enteramente cortadas. 4 Las heridas tanto generales, como las particulares de Ja cae

beza, pecho, vientre &c. Las de los tendones: Las de armas de fuego: Las complicadas con veneno, y las mordeduras de anjmales rabiosos, con los distintos metodos curativos, segun los diversos orginos que interesan.

Se satisfara con las dcétrinas de Jos autores mas acreditados, que se conocen, principalmente de las diferentes memorias publicadas por las Reales Academias de Cirugia, y Medicina de Paris,

En la Real y Pontificia Universidad de 8, Carlos de Guatemala 4s del mesdews .- — de 1798. sccm ap eemmmmamemann cian i TD ES TT AS ED SE A la hora acostumbrada de la majfiana

Imprimase Con superior permiso

Dr. Ayzinena Retor. | Por D. Ignacio Beteta. First Spanish-Language Thesis Sheet of San Carlos

288 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA naturalist, Georges Louis Leclerc, Count of Buffon (1707-1788), and | the clinician, William Cullen (1710-1790).°° The range of medical books cited in the unedited lectures of Esparragosa in Guatemala is indeed surprising.”° The new material was so abundant and over_whelming that Esparragosa was the only man in Guatemala considered to have mastered it. He was prevailed upon to give a free course on the subject in the University,: in which he roamed at large among the authorities of the world. An inventory of the books (approximately 292 volumes) and instruments of a protomédico of Guatemala, Dr. Avalos y Porras, dated 1776, includes such works as those of Thomas Burnet, Richard Morton, Thomas Sydenham, Boerhaave, Isbrande Diermerbroeck, Francisco Solano de Luque, Martin Martinez, Nicolas Lémery,”? Robert Boyle, Oswald Croll,” a treatise on elec-

tricity, and two microscopes.”* ,

Although Flores had established the system of electricity which his _ enthusiastic contemporaries thought “explained all the movements, sensations, and functions of animal economy” and had embraced the “theories of oxygen and hydrogen invented by the celebrated chemists of the day” to explain the functions of the lungs, he left Guatemala before he could carry out the latest ideas in general pathology, semiology, hygiene, and therapeutics.”* After paying tribute to Dr. José Antonio de Cérdoba, interim protomédico, who had thrown in his lot

with the modernists, Larrave, when he was calling for reforms in 69 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12827, 1932. Thesis of Mariano Viscarra, January 14, 1804. 70 Biblioteca Nacional de Guatemala. MS. texts of Mariano Zenteno: (1) Leccién ~

_ de huesos, (2) de musculos, (3) de visceras, (4) de nervios, arterias, y venas, (5) de sentidos. 71 Biblioteca Nacional de Guatemala. MS. de Curso theorico-practico de operaciones de cirugia. “Lo dicté gratis el Dr. Dn. Narciso Esparragoza y Gallardo,

Cirujano de camara de honor.” 72 Nicolas Lémery (1645-1715) was the author of Cours de chimie (Paris,

1675, etc.) and published a Pharmacopée universelle (Paris, 1697, etc.) and a

Traité universel des drogues simples (Paris, 1698, etc.). ,

73 Basilica chymica (Frankfurt, 1609, and other editions). : |

74 Archivo Colonial de Guatemala, 246-248. Inventario y avaluos de los bienes que quedaron por muerte del Doctor Don Manuel Davalos y Porras, protomedico de este reino, y catedratico de prima de medicina. Afio de 1776. This

paragraph is based on Lanning, Academic Culture, pp. 138-134. |

Afio de 1811. , 75 Facultad de Ciencias Juridicas y Sociales, Universidad de San Carlos: El Dr.

Don Mariano de Larrave propone a la Junta Parcial de Medicina, en virtud de comision que le confirio, el plan que le parece para mejorar los estudios del ramo.

MEDICAL SCIENCE 289 1811, decried everything in the scholastic period ** and demanded the restoration of Flores’ wax anatomical figures for teaching purposes— a plain admission that these studies had declined since 1796. Larrave

claimed that when he became professor of medicine he undertook to make the best in medical authority available to his students. He “dictated” extracts of the anatomy by Winslow “ and, after consulting Hippocrates, Hoffmann, Boerhaave, Haller,”* Van Swieten,”® Sauvages,

Cullen, and McBride, he composed Elementos de medicina teorica. In this work, divided into five parts, he treated general pathology and “animal movements” in twenty-two chapters, while devoting two to semiology—symptomatology, pulse, respiration, and the like—two to hygiene, the rules of keeping health and getting well, and to therapeutics five. Once he had gone through this compilation, he went on “extracting” Cullen, after which the students read Van Swieten.*° Despite all this, Larrave was not satisfied with the state of medicine in Guatemala. Students should know Latin, French, and even Greek, while chemistry, botany, “and all the rest of natural history” were essential to the medical man. These, one infers, were in the main wanting,

for Larrave plaintively asked: “Who could master all this for the sake of the miserable returns of a medical career?” “Indeed,” he answered himself, “the rich and proud will not permit their sons to cultivate medicine so long as the preparation is taxing and the pro-

fession lacking in prestige and remuneration.” : 76 That is, before Flores. 77 Jakob Benignus Winslow (1669-1760), Exposition anatomique de la structure du corps humain (8 vols., Paris, 1737, and many other editions) was the authoritative textbook in Europe for some fifty years.

78 The Swiss, Albrecht von Haller (1708-1777), greatest physiologist of his time, had studied under Boerhaave. 79 Gerhard van Swieten (1700-1772), follower of Boerhaave and distinguished Austrian clinician.

80 Perhaps Commentaria in H. Boerhaave aphorismos de cognos. et curandis morbis (Leyden, 1742-1772, and many other editions).

XI

The Teaching of Surgery

SURGERY, as a discipline distinct from pure medicine, enjoyed little support during colonial days. In 1771 the senior oidor and the interim president of the audiencia of Guatemala, Juan Gonzalez Bustillo,’ pre-

sented two representations to the Council of the Indies. He dilated upon the lack of surgeons in Guatemala on the one hand and explained

on the other that the salary and nomination of the Frenchman, Don Simon de Lacroix, as surgeon of dragoons, had been withdrawn since he had never been examined and had “not the slightest qualification to practice the profession of surgeon.” ? That decided, the facts had to be faced; there was not a single creole “worthy of the name of surgeon,” ®

and the only European, Joseph Nieto, a graduate of the College of Surgery of Cadiz who had left the ship Bigilante, was ill and begging leave to return to “those kingdoms.” It was necessary, therefore, to qualify Nicolas Berdugo, a native of Guatemala City, as surgeon of the Royal Hospital of San Juan de Dios—“the salary not passing 100 pesos and the work excessive”’—to which the “poor sick people, includ-

ing the dragoons,” repaired. Bustillo accordingly begged the Council

} of the Indies to send out two surgeons, graduates of the College of 1 AGI, Guatemala, Legajo 423. Informe sobre la falta de cirujanos en Guatemala. Madrid, 1 de abril de 1772. 2 “Que el nominado Lacroix no tiene la menor facultad para egercer el oficio de Zirujano. . . .” (Ibid.)

3“... halla que no hay alguno Criollo aprovado, ni que merezca el nombre legitimo de Zirujano... .”

990

TEACHING OF SURGERY 291 Cadiz or Barcelona, with a salary of 800 or 1,000 pesos each. Although the Council of the Indies approved the entire representation of Bustillo

in principle, the contaduria general did not find the money, and the petition, like so many others from Guatemala before it, sank into oblivion.

As the years rolled by, Spanish navy surgeons, as the case of Nieto shows, were seized upon with alacrity if they happened to be in Guatemala when they withdrew from the service. The Superior Government profusely thanked Dr. Alonso Carriola for his achievements and public service and permitted him to live where he wanted when he resigned his post as a navy surgeon in 1785.* Not much later the attorney-general of the municipality asked the town council to invite the Spanish navy surgeon, Joaquin Viejo Bueno, to remain in Guatemala and found a school of surgery.’ The Gazeta de Guatemala, while talking about the

“notorious advancements’ in medicine and surgery in the capital, pointed with pride to the examination of Pedro Molina on May 23, 1798,° on the aphorisms of Boerhaave. The four examining professors designed to combat the “colossus” Boerhaave and proposed difficulties,

but the student handled his answers in such a way as to redound to the “credit of the good method of his professor,” Dr. José Antonio

de Cordoba.’ ,

The Gazeta de Guatemala proudly reported that on March 28, 1798, Luis Franco and Mariano Antonio de Larrave underwent an examination in surgery—the first one in the history of San Carlos announced in a Spanish-language handbill. Mariano Viscarra and Santiago Celis, in

another examination, provoked remark and admiration by the way they handled the problems of surgery “according to the best masters.” Naturally, the Gazeta was eager—as was only just—to see to it that Esparragosa got due credit for what he was doing “without recompense” and at great cost of time and energy.® In 1802 Esparragosa had

Real Armada. Ano de 1785.

4 Al. 1, 249, 4. El Dr. Alonso Carriola presenta su renuncia de Cirujano de la

5 AGG, Al. 4, 18034, 2379. Autos acerca de establecer la falta de cirujanos en la ciudad de Guatemala. Afio de 1791. AGG, Al. 4, 5811, 265. Instancia del Ayuntamiento de la ciudad de Guatemala, acerca de la dotacién del Colegio de Cirugia. Ano de 1811. 8 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12819, 1929. 7 Gazeta de Guatemala, II (4 de junio de 1798), 184.

8 The enthusiasm of the Gazeta de Guatemala to report progress in surgical education led it to report the tarja in which Don José Antonio Lacayo and Don Manuel del Sol, working under Dr. Francisco Quijfiones, first professor of medicine

, 292 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA already given this instruction for six years, having “established a supernumerary chair” of surgery in the Royal and Pontifical University in 1796, which he continued to serve until the “erection” of the College

of Surgery in 1805. ; |

As a forerunner to two programs of examinations in surgery held

August 11 and 12, 1802, the Gazeta began to commend Esparragosa for

“his successful effort,” good method, and skillful instruction of “students in the most delicate discoveries of the faculty’—praise which pussyfooting and envious University colleagues would never supply. One gets the impression, however, that the Gazeta was proud enough that the broadsides were published in Spanish to reprint them for this reason alone. A more important contribution to history, however, was _ the magazine's analysis of questions put and answers given which, unfortunately, was never a part of the University record. The student Cirilo Flores, in the first examination, offered to analyze “inflammation

and its termination” with different types of gangrene described by Quesnay, tumors and ulcers according to Bell, and wounds, including those caused by gunfire and those complicated by poison. On this last — score the student supported “the observations published by the learned _ Fontana.” The rector of the University, medical experts, certain members of the claustro, and other persons dignified this act by their presence. After a harangue by Flores, the presbyter Dr. Bernardo Dighero, whose devotion to physics was already celebrated in Guatemala, led

off the examination. Dighero. wanted to know how the poisons of canti (cantil) and cazampulga operated and how to treat them. Flores cited the observations of Fontana published in the Journal de physique _ of the Abbé Francois Rozier in 1784 and 1785 to the effect that poisons _do not have any action on the cerebrum, the medulla, or the nerves. -On the contrary they worked by “decomposing” the “texture and hu-—

mors of the blood.®

Everybody, as was natural, skirted the pathetic problem of infecin the Seminary of Ledn, had offered to defend the aphorisms of Boerhaave on surgery “except,” they said, in a scientific spirit now common, “those which no longer agree with truths established afterwards.” Not only were they careful to

- avoid the use of authority against the results of more recent experiment, but

de 1802], 282.) |

these young men offered to explain “all the operations of this faculty and the most celebrated doctrines of the day. . . .” (Gazeta de Guatemala, VI [1 de noviembre

_---&*,, . disminuyendo la irritabilidad de la fibra muscular, y ocasionando una degeneracion putrida en los humores. . . .” Gazeta de Guatemala, VI (9 de di-

ciembre de 1802), 317. |

MEDICINA OPERATORIA.

Primer examen. | the los tratados de inflamacion y sus terminaciones, con las diferentes especics de gangrenas deseriptas por Quesnay.

De los tumores y ulceras, segun Ia teorica y practica propuesta por e] cclebre Bell. De todas las especies de heridas, incluyendo las de armas de fuego, y complicadas con veneno: con estas ultimas se dara razon de las observaciones pubdlicadas por el sabio Fontana,

Por el B. D. Cirilo Flores, cursante de Medicina, y Cirugia, Sepunco.

Ade todas las operaciones de Cirugia, con demostracion de los instrue mentos, segun Jos metodos prescriptos por el ciudadano Lassus; exponien-

do tambien los de otros Autores: y en Jas Iuxaciones y fracturas, segun las maximas adoptadas por Percivall Pott.

Por cl B.D. Pedro Molina, profesor de Medicina, y cursante de Cirugia; quicn dara principio al examen con una disertacion sobre la utilidad, certe7a, y honor de Ia Cirvgia.

Para cl dia 11. y 12. de Agosto 4 las 9. de la manana en la Real Universidad.

Bajo Ia direccion del Dr. D. Narciso Esparragosa y Gallardo, Catedratico Supernumerario de dicha facultad.

ps cer rere a)

' Por D. Manuel Arevalo.

Examination of Cirilo Flores and Pedro Molina in Operative Medicine

294 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA tion. Pedro Molina raised the subject of “inflammations” and handled it according to the writings of John Bell (1763-1820),'° then appearing. José Tomas Caseros, second surgeon of the Royal Hospital, ex-

_ plained pus through the experiments of Pringle. Bachelor Santiago Celis wanted to know when the “pus of bad quality,” causing gangrenous ulcers, appeared and what were the different kinds of gangrene. Doctors will be doctors, for they opined that the “extravasation of the serum and the red corpuscles of the blood, the putrefaction of these fluids etc.,” caused this “bad quality.” Quesnay was the author followed _ on various types of gangrene. The student, Pedro Molina, promised in a printed thesis handbill to take up all the operations of surgery, demonstrating the instruments, in accordance with the methods and prescripts of “the citizen Lassus,”

and other authors. On dislocations and fractures he followed the maxims of Percivall Pott. Thus, on the second day of this series of examinations, the surgical instruments were displayed, presenting “a very enjoyable moment to the curious.” Molina, in the face of these preparations, launched the “act” with a dissertation on the “utility, skill, and honor” of surgery. Dr. José Antonio de Cérdoba, the protomédico, who had prepared the way for Dr. Dighero to open the ques-

tioning of Cirilo Flores the day before, began the examination of , Molina himself. He wanted to know the diseases in which the trepanning operation was performed. In answer to this question, Molina explained all the obvious cases and cited Quesnay on doubtful ones. In what followed he came curiously close to operative demonstration. He described the position of the patient, took up the instruments in order, and made motions with them just as if he were operating. He explained what parts of the cranium were suitable for operations and which not, and how, according to the surgical works of Lassus, to “contain” the

_ symptoms of hemorrhage. .

Molina then posed the question of recognizing and operating for a stone in the bladder. Although calling upon the authority of Lassus, Antoine Louis (1723-1792), and Foubert in answering Dr. Vicente Sorogastua’s questions on this theme, he showed a very praiseworthy | inclination toward caution both in the diagnosis and operation. Sorogastua then pressed Molina for information on how to prepare the _ stump of an amputation, and the candidate exhibited considerable de-

1793 and 1795. |

10 His Discourses on the Nature and Cure of Wounds was published between —

TEACHING OF SURGERY 295 tailed instruction, such as how to “keep” the tendons and tissues of the “dorsal” [side] after an operation. He was particularly eager to show how to prevent the protrusion of the bone." The questions and answers on the operation for cataract were well put and answered, perhaps because Dr. Esparragosa himself performed

this operation with marked success five years before. The Bachelor Santiago Celis, showing careful advance preparation, presented the questions. In response, Molina explained the characteristics of a cataract, the method of breaking it down by depression (abatimiento), and “why it was abandoned.” He fully explained the operation as practiced by the oculist, Jacques Daviel (1696-1762),?* and exhibited the instruments. Molina then showed the instruments of Georges de la Faye (1699-1781), explained the latter’s operation, and favored it because it was simpler. He described “the thimble” of Pierre Demours (1702-1795), but thought the ingenious instrument of Pierre Guérin (1740-1827) of Bordeaux, so celebrated by Lassus, might result in failure by puncturing the chamber and draining off the vitreous humor.

In answer to questions from José Tomas Caseros, he named Antoine Louis on bronchotomy operations, exhibited his instruments, and

then went on to cite Lassus on paracentesis of the abdomen and to show the trocar and canula used in the operation.1* The meeting broke up in a hubbub of praise for the professors, and everybody, not already

satisfied, left convinced of the superior talents of Pedro Molina. No one sought to conceal—least of all the Gazeta—that all this was owing in large measure to Esparragosa.** And little did anyone realize the role Pedro Molina was to play in the independence movement. 11.Qn these points he cited Raymond de Vermale, Antoine Louis, William Cheselden (1688-1752), and Antoine Petit (1718-1794). When he tried to set the difficult methods of Louis Valentin over against these authorities, he “was not permitted to continue.” 12 Daviel was the originator of the modern treatment of cataract by extraction of the crystalline lens (1752). 18 The information on these examinations on surgery is taken from the Gazeta de Guatemala, VI (9 de diciembre de 1802), 317-322. 14 A decided pick-up in the examinations of surgeons by the protomedicato, especially in the years after Dr. Esparragosa began teaching surgery in the University, is revealed in the records (Archivo de la Facultad de Ciencias Juridicas y Sociales, Real Protomedicato): José Tomas Caseros (1795), Isidro Soto (1796), Francisco Quifiones (1797), Pedro José Molina (1802), Manuel de la Cruz Sol (1803), José Santiago Celis (1803), and Ignacio Ruiz (1804).

296 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA | College of Surgery The increasing emphasis upon surgery in the last few years of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries reached a climax in the authorization of a Royal College of Surgery at the General Hospital in Guatemala City in 1804.15 Just how the pressure was applied to the crown to get this important concession is not clear, but anything useful and not likely to cost the crown money always had a good chance of

success. In this case the crown recalled the fifty thousand pesos left by Archbishop Don Pedro Cortés y Larraz for a “good work” and informed the president that the money was in the charge of Don Juan de Dios Juarros. From this capital the sponsors expected an income of 2,500 to 3,000 pesos. His Majesty named Esparragosa vice director (there was no director), acting chief, and first professor with a salary of 1,000 pesos a year. The home government instructed the vice director

to advise with the “Junta de Cirugia” of Madrid for developing and perfecting the establishment and maintaining contact with sister schools

in Spain for mutual profit. |

Esparragosa quickly took steps to launch the school and start teaching in a salon of the Hospital of San Pedro. With the consent of the Superior Government and the express instruction of the Junta of Surgery of the Royal College of Surgery in Madrid, he named two other professors, Dr. Larrave and Licentiate Caseros, each at a salary of nine hundred pesos. The vice director and the secretary, one of the assistant professors, formed a committee to examine candidates for admission without the intervention of the protomedicato. Printed posters let the potential students know about the new school, its instructors, and

gave other information designed to recruit future surgeons.** The Junta of the Hospitals of San Juan de Dios and San Pedro represented the profession and the government in the inauguration of the College of Surgery. Esparragosa accordingly carried his problem to it. That body searched for suitable classrooms and financed six scholarships in the College with hospital money on condition that the students help with nursing. Even more farsighted was its suggestion, later preached by Pedro Molina, that the alcaldes mayores finance Indian boys from

2 de julio de 1804. |

- 15 AGG, AI. 4, 5809, 265. Real orden al sefior Presidente de Guatemala. Madrid,

16 AGG, Al. 4, 18036, 2879. Aviso al publico anunciando que pronto quedaran inauguradas las clases de cirujia. Afio de 1805.

TEACHING OF SURGERY : 297 their districts in order to give their provinces doctors.1? Esparragosa informed the Hermandad or Junta on February 22, 1805, that he was ready to begin teaching any time it provided him with the students. The Hermandad busied itself immediately,‘® deciding to receive applications on March 10 and to instruct Anselmo Quiroz to draw up ordinances for the school.?® On this last date the committee admitted six “nifios,” apparently the holders of the fellowships.?® Voluntary stu-

dents would register with Esparragosa.*! Everything was now ready for the opening of the College—a record in expeditious handling of colonial business. With everything in readiness, the Hermandad, at the request of the captain general, set April 1 as the date for the beginning of classes. On that occasion, Esparragosa made a speech before an “illustrious” audience. And, lest it seem that pomp was all important, two suits of clothes were ordered for each of the six scholars.?? These were the same clothes, which, a few months later, they were asked to hand in when they were expelled for not taking notes. Fortunately, the captain general was more prudent than the Junta and the students, after a reprimand, were reluctantly reinstated.**

Ano de 1805. ,

17 AGG, Al. 7, 12226, 1878. La Junta de Caridad de los Hospitales de San Juan de Dios y San Pedro, acuerda ayudar a la ereccién del Colegio de Cirugia. 18 Ibid. La Junta de Caridad de los Hospitales de San Juan y San Pedro, dispone responder al Dr. Narciso Esparragosa y Gallardo que a la mayor brevedad practicara las diligencias necesarias para proporcionar alumnos e inaugurar el Colegio de Cirugia. Afio de 1805. 19 Tbid. Acuerda \a Junta de Caridad de los Hospitales de San Juan de Dios y

San Pedro, que se proceda a la recepcién de las solicitudes para el ingreso de alumnos al Colegio de Cirugia. Afio de 1805. 20 Ibid, La Junta de Caridad de los Hospitales de San Juan de Dios y San Pedro, acuerda admitir a los alumnos con quienes sera fundado el Colegio de Cirugia. Afio de 1805. 21 “Eistablecimiento provisional de un Colegio de Cirugia,” Gazeta de Guatemala, VIII (11 de marzo de 1805), 593-594. 22 AGG, Al. 7, 12226, 1878. La Junta . . . remite a la superioridad el proyecto de ordenanza para el régimen de los alumnos del Colegio de Cirugia. Afio de 1805.

Ibid. Acuerda la Junta . . . preparar el Salén General para la inauguracién del Colegio de Cirugia. Afio de 1805. Ibid. Resefia de la inauguracidn del Colegio de

Cirugia y acuerdo sobre que el hermano mayor de la Junta de Caridad de los Hospitales, tenga a su cargo mandar a hacer los trajes de los alumnos. Afio de 1805.

23 AGG, Al. 4, 5809, 265. El Dr. don Narciso Esparragoza sobre que se le asignen los 1000ps que le detaya la Real Orden de 2 de julio de 1804 que previene la creacién de un Colegio de Cirugia en esta capital. Afio de 1809. AGG, Al. 4, 5823, 265: Larrave testified in 1819 that he had not received a third of the salary

prescribed by the Supreme Council of Regency January 6, 1811. Larrave and Caseros got 250 pesos for the seven years they served without pay and then a

298 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA

Financing the College of Surgery proved much harder than expected, Archdeacon Juan de Dios Juarros, despite the king’s express instructions in 1804, refused to devote the endowment—amounting in 1809 to 78,637 pesos—to the College, preferring some more orthodox

“good work,” thus tying up the whole fund. Five years after the College was authorized, Esparragosa asked the captain general to pay the back salaries of one thousand pesos a year due him as vice director and professor of medicine. After the usual tortuous sending-around of the file, the government agreed to pay the back salary from its own funds. Thereupon, Esparragosa requested that his assistants get their salaries, since he could not afford to continue paying them from his own pocket. Actually, in the next year, upon a petition of Dr. Larrave

and Licentiate Caseros, the Real Junta Superior approved paying “some salaries” for the nearly six years these two had served without pay.

Esparragosa added to his expediente a “relation of his merits and services” revealing him as a distinguished public servant. Among other

things, he reminded the authorities that he had also taught surgery without salary from 1796 to 1805. But the most extraordinary credit claimed for himself was that he was the first to vaccinate for smallpox in Guatemala, “applying the lymph’ to about nine thousand people in forty-five days. The vaccinating, which went on from July to August, 1804, included “another two thousand” people from the City and en-

virons. ,

In the year 1811 the College of Surgery was still “provisional,” still tottering, and its survival doubtful. The Junta Central and the Council of Regency had recently asked the audiencia to provide financing for the infant school.?* The captain general, taking his cue from Esparragosa, accordingly proposed that the municipalities should levy a tax on cocoa beans amounting to four reales to the carga (sixty pounds) for the support of the College and that they should send students to the College of Surgery who could return and practice. The costs would fall proportionally upon the towns. The cabildo of Guatemala City, assessed five hundred pesos, examined this proposition and opposed it

strongly on the ground that cocoa was an elementary necessity in Guatemala—not a luxury as in Europe—and taxing it would be injurious to the health of the people, since even many of the Indians fixed salary of 312. Esparragosa was satisfied at the rate of 2 to 5 from the cajas de comunidades (AGG, Al. 4, 5821, 265) on November 23, 1812. 24 The Regency prescribed the salaries in a royal order of 1811.

TEACHING OF SURGERY 299 used it. Besides, the proposal was economically unsound, for the cocoa

beans were used as actual money and, to take an example, the Guayaquil tax had turned out badly. The ayuntamiento preferred to tax imported cotton goods or to increase the tobacco tax.?®

Yet the city government was enlightened or wary enough not to oppose surgery. Indeed, late though the year 1811 was, members of the town council wrote an eloquent plea for surgery as opposed to medicine. If surgery were not more valuable than medicine, it was “at least more visible.” Although many diseases were cured by nature, how

could a bone be set, a cataract removed from the eye, a part amputated which threatened the whole body, or a hemorrhage stopped without the aid of art? The ayuntamiento was even so erudite as to cite Feijéo ** that one of the great tragedies of science was the long neglect of surgery in the interest of medicine. The doctor of “pharmaceutical medicine” was paid well; the surgeon was given barely enough to live on. The worthy councilmen, in all fairness, cited Ganganelli 2" to prove that it was, after all, just a joke when people said that the doctor killed instead of saying that the patient died.?* Guatemala was not the only city failing to respond favorably to the captain general's overture. Cartago, in Costa Rica, was absolutely devoid of funds or ways to obtain them.”® Ciudad Real (Chiapas), while promising to help so worthy a cause and to send a student as soon as it could raise the money, could not at the moment produce a cent.*°

The ayuntamiento of the Villa de Rivas in Nicaragua informed the captain general in great detail that the plan of taxing cocoa would only worsen pitiful economic conditions and, despite the worthiness of the cause, it could not possibly subscribe to the plan.*+ The city of Ledén in the province of Nicaragua excused itself with great nimbleness, not to 25 AGG, Al. 4, 5811, 265. Instancia del Ayuntamiento de la ciudad de Guatemala, acerca de la dotacién del Colegio de Cirugia. Afio de 1811. 26 Teatro critico, I, Discourse 5, No. 11. 27 Giovanni Vincenzo Ganganelli (1705-1774), Pope Clement XIV. 28 AGG, Al. 4, 5811, 265. See also AGG, Al. 4, 18039, 2379. Proyecto del Capitan General don José de Bustamante sobre la dotacién de plazas en el Colegio de Cirugia, sostenidas por los Cabildos de Espafioles. Afio de 1811.

29 AGG, Al. 4, 5813, 265. El Ayuntamiento de Cartago, de la Provincia de Costa Rica, expone no tener fondos para ayudar al sostenimiento del Colegio de Cirugia. Afio de 1811. 30 AGG, Al. 4, 5814, 265. E] Ayuntamiento de Ciudad Real (Chiapas), promete su cooperacién econémica para la dotacién del Colegio de Cirugia. Afio de 1811. 81 AGG, Al. 4, 5815, 265. El Ayuntamiento de la Villa de Rivas, Provincia de Nicaragua, expone no tener arbitrios para sostener un alumno en el Colegio de Cirugia. Afio de 1811.

300 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA

say surprise. The councilmen thought they had just about enough doctors in the province, since Dr. Francisco Quifiones had been teaching both medicine and surgery there. As a result, they already had four doctors not examined and licensed formally, either because they lacked funds, because they were slightly deficient, or because the protomedi-

cato was in Guatemala. At any rate, so it was said, they were more active in the practice of medicine than the regular physicians. Leon had a veritable “mob of quacks.” *? Come what may, they would try to get money to continue their own school rather than to send funds outside—an early sign of Nicaraguan nationalism. San Miguel in El Salvador opposed the cocoa tax on the grounds that it would not produce as expected and, instead, proposed a tax on crude sugar and similar products, and upon articles exhibited at the fair, charging by the horse, mule cart, or package.** It would be hard to find more convincing evidence of lack of profitable, taxable articles in this poor,

agrarian society. , | , Pedro Molina’s Plan

For nearly a decade after 1811, as was natural in view of the state of revolution throughout the Empire, the Royal College of Surgery played such a slight role that documentation on the history of the interim is well-nigh lacking. The death of Dr. Esparragosa on August 21, 1819, left Larrave the only professor in the College, and an illpaid one at that. Caseros had died on August 19, and Esparragosa was about to name a successor when he himself died. The resultant struggle showed the way the winds of reform and vested interests listed.

It was now a question of whether the University could reclaim all teaching in both medicine and surgery, or, as the exponents of this _ plan phrased it, whether the “top-heavy” College of Surgery should go on as an independent institution with salaries twice as high as those in the University—paid or not! Dr. Esparragosa had hoped or expected that the institution over which he had presided for fifteen years would continue, for he willed it his library, book cases, and machines, together with more than six hundred pesos to provide for the care of

1811. |

82 AGG, Al. 4, 5816, 265. El Ayuntamiento de Ledédn de la Provincia de Nicaragua, hace constar no poder sostener un alumno en el Colegio de Cirugia. Afio de

88 AGG, Al. 4, 5817, 265. El Ayuntamiento de San Miguel, de la Provincia de El Salvador, propone arbitrios para el sostenimiento del Colegio de Cirugia. Afio de 1811.

TEACHING OF SURGERY 301 the library. The executors of Esparragosa’s will for some reason turned the bequest over to the jefe politico and he in turn moved to put every-

thing in the hands of Pedro Molina, a man not connected with the College. This step naturally aroused Larrave's ire, The ensuing fight between the College and the University revealed the lack of confidence

Guatemalans themselves felt in the state of their medical education

medical history. |

and facilities. This was the direct cause of the 1820 crisis in Guatemalan

Larrave contrived to keep the bequest out of Molina’s hands. The matter immediately came before the asesor, who ruled in favor of Molina and insisted that his opinion should prevail. Larrave considered the ruling illegal. He decided, however, that since he was merely trying to do his duty, he could let the matter rest. For a year “the insects

and dust” took their toll of the library. When word reached Larrave that Molina intended to give the entire donation to the University, he bestirred himself to insist that the College should have the books and instruments.**

Molina pitched his reaction on a plane decidedly above personal ambition, for he was able to show that, instead of literal compliance with Esparragosa’s bequest, it was better advised to undertake the reform and promotion of medicine and surgery in general. In all the kingdom there were only eighteen doctors, certain proof that more productive means than those of the past had to be found to stimulate this science. Medical teaching in Guatemala was badly balanced, with only one chair in the University, and the College of Surgery top-heavy with three. Combining these in the University, where the chairs could

complement each other, was his solution. This arrangement would provide two new chairs in the University—one of anatomy and surgery

and the other of clinical practice and materia medica. Although the classes in the latter would be held in the hospital, the examinations would take place in the University. 84 Larrave accompanied his complaints on this subject with a long elaborately supported Relacién de méritos in which he showed that upon the death of the interim protomédico, Dr. José de Cérdoba, he took over and held the chair of prima

of medicine for nine years during which time nine bachelors of medicine were graduated in the faculty. He was able to show also that he had served as surgeon of the Real Cuerpo de Artilleria without salary; that he had often been commissioned to fight epidemics, to conserve the vacuna; that he contributed two hundred pesos toward the building costs of the University; and that he took an examination in natural history under José Longinos Martinez. (AGG, Al. 4, 5823, 265. El Dr. Mariano de Larrave pide se le nombre vice director del Real Colegio de Cirugia, por haber fallecido el Dr. Narciso Esparragosa. Afio de 1819.)

302 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA | The course of study proposed included four years for all students. Each would have the first year in anatomy. The aspiring physicians would take the second year in surgery to help them determine in their practice when surgery was indicated, but the “Romance” surgeons would take all four years in that field, although the “Latin” surgeon would have his second year in medicine. If a man wished to graduate as both “physician and surgeon,” he would take his first year in anatomy

and his second and third in medicine and surgery, returning to medi-

cine alone in the fourth. When, after completing this work in the University, students began to intern in the Hospital, the professor of chemistry and materia medica there would give instruction in this important field. Teachers would present the students in public demonstrations every half year, the professor of anatomy would conduct a dissection every fifteen days, and clinical and surgical students would regularly observe in the Hospital.*° The chief surgeon of the Hospital would be professor of surgery, just as the first professor of medicine had always been the protomédico. Molina did not neglect, in his consolidation of medical studies, to give attention to imparting “some notions” in allied fields such as pharmacy. Even midwives would need rudimentary training in surgery. How to achieve and vitalize this union of forces in a country where there was so little ready money was, as Molina well knew, the major problem. He therefore proposed that each partido should have a doctor and pay him from communal funds and that in addition he get a real for each Indian vaccinated and land for his own planting—the orthodox suggestion for the payment of teachers of Indians. According high honors to doctors was the way to increase the prestige of the lowly medical profession and to stimulate medical science. Molina, in his sweeping program, also proposed that the city of Leén in Nicaragua,°® which had just been granted a university, should have a protomedicato separate from Guatemala because of its importance and distance from the capital of the kingdom.* It must have been a harbinger of things to 85 Martinez Duran, Las ciencias médicas, pp. 822-328. 86 Notices from Leén concerning academic acts, particularly in medicine, were often published in Guatemala in proof of the growing importance of that place as an intellectual center. For example, the Gazeta de Guatemala (XV [12 de octubre

de 1811], p. 380) reported that Dr. Juan Fornos had unanimously passed the

of Latin Surgeon.

examinations in the College of Surgery and had accordingly been given the title

87 This whole section on Molina’s plan is based upon AGG, Al. 4, 5824, 265. Proyecto presentado al Superior Gobierno por el doctor Pedro Molina acerca de los

TEACHING OF SURGERY 303 come in Latin America that Molina, after establishing himself as the exemplar and first spokesman of medicine, should turn back on his tracks to become the first spokesman of liberators, agitators, and politicians.

From Flores to Molina, the agitation for improved medical education in Guatemala reveals a profoundly significant change in the mental

make-up of doctors. Disdainful of the scholastic ostentation and professional monopoly so dear to their forerunners of a century before, these reformers preferred to give rudimentary practical instruction in obstetrics to midwives and in surgery to young males from various localities in a plan reminiscent of current British training of natives in the South Seas. And, oddly enough, the men willing to settle for a little of the scientific rather than surrender supinely to empirics, were in close touch with professional developments throughout the western world, It is the old story; money, more than insight, was wanting. medios para dar impulso al desarrollo de la Facultad de Medicina. Afio de 1820.

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Part Five

ETHICS, CITIZENSHIP,

GOVERNMENT, AND REVOLUTION

2S

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Introduction

THE University of Guatemala put its blood into the life stream of the nation in many ways. It brought up a generation on a cultural level with the Europeans. Its sons became “precursors,” signed the declaration of independence, and assumed the reins of the new government when the moment arrived. The modernization of the colonial mind through perfectly normal and unpolitical channels was more basic to this role than any verbal

Bastille-storming. We have already seen that American youth was not in darkness about any essential advance in the world. A student who knew everything leading up to and from Newton and embraced popular sovereignty could deny a Corsican usurper “spontaneous consent” and make casual use of encyclopedists and philosophes when they became available. Indeed, such minor figures of the Enlightenment as Buffon and De Pauw were so ludicrous in the discussion of American

themes that they aroused more mirth than admiration. If Thomas Paine, Diderot, and Montesquieu had reached Guatemala before Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, and Newton, they would have been greeted with more amazement than understanding. The case of San Carlos de Guatemala is, then, another indication that historians, without investigating the gradual evolution of thought in the Spanish col-

onies, accept the invalid assumption that the French generation of 1789, by some breakdown of the “Spanish Gestapo,” achieved this revolution as quickly and as clearly as the day comes out of the night. 307

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Ethics and Government

THE colonial student was most nearly exposed to political theory when he reached the third or fourth branch of the arts course. To him ethics. was always a science directing all human actions toward honesty.’ It was a theological tenet, of course, that acts resulting from the human will, the “faculty separating the good intention of the intellect from the bad,” should be voluntary.? A man could not be upright by mere neglect; to do so he must exercise his will.* Naturally, it was not only conceded but insisted upon that in addition to the will—the internal force—there was an external principle in the end sought and in law.* 1 AGI, Al. 3-12, 12816, 1928. Thesis of Eusebio de Jestis Castillo, November 28,

1796: Ethica est scientia practica actus humanos ad honestatem dirigens. Ibid. Thesis of José Manuel Cerna, December, 1796. AGG, Al. 3-12, 12817, 1929. Thesis

of Mariano de Jesus Alvarez, January, 1797: Ethicae officium est hominum mores , recta ratione dirigere: ideoque nullus est qui praestantiam atque ejus utilitatem non fateatur. AGG, Al. 8-12, 12823, 1931. Thesis of Juan José de Calderén, June 18, 1802: Regulae illae, quibus humanus intellectus ad honestatem dirigitur, Ethica numcupantur. AGG, Al. 3-12, 12853, 1937. Thesis of Tomas Quintana, July 23, 1821: Ethica definitur scientia practica actus humanos ad honestatem dirigens. 2 AGG, A1. 8-12, 12816, 1928. Thesis of Eusebio de Jestis Castillo, November 28, 1796: Voluntas est animae facultas, quae bonum ab intellectu propositum sectatur vel malum aversatur. Omne id quod a voluntate proficiscitur voluntarium est. Ibid. Thesis of José Manuel Cerna, December, 1796. 8 AGG, Al. 8-12, 12823, 1931. Thesis of Juan José de Calderén, June 18, 1802: Ipsa neglecta, nemini virum probum esse licet: ipsa comparata, quisque facillime iustum ab iniusto secernet. 4 AGG, AI. 3-12, 12858, 1937. Thesis of Tomas Quintana, July 23, 1821: Duplicis generis sunt actuum humanorum principia, interna ut intellectus & voluntas, externa vero ut finis & lex. 809

310 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA It was to be expected that ethics should be intimately concerned with

the concepts of will and of law. |

Political Ethics | From the admission that there was an “external” principle operative in human conduct we have but one step to the highly useful view, held by Aristotle,® that ethics was a branch of statecraft. The organic concept of civil society, so dear to the Spanish regalists, in which Aristotle made the authority of the father over the children “royal” and over the wife “constitutional,” ® was ideal for use in a Spanish university. But Aristotle’s works on ethics, emphasizing the familial concept, contained not only a great deal useful to the regalists, but by following Homer in making Zeus the Father,’ allowed for the vital place the church had in the Spanish state. Thus it was that, without any teaching of “political economy except for the fiasco of Garcia Pelaez in 1814, the Spanish

arts student got such political views as he had from carefully controlled sources like the Ethics of Aristotle and the Institutiones philo-

sophicae of Lugdunensis. |

A strong effort was made to teach respect for law as something

inexorable. The law of nature could not admit any deflection or dispensation for anyone.* Thus obedience to the law of church or state was expected, not only to avoid the wrath of the ruler upon the violator, but because of the dictates of conscience. Although “morality presupposes freedom,” ® the nature of liberty did not carry the right to sin *° or permit any excesses in society where men were born to live

5 Magna moralia, I, 1-2. 6 Politica, I, 12. 7 Ethica Nicomachea, VIII, 9-10. 8 AGG, Al. 8-12, 12811, 1926. Thesis of Raimundo de Roxas, March 6, 1792: Lex naturalis nulam mutationem, nullamque dispensationem admitit. 9 Ethica Nicomachea, III. See Ueberweg, History of Philosophy, I, 172. See the curriculum on “moral philosophy” sponsored in 1782 by Goicoechea, the professor

of the subject, pp. 70-72 above. ,

10 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12824, 1931. Thesis of José Ignacio Oliver y Asturias, February 19 (?), 1803: Lex sive Ecclesiastica, sive Saecularis, observanda est, non solum probter iram imperantis vitandam, sed etiam probter conscientiam. AGG, Al. 3-12, 12822, 1930. Thesis of Manuel José Ferrandiz, April 27, 1801: Ecclesiam posse leges condere, quae vim obligandae conscientiae habeant. Peccandi potentiam ad

libertatis naturam non pertinere. Hominem natum esse ad societatem cum aliis hominibus ineundam. AGG, Al. 8-12, 12824, 1931. Thesis of José Domingo Figueroa, February 18, 1803: In hominum unoquoque agendi existit, vel non agendi

potestas, quae est libertas. Facultas autem peccandi non constituit libertatem. Numquam licet agere contra conscientiam; quod vero secumdum eius dictamem geritur, malum est aliquando. AGG, Al. 3-12, 12827, 1932. Thesis of José Bernardo

Asmitia, February, 1804.

+

MARTINUS VALDES PRO BACCALAUREATUS GRADUMIN PHILOSOPHIA » OBTINENDO HAS PROPOSITIONES DEFENDENDAS SUSCIPIT.

R EX LOGICA.

Atio, et auctoritas viam ad inveniendam veritatem aperiunt. [n rebus doctrinalibus argumentum a4 ratione majoris ponderis est, quam ab suctoritate.

N Ulla EXestMETAPHYSICA. Natio in omni Orbe, que existentiam alicuius Dei negate audeat.

Absque Dei provideaotia admirabilis hujus uaiversi machina existere nequit.

EX ETHICA. Ap tribuendum Deo veruym cultum, noo solum requiruntue aus interni sed etiam externi. Licitum est pro vita defendenda, iniustum occidere aggressorem, cum mo-

, deraminve inculpatz tutelie. EX PHYSICA.

P Rima vespera voluminis 1V. Kecreat. philos. P. Theod. Almeids. In R. ac P. SanGti Caroli Academia. Preside P. Fe. Los. Anton. Orellana

O. M. ac Philos. Profes. GUATEMAL2.

aE LLL A LDA LD Die 23 mensis Jaouatij ann MDCCCIL | Imprimatur.

Dr Garcia.

, R. stor.

Bachelor of Arts Thesis Sheet Citing New Physics Text

! 312 THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN GUATEMALA with each other. Indeed, man’s greatest happiness consists in banding together in civil society.1 Although the student of ethics at the end of

the eighteenth century regarded liberty as the freedom to do or not to do, one wonders whether a bald statement in 1821 that “man is free” and that his liberty of action could never be “outwardly” forced 1

was purely an academic exercise. , Although man’s greatest happiness lay in gathering together in civil — society, this hypothesis could not stand as the prime principle of Aris_ totelian ethics ** or of the Catholic faith. A more theological slant was

| inevitable. Man might be destined for the “truth called happiness,” but this he could find “in God alone and not in himself.” 1* This emphasis

on the pursuit of happiness was almost invariably made while José

Ignacio Irungaray was presiding officer of the act. —

: _ Dueling and Tyrannicide The influence of Lugdunensis, if not indeed of French social problems, became marked in the ethics of the University of San Carlos. Lugdunensis declared duels illicit,> and so did José Pérez, in exactly the same words, when he stood up to defend his theses in 1792.1° Opin-

ion on the right to kill an unjust aggressor in self-defense was not so _ unanimous. Valdés explicitly held that it was permissible,’” but Miguel de Rivera took the opposite point of view the next year.1® Could the (11 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12822, 1930. Thesis of Manuel Jess Diaz, April 380, 1801:

; Beatitudo est, status omnium bonorum aggregatione perfectus. , ,

12 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12858, 1937. Thesis of Tomas Quintana, July 28, 1821: Homo liber est. Hominis libertas exterius cogi potest, interius vero nequaquam. Quintana

prefaced his broadside with the admission that he would defend theses drawn from Lugdunensis. Oo | oe 138 Ethica Nicomachea, I, 10; IX, 9. oe | 14 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12823, 1931. Thesis of José de Vasconcelos, June 18, 1802: Ad veram proprieque dictam beatitudinem homo destinatur. Homo non potest in se ipso veram felicitatem invenire. Deus solus est summa hominis beatitudo, sive -summum bonum. See also AGG, Al. 8-12, 12822, 1980. Theses of José Antonio de Rivera, April 30, 1801, Ignacio de Rivera, April, 1801, José Leandro Pais, June, ~

1801, and José Patricio Villatoro, August 26, 1801. : ee,

15 Institutiones philosophicae, III, Dissertatio I, Propositio . . . : Ilicita sunt

singularia certamina quae duella vocitantur. | | ,

16 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12811, 1926. Thesis of José Pérez, February 15, 1792: Illicita

sunt singularia certamina quae duella vocitantur. , oe

— AGG, Al. 3-12, 12823, 1931. Thesis of Martin Valdés y Lacunza, January 23,

Licitum est pro vita defendenda, iniustum occidere aggressorem, cum - 1802: moderamine inculpatae tutelae. | : , 18 AGG, Al. 3-12, 12824, 1931. Thesis of Miguel de Rivera, February, 1803: _ Adhuc ad propriae vitae conservationem, non licet injustum agressorem interficere.

PRO EXAMINE AD BACCHALAUR. IN PHILOS. IOS. MARIAN. YUDICE ET CROQUER DEFENDET SEQUENTES PROPOSITIONES;

P Ex Logica.

Hylosophia est cognitio ex primis principiis evidenter de-

ducta.

Omnis idea clara est ac distincta, ita ut proprie loquendo nuk la sit obscura nee confusa.

Idea est interna objecti repraesentatio. | Judicium est actus mentis simplex. Ex Metapbysica.

Existentia Dei demonstratur ex argumentis metaphysicis physi-

cis & moralibus. |

Deus est summe intelligens & sapiens.

Acternitas ita Deo propria est, ut nulli creaturae possit convenire.

Possibile dicitur id omne quod contradictione caret. ImpossibiJe € contrario.

Ex Ettica. Lex naturalis nullam mutationem uullamque dispensationem admittit.

Suicidium propria voluntate commissum, actus est rebeltonis er-

ga Deum. Deus solus est summa hominis beatitudo, sive summum bonum. Homo non potest in seipso veram feticitatem invenire. Ex Phy:ica. Omne corpus est impenetrabile. Omnia corpora porositate gaudent. Quantitas absoluta meatuum determinart non potest. Corpus oppressum tanta vi nititur 4 pressiwne Liberati, quanta premitur.