La cultura médica instrumental: los viajes políticos de los esfigmógrafos entre Europa y América
Generally explained by the association between precision and instrument, the instrumental dominion of medicine in actual days is assumed as a natural and necessary destiny. Placed in the practices of Mexican physicians of the XIX century, I discuss this naturalized image of medical instruments. Taking as a case the Sphygmograph, device recorder of the cardiac pulse, I interrogate the reasons of the massive import of instruments from the European markets. I have found that the political search for affirming normality and civilization of the Mexican population encircle an epistemological dimension; the instruments are revealed as appliances of knowledge and objects of consumption, in this case, of the colonial market, which hierarchies determined how in this side of America medical doctors were creating knowledge and instruments importing Europe’s instruments.
Daniel Vergara Lope and Carlos Monge Medrano: two pioneers of high altitude medicine.
Daniel Vergara Lope from Mexico and Carlos Monge Medrano from Peru were brilliant scientists in their own countries. Both scientists studied high altitude physiology and defined the physiological and anatomical mechanisms of adaptation to high elevations. The Mexican physiologist proposed his ideas 40 years before his Peruvian counterpart. This paper studies the contribution of Vergara Lope and Monge Medrano to the understanding of high altitude medicine and proposes explanations of why history has given priority to Monge, whereas Vergara Lope is relegated to anonymity.
A feasibility study of adolescent sex education: medical students as peer educators in Edinburgh schools
Objectives To determine the feasibility of medical students being involved in sex education in secondary schools, as lesson leaders in peer group discussions.