Medical knowledge and moral reflections during the rosas era: Buenos Aires, 1835-1847

Abstract

This article analyzes how medical discourse incorporated a series of reflections on moral behaviors in Buenos Aires in the early nineteenth century. Based on the study of three texts authored by the physicians Diego Alcorta, Guillermo Rawson and Francisco Javier Muñiz, it identifies a series of discursive registers that stress the role of organ functions, the question of heredity and the influence of climate in reflections on the morality of individuals and populations. This phenomenon of knowledge transfer is due to the presence of the French medical tradition, in addition to local factors stemming from the intense process of politicization of society under the second administration of Juan Manuel de Rosas.