Sessé y Lacasta, Martin de (1751-1808), and others

[Begins:] "Entre los diversos fines á que se dirigió la generosidad de nuestro Soberano en las costosisimas expediciones cientificas ... es el primero y mas importante dar á conocer á sus fieles vasallos el gran tesoro de los Vegetales con que la Naturaleza distinguio este suelo" [&c.].

Produced in Mexico.

An expediente of first drafts and file copies of correspondence and comments and reports following Sessé's request (ll. 1r-2r) to the Director and Administrator (sede vacante) of the Hospital General de San Andrés, the Canónigo doctoral Juan Francisco Jaravo [d. 1810?], for the use of two small rooms to enable Luis Montaña [1755-1820] and José Mariano Mociño [1757-1820] to carry out clinical tests on indigenous drugs discovered in the course of the Botanical Expedition to New Spain of which Sessé was Director. Most of the senior staff of the Hospital, including José Ignacio García Jove [d. 1823] (also President of the Protomedicato), and the well-known surgeon and Director of the Real Anfiteatro de Anatomía, Manuel Antonio Moreno [d. 1803], objected strongly to the proposal on grounds of possible danger and delay in the treatment of the poor. The file includes (ll.9r-21v) a detailed and energetic rebuttal by Sessé of the objections raised in the individual reports of the ad hoc staff committee, and a final letter from the objectors threatening action at the highest official levels. The proposal however was supported by the Viceroy as Sessé's immediate superior, and the rooms were opened on 5 December 1800, as well as similar accommodation in the Real Hospital de Indios on 11 December. [See Wilson (1962); Arias Divito (1968), pp. 212-223; and Howard (1972), pp. 285-286].