Mexico: Hospicio de Pobres

[Begins:] Una tarde del mes de Mayo de 1760 [&c.]. Mexico. A detailed history of the Hospicio, with tables of its accounts as at 30 April 1852, directed to the Gobernador del Distrito de Méjico and dated 14 October 1853. The writer, perhaps Wenceslao Reyes [1807?-1880], the Secretary of the Hospicio, complains of shortage of funds.

1853

34 ll. (ll. 1, 15, 32-34 bl.) 31 x 21.5 cm. Unbound.

Officially opened in 1774, the Hospicio came to provide lodging, medical care, education and occupational training for the indigent. Other services such as the private delivery of unmarried mothers and operation for cataract were added. Its work continued in varying forms until its demolition in the early years of this century. According to the present report an average of 500 cases a day had been assisted. Flores (1886-88), 2, 245-250, and Alfaro (1906) may have used this MS. Fernández del Castillo (1959) has covered the history of the Hospicio from its foundation to the present.

At Wellcome Collection: see the printed regulations for the Hospital ('Ordenanzas para el gobernio del Hospicio de Pobres...') (Collection: Request EPB American; Shelfmark: M.102) and their catalogue description in Robin Price, 'An Annotated Catalogue of Medical Americana in the Library of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine' (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1983).

Described in: Robin Price, An Annotated Catalogue of Medical Americana in the Library of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1983).

Formerly in the collection of Nicolás León, and probably (if misleadingly) described in his own hand on the first leaf as from the "Casa de Cuna" (i.e. Casa de Niños Expósitos, whose constitution was approved by Real Cédula in 1774). León Collection.