Central America:

(Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama)

Archives and Manuscripts Sources in the Wellcome Library for the History

and Understanding of Medicine

NB collections range in size from single items to large personal or organisational archives

Further information about the materials mentioned below can be found on the Archives and Manuscripts Online Catalogue. In some cases full catalogues of archive collections are not yet in the database: hard copy versions are available in the Rare Materials Room of the Library and on request to mailto:archs+mss@wellcome.ac.uk

Peter Martyr of Anghiera (1457- 1526): translation, c. 1855, into English, of his Opus epistolarum: letters to or from ecclesiastical dignitaries, generals, and statesmen of Spain and Italy, dealing particularly with the history of Spain during the years of exploration MS.8462

Melchor Antonio de la Cadena y Sotomayor (1539-1607) churchman: reports and documentation concerning request to be transferred from Puebla (cathedral of Tlaxcala) to Mexico City on grounds of ill-health, 1575-1600 MS.Amer 90 a, b

Hospital de Nuestra Señora de la Veracruz, Guadalajara, Mexico: notarial copy of founding documents of 1608-1621 (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “Zacatecas”), 1776 MS.Amer 71

Nicolás Altamirano (fl.1690): medical certificate (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “New Spain. Protomedicato”), 1690 MS.Amer 51

Gregorio Lopez (1542-1596) Mexican hermit: manuscript partial copy of the published compendium of remedies ascribed to Lopez, c.1700 MS.Amer 101

Texcoco, Mexico, Hospital de San Juan de Dios: minutes of elections and associated papers, 1706-1754 MS.Amer 88

Pedro Perez (fl.1714): medical certificate (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “New Spain. Protomedicato”), 1714 MS.Amer 64

Marcos José Salgado (1671-1740) Mexican physiologist: summary of parts of Salgado’s textbook for medical students, 1730 MS.Amer 35

Cabalonga: list of the therapeutic uses of cabalonga, compiled in Mexico (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “Virtudes”), c.1730 MS.Amer 52

Cristóbal de Hinciape Melendez y Mayen (1689-1772) medical man, natural historian and printer, Guatemala: chemical, astrological, pharmacological and personal memoranda, 1745-1773 MS.Amer 79

Recipe books and fragments, Mexico: miscellaneous home remedies (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “Medicamentos”), 18th century MS.Amer 7. Recipe giving dosage and use of jojoba seeds (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “Receta”), c.1749 MS.Amer 72. Miscellaneous remedies drawn from printed and manuscript sources, probably copied by a religious in Mexico (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “Curvo Semmedo”), c.1750 MS.Amer 22. List of medicinal uses of bezoar stones from the porcupine (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “Reximen”), c.1825 MS.Amer 68. Remedies, including some drawn from Salernitan tradition (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “Medicina”), c.1750 MS.Amer 26. List of recipes, dosages and uses of various remedies, mainly European but a few using native plants (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “Magisterio”), late 18th century MS.Amer 58. List of recipes, dosages and uses of various remedies, mainly European but a few using native plants (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “Maestro Pharmaceutico”), 1800 MS.Amer 18. List of remedies (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “Remedios”), c.1800 MS.Amer 6. Miscellaneous recipes (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “Recetas”), c.1800-c.1840 MS.Amer 15. Instructions on diet, regimen and use of potassium bicarbonate in cases of urinary calculi (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “Lit[i]asis”), c.1820 MS.Amer 60. Fragments, disbound, on cholera, smallpox and other diseases (listed in American MS. catalogue under headings “Cardoso”, “Escayola” and “Nombre”), 1823-1840 MS.Amer 47-48, 54-55. List of remedies (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “Remedios”), c.1825 MS.Amer 59. Recipe against cancer (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “Receta”), c.1825 MS.Amer 14. Miscellaneous recipes (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “Recetas”), 1837-1874 MS.Amer 32

Nicolás José de Torres (b.1687) Mexican physician: piece on the therapeutic virtues of guaiacum (lignum vitae), c.1750 MS.Amer 11

Galisteo y Xiorro (fl.1757) Spanish physician: transcription, probably made in Mexico, of two sections from Galisteo’s Diario philosophico, medico, chirurgico: coleccion de selectas observaciones, y curiosos fragmentos sobre la historia natural, physica, y medicina (Madrid, 1757), c.1757 MS.Amer 12

José María Luis Sixto (fl.1759-1788) Mexico: collection of recipes, 1759-1788 MS.Amer 36

Hospicio Real de Indios, Mexico City: plans, 1764-1765 MS.Amer 135

José Eustachio de Leon (fl.1756-1769) Guatemala: copy from a variant version of Leon’s Virtudes de la essencia tinturada de el balsamo virgen, c.1770 MS.Amer 63

Joseph Rosuela (fl.1771) monk, Mexico: collection of remedies compiled primarily by Rosuela, much drawn from an unidentified work by Juan Bautista Procopio Couto and Juan Maria Procopio Couto (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “Procopio Couto”), 1771 MS.Amer 23

Casa de Recogimiento de Santa Maria Magdalena, prostitutes’ infirmary, Mexico City: proceedings concerning lack of drugs, food and bedcovering (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “New Spain. Real Audiencia”), 1773 MS.Amer 93

Andrés Majarres (fl.1774) Mexico: recipes and notes, 1774 MS.Amer 86

Ignacio Xavier de Lemos Martinez (1722-1777) Mexican medical man: report on the mental state of his medical colleague Juan José Mathias de la Peña y Brizuela, c.1776 MS.Amer 9

Alonso Nuñez de Haro y Peralta (1729-1800) Archbishop of Mexico: report on history and state of the Casa de Niños Expósitos, 1777 MS.Amer 120

José Timoteo María de Gracida y Bernal (1760?-1815) Mexican anatomist and surgeon: chemical and pharmacological recipes, and verses, by Gracida and others, 1782-1821 MS.Amer 100

Juan José de Encinas (fl.1783) local official, Mescaltitan, Mexico: report on the therapeutic uses of the fruits, trees and herbs of his area, 1783 MS.Amer 66

Sonora province, Mexico: reports by local officials to the governor of the province, on the fruits, trees and herbs of their areas (listed in American MS. catalogue under headings “Amarillas”, “Pablos” and “Tamayo”), 1783-1784 MS.Amer 49-50, 74

Mariano José de Herrarte (fl.1784) friar, Guatemala: report on botanical cures used by the local Native Americans, 1784 MS.Amer 40

Felipe Salvador Gilij (1721-1789) Jesuit missionary: translation into Spanish and paraphrase, probably carried out in Mexico, of part of Gilij’s Saggia di storia americana, dealing with indigenous vegetable remedies, c.1785 MS.Amer 8

Manuel Ibarra (fl.c.1785) Mexican pharmacist: recipe, c.1785 MS.Amer 61

José Antonio Ramirez (b.c.1760) pharmacist to the Hospital Real de San Miguel de Belem in Guadalajara, Mexico: book of pharmaceutical formulae, with additions by others, 1786-1788 MS.Amer 29

Joaquín Velazquez Cardenas y Leon (1732-1786) Mexican astronomer, mathematician and geometer: part of a work on the natural history of the Mexico City region, 1790 MS.Amer 114

Nicolás de Biana (fl.1790) Mexican herbal healer: poster announcing Biala’s arrival and services offered to the sick poor, 1790 MS.Amer 39

Ignacio Serrano (fl.c.1790) Mexico: notes of cases of treatment of amaurosis using arnica, c.1790 MS.Amer 20

Real Expedición Botánica, Mexico: minute to the crown concerning removal of a botanist from the expedition staff (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “New Spain. Real Expedición Botánica”), 1790-1791 MS.Amer 38

José Felipe Flores (1751-1824) physician, Guatemala: clerk’s copy of report describing Balsam of Peru, its medical uses and where it might be grown in Spain, 1791 MS.Amer 46

Vincente Cervantes (1755-1829): manuscript work on Mexican materia medica, 1791 MS.Amer 81

Daniel O’Sullivan (fl.1790-1792) Mexican physician: circular letter asking for comment on the syphilis remedy of the herbalist Nicolás de Biana, 1792 MS.Amer 37

New Spain, laws, statutes and orders: miscellaneous, 1794-1813 MS.Amer 3, 62, 96

José Ignacio Garcia Jove y Capelon (d.1823) Mexican physician: book of recipes, with others added after Garcia’s death. Primarily drawn from European pharmacopoeias but with a few native plants included, c.1795-1838 MS.Amer 34

Junta Principal de Caridad, Mexico City: circular announcing the division of the city into sub-districts and the formation of district boards of charity, 1797 MS.Amer 45. Report on efforts taken to combat the 1797-1798 smallpox epidemic, 1798 MS.Amer 89

Oaxaca, Mexico: polemic defending inoculation as a defence against smallpox, relating to a recent outbreak in Oaxaca (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “Philo Veritas”), c.1797 MS.Amer 73

Recipe book, Hispanic America: fragment, including recipes for urinary and genital complaints; compiler and place of origin not known (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “Capitulo”), 18th century MS.Amer 57

Balsam, Peruvian: list of the properties of balsam, probably compiled in Mexico (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “Virtudes”), late 18th century MS.Amer 2, 13

Casimiro Gómez Ortega (1740-1801) naturalist specialising in Latin America: translation into Spanish of the London Pharmacopoeia (bound with Dias, see below), c.1800 MS.Amer 85

José Dias (fl.1800) Mexico: catechism on anatomy (bound with Gómez Ortega, see below), c.1800 MS.Amer 85

Martín de Sesse y Lacasta (1751-1808) director of the Botanical Expedition to New Spain: papers concerning the work of the expedition, the use of space in the Hospital General de San Andrés, Mexico, to carry out clinical trials of new drugs, ward journals and summary of conclusions, 1800-1804 MS.Amer 43-44. Request for professional recognition and support for his assistant José Mariano Mociño (1757-1820), 1804 MS.Amer 42

Witchcraft, Puebla de Santiago, [probably in Mexico]: accusations of witchcraft and poisoning against certain women (listed in American MS. catalogue under headings “Gonzales” and “Silberia”), c.1800-1807 MS.Amer 75-76

Juan Bautista Arechederreta y Escalada (fl.c.1802): proposal for the establishment of a medical college in Mexico, c.1802 MS.Amer 19

José de San Alberto (fl.1806-1814) monk: remedy book, 1806-1814 MS.Amer 30

John Brown (1735-1788) Edinburgh physician: translation of part of Brown’s Elementa Medicinae by an unnamed Mexican, 1808 MS.Amer 21

Academia Proregia Mariana de Jesús Nazareno, Mexico: summaries of medical lectures, 1813 MS.Amer 24

Junta de Sanidad, Mexico City: directives and measures concerning quarantine, 1813 MS.Amer 5, 69

Miguel Perez Gavilan (fl.1813-1816) Mexican physician: leaves from a prescription book, 1813 MS.Amer 112

Yucatán, Mexico: list of remedies, primarily from plants growing in Yucatán (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “Noticia”), c.1815 MS.Amer 17

Victorio Gracida (fl.1817-1839): medical certificate (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “New Spain. Protomedicato”), 1817-1839 MS.Amer 97

San Miguel el Grande, Mexico, Convent of the Immaculate Conception: remedy book, 1818-c.1830 MS.Amer 16

Hospicio de San Andrés, Mexico City: financial report, 1819 MS.Amer 80. Prescription book from the women’s section of a hospital, possibly of San Andrés, 1840 MS.Amer 87

J M Bonanza (fl.1819) Mexican physician: consultation with other physicians about a patient, 1819 MS.Amer 70

José Joaquín Piña (fl.early 19th century) Mexican surgeon and anatomist: treatise on anatomy, early 19th century MS.Amer 25

Royal Army Medical Corps Muniment Collection: papers covering 1822-[c.1980], including: Papers of Asst-Surg Thomas Murray, hospital receipts from Honduras, 1826-1827 RAMC 215 Letter from Thomas Phips[?] to Sir James McGrigor re deposit in the museum at Chatham of an idol from British Honduras, with an account of its discovery in 1835, 1841 RAMC 638 Papers of Lt-Col J G Foster, biographical notes re Maj-Gen John Dallas Edge, RAMC, including Edge’s own account of his leadership in the defence [1872] of Orange Walk, Honduras RAMC 52 Album of photographs and cuttings on the work of the RAMC Light Field Hygiene Unit (Army School of Health) after Hurricane Hattie devastated Belize, British Honduras, 1961-1962 RAMC 1196 Photocopy of an article from American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Vol 23 No 4, 1974 “Vibrio parahaemolyticus in seawater off the Pacific Coast of Panama”, by Miguel Kourany, Robert J Kinney and Manuel A Vasquez, 1974 RAMC 1248 Contact prints and negatives of Capt A M Dolan’s photographs of (?)Central America, [c.1980] RAMC 1941/1

José Mariano de Salas (fl.1823) [possibly the soldier and politician of that name (1797-1867)]: letter requesting the return of papers detailing his military service, 1823 MS.Amer 67

Lunar tables, [?]Mexico: copy extract from a volume of lunar tables, with section on medical prognostication, 1827 MS.Amer 33

Franciso Camargo (fl.1828-1831) Mexican surgeon and apothecary: prescriptions, c.1830, MS.Amer 28

Manuel Andrade y Pastor (1809-1848) Mexican physician, surgeon and anatomist: professional papers, 1832-1848 MS.Amer 94. Anonymous draft biographical pieces about Andrade, c.1850 MS.Amer 136

Cholera, Mexico: description of the management of a cholera epidemic on a hacienda (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “Carta”), 1833 MS.Amer 53. Recipe for the cure of cholera (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “Empirismo”), 1833 MS.Amer 56

Real y Pontificia Universidad, Mexico City: certificates of course attendance for José Joaquín Ruiz, Benito Franco and Manuel Berganzo, 1833 MS.Amer 4

Luis Muñoz (?1814-1876) Mexican surgeon: lecture notes on anatomy, 1840 MS.Amer 82

Thomas Hodgkin (1798-1866) pathologist and campaigner against slavery, colonialism and the mistreatment of native peoples: account of the Native Americans of Darien, by Emanuel Cardenas, c.1852 WMS/PP/HO/D/D177. See Hodgkin collection catalogue for full details of this and other material, including index to correspondents WMS/PP/HO

Juan Manuel Gonzalez Urueña (1802-1854) physician and politician: copy of prize-giving speech, 1844 MS.Amer 84

Sir Clements Robert Markham (1830-1916) geographer: account of travels in Peru, 1852-1853, including crossing isthmus of Panama, 1845-1915 MS.Amer 126. Letters, 1865-1913 and n.d. MS.7308

Juan Maria Rodriguez Arangoiti (1828-1894) Mexican obstetrician: notes and papers, including letters to Antonio J Carbajal (1847-1914) (see below, 1890s), 1848-1892 MS.Amer 95

Atenógenes Castillero (fl.1850-1870) Mexico: collection of recipes, c.1850-c.1870 MS.Amer 27

Dyes, Mexico: anonymous notes on dyestuffs (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “Curso”), c.1850 MS.Amer 134

J Crivelli (fl.19th century) Piedmont doctor: note on the botany of Tabasco province, Mexico, n.d. MS.7327/9

Hospicio de Pobres Mexico City: history, perhaps by Wenceslao Reyes, Secretary to the Hospicio, 1853 MS.Amer 119

José Ferrer Espejo y Cienfuegos (1800-1881) Mexican obstetrician: notes of his lectures, 1854 MS.Amer 122

Thornton John Herapath (1830-1858): journal of voyage from Southampton to Chile via the Panama overland route, 1856 MS.8558

Ramón F Pacheco Rodriguez (1837-1915) Mexican obstetrician: two papers on obstetrical issues, the first his inaugural dissertation, 1861-1869 MS.Amer 143

Fleetwood Buckle (1841-1917) Royal Navy doctor: journals of travels, including voyage up the eastern Pacific, 1866-1870 MSS 1395-1404

Casa de Maternidad, Mexico: inventory, accounts, history and official correspondence, 1867-1909 MS.Amer 121

Francisco Ochoa y Cadena (fl.1867) monk and self-taught herbalist, Mexico: manuscript work on materia medica, arranged for publication but never printed, 1867 MS.Amer 115

Cresencio Garcia (fl.1870-1877): four essays on Mexican materia medica, 1870-1877 MS.Amer 130

Ricardo Egea y Galindo (d.1893) Mexican physician: paper on tetanus, 1871 MS.Amer 123

José Barragan (d.1892) Mexican clinician, microscopist and botanist: draft students’ handbook, 1872 MS.Amer 124

Wellcome Archive: papers covering 1879-1947, including: Photographs of Henry Wellcome’s journey across Central America with J Baez, 1879 WA/HSW/PH/B.1 Material re Mexican medical artefacts, medicine, quinine, herbalists, etc, 1904-1947 (search the Wellcome Archive database under ‘Mexico’) WA/HMM File entitled ‘Gorgas and Panama’ includes ts “Memorandum of [Henry Wellcome’s] observations on the Sanitary Department’s Isthmus of Panama”, 1910, and note of funeral of Gorgas, 1920, 1910-1928 WA/HSW/PE/A.16 Correspondence re Henry Wellcome’s support for the British Museum excavations at the early Maya site at Lubaantum, British Honduras (Maya Exploration Fund), 1920s WA/HSW/AR/Gen/2, HMM/CO/Alp/85

For further material in the Wellcome Archive on Central America search the on-line catalogue with search term, e.g. Mexico, Mexico City, Central America, and limit search to collection reference ‘WA’

Wellcome Foundation: archives of pharmaceutical company deal with operations in various parts of Central America (search under name), 1880s-1990s WF

Guillermo Tellez (fl.1881-1890) Mexican army medical officer: notes on the syphilitic condition “pinto” and on its treatment, 1881-c.1890 MS.Amer 133

José Eleuterio Gonzalez Mendoza (1813-1888) physician and politician: lists of medical men and establishments in Monterrey, Mexico, 1881 MS.Amer 83

T B Bunting (fl.1874-1911) American Quaker who served in the Guatemalan army and resigned in 1881 as General of Division: Guatemala: The Saddle in the Tropics, typescript account of travel in Guatemala area in 1874-1876, 1885 MS.8549

J Stokes (fl.1884): letter concerning the autograph of the French diplomat and promoter of the Suez and Panama Canals, Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805-1894), 1884 MS.7684/29

Hospital Real de San Miguel de Belem, Guadalajara, Mexico: history, possibly by J Uribe (listed in American MS. catalogue under heading “U[ribe?]”), 1888 MS.Amer 116

Antonio J. Carbajal (1847-1914) Mexican obstetrician: manuscript paper on history, theory and practice of obstetrics in Europe and Mexico, 1890 MS.Amer 128. Paper on cases of occipito-posterior presentation, 1892 MS.Amer 127. See also Juan Maria Rodriguez Arangoiti (above, 1848)

Jairo R Dyer (fl.1892) medical student: notes on a patient who had been stabbed, 1892 MS.Amer 129

Jesús Aleman (fl.1893) Mexico: description and drawing of a teratological foetus, 1893 MS.Amer 99

Zelia Nuttall (1858-1933) American archaeologist and anthropologist specialising in Mexico: letters, 1910 MS.7429/4-5

Tomás Noriega, Mexican doctor: biographical notes by his brother F B Noriega Tellez, 1914 MS.Amer 117

Nicolás Leon (1859-1929) Mexico: notes on scatological remedies from sources in Mexico and the Vatican Library, c.1915 MS.Amer 1. Notes on the clinician Miguel Francisco Jiminez (1813-1876), c.1916 MS.Amer 118

William Crawford Gorgas (1854-1920) United States military physician and worker against yellow fever in Panama: transcript of The Mosquito Chaser, US radio programme about Gorgas and his work, 1932 MS.8428

Medical Research Council Blood Group Unit (f.1946): papers re the International Haematology and Rh Conference, Dallas Texas, and Mexico City, 1946 SA/BGU/B.1/3/1, L.8/2

Family Planning Association (f.1930): correspondence with foreign countries includes Mexico, 1952-1967 SA/FPA/A.21/28

Queen’s Nursing Institute (f.1889): correspondence with foreign countries includes British Honduras, 1957-1962 SA/QNI/U.3/4

Professor Percy Cyril Claude Garnham (1901-1995) protozoologist: correspondence with scientists in Mexico, Panama, British Honduras and Belize, mainly re malaria research, 1950s-1970s PP/PCG

Sir Robert MacIntosh (1897-1989) Nuffield Professor of Anaesthetics, Oxford, 1937-1965: correspondence with anaesthetists in Costa Rica, El Salvador and Mexico, 1964-1980 PP/RRM/A.5/2,46

Professor Donald Hunter (1898-1979) physician: itineraries, correspondence, diary, etc, re visit to Mexico, Aug-Sep 1965 PP/HUN/D.2/22

World Federation of Occupational Therapists: files relating to local associations in Mexico. 1962-98, and Panama, 1985-7 SA/WFO

International Confederation of Midwives: correspondence with Guatemala (member) , Mexico (non-member), 1970s; ICM/WHO/UNICEF pre-Congress Workshop Midwifery Practice - Measuring, Developing and Mobilising Quality Care, Mexico, 1994; Project Reports, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, 1978-9; Report of the Central American Working Party, 1973 SA/ICM

Stanley George Browne (1907-1986) Medical missionary, leprologist: papers relating to the 11th International Leprosy Congress, 1978, and the 5th Congress of the International Society of Tropical Dermatology, 1984, both in Mexico City, Mexico, 1978-1984; accounts of visits to Mexico, 1970s, 1980s WTI/SGB

Sir Ronald Bodley Scott (1906-1982) physician and clinical haematologist: diary account of travel in Mexico, Jan 1979 PP/RBS/A.6