Citation

Costa Casaretto C. Rev. Med. Chile 1995; 123(3): 384-9.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1995, Sociedad Medica De Santiago)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The conflict between the Chilean President Balmaceda and the parliament lead him to rule the country despotically during 8 months, until his suicide in 1891. During this lapse he persecuted and imprisioned his opponents, including several Medical School professors. Dr. David Benavente, professor of Anatomy and Balmaceda's oponent, wrote a chronicle at the Revista Médica de Chile (1897; 20:46) referring to the changes that occured at the Medical School: Flogged by dictatorship's winds, it barely gave sings of life during the 8 months that Balmaceda dominated the country. Political passion almost annihilated for ever the first scientific teaching center of the University of Chile, posed a project at the Public Instruction Council "to create in all high schools a special class about the general principles of the Constitution". Once democratic normality was re-established, the development of Chilean Medicine was greatly impelled, sending young physicians to specialize at qualified european centers

Language: es