The development of urban medicine in Chile. The medicalization of the popular space in Santiago between the middle of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century

Abstract

This paper shows the reasons and describes the process of medicalization of the popular space that took place in Santiago de Chile to the centennial of the Republic. It explains how during the nineteenth century, the growing rural-urban migration diluted the original limits of Santiago city, causing serious problems of overcrowding and unsanitary conditions in the suburbs of the capital. The constant threat of epidemics and infectious diseases began to doubt the effectiveness of nineteenth-century medicine, his power and social significance.