The book Making Medicines in Early Colonial Lima, Peru: Apothecaries, Science and Society provides detail on how apothecaries in Lima practiced medicine and dealt with the new materials that existed in the newly colonized land. In doing this, the book describes how the apothecaries chose not to shift away from their traditional Galenic and Humoral practices. To do this, Newson presents what could be called a micro-history which focuses almost exclusively on a small profession in one colonial city. But by doing this, Newson can provide a detailed account of the factors that influenced the Spanish apothecaries to keep up with their traditional practices. And by doing this, Making Medicines in Early Colonial Lima, Peru, shows how a medical profession with the means and ability to innovate largely maintained its ways in an entirely new environment.
Professor Linda Newson is currently an emeritus professor at King’s College London and previously focused on the impact of colonial rule on native populations, especially with respect to the effects of disease on these populations. For her previous work, she received the Carl O. Sauer Award for Distinguished Scholarship from the Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers and the Back Award from the Royal Geographical Society. Even though both of these awards are for her geographically focused work, they show a high level of ability in scholarship on Latin America. Although Newson previously focused mainly on the demographic impact of disease on native populations, she has more recently worked on the practice of medicine in colonial Spain. And though her focus has changed from disease to medicine, he focuses on the Spanish colonies comes through in her work on Lima in this book.
In this book, Newson successfully argues that although apothecaries could have become innovators in the new world, they tended to adhere to traditional practices and import their medical materials from Spain. Chapter One describes why Newson chose to focus on the apothecaries of Lima and establishes the argument as to why they were largely not innovators in the medical field. The focus on the apothecaries in this book is because they are uniquely situated in Spanish medicine to have both the knowledge of the materials and how they are used in medicines, whereas the physician does not have as detailed of knowledge of the actual materials in medicines. This is then used to show how the Galenic and Humoral practices are ingrained within the practice of medicine in Spain and its colonies during this period.
Chapters Two and Three describe the way in which apothecaries were trained and how an apothecary established their business; this then sets up the description in the following chapters as to why traditional practices were maintained in Lima by the apothecaries instead of adopting the plants and practices of the new world. Chapter Two shows how apothecaries were trained in Spain as well as the process by which they were certified by the government. This version of the apothecary business was then used in Peru as they were part of the Spanish Empire. Chapter Three then shows how an apothecary business was created, and by doing this, Newson shows the similarities between the way an apothecary business was created in Spain and Peru. For both chapters, there is a distinct similarity in the way apothecary businesses ran in both Spain and Peru, which goes to support why the traditions of medicine were maintained in the new world.
Chapters Four through Six provide the bulk of the information on how apothecaries obtained their materials and practiced making medicines. Chapter Four shows how the trade influenced the use of medicine imported from Spain. It shows how prices rose on Spanish medicines, but surprisingly colonial apothecaries did not look to new types of plants. Chapter Five shows how the government was involved in maintaining traditional humoral practices in medicine. This took place both because the apothecaries were encouraged legally to maintain traditional practices and because the physicians who prescribed the medicines used traditional humoral solutions. Chapter Six shows the actual practice of making medicine, and again shows a focus by apothecaries on using materials produced in Spain and, if those were unavailable, Old-World plants produced locally. In all three chapters, Newson shows how Lima apothecaries tended toward traditional products for their medicines because of their training and the nature of the practice of medicine in the Spanish Empire.
Chapter Seven changes the book’s focus away from the practices of an apothecary in Lima to their social status and reputation. This section focuses on how the social status of the apothecaries of Lima differed from those in Spain. The major difference is the status and leniency toward apothecaries in Lima because of their short supply. The Chapter later goes on to show how the apothecaries of Lima showed their professionalism through their dress by attempting to focus on sober black clothing to emulate the Spanish monarchs. This further shows how the apothecaries attempted to show their professionalism and set themselves apart as purveyors of medicine they considered below themselves.
This book makes excellent use of various sources, like the books of the town council of Lima and especially collections of the transactions that took place in Lima. One of the most interesting uses of primary sources in Making Medicines in Early Colonial Lima, Peru, is to create interesting tables and graphs. These are used to great effect in chapters four and five to present what was being shipped to Lima and how much this cost to the apothecary, as well as in chapter six to show what kinds of medicines were being made by apothecaries and what they should have. This helps show how close to the practice of medicine the Lima apothecaries were to their counterparts in Spain.
This book provides a very detailed account of how apothecaries in Lima practiced medicine. Because of this, it gives further context to the practice of medicine in the new world and speaks to books like Prospero’s America and Missionary Scientists. This book shows how the Spanish apothecaries continued to practice the medicine very much like their Spanish counterparts, which supports the idea presented in Missionary Scientists that the Spanish used their medicine to show the superiority of their practices, although the apothecaries seemed less willing than the Jesuits to accept the use of native healers. As this book provides information on a very specific topic with a great amount of detail and works to provide more information on how medicine was practiced in the new world, it is best suited for scholarly audiences.
