Serología y lucha antivenérea en el Instituto de Transfusión Sanguínea de Valencia (1937-1938): María Hervás Moncho / Serology and venereal control at the Blood Transfusion Institute of Valencia (1937-1938): María Hervás Moncho

ABSTRACT: During the Spanish Civil War, military transfusion services appeared for the first time. In Barcelona and Valencia –two of the main strongholds of the Republican rear– blood transfusion institutes were set up during the struggle. The one in Valencia had, as an annex, a serology laboratory run by María Hervás Moncho (1894-1963). Hitherto unknown to historiography, this Valencian doctor had spent a long training period at the Pasteur Institute in Paris during the 1920s under the tutelage of the prestigious immunologist Alex-andre Besredka (1870-1940). The aim of this paper is to rescue the figure of María Hervás Moncho from historiographical oblivion, and to analyze her work as the leader of the laboratory of the Institute of Blood Transfusion in Valencia. Hervás was particularly interested in increasing the sensitivity of serological tests used in the diagnosis of syphilis in order to reduce the incidence of false negatives and, therefore, of possible post-transfusion infections. In order to achieve our purpose several archival, hemerographical and bibliographical sources, both manuscript and printed, have been consulted. These are enumerated in the introduction

RESUMEN: Durante la Guerra Civil Española aparecieron por primera vez los servicios militares de transfusión. En Barcelona y Valencia –dos de los principales bastiones de la retaguardia republicana– se habilitaron durante la contienda sendos institutos de transfusión sanguínea. El de Valencia disponía, anexo, de un laboratorio de serología dirigido por María Hervás Moncho (1894-1963). Desconocida por la historiografía, esta médica valenciana había realizado durante la década de 1920 una prolongada estancia de formación en el Ins-tituto Pasteur de París bajo la tutela del prestigioso inmunólogo Alexandre Besredka (1870-1940). El objetivo de este trabajo es rescatar del olvido historiográfico la figura de María Hervás Moncho, analizando su trabajo al frente del laboratorio del Instituto de TransfusiónSanguínea de Valencia. Hervás estaba especialmente interesada en aumentar la sensibilidad de las pruebas serológicas empleadas en el diagnóstico de la sífilis al objeto de disminuir la incidencia de falsos negativos y, por tanto, de eventuales contagios post-transfusio-nales. Para alcanzar los objetivos planteados se han consultado diversas fuentes archivísticas, hemerográficas y bibliográficas, tanto manuscritas como impresas, que se especifican en la introducción.

Medicine, Religion, and the Humanitarian Ethos: Walter B. Cannon, Unitarianism, and the Care of Spanish Republican Refugees in France.

Biographies of Walter B. Cannon (1871-1945) usually present two sides of his life: one, where he was an outstanding man of science in the United States during the so-called "Golden Age of Medicine," and the other, where he was a leading humanitarian activist engaged in myriad causes, notably in the defense of Spanish democracy during the Civil War (1936-1939). However, these biographies fail to take into account that the apparent link between these two sides of his life was his religious conviction. This study summarizes the aims and accomplishments of the American Medical Bureau to Aid the Spanish Democracy (AMBASD) of which Cannon was chair between 1937 and 1939. Then, it examines Cannon's inspirational role on the international relief work with Spanish Republican refugees in France, through the case of the Varsovie Hospital of Toulouse that between 1945 and 1949 was jointly managed by the Unitarian Service Committee (USC) and the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee (JAFRC), and renamed Varsovie Hospital/Walter B. Cannon Memorial in recognition of the Spanish Republicans' debt for his extraordinary contribution during the Spanish Civil War and beyond. Finally, the article investigates the Unitarian roots of Cannon's humanitarian ethos by exploring the historical relations of this religious movement with science and with many major actors at Harvard University as well as the links of Cannon's relatives to Unitarianism. The analysis reveals Unitarianism's influence on Cannon's views about science, democracy, and liberty, as well as on his remarkable involvement in the medical solidarity movement with the Second Spanish Republic and other similar commitments. In sum, it shows how important is to branch out in our studies of medical and scientific practice to include practitioners' broader social and religious communities in order to understand their motivations, achievements, and behavior.

[The challenge of (re)emerging diseases, the limits of the biomedical response and the new paradigm of global health]. / El desafío de las enfermedades (re)emergentes, los límites de la respuesta biomédica y el nuevo paradigma de salud global.

"Emerging and reemerging infectious diseases" pose a growing threat to the hegemony of biomedicine, raising questions about whether its discourse and practices can handle the global challenge they represent. The construction of this new nosological category is analyzed in this article, which examines some notable examples of the impact of (re)emerging diseases on public health, food security and human development on a global scale. It discusses irresponsible practices by sectors of the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries which led to the emergence and spread of these diseases; and points to some crucial failures of approach and time management in global health policies on HIV/AIDS, with disastrous consequences for sub-Saharan Africa.

Las "enfermedades infecciosas emergentes y reemergentes" constituyen una creciente amenaza para la hegemonía de la biomedicina, al suscitar no pocos interrogantes sobre la idoneidad de su discurso y prácticas para afrontar el desafío global que representan. Se analiza el proceso de construcción de esta nueva categoría nosológica, y se examinan ejemplos destacados del impacto de las enfermedades (re)emergentes en la salud pública, la seguridad alimentaria y el desarrollo humano a escala global. Se refiere a prácticas irresponsables de sectores de la industria farmacéutica y agropecuaria, determinantes en su desencadenamiento y diseminación; y a algunos fallos cruciales de enfoque y manejo de los tiempos en las políticas de salud global en relación al VIH/sida con desastrosas consecuencias para el África subsahariana.

El desafío de las enfermedades (re)emergentes, los límites de la respuesta biomédica y el nuevo paradigma de salud global / The challenge of (re)emerging diseases, the limits of the biomedical response and the new paradigm of global health

Resumen Las "enfermedades infecciosas emergentes y reemergentes" constituyen una creciente amenaza para la hegemonía de la biomedicina, al suscitar no pocos interrogantes sobre la idoneidad de su discurso y prácticas para afrontar el desafío global que representan. Se analiza el proceso de construcción de esta nueva categoría nosológica, y se examinan ejemplos destacados del impacto de las enfermedades (re)emergentes en la salud pública, la seguridad alimentaria y el desarrollo humano a escala global. Se refiere a prácticas irresponsables de sectores de la industria farmacéutica y agropecuaria, determinantes en su desencadenamiento y diseminación; y a algunos fallos cruciales de enfoque y manejo de los tiempos en las políticas de salud global en relación al VIH/sida con desastrosas consecuencias para el África subsahariana.

Abstract "Emerging and reemerging infectious diseases" pose a growing threat to the hegemony of biomedicine, raising questions about whether its discourse and practices can handle the global challenge they represent. The construction of this new nosological category is analyzed in this article, which examines some notable examples of the impact of (re)emerging diseases on public health, food security and human development on a global scale. It discusses irresponsible practices by sectors of the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries which led to the emergence and spread of these diseases; and points to some crucial failures of approach and time management in global health policies on HIV/AIDS, with disastrous consequences for sub-Saharan Africa.

El desafío de las enfermedades (re)emergentes, los límites de la respuesta biomédica y el nuevo paradigma de salud global / The challenge of (re)emerging diseases, the limits of the biomedical response and the new paradigm of global health

Las “enfermedades infecciosas emergentes y reemergentes” constituyen una creciente amenaza para la hegemonía de la biomedicina, al suscitar no pocos interrogantes sobre la idoneidad de su discurso y prácticas para afrontar el desafío global que representan. Se analiza el proceso de construcción de esta nueva categoría nosológica, y se examinan ejemplos destacados del impacto de las enfermedades (re)emergentes en la salud pública, la seguridad alimentaria y el desarrollo humano a escala global. Se refiere a prácticas irresponsables de sectores de la industria farmacéutica y agropecuaria, determinantes en su desencadenamiento y diseminación; y a algunos fallos cruciales de enfoque y manejo de los tiempos en las políticas de salud global en relación al VIH/sida con desastrosas consecuencias para el África subsahariana. (AU)

The 'merciful and loving sex': Concepción Arenal's narratives on Spanish Red Cross women's war relief work in the 1870s.

Spain signed the Geneva Convention in 1864 and the Spanish Red Cross Society (SRC) was established in July of that year. Yet, only after 1870 the SRC revived and quickly expanded, forming local and provincial committees as well as ladies' sections. This revival mostly resulted from, first, the activation of humanitarian sensibilities and networks on the occasion of the Franco-Prussian war (1870-1871), and then, the general mobilization of the SRC in reaction to the Carlist war of 1872-1876. This article examines the humanitarian work of Spanish women throughout this period through the intervention of the SRC ladies' sections, especially the central one. It reveals that these women played a crucial role in organizing, deploying and sustaining its humanitarian relief to the combatants. They empowered themselves by taking advantage of, and contributing to, the spreading of a view of women - very common at the time - as having a specific gender 'instinct' that made them 'naturally' suited to charitable and compassionate tasks. Pacifism is present in the humanitarian views and practices of these women, particularly in the case of Concepción Arenal (1820-1893), a social reformer, lawyer and writer, who was fully involved with the SRC during the Carlist war.

Entre los campos y los hospitales ayuda médica humanitaria a los refugiados republicanos españoles en Francia (1939-1950) / No disponible

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La asistencia médica a los refugiados en Francia durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial la Clínica de Marsella (1941-1945) / No disponible

La población refugiada, tanto los exilados republicanos españoles como los fugitivos del nazismo de toda Europa, concentrada en el sur de Francia a partir sobre todo de 1939, planteó una crisis humanitaria con ingentes demandas médico-sociales. A partir de junio de 1940, Marsella y sus alrededores se convirtieron en la última esperanza para decenas de miles de ellos, la mayoría sumidos en una situación de extrema necesidad, así como para los franceses desplazados de Alsacia, Lorena y las zonas de guerra a resultas de la invasión alemana. A mediados de marzo de 1941, el Unitarian Service Committee (USC) -agencia humanitaria creada en 1940 por la iglesia unitaria norteamericana con el fin de ayudar a las personas perseguidas en Europa por motivos de raza, religión o ideología- promovió, junto a la Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OSE) -*organización judía de ayuda a la infancia-, el establecimiento en Marsella de un dispensario médico-social que, de una u otra forma, logró mantenerse operativo desde julio de 1941 hasta el final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Su misión era atender a miles de refugiados sin recursos, incluidos los republicanos españoles, que intentaban huir de Francia a través de su puerto. Esa primera experiencia humanitaria del USC en el campo de la medicina priorizó las acciones de asistencia y prevención sanitaria a las personas recluidas en los campos de internamiento. Su popularidad hizo que en Francia pronto se identificara al USC con la ayuda sanitaria a los refugiados y obtuviera el reconocimiento de las demás organizaciones de socorro, incluida la Cruz Roja Internacional. En este artículo se analiza, a partir sobre todo de la documentación del USC preservada en la Andover-Harvard Theological Library(Cambridge, MA), el modelo organizativo y la labor asistencial, muy exigente para los escasos recursos disponibles, que caracterizó a la popularmente conocida como «Clínica de Marsella» del USC durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial

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At the intersection of medical geography and disease ecology: Mirko Grmek, Jacques May and the concept of pathocenosis.

Environmental historians are not sufficiently aware of the extent to which mid twentieth-century thinkers turned to medical geography-originally a nineteenth-century area of study-in order to think through ideas of ecology, environment, and historical reasoning. This article outlines how the French-Croatian Mirko D. Grmek (Krapina, 1924-Paris, 2000), a major thinker of his generation in the history of medicine, used those ideas in his studies of historical epidemiology. During the 1960s, Grmek attempted to provide, in the context of the Annales School's research program under the leadership of Fernand Braudel, a new theoretical framework for a world history of disease. Its development was inspired by several sources, most notably the French-American Jacques M. May (Paris 1896-Tunisia, 1975), who was then pioneering an opening up of medical geography and movement towards the concept of disease ecology. The cornerstone of Grmek's "synthetic approach" to the field was the notion of "pathocenosis". The diverse uses of this notion in the course of time-from his early agenda focused on a longue durée history of diseases in Western Antiquity to his last, relating to the new epidemiological threat of (re)emerging infectious diseases, specifically HIV/aids-enables us firstly, to note how concepts of ecology sat uneasily alongside those of medical geography; secondly, to assess the reach and limits of his theoretical contribution to historical epidemiology; and thirdly, to understand better the uneven fortunes of his concept of pathocenosis at the end of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first centuries.

Innovación tecnológica y humanitarismo en el traslado de heridos de guerra: el informe de Nicasio Landa sobre un nuevo sistema de suspensión elástica de camillas (Pamplona, 29 mayo 1875) / Technological innovation and humanitarianism in the transport of war wounded: Nicasio Landa’ s report on a new elastic suspension system for stretchers (Pamplona, May 29, 1875)

Resumen En mayo de 1875, en medio de una sangrienta contienda civil en España conocida como Tercera Guerra Carlista, Nicasio Landa, oficial médico de Sanidad Militar redactó un informe demandando autorización a sus superiores para que Cruz Roja Española, de la que era inspector general, pudiera adoptar un nuevo sistema de suspensión elástica para camillas que había diseñado, desarrollado y probado. Destinado ante todo a carretas de labranza – el medio de transporte de heridos aún más frecuente entonces – se presentaba como un mecanismo económico y resistente para mejorar el confort de los trasladados, que podía también instalarse en carruajes de ambulancia, vagones de ferrocarril y buques-hospitales. Se publica una edición anotada del informe precedida de una presentación del mismo.

Abstract In May 1875, in the midst of a bloody civil conflict in Spain known as the Third Carlist War, Nicasio Landa, a medical officer with Military Health, wrote a report requesting authorization for the Spanish Red Cross, of which he was Inspector General, to adopt a new elastic suspension system for stretchers that he had designed, developed and tested. Intended above all for use in farm wagons – still the most widely-used method of transporting the wounded at the time – it was an inexpensive, sturdy mechanism that improved patient comfort and could also be installed in ambulance carriages, railway carriages and hospital ships. An annotated version of the report is included, preceded by a presentation of its contents.

Comunicación científica e innovación tecnológica en la primera Cruz Roja, 1863-1876 / Scientific communication and technological innovation in the first Red Cross, 1863-1876

Resumen Los primeros años del movimiento internacional de Cruz Roja coincidieron con grandes cambios tecnológicos en la medicina de guerra. Las peculiaridades organizativas de la Asociación Internacional de Socorro a los Soldados Heridos en Campaña, impulsada por el Comité de Ginebra y los comités nacionales de Cruz Roja; la confluencia en diversos congresos profesionales y publicaciones de médicos de las diferentes sociedades nacionales de esta asociación; y la construcción de un conocimiento práctico compartido, puesto a prueba en la Guerra Franco-Prusiana (1870-1871), proporcionan claves para comprender las innovaciones tecnológicas introducidas por la Cruz Roja Española durante la tercera y última Guerra Carlista (1872-1876).

Abstract The early years of the international Red Cross movement coincided with great technological changes in war medicine. The organizational peculiarities of the International Association for Relief of Wounded Soldiers in Campaign, set up by the Geneva Committee, and by the Red-Cross’ national committees; the convergence in various professional conferences and publications of doctors from different national societies of this association; and the construction of a body of shared practical expertise tested during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) provide keys for understanding the technological innovations introduced by the Spanish Red Cross during the third and last Carlist War (1872-1876).

[Scientific communication and technological innovation in the first Red Cross, 1863-1876]. / Comunicación científica e innovación tecnológica en la primera Cruz Roja, 1863-1876.

The early years of the international Red Cross movement coincided with great technological changes in war medicine. The organizational peculiarities of the International Association for Relief of Wounded Soldiers in Campaign, set up by the Geneva Committee, and by the Red-Cross' national committees; the convergence in various professional conferences and publications of doctors from different national societies of this association; and the construction of a body of shared practical expertise tested during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) provide keys for understanding the technological innovations introduced by the Spanish Red Cross during the third and last Carlist War (1872-1876).

[Technological innovation and humanitarianism in the transport of war wounded: Nicasio Landa's report on a new elastic suspension system for stretchers (Pamplona, May 29, 1875)]. / Innovación tecnológica y humanitarismo en el traslado de heridos de guerra: el informe de Nicasio Landa sobre un nuevo sistema de suspensión elástica de camillas (Pamplona, 29 mayo 1875).

In May 1875, in the midst of a bloody civil conflict in Spain known as the Third Carlist War, Nicasio Landa, a medical officer with Military Health, wrote a report requesting authorization for the Spanish Red Cross, of which he was Inspector General, to adopt a new elastic suspension system for stretchers that he had designed, developed and tested. Intended above all for use in farm wagons - still the most widely-used method of transporting the wounded at the time - it was an inexpensive, sturdy mechanism that improved patient comfort and could also be installed in ambulance carriages, railway carriages and hospital ships. An annotated version of the report is included, preceded by a presentation of its contents.

Introduction. On the 150th anniversary of the red cross: new issues and perspectives in the history of war humanitarianism / Introducción. En el 150º aniversario de la Cruz Roja: nuevas cuestiones y enfoques en la historia del humanitarismo de guerra

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Humanitarian aid in peacetime: conflicting narratives in the international Red Cross movement, 1867-1884 / El socorro humanitario en tiempo de paz: divergencias iniciales en el movimiento internacional de la Cruz Roja, 1867-1884

When, scarcely five years after its advent, the movement of aid societies for the relief of soldiers wounded in battle in international wars, set out to examine what should their activities be in peacetime, many debates were opened up as to the feasibility of broadening their field of action to other warlike settings and disasters. The following is an examination of how these debates developed, providing evidence that (a) the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) defended its position not to incorporate civil aims into the humanitarian purposes of the Red Cross international movement until after the First World War; and (b) different national societies and committees of the Red Cross, disagreeing with this position, defended, within the framework of emergent paradigms in hygiene and public health, the care of the sick poor, and were involved as early as the 1870s and 1880s in first-aid to the sick and wounded in everyday life as well as in relief of disasters both natural and caused by famine (AU)

Cuando, apenas cinco años después de su puesta en marcha, el movimiento de sociedades de socorro a los soldados heridos en campaña en caso de guerras internacionales se propuso examinar en qué deberían consistir sus actividades en tiempo de paz, se abrieron los debates sobre la posibilidad de ampliar su campo de actuación a otros escenarios y calamidades. Se analiza cómo fueron esos debates, ofreciendo muestras de cómo (a) el Comité Internacional de la Cruz Roja (CICR) defendió no añadir objetivos civiles entre los propósitos humanitarios del movimiento internacional hasta después de la Primera Guerra Mundial; y (b) diferentes sociedades nacionales y comités de la Cruz Roja, discrepando de esa posición, defendieron, en el marco de los paradigmas emergentes en la higiene y la salud pública, la asistencia a pobres enfermos y se implicaron, tan pronto como en las décadas de 1870 y 1880, tanto en la intervención rutinaria en socorro de enfermos y heridos en la vida diaria, como en la atención a catástrofes naturales y producidas por el hombre (AU)

Between a humanitarian ethos and the military efficiency: the early days of the Spanish Red Cross, 1864-1876.

Spain was officially represented at the preliminary international conference the "International Committee for the Assistance to Sick and Wounded Soldiers" (better known as the "Geneva Committee") organised at Geneva in October 1863; and joined the Red Cross one year later on the occasion of the first Geneva Convention in August 1864. This article explores the ambivalence between the humanitarian ethos and the military efficiency in the early Spanish Red Cross through the works of Nicasio Landa (1830-1891). A medical major of the Spanish Military Health Service, the co-founder of the Spanish section of the Red Cross in 1864, and its general inspector in 1867, Landa was its most active promoter, and responsible for its connections with the Geneva Committee and other national sections of this international association during its early times. He was not only an active correspondent, but also a prolific author of monographs, leaflets and articles in specialized and daily newspapers on humanitarianism and war medicine, in addition to being the founder of the Spanish Red Cross journal La Caridad en la Guerra in 1870.

History of disease and the longue durée.

This paper summarizes Grmek's theoretical contribution to history of disease and explores to what extent the longue durée could still be a useful concept in order to better understand past perceptions of, and reactions to, diseases. The case of the medical responses to epidemic disease in pre-industrial Europe is synthetically expounded in order to illustrate this issue.