title: [The Royal Court of the Protomedicato in the Kingdom of Chile: control of professional practice during the 2nd half of the 18th century].
abstract: The present article in an approximation to the study of one of the functions commended to the Royal Court of the examining board of physicians in the Spaniard colonies in the 18th century: the control of medical sciences practice. The study is restricted to the "Kingdom of Chile", temporally framed to the second half of the eighteenth century and performed fundamentally with the sources existent in the National Archive and in the National Medicine Museum of Chile. In the first place, a sketch of the existent situation before 1750 was performed, followed by a detailed analysis of the way in which this control was accomplished in the second half of the eighteenth century, the commissioned subjects, the obtained results and the causes for these results. After all these analyses, the ineffectiveness of this control became evident, allowing the proliferation of witch doctors and quacks. This was due, in part to the court in charge of the supervision and in part to the authorities and the own attributes of the kingdom.
authors.affiliation: Unidad de investigaciones Históricas en Medicina, Museo Nacional de Medicina, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Santiago.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gardeta-Sabater
mesh_terms: D002677:Chile; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D011364:Professional Practice / Q000266:history*; D011366:Professional Review Organizations / Q000266:history*
vernacular_title: El Real Tribunal del Protomedicato en el Reino de Chile: control del ejercicio profesional durante la segunda mitad del siglo dieciocho.