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Pasteur had annoying opponents at the Medical Academy of Paris, probably because he was not a physician. The medical aspect of his creation reached highest altitude when he vaccinated the boy José Meister against rabies. By that time, he was crippled by a hemiplegia suffered when he was 46 years old. Studying tartric acid isomer, Pasteur discovered molecular asymmetry. He hypothesized that life operated asymmetrically, when he discovered the selectivity of Penicillium glaucum fungus action on paratartrates. He discovered anaerobic life and discarded the theory of spontaneous generation. At the age of 70, he received the gratitude of France and the whole mankind, through President Carnot. On that occasion he said to youngsters "Live in the calm peace of laboratories and libraries. Ask yourselves: What have I done for my instruction?, What have I done for my country?, until the moment that you reach the immense happiness of thinking that you have contributed to mankind's progress and welfare."

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The Chilean President José Manuel Balmaceda (1886-1891) had a constitutional conflict with the parliament. This conflict lead to a revolution that ended with the President's suicide, when he was refuged at the Argentinian Embassy in September 1891. President Balmaceda conducted an authoritarian government during several months. A decree from February, 1897, disposed the reorganization of the Medical School, dismissed and imprisoned the Dean, Dr Barros-Borgoño and nominated new Professors. Dr Nicanor Rojas, Professor of Gynecology was assigned as Dean and Dr Carlos Sazié as secretary. During the During the war against Perú and Bolivia, Dr. Rojas worked gratuitously and became prominent, being named Chief Surgeon of the Chilean Army. After the triumph of the revolution against President Balmaceda, Dr Rojas was discharged, and died in 1892.

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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 imprisoned his opponents, including several Medical School professors. Doctor David Benavente, professor of Anatomy and Balmaceda's opponent, wrote a chronicle at the Revista Médica de Chile (1897; 20:46) referring to the changes that occurred at the Medical School: "Flogged by dictatorship's winds, it barely gave sings of life during the eight 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.

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José Manuel Balmaceda was president of Chile between 1886 and 1891. Confronted with an institutional conflict, he was deposed by the Republic's parliament in January, 1891. Some distinguished physicians were members of that parliament; Dr Alfonso Valderrama, senator, chronicler of Revista Médica de Chile's first issues and General Secretary of the University of Chile; Dr José Joaquín Aguirre, deputy. Dean of the Faculty of Medicine (1817-1889) and Rector of the University of Chile; Dr Federico Puga Borne, deputy and Minister of Public Instruction and Justice; Dr Augusto Orrego Luco, deputy and writer; Dr José Arce, deputy. President Balmaceda decreed the intervention of the Medical School in February 1891, named Dr Arce as intervenor and designed professors attached to his government. He also dismissed several physicians. Overwhelmed by the political conflict, Balmaceda took refuge in the Argentinian embasy and committed suicide in September, 1891.

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The first medical strife in Chile occurred in the city of Valparaiso. The intendant protested to the examining board of physicians because 5 doctors refused to give emergency medical care to a patient late at night. "Is fair that both the authority and the public have the right to demand those services and it is not natural that their fulfillment depend on the good or bad will of the physicians". The intendant proclaimed a decree establishing a weekly obligatory nocturnal medical services of two physicians under police control and fine threaten. The 14 doctors of the city menaced to resing to their profession considering that the decree "violates constitution and laws." The medical corps of Santiago made common cause with their colleagues "profoundly irritated". The conflict was finally resolved.

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The "Revista Medica de Chile" founded in 1872 is the second oldest medical journal in Latin America after the "Gaceta Medica de Mexico" (1864). Among medical journals in the world it is placed 24. It has been published monthly without interruption, except for the period January through December 1891, due to the revolution taking place at that time. The first Editor was German Schneider, a German physician from Bonn who came to Chile in 1850 with the immigrants that settled in the South.

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The Faculty of Medicine at the University of Chile was started in 1843. Founding professors included Tomas Armstrong, Guillermo C. Blest, Nataniel Cox, Francisco Javier Tocomal, Juan Blest, Julio Lafargue, Manuel Cortés, Luis Ballester. Further nominations, up to a number of 30, took place from 1843 to 1865, and are listed in this paper.

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Andrés Bello, the first Rector of the University of Chile (1843) was a great supporter of the development of Medicine. In 1842 he said that the Faculty should pay special attention to diseases that were prevalent in Chile, and provide information to the Government concerning public hygiene and related matters. The Faculty of Medicine was one of the first 5 Faculties. It was integrated by academic members including 6 Europeans, T Armstrong, G Blest, N Cox, J Lafargue, L Sazie and 2 Chileans, L Ballester and F J Tocornal. The first Dean was the french surgeon and obstetrician Lorenzo Sazie.

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During colonial times the Royal University of San Felipe was founded in 1738. The first plan for medical studies was outlined in 1779. During the Independence, the National Institute created in 1813 took over higher education. The first Course of Medicine was dictated there in 1833. The University of San Felipe was replaced by the University of Chile in 1842. Andrés Bello, its first Rector, developed the constituting laws of the University.

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Andrés Bello, a Venezuelan intellectual arrived in Chile in 1829. He had a decisive influence on the development of natural sciences and medical sciences in this country. The first formal teaching program in Medicine appeared in 1833, with few students due to the low social prestige of Medicine at that time. The Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile was created in 1842, when Andrés Bello was its first Rector.

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When syphilis first appeared in Europe a debate emerged about the american or european origin of the disease. Some of the papers related to this issue are reviewed by the author, along with notes recovered by Andrés Bello at the British Museum (1810-1829). Bello later became the first Rector of the University of Chile (1842).

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In 1803 [corrected], Charles IV King of Spain, sent an expedition to perform widespread ("arm to arm") vaccination against smallpox in the American colonies. The expedition led by Dr Francisco Javier de Belmis visited Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Central America, Colombia, Ecuador, Perú, Bolivia and Chile. A poem to the vaccine was written by Andres Bello, the first rector of the University of Chile, then in Venezuela (1804). The expedition reached Chile in 1807, led by Dr Julián Grajales. This expedition was the most important medical act in the history of the Spanish colonies.

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Andrés Bello (1781-1865) a humanist and scholar who was the first Rector of the University of Chile, showed a widespread interest in cultural activities. This paper concerns translations and extracts of writings on natural sciences and medicine published by Bello in journals in different places: Venezuela (1781-1810), London (1810-1829) and Santiago, Chile (1829-1865).

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Andrés Bello, an intellectual and humanist and the first Rector of the University of Chile, published several articles about cholera in the Araucano, a newspaper of Santiago. Basically, they were translations and comments of articles about the epidemics affecting Europe and the British Isles between 1830 and 1846. Cholera affected Chile in 1886.

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The first and only cholera epidemics in Chile took place between 1886 and 1888. It had originated in India in 1883, extended to Mecca and Alexandria, the Mediterranean, and reached Chile from Argentina. In spite of sanitary measures adopted by the government, the epidemics swept the country, with an estimated 56,838 patients and 23,395 dead (41% lethality rate). Two outburst were observed: the first lasted 203 days (1886-87), the second 121 days. Duration varied from town to town, from 16 to a maximum of 288 days.

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Articles found in Revista Médica de Chile in 1891 criticize legal disposition favoring the wine industry to obtain tax money, in the face of a growing concern for alcoholism. Further articles in 1892 and presentations to the 1901 Latin American Medical Congress deal with the subject of alcoholism and propose public health action to fight against it, including the education of young school students.

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A physician and writer he integrated the Editorial Committee of the Revista Médica de Chile, in charge of the Chronicle. He was the first physician to be incorporated to the Chilean Language Academy, a Secretary at the University of Chile, a Senator and a Minister of Justice. He was the author of an overview of Chilean Poetry (1866) and numerous poems, essays and novels. Remarkable is his note regarding a "decrease in the level of atmospheric ozone", reported in 1872.

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This French physician was hired by the Chilean government in 1867. He was a brilliant surgeon who made significant contributions to Chilean medicine. He returned to France in 1873, where he had a successful career as a professor of obstetrics.

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