Una educación integral para los médicos de la Universidad de Buenos Aires: las propuestas de José Ramos Mejía y Bernardo Houssay entre 1870-1940

Abstract

At the end of nineteenth century, certain Argentinean doctors who taught medicine at the Universidad de Buenos Aires considered that students had to develop an integral knowledge able to outweigh the medicine subjects. Consequently, not only have they tried to inculcate this wide knowledge into the students -which included literature and art concepts- but have also promoted the advantages of the physical activity -derived from sports- as necessary to strengthen the students, allowing them to face such extensive career and, in this way, increase the feelings of friendship and brotherhood. In 1920, Bernardo Houssay, renowned Argentinean doctor and Nobel Prize winner (in 1947), again insisted on the need of an exhaustive education and a harmonious development for the medicine student, for which he suggested building a University campus in Buenos Aires. Therefore, this paper analyzes the attempts of training the students in different practices and widening their knowledge beyond the strictly medical concepts. It also looks into the different projects (political, social) in connection with the purposes above mentioned which were supported during those years in Argentina.