Resumen

LOPEZ ESPINOSA, José Antonio; LOPEZ SERRANO, Elena  y  LOPEZ SANCHEZ, José. El doctor Juan Santos Fernández Hernández y la Crónica Médico-Quirúrgica de la habana. ACIMED [online]. 2002, vol.10, n.1, pp. 93-101. ISSN 1024-9435.

During the last third of the colonial period, characterized by repeated political confrontations and unstable economic situations, it was almost impossible that some Cuban physician could become a specialist of prestige, due to the shortage of settings where to show the competence acquired and the lack of fees that forced to the practice of general medicine. Dr. Juan Santos Fernández Hernández, besides overcoming that obstacle upon being the first Cuban to practice Ophthalmology and consolidate it as an independent specialty, was a major figure of a scientific revival in his country. One of his most relevant contributions in this sense was the foundation of a magazine that, under the title of Crónica Médico-Quirúrgica de La Habana, registered during 66 years the works of the highest representatives of the national medical culture. This magazine, established in a place of preference in the annals of Cuban medical bibliography of all times, amasses in its pages materials of obligatory reference for the specialists devoted to the historical- bibliographic work and for those interested in knowing all what is related to the evolution of the sciences of health in the island between 1875 and 1940. The present paper tries to prevent the inexorable action of time from keeping on absorbing and hiding the value of this remarkable exponent of national medical documentation, upon registering some important features of the life and work of its founder and giving details with respect to its formal and content aspects.

Palabras clave : FAMOUS PERSONS; MEDICINE BIBLIOGRAPHY [hystory]; PERIODICAL PUBLICATIONS; CUBA.