Documents for health memory: medical histories form the Noble Hospital in Málaga, year 1874

Abstract

Medical histories from the Noble Hospital in Málaga constitute a small documentary group located in the charitable and health section of the Municipal Archive of the city. The main study object of this article is based on the analysis of this documentary typology, as well as offering the information about health care made to the city's neighbors and to sea people, who regardless of nationality or circumstances were cared for and admitted to in that health institution. The year 1874 will be the last in which the Noble Hospital still holds private ownership, hence the archival cohesion of these documentary units produced in contexts of necessity and urgency. The different documentary and bibliographic sources used will contextualize the development of this institution, created in memory of the British physician Josef William Noble, as well as allow to check the scientific-health progress carried out in the city during the second half of the 19th century.