Health and war: the memoirs of military hospitals from Minho, Portugal in 1801

Abstract

This analysis of the military hospitals of Minho in 1801, is based on memoirs written in September of that year by the physician Bernardo Abrantes Almeida, inspector of the Entre Douro and Minho Army, in the aftermath of the War of Laranjas (War of the Oranges) between Portugal and Spain. After this conflict and foreseeing a new invasion, Portugal sought to audit its available health provision, to properly plan its defences. This report provides an important insight into the existing hospitals in Minho, the patients and the diseases treated in them, as well as the attitude of its author towards the hospitals of Misericórdias and those managed by the Order of São João de Deus. As a defender of the creation of State military hospitals, the author made a number of criticisms of the places of treatment used by the Crown and supplied a new model to treat military personnel.