[Review of a pioneer book on epidemics by Risueño de Amador (1829)].

Abstract

This article reviews and comments on the epidemiological book written by the Spanish physician Benigno Risueño de Amador (1802-1849), initially published in French (1829), and its subsequent translation into Spanish (1831). This retrospective documentary case study of a scientific-medical manual reviews the contents of the book, highlighting its most important aspects. This almost 200-year-old book can be considered a valuable, early contribution to epidemiology, and a sign of the great concern in early 19th Europe about the subject of epidemics. It represents a valuable contribution that shows the enormous efforts made to advance in this medical discipline towards a more scientific position at an incipient microbial time.