Marvels and Shadows: Science and Education at the University of Puerto Rico School of Tropical Medicine under the Auspices of Columbia University: An Introduction.

This essay introduces a series of five historical articles on the scientific and educational contributions of the University of Puerto Rico School of Tropical Medicine (STM), under the auspices of Columbia University (1926-1949), to the fields of tropical medicine and public health. The articles will appear in several consecutive issues, and will address various themes as follows: 1) historical antecedents of the STM, particularly institutional precedents; 2) the educational legacy of the STM; 3) a history of the STM scientific journal ("The Puerto Rico Journal of Public Health and Tropical Medicine"); 4) the scientific practices and representations that prevailed at the institution; and, 5) a brief sociocultural history of malaria in Puerto Rico, mainly from the perspective of the STM's scientific and public health activities. The authors have systematically and comprehensively studied a wide variety of documents from different sources based on multiple archives in Puerto Rico, the United States and England. The authors treat the fluid meanings of the examined historical encounters from a research perspective that privilege complex reciprocal interactions, multiple adaptations and elaborate sociocultural constructs present in a collaborative exemplar of the modernity of medical science in a neocolonial tropical context.

The Historical Antecedents of the UPR School of Tropical Medicine.

This article deals with the historical antecedents of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) School of Tropical Medicine (STM) under the auspices of Columbia University. It presents a general view of the social, institutional and conceptual factors that were correlated with the establishment of the STM. The authors start by examining the historical continuities and discontinuities present during the imperial transitions between Spanish colonial and U.S. military medicine at the turn of the 20th century. The clarification of these changes is important for the proper understanding of the emergence of tropical medicine in Puerto Rico, marked by the identification of the biological determinant of the so called "peasants' anemia." The essay focuses on two institutional precursor events: the Puerto Rico Anemia Commissions (1904-1908) and the Institute of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (1912-1914). Their nature and work paved the way for the establishment of the STM. The notions of tropical medicine and diseases are considered as historical concepts. The support of the Rockefeller Foundation to several significant public health activities in Puerto Rico is also examined. Finally, the social and health conditions which prevailed at the time of the creation of the STM have been summarized. In general, the article provides a sense of historical context deemed essential to understand the emergence and evolution of the STM.