Dr. José María Cano y Noreña (1787-1848): from out-of-classroom teaching to University Dean

Abstract

Reconstructing the professional life of a physician whose activity was very copious is difficult to do in just a few pages. This time we present a brief outline of the career of a doctor who stood out for his interest in introducing anatomy studies in the medical training, for his tenacity in training “physicians with surgical knowledge” outside the University of Guadalajara, as well as for the role he played in the conservation and distribution of the vaccine. For Dr. José María Cano y Noreña, being a professor was the highest distinction that could be achieved, equivalent to being part of elite: a position that brought with it authority, social prestige, and economic stability. In addition, it allowed him to form part of the board of doctors; that is, the governing body that made decisions at the university level. With material found in archives, in this writing we show part of his daily activity, interwoven with the university life and the local and national events of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.