Temascal-Bath Use in Two New-Spain Medical Doctors. Introductory Study and Textual Transcriptions of 1689 Medical Reports

The aim of this article is to put in context two medical reports from New Spain written in 1689 regarding the use of indigenous temascal baths. The study highlights the importance of the documents, transcribed and published for the first time, in order to make and in-depth analysis concerning the history of medicine and public health of the old regime. Similarly, it seeks to show the relevance of such materials in the historical approach to medical practice and knowledge of the late sixteenth century. The heritage and beliefs about the benefits and ways of using water and the particular and peculiar relationships of indigenous peoples with this natural element and the physical spaces where the baths were performed are discussed. Moreover, it shows how the healing value of these methods was reevaluated by seventeenth-century western medicine