Public Health and Yellow Fever during the constitutional debate in 1812

Abstract

This article deals with the debate on Public Heath in the Cádiz Cortes (parliament) in the period up to the enactment of the Cons­titution in 1812. Underlining the key role of yellow fever played in this process, it pursues two lines of argument: reopening the dialo­gue between Health and Politics at a critical point in Spanish History and examining the attempts to create a coherent body of sanitary legislation as well as the elements that impe­ded the process.