The training of Portuguese doctors abroad (1800-1870): the emergence of a francophone influence

Abstract

The presented paper consists of a research made within the scope of the History of Portuguese Medicine, about the training of Portuguese doctors abroad between 1800 and 1870. In this period, a continuous process of modernization of the Portuguese medical profession contributed to the European contemporary status of Portuguese medicine in the last quarter of the 19th century. At the same time, there was a dynamic of certification of Portuguese doctors in European universities, very clear in the decades of 1830, 1840, and 1850. This dynamic was scrutinized on the basis of an exhaustive bibliographical research that allowed to study more than a hundred Portuguese physicians, mostly graduated in France and Belgium.