The Origins of the Journal of the Lisbon Medical Sciences Society

Abstract

The need of update was acutely felt by Portuguese surgeons and physicians in the early XIX century when contacting with their French and English military counterparts during the Napoleonic invasions of Portugal (1807-1810). This led to the creation of a medical forum overcoming the scarcity of scientific information in a country far away from the most advanced medical centers. Then, the Sociedade das Ciências Médicas de Lisboa (The Medical Sciences Society of Lisbon) was founded in 1822, beginning immediately with the organization of regular scientific meetings. The aim of this society also included the scientific assistance to the national health authorities and the spread of scientific information to the medical community throughout the country, reaching professionals at distant and isolated regions where no other source of updated should be attained. So, a medical journal was created with its first issue being published in January 1935. Inevitably, during such a long period many political, social and sanitary turmoil occurred but the journal survived, being one of the elder medical publications worldwide. Nowadays a new era began by becoming the offcial journal of the two medical schools in Lisbon and so strengthening the aim of this 189 years old medical journal.