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Question for September 2015

Did the Aztecs have hospitals?? Asked by Sandy Lane Primary School. Chosen and answered by Professor Eric Taladoire

As far as we know, the Aztecs did not have hospitals. Neither did we, in Europe, at the time. Of course, there were some specialists perfectly able to perform medical attention, even if doctors probably belonged to the religious caste. Medical attention was deeply intertwined with religious practices and beliefs. But we must draw attention to several aspects that suggest a high degree, among the Aztecs, of medical knowledge. To begin with, the Aztecs, and the other Mesoamerican civilizations, were deeply preoccupied with hygiene and tidiness. This helped prevent epidemics. We know that the Aztecs were horrified by the Spaniards’ lack of hygiene, by their dirtiness.

Secondly, the practice of human sacrifice had given the Aztecs a deep knowledge of the human body, as exemplified in many documents.
This probably helped them to organize a coherent body of medical specialists, quite able to cope with wounds, illness and other medical problems of everyday life.

Picture sources:-
Images from the Florentine Codex (original in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence) scanned from our own copy of the Club Internacional del Libro 3-volume facsimile edition, Madrid, 1994.

How was the Aztec army provisioned and how did they treat wounds?

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Professor Eric Taladoire

Professor Eric Taladoire

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