Jurists versus doctors: the birth of legal medicine in the United States.

This paper considers some of the problems that attended the birth of legal medicine in the USA. The historical study of relations between American medicine and jurisprudence and ethics should identify some of the philosophical assumptions that inspire their views of anomalous behaviour.

[Botany in Spanish scientific expeditions].

One of the most important contributions of the Spanish Enlightenment was the knowledge of the American flora. From the Royal Botanical Garden, the Cabinet of Natural History and the Marine, a plan of expeditions was expounded that would cover important floristic colonial areas. They wanted to know the wealth of those lands in the intent of getting species useful to different industries: alimentary, textile and sanitarian.