REVISTA ESPAÑOLA
DE HISTORIA DE LAS CIENCIAS DE LA NATURALEZA
Y DE LA TECNOLOGÍA
SPANISH JOURNAL OF HISTORY OF NATURAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY
Historia de la Biología.
Facultad de Biología.
Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
DL: M-34954-1995.
1995. Vol. I.
Summary:
This paper discusses the institutional development of engineering schools
in Brazil from 1810 to the end of nineteenth century. It points out the
importance and the role of these "loci" to the institutionalization
process of geological sciences in Brazil, because they were the places where,
for several decades, the majority of the Brazilian "geoscientific community"
was formed. A mainly French influence is detected, present in books, structures
or rules, coming either from the "Ecole Politéchnique de Paris"
and the "Ecole des Mineurs de Saint Etienne".
Keywords:
Institutional models. Geosciences in Brazil. Engineering schools.
Summary:
The mercantilist character that defines the Spanish expeditionary program
is analyzed in the four stages in which, we believe, this ambitious and
utopian project could be detached; after the description of these stages,
occasionally overlap in the time, but whose achievements must be necessarily
consecutive to obtain the goals fixed by the organizers, is offered a global
valuation of the Spanish expeditionary program.
Key words:
Illustration. Scientific expeditions. American medical matter.
Summary:
The Marine Guards Academy of Cartagena was founded in 1776. Its aim was
to provide future officers of the Spanish Navy with the necessary scientific
training in the most up to date techniques of navigation. This Academy,
as in the case of the one in Ferrol, came into being in response to the
lack of good officers brought about by the huge increase in the number of
Spanish men-of-war.
After establishing their noble origins, the marine guards then studied mathematics,
cosmography, navigation, artillery, ship-building, naval manouevres, fortification,
design, fencing, dancing and languages. The Academy boasted a fine scientific
and nautical Library as well as an Observatory, where the marine guards
were able to acquaint themselves with astronomical instruments. Once the
marine guards had finished their theoretical training, they would put to
sea in order to put into practice all they had learnt in the Academy.
Of the most outstanding masters at the Academy we may cite, among others,
Jacinto Ceruti, José Sánchez Cerquero, José González Ortiz, and, especially,
Gabriel Ciscar. Special mention should also be made of José de Mazarredo,
who although strictly speaking was not a master of the Academy, nevertheless
played an important role in education there.
The War of Independence in 1808 marked the beginning of the decline of the
Academy and in 1814 it ceased to admit students. In 1824, the three companies
-Cartagena, Ferrol and Cádiz merged and made their base in Cádiz.
Key words:
Marine Guards Academy. Cartagena. Gabriel Ciscar.
Summary:
In the panorama of the history of Earth’s Sciences must be indicated the contributions accomplished during the century XIX by the spanish naturalists, geologists and mine engineers, that with their geological and paleontological studies in Cuba participated and contributed to the development of these scientific disciplines. These authors, in addition to carrying out their practical projects in Cuban soil, discussed the precedents of a polemics that will be outlined in the first decades of the century XX in connection with the stability or mobility of the continents and oceans.
Key words:
Cuba. 19th century. Continental drift. Paleobiogeographie. Manuel Fernández de Castro.