Abstract

The Port of Buenos Aires, already in the colonial era, was the gate to the international routes of commerce, culture, science, art and sociability. This explains the concern of the local authorities with the care and improvement of the Port, including its health policy, which is the subject of the present article. Application into practice was always influenced by the tension between the medical and political interest to protect the population and the market economic interests. All through the 19th century, the Port health policy was limited by the precariousness of the scientific and technological means, infrastructure and human specialized resources. It was only by the end of the century that the advancement of medicine and the improvement of the Port facilities allowed to arrive to other alternative practices.