Enemy in the Blood: Malaria, Environment, and Development in Argentina

Note on Sources

Note on Sources this book depends mainly on primary sources that are often difficult to find, whether published or not. most of the documentary evidence used in this book is found in Argentina, but there are also a few important archives in the United states and England worthy of mention.As an aid to scholars interested in retracing my steps or developing their own research projects, this discussion proceeds geographically, that is, by the physical location of the collections. in Argentina, i conducted archival research in Buenos Aires,tucumán, salta, and orán.in Buenos Aires,the single most important collection on public health and medicine is found in the general library of the facultad de medicina of the University of Buenos Aires. most of the articles in scientific, medical, and public health journals that i have cited, including those published by the departamento nacional de higiene (dnh), can be found in this library.the library of the Academia nacional de historia houses a complete run of the proceedings of the national congress (Diario de Sesiones de la Cámara de Diputados and Diario de Sesiones de la Cámara de Senadores), key reference materials, and historical monographs and journals.the Biblioteca tornquist,housed inside one of the buildings of the Banco Central de la nación, contains good sources related to the political economy of the northwest, especially the sugar industry. the Archivo General de la nación has an extensive collection of archival photographs.i also consulted libraries at the Academia nacional de medicina, the Asociación médica Argentina , the Biblioteca nacional (mainly, the hemeroteca, or “periodical room”), the instituto Geográfico militar (map library), indEC (instituto nacional de Estad ística y Censos), and the sociedad Científica Argentina. in tucumán, the Archivo histórico de la Provincia was my main source for local historical newspapers, particularly El Orden, the city’s major newspaper of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. the Biblioteca de la legislatura houses the Compilación ordenada de leyes, decretos y mensajes del periodo constitucional de la provincia deTucumán, a compendium of provincial legislative proceedings .the library of the instituto de Estudios Geográficos (iEG) at the facultad de filosofía y letras of the Universidad nacional de tucumán has a complete run of the Anuario estadístico de la provincia deTucumán, initially compiled by the 246 / note on sources demographer Paulino rodríguez marquina.these annual volumes represent an invaluable source of information on all quantifiable aspects of tucumán society from 1897 to 1943. some of these statistical series, for example, on infant mortality and agriculture, have been compiled in digital spreadsheet format and are available from the iEG.With the help of a research assistant, i compiled data on hospital admissions, classified by cause of illness, which serve as the basis for statistical analysis of malaria incidence. the collection in the derelict library of the delegación sanitaria federal was first developed by Carlos Alvarado himself , when it was the library of the malaria service (dirección General de Paludismo ). having been abandoned, the collection is difficult to access but mostly well preserved;at the same time,it does not feature many unpublished or internal agency documents,which were presumably transferred and then destroyed at the national ministry of Public health in Buenos Aires. the archives of La Gaceta, the city’s major newspaper, include archival photographs, organized by subject. in tucumán i also consulted libraries at the Universidad nacional de tucumán (central library and miguel lillo institute),the Casa histórica de la independencia , and the sociedad sarmiento. most archival research in salta was conducted at provincial libraries.the Archivo y Biblioteca históricos de la Provincia houses some historical newspapers, the Recopilación (compendium) of provincial laws, and an interesting collection of original registry logs for El milagro hospital for the early 1900s. i compiled a sampling of hospital registrations to analyze temporal,spatial,and social patterns of malaria;little of this analysis made it into this book, but related results can be found in my 2008 article,“malaria,landscape,and society in northwest Argentina ,” in the Journal of Latin American Geography. other salta newspapers can be found in the hemeroteca of the Biblioteca Provincial dr.victorino de la Plaza. Gregorio Caro figueroa generously granted me access to his private library in nearby Cerrillos, which includes a wide variety of holdings, mainly on the history of Argentina and the northwest...