José Hipólito Unanúe, Observaciones sobre el clima de Lima. Lima, 1806.
European thinkers had long argued that the tropical and sub-tropical climates of the Americas were debilitating to Spaniards living there. Their arguments even extended to the effects of the different stars under which Spanish creoles were born. Spaniards living in the Americas, however, responded with their own arguments as early as the sixteenth century. In this work, physician José Hipólito Unanue continues this discussion. He was the most celebrated physician of his day, founder of the first medical school in Peru. He was one of the founders of the Sociedad de Amantes del Pais, which in turn founded the Mercurio peruano, and he was a frequent contributor to that journal. Although closely connected to the viceregal government, Unanue himself favored independence, and briefly served as Peru’s president after it was finally achieved.