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Social History of Medicine 2004 17(3):409-421; doi:10.1093/shm/17.3.409
© 2004 by Society for the Social History of Medicine
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Disease as a Metaphorical Resource: The Fontilles Philanthropic Initiative in the Fight Against Leprosy, 1901–1932

Josep Bernabeu-Mestre1 and Teresa Ballester-Artigues2

1 Department of Public Health, University of Alicante, P.O. Box 99, 03080 Alicante, Spain. Email: josep.bernabeu{at}ua.es, 2 ‘Historiador Chabas’ High School of Denia, Av. Valencia 13, 03700 Alicante, Spain. Email: teresaballester{at}terra.es

The worsening of the leprosy problem in Spain during the final decades of the nineteenth century and the initial decades of the twentieth century made it possible for missionary and philanthropic activities to recover one of the most productive parables of charity. Medical care for leprosy patients became a monopoly of religious organizations and charity associations. A social imagery was generated around those initiatives in which the metaphorical dimension of the disease reinforced social control mechanisms through lepers' exclusion and segregation. On the basis of the study of the philanthropic initiative that led to the opening of the Fontilles (Vall de Laguar, Alicante, Spain) leper colony in 1909, this paper analyses the key aspects explaining those images as well as their consequences.

Keywords: leprosy, philanthropy, metaphor, Fontilles (Spain), twentieth century


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