Cuando las instituciones no apoyan las iniciativas de los científicos: el caso de la Real Academia de Medicina y algunas propuestas lexicográficas

Abstract

There is plenty of literature that praises the relevance of the official institutions in the achievement of scientific milestones. This should not be surprising, given their unquestionable role in the advancement and the future of science in general. However, such institutions not always act as the objective entities they are supposed to be. In this sense, there are many examples that, although not well known, prove how these institutions, and ultimately the individuals who act on their behalf, have developed activities that are actually contrary to the promotion of initiatives and ideas submitted to them, thus preventing their implementation. The analysis of those examples reveal the lack of objective reasoning to justify such behaviours.

With this in mind, this article presents some lexicographic proposals submitted to the Spanish Royal Academy of Medicine during the last years of the XVIII Century and the beginning of the XIX Century, which never came to light in spite of being actually pertinent and innovative due to the objections raised by some members of the Academy.