How Two Nutty New Spain Doctors Tried to Get Ahead in Medicine
Two doctors in New Spain in the 18th century sought permission from the Inquisition to use human skulls for medicinal purposes. They argued that the prohibition should only apply to superstitious use, not medical.

In an age when most of us are content with a couple of paracetamol to cure whatever ails us, it’s hard to imagine a time when medicine involved human skulls and navigating the murky waters between science and religion. But that’s precisely what two doctors in the early 18th century were grappling with, as evidenced by a rather curious document kept within the Inquisition collection of the National General Archives.
Picture the scene: it’s 1702 in Puebla de los Ángeles, a city that today might conjure images of street tacos and lively fiestas, but back then was ground zero for some of the most bizarre medical experiments known to man. Enter doctors Juan de Torres and Antonio de Heredia—two men of science, but also products of their time, where religion dictated not just the afterlife but also how one might attempt to stay alive in the first place.