Abstract
One of the first books on Mexican medicine, a masterwork in the development and transformation of this discipline, is the one that came from the quill of the Dominican Francisco Ximénez, and was printed in the house of the widow of Dávalos in 1615. In addition to offering ethnographic, scientific, and medical information on the therapeutic measurements of its time, this odd piece, of which there are just a few copies in the world, has amongst its merits, the beginning of the disclosure of scientific knowledge in Mexico. The monk's work may be considered a keystone, as it placates an awakening in the consciousness of the different periods in scientific research. Toward the end of the XVIII Century, the Second Royal Botanical Expedition speeded the study of Mexican plants. This was followed, at the end of the last Century, by the creation of the National Medical Institute, when the country began its participation within modern science.