[Homage to Dr. Guillermo C. Blest (1800-1884), founder of Chilean medicine].

William Blest M.D. graduated from Edinburgh Medical School in 1821 and was Director of the first course of medicine (1833) created in Chile after the independence. He arrived to Chile in 1823, when the rising Republic struggled to develop science, culture and its own identity as a nation. In 1826, he presented to the government of that time his "Observations over the actual state of medicine in Chile and a plan to improve it" and in 1828, an "Essay over the most common causes of diseases suffered in Santiago de Chile". The sanitary conditions were deplorable, hospitals were unhealthy barracks and there were only 9 physicians, most of them foreigners. Outstanding was his address to the 11 students of the 1833 course, that reflects love for the profession and contains valuable ethical concepts. Blest was a precursor of Public Health and founder of Chilean Medicine. He became a Chilean citizen in 1831 and was representative and Senator of the Republic. He formed a distinguished family and one of his sons, Alberto Blest Gana, was the most prominent chilean novelist of the nineteenth century.