[The urologic work of Doctor Alejandro Settier (1858-1915). (I). Spanish urology during the second half of the 19th century].

Until, at the beginning of our Century, the Spanish Urology finally achieved the acknowledgement that it was due to it as a specialty different from General Surgery, surgical practice of urinary tract disorders remained, all through the 19th Century, in the hands of general surgeons. As from the last quarter of the century, however, a clear trend can be glimpsed in some professionals in Spain towards specialization in this branch of surgery. Albeit the influence of the French School and French publications on the first specialists is manifest, since most of them were training in Paris, it is obvious that the genesis and progress of specialization on genitourinary organs disorders, as well as other areas, in Spain would have not been possible without the concourse and political support received from relevant personalities such as Dr. Federico Rubio y Gali and Dr. Angel Pulido Fernández, both with partial dedication to the urinary tract and to whom the Spanish Association of Urology still owns further recognition for the role they played in the promotion of these earlier specialists and the establishment of centres and hospital services where their work could be carried out. Since, during the final third of last century, the number of Spanish publications, journals and monographs devoted to urological topics, a extensive revision of which is covered in this paper, is increasingly profuse, the boom of the specialty in genitourinary tract disorders will determine its ultimate consolidation at the beginning of the 20th Century.