surgeons, druggists and barbers, who at that time were performing dental
and minor surgical operations. But not until the beginning of the
eighteenth century was the Protomedicato completely organized for
efficient work. It was a college or tribunal composed of physicians duly
licensed by royal patent, who were charged with examining and issuing
licenses to students of medicine. In this way the government hoped to
combat the evil of unlawful medical practice by unknown and incapable
individuals, which had long been a grave menace to the public health.
The king endowed the Protomedicato of Cuba with the same prerogatives
and the same jurisdiction as were enjoyed by the corresponding
institutions of Lima and Mexico.

Upon the departure of the Marquis de Casa-Torres the affairs of the
island were once more in the hands of a provisional government. The
ayuntamento (municipal government) entrusted D. Luis Chacon with the
military governorship and in default of an auditor the political was
given to two alcaldes, D. Augustin de Arriola and D. Pedro Hobruitinier.
But by royal order of the year 1712 D. Luis Chacon resumed the superior
authority, both civil and military. At the end of the year, when the
re-election of the alcaldes took place, violent disputes arose, which
necessitated the intervention of Chacon and the Bishop Valdes. The court
was called to inquire into the matter and settled the quarrel which had
threatened to disturb the peace of the community.

In the year 1712 the official circles of Cuba were greatly agitated by a
sensational occurrence. It was the affair between the acting governor of
Cuba, Don Luis Sanudo, and the royal Ensign, who was also Alcalde of
Bayamo. The governor had ordered the Ensign to imprison two Indian
chiefs who were accused of theft, but the Ensign, interpreting
differently a certain royal decree and the municipal ordinances, made no
move to obey the command. Governor Sanudo accordingly betook himself to
Bayamo, and as the Ensign failed to present himself, went to his house.
There he upbraided him, and as was reported by some at the time, slapped
his face. Boiling with wrath at this insult and outrage, the Ensign
killed him on the spot. The court before which he was tried condemned
him to death and ordered his home to be razed. The office was for the
time abolished, but later re-established.

The Casa-Torres affair had been in the meantime thoroughly aired before
the Court of Spain and