examiners: doctors, empirical healers, and laymen in judicial decisions. new kingdom of granada, 18th century

The article discusses the different actors that served as examiners in the context of criminal proceedings carried out in the New Kingdom of Granada during the 18th century, before legal medicine was organized as a specific field of knowledge. It explores two essential aspects: first, the germinal stage of a space in which diverse arts of healing, medicine, surgery, and law converged in order to achieve a better administration of justice in these territories; and, second, the coexistence, whether peaceful or conflictive, of the activity of legitimate examiners and unauthorized laymen in cases of bodily injuries to living or deceased people, depending on the crime being prosecuted.