The bando of 1777: treat the wounded first, tell the judge afterwards

Surgeons in New Spain would not treat a wounded person until a magistrate authorised it, and people bled to death waiting. In May 1777 the viceroy ordered every surgeon in the kingdom to treat first, at any hour, and to notify a royal judge afterwards within eight hours at the latest, on a rising scale of fines, exile and presidio. The order had to be repeated in 1793 and renewed again in 1794, and the gazette that reprinted it said why: some practitioners still would not go out at night.