Abstract

: Based on two essential texts by Chilean doctor Augusto Orrego Luco – La cuestión social (The Social Question, 1897) and his Discurso de toma de posesión de su cargo de presidente de la Sociedad Médica (Speech on taking up his position as president of the Medical Society, 1895) – we analyse this author’s proposals regarding the role of science in governing populations. The analysis focuses on concepts such as the vagabond race in relation to the social and racial question in late-19th-century Chile, and identifies scientific influences such as biological determinism and the theory of degeneracy.