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During the Spanish Civil War, military transfusion services appeared for the first time. In Barcelona and Valencia -two of the main strongholds of the Republican rear- blood transfusion institutes were set up during the struggle. The one in Valencia had, as an annex, a serology laboratory run by María Hervás Moncho (1894-1963). Hitherto unknown to historiography, this Valencian doctor had spent a long training period at the Pasteur Institute in Paris during the 1920s under the tutelage of the prestigious immunologist Alexandre Besredka (1870-1940). The aim of this paper is to rescue the figure of María Hervás Moncho from historiographical oblivion, and to analyze her work as the leader of the laboratory of the Institute of Blood Transfusion in Valencia. Hervás was particularly interested in increasing the sensitivity of serological tests used in the diagnosis of syphilis in order to reduce the incidence of false negatives and, therefore, of possible post-transfusion infections. In order to achieve our purpose several archival, hemerographical and bibliographical sources, both manuscript and printed, have been consulted. These are enumerated in the introduction., Durante la Guerra Civil Española aparecieron por primera vez los servicios militares de transfusión. En Barcelona y Valencia -dos de los principales bastiones de la retaguardia republicana- se habilitaron durante la contienda sendos institutos de transfusión sanguínea. El de Valencia disponía, anexo, de un laboratorio de serología dirigido por María Hervás Moncho (1894-1963). Desconocida por la historiografía, esta médica valenciana había realizado durante la década de 1920 una prolongada estancia de formación en el Instituto Pasteur de París bajo la tutela del prestigioso inmunólogo Alexandre Besredka (1870-1940). El objetivo de este trabajo es rescatar del olvido historiográfico la figura de María Hervás Moncho, analizando su trabajo al frente del laboratorio del Instituto de Transfusión Sanguínea de Valencia. Hervás estaba especialmente interesada en aumentar la sensibilidad de las pruebas serológicas empleadas en el diagnóstico de la sífilis al objeto de disminuir la incidencia de falsos negativos y, por tanto, de eventuales contagios post-transfusionales. Para alcanzar los objetivos planteados se han consultado diversas fuentes archivísticas, hemerográficas y bibliográficas, tanto manuscritas como impresas, que se especifican en la introducción.

The outbreak of what was commonly known as the 'French disease' (morbus gallicus) -and is traditionally identified with syphilis-, soon became a significant social and health problem throughout the Old World. Initially perceived as a new pestilence, its transmission by contagian, mostly through sexual contact, and its chronic and progressively incapacitating features were, however, soon generally accepted. Yet, the long and disconcerting course of the disease -characterised by successive clinical stages separated by asymptomatic periods- and the inability of physicians to find any suitable treatment for it, made other health practitioners such as surgeons, either university or apprentice training, and empirics- introduce to the health marketplace many allegedly successful therapeutic innovations.

Syphilis or, more properly venereal syphilis is a chronic comunicable disease, which, until the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome emerged in the early 1980s, was the most serious and dreaded of the so-called sexually transmitted disease (VD). Although syphylis is transferred predominantly by sexual contact, it may also be transmitted in nonsexual ways, such as by close contact with either an open lesion of early syphilis or infected fomites, by infection of an unborn infant in utero, and by transfusions of infected blood.