"If they are useful, why expel them?" Las Hermanas de la Caridad and religious medical authority in Mexico City hospitals, 1861-1874

The expulsion of las Hermanas de la Caridad was a highly contentious battle in Mexico's nineteenth-century war between Church and State. Las Hermanas-who staffed and administrated Mexico City's hospitals for three decades (1844-1874)-are generally portrayed as the adventitious victims of President Lerdo de Tejada's attacks on religion. Using records from Mexico City's Secretary of Health archive, this article argues that public health officials were a major force behind the expulsion, and that the sisters were ultimately ousted not just because they symbolized the rising influence of Vincentians in Mexico, but also because their medical and administrative autonomy represented a threat to scientific and state authorities.