[Amazing health rates in turn-of-the-century Majorca]

Majorca's mortality rates in the turn of the century were the lowest of Spain and nearer to those of the northern European countries than to Mediterranean ones and therefore their amazing quality. This paper seeks to contribute to solve that riddle and, as a first step, it reviews the island's demographic conditions and its economic, political and social and cultural context, including the analysis of the development of medical sciences and the sanitary reform of the city of Palma proposed by Eusebio Estada.