Hygiene, health and education have been connected since the origins of mankind. This very close relationship offers different forms and intensities. The apparition of the hygienist movement about the middle of the 19th century, and the social and educational changes linked to the schooling process that took place in the mentioned century and in the first half of the 20th, as well as the scientific study of the childhood, developed in the intermediate period between both centuries, favoured the creation of new societies and professions or professional specialities, the proliferation of magazines, leaflets and books, the organization of congresses, the passing of several laws about those matters, and the public and private initiatives. In this prefatory text all of this is accounted for. Likewise the rest of the texts of this monographic issue are introduced; also some observations about the so called "education for health" are made, and a chronology of more relevant events, publications and laws, related to the subject, is annexed.
Hygiene; Health; Education; Hygienist movement; Hygiene schooling