Wenceslao Díaz Gallegos (1834–1895) was a Chilean

scientist A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...

and medical

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

, widely considered as one of the fathers of

sanitation Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation systems ...

in the country. He trained generations of medical professionals and introduced medical devices, such as the

thermometer A thermometer is a device that measures temperature (the hotness or coldness of an object) or temperature gradient (the rates of change of temperature in space). A thermometer has two important elements: (1) a temperature sensor (e.g. the bulb ...

and the

hypodermic syringe A syringe is a simple reciprocating pump consisting of a plunger (though in modern syringes, it is actually a piston) that fits tightly within a cylindrical tube called a barrel. The plunger can be linearly pulled and pushed along the insid ...

, for the first time in Chile. Díaz made numerous contributions to Chilean medicine and natural history, and was also a skilled linguist in several languages.

Early life and education

He was born in Hacienda Limache, near San Fernando, on February 21, 1834. He studied at Colegio Taforó in Santiago and later finished high school education at the Instituto Nacional. Díaz graduated as a medical surgeon in 1859, at the

Universidad de Chile The University of Chile () is a public research university in Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the co ...

School of Medicine, when it was located on the building in the intersection of San Francisco and Las Delicias, the current Libertador General Bernardo O’Higgins Avenue. Two years later, he graduated as a Bachelor in Physical Sciences and Mathematics at the same university. His specialization allowed him to lead the sanitary commission to help the victims of the 1861 Mendoza earthquake.

Contributions to natural history

Díaz studied many diverse disciplines such as medicine, archeology, geology, botany, seismology, climatology, ethnography and philosophy, and specialized in

health geography Health geography is the application of geographical information, perspectives, and methods to the study of health, disease, and health care. Medical geography, a sub-discipline of, or sister field of health geography, Oxford Bibliographies entry ...

, considered a prerequisite to specialization in parasitology and tropical diseases. He went on scientific excursions with the geologist Ignacio Domeyko, and collected botanical specimens. The Chilean botanist Rudolfo Amando Philippi named at least seven different species of plants in his honor, including: '' Alstroemeria diazii'' Phil., '' Boopis diazii'' Phil., '' Cerastium diazii'' Phil., '' Panargyrus diazii'' Phil., '' Schizanthus diazii'' Phil., '' Ourisia diazii'' Phil., and '' Senecio diazii'' Phil.

Career

In 1873 he was appointed head of the chair of internal medicine at the Universidad de Chile School of Medicine. From that position he pushed the introduction of modern medical instruments like the

and the

, which was used to administer morphine, atropine and cocaine in the treatment of patients. Both had never been used before in the country. Between 1877 and 1880 he was dean of the Faculty of Medicine, where he worked on the design of a new building for the faculty, but he had to leave the project after the outbreak of the

War of the Pacific The War of the Pacific (), also known by War of the Pacific#Etymology, multiple other names, was a war between Chile and a Treaty of Defensive Alliance (Bolivia–Peru), Bolivian–Peruvian alliance from 1879 to 1884. Fought over Atacama Desert ...

(1879-1883). During the conflict he took over as Director of the Army Health Service, where he also innovated in hospital systems. After the war, he was one of the leaders in controlling the Asian Cholera epidemic that affected Chile in 1887. He described the main characteristics and consequences of the disease in the medical report “Memory of the Cholera Health Service Directive Commission 1887-1888”. He was a founding member of the Medical Society of Santiago (1869) and one of the editors of the first issue of its journal, the '' Revista Médica de Chile'' (1872). He was also a member of the Society of Pharmacy of Chile, the Surgical Medical Society, the Society of Archeology of Santiago and physician of the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Santiago. Díaz also stood out as a great connoisseur of the Greek, Latin and Spanish classics. Also a philologist and linguist, he possessed notions of Greek, Latin and other languages. He also studied the native Latin American languages, especially the

Mapuche The Mapuche ( , ) also known as Araucanians are a group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging e ...

, Quechua and Aymará. Díaz died on January 19, 1895.

References

1834 births 1895 deaths University of Chile alumni People from Santiago, Chile Chilean scientists Chilean philosophers Chilean surgeons {{Chile-philosopher-stub