History of Latin American Dermatology

RAÚL VIGNALEDepartment Council the request that a street be given his name, which was adopted in 1969.His most renowned disciples were Bartolomé Vignale, Aquiles Amoretti, José MaríaTiscornia and Héctor Santomé, who years later were Assistant and Full Professors at theMedical School.Prof. Dr. Bartolomé VignaleRaúl A. Vignale, Francisco Amor GarcíaFigure 4. BartoloméVignale, successorto José Brito Forestiat the Chair ofDermosyphilopathicClinic of theMedical School atthe Maciel HospitalHe was born in Montevideo on February 3, 1892, into a family of Genoese immigrants(Figure 4). He entered Medical School in 1911 and graduated in 1916. He covered theentire teaching career at the Medical School by competitions based on background or onopposition. Between 1919 and 1922, he was Head of the Dermosyphilopathic Clinic, in1928 Assistant Professor and in 1947 Full Professor, until 1965 when he stepped downdue to retirement, later being appointed Emeritus Professor by the School Council. Histraining basically took place alongside Prof. Dr. Brito Foresti. On numerous occasions hetraveled to Paris for specialization work at the Hospital Saint-Louis and later to Italy andSpain with the principal Teachers of the diverse services. In his first years he held hispractice at the Maciel Hospital, transferring later, in 1954, to the Clinics Hospital. Hishuge merits, the numerous publications in medical and specialized journals, made Vignaleone of the masters of Dermatology. He was also President of several congresses andscientific gatherings. He stood out as a person of exquisite sensibility and was extraordinaryby virtue of his excellent human qualities, quality and respect for his colleagues,and outstanding good humor. He was coeditor of the Revista Uruguaya de Dermatologíaalong with Prof. May and the professors’ delegate in the School Council, among othermerits. He had the praiseworthy idea of creating, along with his Professor, the Dermatologyand Syphilography Section of the Medical Society of Uruguay and in 1956, the famousSessions of Dermatology of the River Plate, which were held every two years, withMontevideo and Buenos Aires alternating as the venue.Prof. Dr. Aquiles AmorettiHe succeeded Prof. Bartolomé Vignale as Full Professor at the Medical School’s DermosyphilopathicSchool in 1959, up to 1969. He carried out his entire teaching career atthe Medical School following competitions as Head of Clinics, Assistant, Assistant Professor.In addition, competitions based on background and opposition were the steppingstonesto his career at the Ministry of Public Health. He started out asdermovenereologist doctor at the Antisyphilitic and Venereal Disease Dispensaries, latercalled Sexual Hygiene Dispensaries, to later gain, by competition, the post of head of theSkin Service at the Pasteur Hospital; he held that post for many years, succeeding Dr.Pedro Raúl Alonso, founder of the Service. He was the clinical doctor par excellence, agreat semiologist, an example of the influence of the French School and of the professorswho preceded him like J. May and B. Vignale. His insistence on clinical diagnosis reachedthe point of maintaining that while histopathology aided in diagnosis, in cases of manydoubts the clinical examination was predominant. He was the continuator of the Sessionsof the River Plate, President of the Uruguayan Society of Dermatology and of numerouscongresses. He published an infinite number of articles in Annals of the Medical School,many of them in collaboration with R. Vignale, all on previously unpublished clinicalcases, which obtained diverse awards, especially in Argentina and Brazil.406