History of Latin American Dermatology

PAULO R. CUNHAintravenous injections. Later, Viana himself would discover thecure of donovanosis lesions with the application of the samecompound.Francisco Eduardo Rabello points out regarding these significantworks: “It is not surprising that, in the midst of that feverishand so fertile research activity, the Brazilian Society ofDermatology was created at the same time, in 1912” 2 .Fernando Terra’s idealFigure 3. Dr. AdolphoLindemberg (center)at his Dermatologyclinic at the São PauloHoly HouseFernando Terra (1865-1947), born in Rio de Janeiro, thirdlecturer at the Rio de Janeiro Medical School, author of the projectand first President of the Brazilian Society of Dermatology,held office from 1912 to 1925.An inquiry into the documents of the Brazilian Society of Dermatologymakes it possible to assert that he was truly the soul,the inspiration and the force that preceded the founding of theBSD. It was he who articulated efforts, encouraged participationand drafted the bylaws. He was considered an omnipresentforce in the founding and in the work of the entity’s first thirteen years; he retired fromoffice for the sole reason that, upon retiring in 1925 as Dermatology and Syphilographylecturer of the Medical School of Brazil University, he preferred to maintain the traditionthat his successor in the Chair would also be the president of the Society. Terra was bornon December 25, 1865, in Niterói and died in Juiz de Fora in 1947. Graduating in 1887from the National Medical School, he immediately devoted himself to Dermatology, completinghis medical internships with Professor João Pizarro Gabizo at the Nineteenth Infirmaryof the Holy House. The records also show that he passed through Manguinhos.In 1891 he became assistant at the Dermatology and Syphilography Clinic, and in 1906he participated in the public competition for the post of assistant professor, which he obtainedfor the reasons given above.Upon taking over as full professor in 1910, following Chaves de Faria, he had the generousattitude of calling Eduardo Rabello for the Clinic; with him, the Oswaldo Cruz Institutegroup also arrived to join the classical dermatologists, yielding a valid interactionfor both sectors.Not satisfied with his activity as leader of the institute, Fernando Terra set out theprinciples of an entity capable of gathering dermatologists and increasingly leading themtowards scientific activity.The French modelFigure 4. Dr. FernandoTerra (1865-1947)The French model of the Society of Dermatology and Syphilography, which operatedsince 1889 at the Saint-Louis Hospital in Paris together with the Clinic of the same name,was chosen to govern the Brazilian entity, but, curiously, Terra and the founding groupof the BSD did not initially include the study of syphilis in the denomination of the newentity. For thirteen years, that is to say, during the administration of Fernando Terra, theentity would be called Brazilian Society of Dermatology. Only in 1925, when Eduardo Rabellotook over the presidency, would the bylaw be modified to change the name toBrazilian Society of Dermatology and Syphilography, like the French entity, with a slightbut significant difference, because the BSDS chose the term used by the Anglo Saxons,Syphilography, and not the French, Syphiligraphy. Years after the Second World War,with the introduction of penicillin, the entity would return, in 1962, to the original denomination,after thirty-seven years with the name Brazilian Society of Dermatology and76