School of Tropical Medicine | |
Location | Ponce de León Ave, Barrio Puerto de Tierra, San Juan, Puerto Rico |
---|---|
Coordinates | 18°28′01″N66°06′14″W / 18.467003°N 66.104005°W |
Area | 3.9 acres (1.6 ha) |
Built | 1926 |
Architect | Rafael Carmoega |
Architectural style | Neo-Plateresque |
Part of | Puerta de Tierra Historic District (ID100002936) |
NRHP reference No. | 83002297 [1] |
RNSZH No. | 2000-(RMSJ)-00-JP-SH |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | September 29, 1983 |
Designated CP | October 15, 2019 |
Designated RNSZH | February 3, 2000 |
The School of Tropical Medicine (Spanish : Escuela de Medicina Tropical), was an educational institution created in 1926 by an act of the Puerto Rican Legislature, to further the research initiated by the Anemia Commissions and the Institute of Tropical Medicine on anemia and its causes. The institution existed as an independent entity until 1949, when it was integrated into the School of Medicine of the University of Puerto Rico.
Captain Bailey K. Ashford, a medical doctor, was a member of the United States Army Medical Corps which accompanied the United States Army when Puerto Rico was invaded during the Spanish–American War in 1898. As the medical officer in the general military hospital in Ponce, he was the first to describe and successfully treat North American hookworm in 1899.[ citation needed ]
Because of his clinical investigations into the anemia caused by hookworm infestation, Ashford was inspired to organize and conduct a parasite treatment campaign. It cured approximately 300,000 persons (one-third of the Puerto Rico population) and reduced the death rate from this anemia by 90 percent. [2]
Ashford and Dr. Isaac González Martínez encouraged the government to undertake a program to reduce hookworm and anemia. They were appointed as the founding members of the Puerto Rico Anemia Commission, established in 1904 by the Insular Government. Ashford had discovered that hookworm infestation was the principal cause of anemia on the island. He served on the Commission from 1904–1906. Medical research in Puerto Rico had its beginning with the "First Anemia Commission." [2]
In 1911, Ashford together with doctors Isaac Gonzalez Martinez, Pedro Gutiérrez Igaravides and Walter King, proposed that the local government create an Institute of Tropical Medicine to further the research initiated by the Anemia Commissions. In 1912, the local legislature approved the proposal and established the Institute of Tropical Medicine. [3]
The President of the Puerto Rico Senate, Antonio R. Barceló, was attending a conference in New York City when he was approached by professors Jose Antonio Lopez Antongiorgi and Abraham L. Goodman from the Medical School of Columbia University. They spoke about the need for establishing a medical school in Puerto Rico where scientific investigations could be conducted into tropical diseases. Senator Barceló became interested in the idea and, on June 23, 1924, he sponsored the legislation which provided Governor Horace Towner, with the prerequisite funding for the school. [4]
The School of Tropical Medicine was formally dedicated in 1925. It was the second school in the United States and its territories (after Tulane's School of Tropical Medicine, 1913 [5] ), founded for the purpose of researching and training physicians in the cause and prevention of tropical diseases. Located in Puerta de Tierra, San Juan, the school's building is one of the few examples of the Neo-Plateresque architectural style on the Island. [4] In 1926, new legislation expanded the Institute of Tropical Medicine into the School of Tropical Medicine of the University of Puerto Rico, which was operated under the sponsorship of Columbia University. An agreement was made between the University of Puerto Rico and Columbia University in regard to the finances of the institution. [3]
Having completed a 30-year Army career, Ashford assumed a full-time faculty position at the school and continued his interest in tropical medicine. [6] Together with doctors Isaac González Martínez and Ramón M. Suárez Calderon, he continued his research and study of anemia. [7]
González Martínez conducted many investigations and experiments in parasitology, bilharzia, leprosy and typhoid fever. [8] During his years at the institution, González Martínez founded Anales de Medicina de Puerto Rico, a scientific journal. He was elected president of the Medical Academy of Puerto Rico in 1917. In 1919, he published a chapter on his findings of the Intestinal Bilharzias in the book La Práctica de la Medicina en el Trópico. [3]
Suárez Calderon identified the proper and effective treatment of a type of anemia known as tropical sprue, the application of complex methods, such as electrocardiography and radioisotope, to be used in clinics and the identification and treatment of the disease which causes heart rheumatism. [9] Suárez Calderon continued Ashford's work and investigations on anemia after the latter's death. In 1938, he published his scientific findings on tropical sprue. [10]
In 1927, the institution offered courses in tropical medicine and nutrition. Most of the students continued their graduate work at Columbia University. In May 1930, the University of Puerto Rico offered two degrees of Master of Arts for the students who continued their education and work at the School of Tropical Medicine. [2]
In 1931, William B. Castle and his assistant Cornelius P. Rhoads studied hookworm and tropical sprue in relation to anemia. They were able to treat some patients with liver extract, which efficacy was being studied. Dr. George C. Payne continued to study anemia in 1936 and 1937. [11]
The agreement between the University of Puerto Rico and Columbia University in regard to the School of Tropical Medicine was terminated by mutual consent in 1948.[ citation needed ]
In May 1949, the Puerto Rican Legislature authorized the creation of the School of Medicine of the University of Puerto Rico, also known as the UPR School of Medicine. The School of Tropical Medicine was merged into the new school, and admitted its first class in August 1950. [2] On September 29, 1983, the building in which the School of Tropical Medicine was located was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. [12] It was later added to the Puerto Rico Register of Historic Sites and Zones in 2000. [13]
Colonel Bailey Kelly Ashford was an American physician who had a military career in the United States Army, and afterward taught full-time at the School of Tropical Medicine in Puerto Rico, which he helped establish in San Juan.
Antonio Rafael Barceló y Martínez was a Puerto Rican lawyer, businessman and the patriarch of what was to become one of Puerto Rico's most prominent political families. Barceló, who in 1917 became the first President of the Senate of Puerto Rico, played an instrumental role in the introduction and passage of legislation which permitted the realization of the School of Tropical Medicine and the construction of a Capitol building in Puerto Rico.
The University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus, School of Medicine is located in the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It's the only medical school in the University of Puerto Rico System. It is accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME). Its students are predominantly Puerto Rican residents. However, anyone is allowed to apply to this university. It is also considered the top bilingual medical school in the world due to its requirement for each admitted student to fully master both English and Spanish.
The Capitol of Puerto Rico, also known as Casa de las Leyes(House of Laws), and most commonly referred to as El Capitolio(The Capitol), is the seat of the Legislative Assembly, or the bicameral legislature, composed of the Senate and House of Representatives, responsible for the legislative branch of the government of Puerto Rico. Located on San Juan Islet immediately outside the Walls of Old San Juan, the oceanfront, neoclassical Beaux-Arts-style, entirely white marble-covered edifice was constructed between 1921 and 1929 to resemble the ancient Roman Pantheon in Rome, using as inspiration the Low Memorial Library in New York City. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
Puerto Rico National Cemetery is a United States national cemetery located in the city of Bayamón, in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It encompasses 108.2 acres (43.8 ha) of land, and at the end of 2005, had 44,722 interments. Until 2021, it was the only United States National Cemetery in Puerto Rico. A second United States National Cemetery was built in Morovis, Puerto Rico because the cemetery in Bayamón has reached its capacity.
William Bosworth Castle was an American physician and physiologist who transformed hematology from a "descriptive art to a dynamic interdisciplinary science."
Charles Wardell Stiles was an American parasitologist born in Spring Valley, New York. He was notable for working on a campaign against hookworm infestation in the American South, where it had been found to cause high rates of anemia, a debilitating disease.
The Office of Legislative Services of Puerto Rico was created on January 27, 1954 to provide research, translation, library and legislative drafting services to all members of the Puerto Rico Legislative Assembly. Its duties are similar to those of the Congressional Research Service.
Cornelius Packard "Dusty" Rhoads was an American pathologist, oncologist, and hospital administrator who was involved in a racist scandal and subsequent whitewashing in the 1930s. Beginning in 1940, he served as director of Memorial Hospital for Cancer Research in New York, from 1945 was the first director of Sloan-Kettering Institute, and the first director of the combined Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center. For his contributions to cancer research, Rhoads was featured on the cover of the June 27, 1949, issue of Time magazine under the title "Cancer Fighter".
The University of Puerto Rico School of Law is a law school in Puerto Rico. It is one of the professional graduate schools of University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, the only law school in the University of Puerto Rico System and the only public law school in Puerto Rico. It was founded in 1913 at its present site in Río Piedras, which at the time was an independent municipality and is now part of the City of San Juan. The School of Law has been accredited by the American Bar Association since 1945 and by the Association of American Law Schools since 1948.
The Puerto Rico Museum of Contemporary Art, often abbreviated to MAC, is a contemporary art museum in Santurce, Puerto Rico.
Dr. Enrique Pérez Santiago, MD was a Puerto Rican medical doctor. Born in Comerio, he was the first Puerto Rican hematologist and he began the formal program at the University of Puerto Rico Hospital.
Dr. Ramón M. Suárez Calderón (1895–1981) was a scientist, cardiologist, educator and hematologíst whose investigations led him to identify the proper and effective treatment of a specific disease known as tropical sprue. He also refined the protocols for numerous diagnostic procedures, such as electrocardiography and radioisotope, for the clinical identification and treatment of the disease which causes heart rheumatism.
Dr. Isaac González Martínez was the first Puerto Rican urologist, and a pioneer in the fight against cancer throughout the island. Dr. González Martínez conducted many investigations and experiments in parasitology, bilharzia, leprosy and typhoid fever. Dr. González Martínez and Dr. Bailey K. Ashford were the founders of the first commission in Puerto Rico to study the causes of anemia. In 1914, he was named director of the biological laboratory of the sanitation service of Puerto Rico. In 1935, Dr. González Martínez founded The Puerto Rican League against Cancer. He also promoted the construction of Puerto Rico's first hospital specializing in oncology.
Leopoldo Figueroa a.k.a. "The deacon of the Puerto Rican Legislature", was a Puerto Rican politician, journalist, medical doctor and lawyer. Figueroa, who began his political career as an advocate of Puerto Rican Independence, was the co-founder of the "Independence Association", one of three political organizations which merged to form the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. Figueroa, had changed political ideals and in 1948, was a member of the Partido Estadista Puertorriqueño. That year, he was the only member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives who did not belong to the Partido Popular Democrático (PPD), and the only Representative to oppose the PPD's approval of what became known as the Ley de la Mordaza, which violated the civil rights of those who favored Puerto Rican Independence. On December 22, 2006, the Puerto Rican Legislature approved a law declaring every September 21, Leopoldo Figueroa Carreras Day.
Rafael López Nussa was a Puerto Rican physician and public servant. In 1916 López Nussa performed the first heart surgery operation in Puerto Rico.
Dr. Tom Douglas Spies was a distinguished American physician and medical educator. He was an authority in the study of nutritional diseases. In the 1930s, he contributed significantly to finding a cure for pellagra, a nutritional disease that once afflicted millions in the American South. Later, he also made a large contribution to finding cure for tropical sprue. For his efforts in elimination of pellagra, Time Magazine named him as 1938 "Man of the Year" in comprehensive science.
The Casa Solariega de José de Diego, also known as the Lería Esmoris Residence, is a historic home built in 1897. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 and on the Puerto Rico Register of Historic Sites and Zones in 2003.
George C. Payne was an American tropical physician and director for the International Health Board of the Rockefeller Foundation for Mexico and Trinidad in the 1920s. He also worked as a physician for the state health board in Virginia in 1923. He investigated hookworm disease between 1921 and 1934, and was known for studying the links between hookworm, tropical sprue and anemia in Trinidad, as well as Puerto Rico at the School of Tropical Medicine, where he worked with William Bosworth Castle and Cornelius P. Rhoads. In 1929 he published a study on effective footwear to reduce worm infestation. He became involved in the Rhoads scandal of the 1930s. He was the first to use a type of mosquito bait trap or stable trap in 1923 in the West Indies. He also studied diet and nutrition in Mexico from 1944 to 1948.
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