João Baptista de Lacerda

João Batista de Lacerda (12th July 1846, Campos dos Goytacazes; 6th August 1915, Rio de Janeiro), was a physician and one of the pioneer Brazilian biomedical scientists in the fields of experimental physiology and pharmacology.

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He graduated in medicine in the medical school of Rio de Janeiro and returned to Campos to open a private practice. Soon after, he was invited by the Minister of Agriculture of the Second Empire to be the associate director of the section of anthropology, zoology and paleontology of the recently created National Museum of Natural History of Rio de Janeiro, by Emperor D. Pedro II. Later, he assumed also the associate directorship of the Laboratory of Experimental Physiology, under the French physiologist Louis Couty, who had been invited to the post. In this position, Lacerda carried out successfully a number of experimental investigations on curare and the poisons of Brazilian snakes, frogs and lizards. One of his important discoveries was the helfpul effect of potassium permanganate to treat snake bites. In anthropology he was one of the first to study human fossil remains in Brazil and was awarded the bronze medal of the Anthropological Exhibit of Paris in 1978.

An indefatigable worker, Lacerda also began research on microbiology, beriberi and yellow fever. He studied also several infectious diseases of agricultural importance, such as in horses and cattle. Most of the research carried out in his lab were published in the National Museum's own periodical, the Arquivos do Museu Nacional, as well as in other national and foreign journals.

After Couty died unexpectedly, he became the Laboratory director and great inspiring force, and later, also the general director of the National Museum and a member and president of the Brazilian National Academy of Medicine.

He is generally considered the father of physiology and pharmacology in Brazil.

Quote

"In general, in Brazil, the men dedicated to studies and to science constitute a kind of noble proletariat, who exist on small salaries, hardly sufficient for a modest living. Neglecting the frivolous grandeurs of the world and feeling the inexpressible pleasures that scientific research communicates, they comply with this situation and accept it without constraint."