Aleixo de Abreu

Aleixo de Abreu (Portuguese pronunciation: [ɐˈlɐjʃu ðɨ ɐˈβɾew]; Alcáçovas do Alentejo, Portugal, 1568–Lisbon, Portugal, 1630) was a Portuguese physician and tropical pathologist.

He graduated in Medicine from the University of Coimbra.^[1] Due to his notable work as a physician, he was sent to Angola, along with Afonso Furtado de Mendonça, to study the maladies, believed to be endogenous to that land, that seemed to be afflicting the Portuguese sailors.^[1]

Having spent 9 years in Angola, Aleixo de Abreu became a recognized expert in the field of African maladies.^[1] He wrote extensive studies on scurvy, known at the time in Portugal as "the Angola disease" (Portuguese: mal-de-angola), which were later included in his Treaty of the Seven Maladies (Spanish: Tratado de las Siete Enfermedades), later published in 1623.^[1] He later on became the main chamber's physician in king Felipe IV's court.^[1]

Further reading

• Guerra, Francisco (1970). "Abreu, Aleixo de". Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 25–26. ISBN 0-684-10114-9.

References

1. Bigotte de Carvalho, Maria Irene (1997). "Abreu, Aleixo de". Nova Enciclopédia Larousse (in Portuguese). Vol. 1. Lisbon: Círculo de Leitores. p. 26. ISBN 972-42-1477-X.