Gaspar Casal

Summary

Gaspar Roque Francisco Narciso Casal Julian (31 December 1681 – 10 August 1759) was a Spanish physician remembered for describing the Casal collar in pellagra.

Doctor Gaspar Casal
Doctor Gaspar Casal

Casal was born in Girona Catalonia, Spain to Federico Casal y Dajón and Magdalena Julian. He grew up in Utrillas and is thought to have apprenticed at Atienza with Juan Manuel Rodriguez de Lima, an apothecary to Pope Innocent XI. He practiced medicine in Oviedo from 1720 to 1751, at which time he moved to Madrid as King Ferdinand's physician.[1] He became a friend of Fr. Benito Feyjóo y Montenegro and Fr. Martin Sarmiento who encouraged his studies. He described pellagra in a book published in 1762, calling it mal de la rose due to the red rash seen on the hands and feet of sufferers.[2] His “Historia affectionum quarundam regionis hujus familiarum” described scabies and treatment using sulfur ointment. He wrote on the natural history of Asturias which was published posthumously in 1762.[3][4][5]

He married Maria Ruiz and had two sons. After her death he married Maria Álvarez Rodríguez Arango and had two more children.

References edit

  1. ^ Barry G. Firkin, Judith A. Whitworth. Dictionary of Medical Eponyms. Informa Health Care, 2001, page 60. ISBN 978-1-85070-333-4.
  2. ^ Hegyi, Vladimir; Elston, Dirk M (26 February 2018). "Dermatologic Manifestations of Pellagra". Medscape. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  3. ^ Major, Ralph H. (1944). "Don Gaspar Casál, François Thiéry and pellagra". Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 16 (4): 351–361. ISSN 0007-5140.
  4. ^ Suarez, Venancio Martinez SUÁREZ (2009). "La Historia natural y médica de Gaspar Casalen el 250.º aniversario de su muerte". Cuadernos de Estudios del Siglo (in Spanish). 18 (19): 243–255.
  5. ^ Piñero, López; María, José (August 2006). "Gaspar Casal: Descripción ecológica de la pelagra, primera enfermedad carencial". Revista Española de Salud Pública. 80 (4): 411–415. ISSN 1135-5727.

External links edit

  • Biography (in Catalan). Galeria de Metges Catalans. Retrieved July 23, 2016.
  • Historia natural y médica del Principado de Asturias / obra posthuma, que escribió del Doct. D. Gapar Casal
  • Barbarà, Joan (2019). "El nom de la rosa: elogi del doctor Gaspar Casal, el primer epidemiòleg" [The name of the rose: In praise of Gaspar Casal, the first epidemiologist] (PDF). Revista de Girona (in Catalan) (315).