Antonio Mestre Domínguez

Forensic physician, Pediatrician and thinker.

He began his Medical studies at the University of La Habana, but later moved to Paris where he completed his degree (1855-1861). He was one of the principal promoters of a code of conduct for physicians. Member of the Royal Academy of Medical, Physical and Natural Sciences of La Habana, where he was secretary and founding director of its "Annals".

He was born in La Habana (current city of the same name, belonging to the province of Ciudad de la Habana), Cuba. Brother of José Manuel Mestre, and father of Arístides Estéfano Mestre.

At only 17 years old he entered the Faculty of Medicine and upon completing the subjects of the third course, due to the negative academic conditions for the upcoming subjects of the Study Plan, which concentrated the clinical and practical courses, his family granted the young prospect's expectations by planning his departure to France.

During his stay in that city, he was one of the editors of "El Eco de París" (1858-1859), which was later called "La Emulación Médica" (1859-1860), a newspaper edited by Cuban medical students for their companions in Cuba. He also collaborated, in 1858, with the Medical Review, which was published in La Habana. While residing in France, he assisted his friend, José Antonio Saco, in transcribing his manuscripts for the History of Slavery, which he was preparing at that time.

Already a doctor in Paris, in 1861 he revalidated his degree at the Medical College of San Carlos (Madrid), and the following year at the University of La Habana. He was Auxiliary Professor of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology (1881) and Interim Professor of History of Medical Sciences (1882-1883). From 1863 onwards he worked as a Physician at the Royal House of Charity and Maternity of La Habana, from which he became Chief Physician in 1870.

Full Member (1862) and Member of Merit (1878) of the Royal Academy of Medical, Physical and Natural Sciences of La Habana, he was the founder of its Annals (1864) and Director of this publication until his death.

He died in Ciudad de La Habana on July 10, 1887. Until his death, he is considered the founder of modern Pediatrics in Cuba.

He served for twenty years (1867-1887), through successive reelections, as General Secretary of the Academy.
He was responsible for the publication, by that institution, of works by Juan Cristóbal Gundlach and Carlos J. Finlay.

Of the three volumes of Works of the Commission on Forensic Medicine and Public Hygiene (1872-1874), one of the most important compilations of Forensic Medicine published in Cuba.

As General Secretary of the Academy he played a prominent role in opposition to the intervention of the Colonial Government in the affairs of that corporation (1871-1872).

He was the second President of the Anthropological Society of the Island of Cuba (1878-1879), replacing Felipe Poey, and of the Society of Clinical Studies of La Habana (1880-1885).

He was a distinguished positivist thinker, follower of the French school of Emile Littré. As such, he held degenerationist criteria in Forensic Medicine and Anthropology, which were very influential in his time. In 1879, he carried out at the Lyceum of Guanabacoa the most complete exposition conducted in Cuba up to that time of the theory of evolution of Carlos.

He served as an eminent university professor in medical disciplines such as Physiology, Medical Clinic, Medical Pathology, Forensic Medicine and Toxicology. Between 1881 and 1883 the University Government invited him to teach the subject History of Medical Sciences.

He was also a good scholar of the Greek language, which he taught at the College El Salvador, of José de la Luz y Caballero, and advised several authors on scientific terminology based on that language. He was one of the principal promoters of a code of conduct for physicians and the author of the first published description in Cuba of Parkinson's disease.

The programs of the subject by doctors Mestre Domínguez (1881) and Rodríguez Fernández (1884) are preserved, with 79 and 80 topics respectively, which allow us to know the content of the subject taught. The program of doctor Mestre, dated in La Habana on September 24, 1881, comprises various subjects.