Juan Calixto Oxamendi Deprez

Doctor of Medicine and Surgery, librarian and founding member of the Royal Academy of Medical, Physical and Natural Sciences of La Habana

He was born in the city of Matanzas, son of Vicente Oxamendi and Maria Candelaria Deprez. A student at the San Cristóbal de Carraguao school in La Habana, he enrolled in the Faculty of Philosophy at the Royal University of La Habana, where he graduated as a Bachelor of Sciences in 1847.

To continue his studies he traveled to Spain, and entered the Central University of Madrid where he obtained his degree in Medicine and Surgery. He then went to France, and at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Paris he achieved his doctorate in 1856, with his thesis: On the Use of Purgatives in Medicine.

Upon his return to Cuba, he rejoined the Royal University of La Habana, in 1859 he graduated as a Doctor of Medicine and Surgery.

He served as librarian during the period (1861-1867). On August 13, 1865 he provisionally resigned from his position as Academician and rejoined later as a Full Member, in 1870.

He held the position of librarian again during the period 1871-1873, subsequently he was placed in the category of Corresponding Member and returned as a Full Member on April 8, 1883.

Possessor of vast knowledge, his mastery of different languages allowed him to venture into the work of translating various scientific texts to Spanish, such as the German works: Therapeutic Vademecum of Diseases of Children with the Most Usual Prescriptions, by Richard Hager in 1864 and Pocket Therapeutic Book for Diseases of Women and Children, According to the Vienna School, by Emilio Dillaberger, in 1877; he also corrected the deficient translations made to Spanish of the works Pharmacology and Anatomy by Husemann and by Sappey.

• Report on the dissertation presented in option for the title of Supernumerary, by Doctor Antonio Mestre: Heat Rash Considered from the Nosological Point of View (1862).
• Report on the dissertation presented by Doctor José Joaquín Muñoz in option for the title of Supernumerary with: Two Examples of Ulnar-Carpal Dislocation, Followed by Some Considerations on This Type of Joint Injury (1862).
• Guinea Worm in the White Race (1863).
• Response to the inaugural address of Doctor Regueyra y Borrás on Emenagogue Medication (1863).
• Distilled Water from Red Mamey Seeds (1871);
• Vesicant Cardol. On the Properties of Cashew Seeds (1871).
• Chronic Poisoning from Chagras Pills (1871).

In Botany
• Oil of Indian Walnut (1873).
• The Indian Walnut of Cuba, Properties and Uses (1873).
• Indications on the Therapeutic Properties of Peanuts (together with Doctor Nicolás J. Gutiérrez 1881).