Manuel Francisco Rosalía de Jesús Argilagos Ginferrer

Cuban ophthalmologist who in 1861 proposed adding a light green uranium oxide lens to the ophthalmoscope to reduce discomfort and damage from white or yellow light on the retina, and to better examine the patient, beginning the era of anerithric light. Today this type of lens is used in both conventional ophthalmoscopes and in the most modern equipment to make the details of the fundus more evident.

He was a writer and philosopher who founded and directed more than 50 newspapers. He actively participated in the war of 1868 as a combatant and physician. Argilagos Guinferrer was the first mambi ophthalmologist. He made scientific contributions to his specialty, which bring prestige to Latin American medicine, which celebrates his day each December 3rd.

He was born in Puerto Príncipe (Camagüey). Second son of Don Juan Argilagos Millet and Doña María Soledad Ginferrer de Socarrás. Paternal grandparents: Don Antonio Argilagos and Doña Margarita Millet. Maternal grandparents: Don Esteban Ginferrer and Doña Josefa de Socarrás.

Between 1851 and 1852 Argilagos was a student of José de la Luz y Caballero at the "El Salvador" School in Havana, which was significant for that student because years later he would write in his collection of portraits, under that of don Pepe: "He was my professor"

As a child he was sent to Paris where he completed his Baccalaureate in Sciences and Letters in 1855 at the Genty Institute. That boy grew up rebellious, and while he learned the secrets of medicine, he prepared an armed expedition to Cuba, but it failed. In 1860 he graduated as a doctor in Medicine, Surgery and Ophthalmology from the Faculty of Medicine in Paris

He worked as a surgeon at the San Vicente de Paul Ophthalmic Hospital in France. Upon his return to the Island he began working as a physician in Camagüey in 1865, and later moved to Santiago de Cuba, where he became renowned for his quick cures and successful operations. However, in high circles, Francisco was not well regarded. He was considered a "disturber of legal institutions" because he seated slaves at his table and entertained mulatto and Black musicians. Because of these actions and his criticism of the metropolis, the Island's governor was even asked to deport him. The request was not approved, but he decided to travel to New York to conspire in favor of Cuba's independence, a practice he continued on his native soil.

After practicing for several years, he joined Cuba's Liberation Army in 1868.

In 1869 he was taken prisoner. He moved to the Dominican Republic in 1874. He returned and when the war resumed in 1895 he was again detained by the Spanish and deported to Spain.

He went to Colombia, where he practiced until 1898. He came to Cuba in 1900 and was appointed director of the Civil Hospital of Santiago de Cuba. He belonged to foreign medical institutions.

Among his works are: Patria. Páginas para la Historia de Cuba. (1868-1895), Próceres de la independencia de Cuba, Una página sangrienta de la historia nacional de Cuba, among others.

Argilagos' cultural heritage includes, in addition to works related to medicine, five literary works, two on agriculture and animal husbandry, 11 Americanist works, and many other works of political content collected in 3 volumes.

Between 1860 and 1861 he published in Europe 12 scientific papers on new technologies that he developed and tried to include in medical practice. One of the texts is titled "On a new method of correcting the annoying influence exerted by light on the eyes subjected to examination with the ophthalmoscope." This reveals him as the introducer of chromofundoscopy and especially of anerithric light, or lens to suppress the red light rays of the spectrum.

The scientist proposed modifying the yellow or red coloration of the light from the combustion lamp used in the ophthalmoscope (invented ten years earlier by Herman Ludwing Ferdinand von Helmholtz) through a light green-tinted uranium oxide lens. Its introduction made it easier to perform eye exams, as it avoided glare, irritated the eyes less and allowed the patient to be observed for longer periods and even with intense light. This filter is very useful for identifying vessels and hemorrhages. Today it accompanies every type of ophthalmoscope and its use has become more widespread since American neuro-ophthalmologist Wiffiam Hoyt "rediscovered" it and popularized it in the specialty. However, these articles by Argilagos are not very well known, apparently because credit for the first use of anerithric light is attributed to Etienne Ginestous in Italy in 1911.

The invention emerged shortly after Argilagos completed his studies in medicine and surgery at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris in 1860, along with his brother Rafael Argilagos, who became a brigadier general in the war of 1868. In that European city Francisco also pursued studies in ophthalmology.

In that same year of 1861 he also designed an instrument to measure the anteroposterior diameter of the eye, which tends to increase in certain ophthalmological diseases.

At that time, at a very young age and through competitive examination, he obtained the position of chief surgeon of the San Vicente de Paul hospital in France, and directed a dispensary and a specialized clinic in Paris. He was part of the hundred specialists who founded the Universal Society of Ophthalmology in 1861, and was its first secretary.

The Patriot
On October 10, 1868 he moved to the British island of Nassau to join General Manuel de Quesada, where he coordinated the first armed expedition to support the revolution, the Galvanic.

Upon his return from Nassau they attempted to assassinate him at the Hotel Inglaterra. He escaped, but in Ciego de Avila he was detained and spent the night imprisoned. From that event has come down to our days the self-portrait he painted with one foot trapped in the stocks. He rose up in Las Clavellinas and fought alongside his surgical team. He fought alongside Agramante, Manuel Bosa, Augusto Arango, Vicente García. He was in the victorious fields of Bonilla, el Culeco, Arenillas, the taking of Las Tunas, Arroyo Blanco, San Jerónimo, Las Guásimas, Palo Seco.

Argilagos married in the manigua to Mercedes Loret de Mola, daughter of great patriots as well, and for his bravery and courage he obtained the rank of Colonel and Surgeon of the General Staff of the Liberation Army. He donated his entire fortune to the revolutionary cause. On an undetermined date he fell prisoner to the Spanish and saved his life by pure miracle because the enemy soldiers themselves recognized him as the physician who, after combat, treated the wounded of both armies.

He had no alternative but to flee and sought refuge on the island of Saint Thomas. In that place he published a bilingual newspaper and managed to have the law repealed that prevented physicians of other nationalities from practicing in the Danish islands.

In 1887 he performed social work. He won several prizes as a writer and inventor. For example, he has a book about Camagüeyan Patagrás-type cheese, whose manuscript is still found in the Provincial Archive of History of Santiago de Cuba.

At the beginning of the war of 1895, already old, he requested the incorporation into the struggle of three of his eleven sons: Franklin, Arturo and Roberto, and promised that later he himself would bring another trio of heirs. Meanwhile, he created revolutionary clubs and the Cuban Revolutionary Party in Barranquilla.

When Spanish domination ended he returned to his homeland, disagreeing with North American intervention, he wrote in the press against that situation. Doctor Joaquín Castillo Duany appointed him as physician of the Civil Hospital of Santiago de Cuba and they worked together there. When he fell ill, Francisco Argilagos replaced him at the head of the institution.

When his friend Joaquín died, Tomás Estrada Palma appointed another director to the hospital. Argilagos fought against the Cuban president from La República for his surrender to the United States. He wrote an article against the Platt Amendment and naval bases, and they removed him from his position. He then occupied the position of medical examiner in Camagüey, Sibanicú and Cascorro, where a jealous colleague accused him of not having his medical credentials, and it was true that he did not have them at that moment.

The Camagüey government prevented him from practicing and he had to accept a position as a clerk in the Manzanillo customs house. When Carlos J. Finlay — at that moment national head of Public Health — learned of the injustice committed against the old mambi ophthalmologist, he devoted himself to rescuing his figure, formalizing his recognition as a physician, and placed him at the head of health services in El Caney.

Argilagos died in Santiago de Cuba. It was his friends who helped bury him because the family had neither land nor money to give him a burial. His remains rest in the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery.