Pedro Belou (1884-1954)

Thesis: Neuralgias del Trigémino: Tratamiento Quirurgico por la Extirpaciòn del Ganglio de Gasser. Thesis (doctoral)–Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, 1907. PDF

Pedro Belou was born February 19, 1884 in Minas, Uruguay to Esteban and Josephine Belou. He grew up in Uruguay, moving to Buenos Aires with his mother when he was 14. He went to medical school at the University of Buenos Aires, presenting his thesis, Neuralgias del Trigémino: Tratamiento Quirurgico por la Extirpaciòn del Ganglio de Gasser in 1907.

In 1913, Belou became a professor of anatomy at the medical school, and in 1914 received the Chair of Descriptive Anatomy. During his professorship, he served as Councilor, Vice Dean, and Acting Dean of the Medical Science Faculty. In 1918, he organized the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the National University of La Plata, and served as its first director for one year.

Pedro Belou is best known for his morphological studies of the human ear, the biliary system, and the vasculature. He published his stereoscopic study of the ear, the Atlas Anatòmico del Organo del Oído y de las Regiones con el Vinculadas in 1923. He received the Testut Prize from the Medical Academy in Paris for this work in 1931. His treatise on the human arterial system won him the First National Prize in Medical Science at Buenos Aires in 1936. He became director of the Anatomical Institute in 1936, a position he held for ten years. He also received honorary Doctorates from the University of Río de Janeiro and the University of San Andrés in Bolivia.

While carrying out his anatomical studies, Belou maintained an active surgical practice and played a leading role in the affairs of the Academy of Medicine and the Academy of Science in Buenos Aires. In his later years, he visited the United States and became interested in inter-American relationships during a visit in 1948. He wanted to promote pan-American scholarship in the field of anatomy. During a visit to Philadelphia, he delivered the Joseph Leidy Lecture in Science, and in 1951, he was elected to the American Association of Anatomists.

Pedro Belou died September 6, 1954.

Sources:

Bachman, A. “Semblanza del academico Dr. Pedro Belou,” La semana medica. 109 (1956): 89-92.

Turnes Ucha, Antonio L. Pedro Belou (1884-1954). http://www.smu.org.uy/dpmc/hmed/historia/articulos/belou-doc.pdf. Accessed January 19, 2007.

Windle, W.F. “Pedro Belou,” The anatomical record 125 (1956): 288-9.

Photo Source:

“Historia de la Medicina en Uruguay,” El SMU. http://www.smu.org.uy/dpmc/hmed/historia/articulos/belou.htm. Accessed January 19, 2007.

Biographies of selected authors from the New York Academy of Medicine Collection of International Medical Theses written by Amanda Allgood, B.A., M.L.S.