Joaquim Vicente Torres Homem was born in 1800 in the city of Campos in upstate Rio de Janeiro. He was the son of Vicente de Torres Homem and Francisca Gomes Moreira, and brother of Francisco de Salles Torres Homem, the Visconde de Inhomerim (Viscount of Inhomerim), a prominent political personality of the Brazilian Empire.
He married Bernarda Angélica dos Santos Torres, with whom he fathered João Vicente Torres Homem (1837-1858), also a physician and Member of the Internal Medicine discipline taught at the Rio de Janeiro College of Medicine.
Dr. Torres Homem was honored with the Order of Christ distinction in the rank of Commander, in addition to being granted a title of nobility and serving as an Advisor to the Emperor.
Circa 1819, the young man traveled to France, where he studied physical and natural sciences. He then concluded his Bachelor’s in Medicine on November 5, 1829, at the Paris School of Medicine, with a thesis titled “De l’utilité de l’auscultation et de la percussion dans le diagnostic de quelques maladies de la poitrine” (“On the Usefulness of Auscultation and Percussion in the Diagnosis of Certain Chest Diseases”). Shortly after, he decided to return to Brazil and settled in the city of Rio de Janeiro.
In July 1831, while running for the position of Substitute Professor of Medicine at the institution, he defended a final paper named “On Dysentery” that was one of the first theses ever to be appraised by the Rio de Janeiro Medical and Surgical Society. Two years later, he ran for the chair of Medical Chemistry and Core Principles of Mineralogy at the Rio de Janeiro College of Medicine. His paper, titled “Sugar Production in Brazil: An Assessment of the Carbonated Water of Villa de Campanha,” was approved on February 23, 1833, and he held the position until his death in 1858.
In 1856, Dr. Torres Homem held the role of Acting Dean of the Rio de Janeiro College of Medicine, and throughout his tenure there he undertook significant measures to enhance the institution’s educational standards, successfully “turning a convent for nuns into a medical school” (SANTOS, 1857, pg. 13).
On July 22, 1830, the distinguished physician and scholar was appointed to take over Chair Number 18 of the Rio de Janeiro Medical Society, and later on, during the 4th quarter of 1832, Dr. Torres Homem rose to the ranks of President. In addition, he collaborated with the weekly, public health focused Semanário da Saúde Pública journal, an important publication of the time.
In 1830, by appointment of the House of Representatives, the Rio de Janeiro Medical Society established a committee to draw up a preliminary paper aimed at establishing the Brazilian Empire’s medical schools, of which Joaquim Vicente Torres Homem participated alongside other peers such as José Martins da Cruz Jobim, Joaquim José da Silva, José Maria Cambuci do Valle, Octaviano Maria da Rosa, João Maurice Faivre, and Joaquim Candido Soares de Meirelles.
Dubbed the “Plan for the Establishment of Medical Schools in Rio de Janeiro and Bahia,” the Rio de Janeiro Medical Society presented the project to the House of Representatives on October 7, 1830, complying with an invitation made by that same institution. The document was additionally discussed at a Rio de Janeiro Medical Society Assembly held in 1831.
Dr. Torres Homem served as a Physician at the Royal Imperial Chamber and was one of the doctors in charge of treating an illness, diagnosed at the time as a nervous intermittent fever, that befell the Princess of Brazil, Dona Paula Mariana. He addressed the issue in a paper titled “A Report on the Illness of Her Serene Highness, Princess Dona Paula Mariana,” alongside fellow physicians Francisco José de Sá, Fidélis Martins Bastos and José Martins da Cruz Jobim, which was published in the government’s Diário do Governo official Gazette on January 19, 1833.
Dr. Joaquim Vicente Torres Homem passed away on December 9, 1858.
Academic number: 18
Member: Titular
Election: 22/07/1830
Inauguration: 24/07/1830
President: Christovão José dos Santos
Death: 09/12/1858
Academic number: 18
Member: Titular
Election: 22/07/1830
Inauguration: 24/07/1830
President: Christovão José dos Santos
Death: 09/12/1858
Joaquim Vicente Torres Homem was born in 1800 in the city of Campos in upstate Rio de Janeiro. He was the son of Vicente de Torres Homem and Francisca Gomes Moreira, and brother of Francisco de Salles Torres Homem, the Visconde de Inhomerim (Viscount of Inhomerim), a prominent political personality of the Brazilian Empire.
He married Bernarda Angélica dos Santos Torres, with whom he fathered João Vicente Torres Homem (1837-1858), also a physician and Member of the Internal Medicine discipline taught at the Rio de Janeiro College of Medicine.
Dr. Torres Homem was honored with the Order of Christ distinction in the rank of Commander, in addition to being granted a title of nobility and serving as an Advisor to the Emperor.
Circa 1819, the young man traveled to France, where he studied physical and natural sciences. He then concluded his Bachelor’s in Medicine on November 5, 1829, at the Paris School of Medicine, with a thesis titled “De l’utilité de l’auscultation et de la percussion dans le diagnostic de quelques maladies de la poitrine” (“On the Usefulness of Auscultation and Percussion in the Diagnosis of Certain Chest Diseases”). Shortly after, he decided to return to Brazil and settled in the city of Rio de Janeiro.
In July 1831, while running for the position of Substitute Professor of Medicine at the institution, he defended a final paper named “On Dysentery” that was one of the first theses ever to be appraised by the Rio de Janeiro Medical and Surgical Society. Two years later, he ran for the chair of Medical Chemistry and Core Principles of Mineralogy at the Rio de Janeiro College of Medicine. His paper, titled “Sugar Production in Brazil: An Assessment of the Carbonated Water of Villa de Campanha,” was approved on February 23, 1833, and he held the position until his death in 1858.
In 1856, Dr. Torres Homem held the role of Acting Dean of the Rio de Janeiro College of Medicine, and throughout his tenure there he undertook significant measures to enhance the institution’s educational standards, successfully “turning a convent for nuns into a medical school” (SANTOS, 1857, pg. 13).
On July 22, 1830, the distinguished physician and scholar was appointed to take over Chair Number 18 of the Rio de Janeiro Medical Society, and later on, during the 4th quarter of 1832, Dr. Torres Homem rose to the ranks of President. In addition, he collaborated with the weekly, public health focused Semanário da Saúde Pública journal, an important publication of the time.
In 1830, by appointment of the House of Representatives, the Rio de Janeiro Medical Society established a committee to draw up a preliminary paper aimed at establishing the Brazilian Empire’s medical schools, of which Joaquim Vicente Torres Homem participated alongside other peers such as José Martins da Cruz Jobim, Joaquim José da Silva, José Maria Cambuci do Valle, Octaviano Maria da Rosa, João Maurice Faivre, and Joaquim Candido Soares de Meirelles.
Dubbed the “Plan for the Establishment of Medical Schools in Rio de Janeiro and Bahia,” the Rio de Janeiro Medical Society presented the project to the House of Representatives on October 7, 1830, complying with an invitation made by that same institution. The document was additionally discussed at a Rio de Janeiro Medical Society Assembly held in 1831.
Dr. Torres Homem served as a Physician at the Royal Imperial Chamber and was one of the doctors in charge of treating an illness, diagnosed at the time as a nervous intermittent fever, that befell the Princess of Brazil, Dona Paula Mariana. He addressed the issue in a paper titled “A Report on the Illness of Her Serene Highness, Princess Dona Paula Mariana,” alongside fellow physicians Francisco José de Sá, Fidélis Martins Bastos and José Martins da Cruz Jobim, which was published in the government’s Diário do Governo official Gazette on January 19, 1833.
Dr. Joaquim Vicente Torres Homem passed away on December 9, 1858.