Leitão, António José de Lima, 1787-1856

Lagos, 17 November 1787- Lisbon, 8 November 1856. Lima Leitão was a military surgeon and doctor, educator, publicist, translator and poet. Politically he professed liberal principles and was a free mason. Following the 1807 Napolean invasion of Portugal, he integrated the Portuguese Legion of the French army, and it was in that condition that he achieved a Ph.D. in Medicine in Paris. In 1816 he achieved to be pardoned for having served the enemy army and to be assigned to head the health services in Mozambique, and later to be transferred to Goa (1819). In 1821 he got involved in the events that precipitated the affirmation of the liberal regime in Portuguese India, and became the editor of the first periodical published in Goa, the Gazeta de Goa. Shortly after he was elected to the Portuguese parliament, where he became on several occasions a representant of India.  As a doctor he promoted homeopathy in Portugal, was a founding member and president of the Lisbon Society of Medical Sciences, being also very interventive in the defence of the reform of medical teaching in the country. He was affiliated to several medical and cultural national and international academies.

References: Gazeta de Goa; “António José de Lima Leitão”  Wikipedia; Lobo, Sandra Ataíde, “Leitão, António José de Lima (1787-1856” in Dicionário do Vintismo e do primeiro Cartismo (1821-1823 e 1826-1828), dir. Zília Osório de Castro. Assembleia da República, 2002, v. 1, pp. 774-787

Form and biographic note: Sandra Ataíde Lobo