Luis Elpidio Guerrero dedicated his whole career to science and in the service of the Philippine Medical Education. His various scientific meetings, congresses and convention both here and abroad. He worked extensively on beriberi and leprosy – two common scourges in the Philippines. In one of his earliest papers entitled "Algunas Consideraciones sobre la Etiologia y el Tratemiento del Beriberi Infantil." Reference is made on the interesting work of Dr. Proceso Gabriel entitled "Contribution al Tratemiento del Taon o Beriberi Infantile" indicating beriberi as a principal cause of death of Filipino infants during those days. The prevalence in this country of beri-beri has since early days, made it a subject of much research, including its etiology, symtomatology and treatment.

Another important scientific paper which, together with his other works in beriberi, had won for him membership to the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine in London was his work "Protective and Curative Effects of Mongo Extract in Polyneuritis Gallinarum." This paper was done in collaboration wit Isabelo Concepcion, and published in the Revista Filipina de Medicina y Farmacia in 1919. It shows that mongo extract (prepared by extraction with alcohol and concentration by distillation) fed to fowls is devoid of curative property in polyneuritis gallinarum. Its action is only preventive. His work on leprosy was recognized a decade later when he published his scientific findings on this subject. Among these are "Leprosy in the Philippines, in 1927, which includes its geographical distribution, the status of its control, and the extent of threat to public health; "Our leprosy problem and the present status of the anti-leprosy campaign in the Philippines" was written not in a spirit of prejudice or the desire to censure anyone but with the sincere purpose of interpreting the result already obtained and to point out the defects and weak points in the struggle wages against leprosy in the Philippines. These studies were instrumental in the eventual control of the disease and the establishment of a regional leprosaria which housed the hundreds of unfortunate victims from different parts of the archipelago.

That polished rice lacks not only water soluble B but also fat soluble A vitamin was demonstrated by Dr. Guerrero in his scientific paper: "Xeropthalmia in Fowls Fed on Polished Rice and its Clinical Importance." Based on Isabelo Concepcion’s previous work, this was again a joint accomplishment of the two well-known medical scientists. In this experiment, they report that "tikitiki" does contain water soluble vitamin B. No mention, however, is made of the experiments as actually performed by the team.

In collaboration with Dr. Patricio Ignacio, a series of scientific studies on typhoid were conducted ad the results published in the Journal of the Philippine Islands Medical Association. The first study appeared under the title of "Preliminary Report on the Treatment of Typhoid Fever by Agostinelli’s method." The report explained a technique followed by the authors as follows:

1. For the first two days, no matter what period is the disease, gypodermic injection of gualiacol and camphor, 20 centigrams each in 1 cc olive oil, is given 3 times daily: that is 6:00 or 7:00 a.m. 12:00 noon, and 6:00 or 7:00 p.m.
2. For the third day, the dose of gualiacol and camphor is increase to 30 centigrams each and is given at the same hours. Injections are given as long as here is fever and continued during the three days of convalescence following after which the original 20 centigram dose is resumed. After two days without fever, the morning injection is suspended and after two more days, the evening dose is omitted. Finally the remaining noon injection is discontinued after two more days of convalescence. No other form of treatment is employed and even hydro therapy is entirely omitted.

Using the technique, out of 40 cases of typhoid fever; 32 (80%) recovered; 2 (5%) showed no improvement; 1 (2.5%) improved; 5 (12.5%) died.

This method was employed by Don Luis on his own twelve year old daughter. She had contracted the disease after eating bowlful of native plums ("duhat").

The second article was on the "Thrombosis of the Mesenteric Vessels," report of a case, published in the same Journal in 1935. This study describes the causes, symptoms and report of a medical case. His last study published was "Cellular Counts in the Spinal Fluid in Epidemic Encephalitis and Tuberculous Meningitis." In this study, Guerrero and Ignacio attempted to differentiate the two diseases by the cellular counts in the spinal fluid. In the authors’ opinion, however, this method of differentiating between these two diseases was not reliable enough and other methods in the clinic or laboratory should be employed. Pertinent data on the cases studies are presented.

Back to Luis Ma. Guerrero Main Page

Back to Home