Gomez, Manuel

Physician; born about 1580 of Portuguese parentage at Antwerp. After studying medicine at Evora he settled as a physician at Amsterdam. He wrote "De Pestilentiæ Curatione" (Antwerp, 1603; 3d ed., ib. 1643), and is said to have been one of the first to call attention to the uselessness of milk as a specific in the treatment of confirmed phthisis.

This "Doctor Antwerpiensis," who was highly esteemed by Amato Lusitano, was also a poet. Several of his poems—on the spider, the ant, and the bee—were added to his metrical commentary on the aphorism of Hippocrates, "Vita brevis, ars longa." The commentary, written in Spanish and published in 1643, was eulogized in a Latin ode by his countryman Manuel Rodriguez of Antwerp.

Blbliography:

  * Barbosa Machado, Biblioteca Lusitana, iii. 277;
  * Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. iii. 875;
  * Lindo, The History of the Jews in Spain and Portugal, p. 368;
  * Kayserling, Sephardim, pp. 209, 347.



G. M. K.