(1867-1946)
Patriot and pioneer pediatrician in the
country, Dr. Jose Albert was born in Binondo, Manila on April 3, 1867 to
Mariano Albert and Ruperta Mayoralgo. He enrolled at the Ateneo Municipal where
he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree at the age of thirteen in 1880.
He
went on to the University of Santo Tomas where he enrolled for the four year
medical course. In 1884, he went abroad to continue his medical training at the
Universidad Central de Madrid where he obtained the Licenciado en Medicina
(Licentiate in Medicine) in 1887. Two years later he was named Doctor of
Medicine by the same university.
A
lover of travel and keen about learning other languages, he visited France,
Germany, and Belgium. In Paris, he visited various hospitals studied medicine
with Potaine, obstetrics under Budin and pediatrics with Grancher. He proceeded to Belgium with Dr. Jose Rizal on
January 27, 1890 where he visited some hospitals. He then went to Berlin where
he studied gynecology and obstetrics for three months under Olshausen. From
Germany, he went to Marseilles, France where he look passage for the
Philippines, which he reached in June of 1891.
He
first practiced obstetrics but then turned to pediatrics, thus becoming one of
the first pediatricians in the country. On September ;6. 1896, he was one of
those arrested for complicity in the Revolution. He was imprisoned in Fort
Santiago but released a few weeks later. This incident impelled him to join the
Revolution. Under the revolutionary government he was appointed professor of
pediatrics of the planned National University. Later. He was made Chief of the
Military Sanitary Service of the Committee of Public Hygiene. He was one of the
signers of the Constitution of the short-lived Philippine Republic at Barasoain
on January 20, 1899.
Before
and after the revolution, Dr. Albert wrote articles on liberty and freedom in
the publications Independencia and Democracia. At the advent of American rule,
being essentially a realist, he turned to politics and became president of the
Purtido Federelista which was organized on June 8, 1900. However, his deep love
far medicine and his widening interest in the preservation of human life made
him give up politics. As evidence of this resolve to practice medicine, he
helped found the Colegio Medico-Farmaceutico, the first medical society in the
Philippines which he headed until 1906, the year he joined the Department of
Pediatrics of the newly-created University of the Philippines.
In
1903, he was a prominent figure in the Committee on Opium at a medical seminar
held in Manila. Other positions held by Dr. Albert in the University of the
Philippines were: Professor of Medical Jurisprudence and Pediatrics, 1907,
Acting Dean, College of Medicine, 1921;Chief of Clinics, 1927-;Professor and
Head, Department of Pediatrics, until his retirement from the government
service in 1945.
A
member of the American Medical Association, he wrote scientific papers on
infant mortality, concentrating his reasearch on beriberi.
Doctor
Albert succumbed to chronic nephritis on August 13, 1946 at age 79. On that last day of his life - while
gasping for breath - Dr. Albert told his daughter, Mrs. Calvo, "if the
Almighty gives me a new life, I shall study medicine again as medicine has made
my life beautiful."