2020-03-17 Tue

Antonio Egas Moniz, Portuguese neurologist and statesman regarded as the founder of modern psychosurgery. He was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize (shared with Walter Rudolf Hess) for Physiology or Medicine for the development of prefrontal leucotomy (lobotomy) as a radical therapy for certain psychoses, or mental disorders.

Egas Moniz was born in Avanca, Portugal, on November 29, 1874, the son of Fernando de Pina Rezende Abreu and Maria do Rosario de Almeida e, Sousa. He held academic positions, wrote many medical articles and also served in several legislative and diplomatic posts in the Portuguese government. In 1911 he became professor of neurology in Lisbon until his retirement in 1944.

Portrait of Professor Egas Moniz featured on Portugal Banknotes 10000 Escudos banknote issued in 1989. The obverse has a drawing representing a cut of the human brain & a representation of the vascular system. The reverse of a note engraved Medal of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine; an allegorical composition of life and death between benign and malignant forces represented by three snakes and a tree.

Image Source: www.worldbanknotescoins.com