Adolpho Lutz, a Life Dedicated to Science

Adolpho Lutz, a Life Dedicated to

Science

 

I first heard of Dr. Lutz when I was just a young boy, through stories told to me by my relative Eduardo Marques, a regular at Manguinhos Institute in its heroic days – the days of Oswaldo Cruz. He wrote his doctoral dissertation there in 1907.

Saturday afternoons in the garden of my Uncle Eduardo Tinocos house, on Visconde de Caravelas Street in Botafogo, I would listen in fascination to these stories. I have said that it was these tales, along with my reading of Paul de Kruifs Microbe Hunters, that defined my professional life even before I entered medical school.

Dr. Lutz turned up again later, in conversations with Gustavo de Oliveira Castro, Lobato Paraense, Ari Miranda, Hugo Souza Lopes, Olympio da Fonseca, and others. The image that has stayed with me is almost always the same; it hardly ever changes. Wise, eccentric, irreverent. Armed with a very special sense of humor. Not so easy to get along with but fascinating nonetheless.

Adolpho Lutz was born on 18 December 1855 in Rio de Janeiro.

Pedro II was thirty then and had been reigning for fifteen years. He was blue-eyed, fair, and liked to study too. When still a lad, he wrote to his stepmother: “Your maternal tenderness anticipates my tastes: nothing could really be more pleasant than that which has to do with

studies.” 1 So he wasn’t very Brazilian. But he loved this country, and he was loved by Brazilians too.

I guess the same was the case with Dr. Lutz.

It was a rural Brazil then, of coffee barons that would remain barons even after the Proclamation of the Republic. A time of patronage, of church processions and festivals. Of moderating power. Of liberals and conservatives. The magazine Lanterna Magica and the first caricatures were already among us. But comic artists Ângelo Agostini and Bordalo Pinheiro were yet to come. The first railroad and gas lighting had been introduced only one year earlier.

The Paraguayan War lay in the future. Paraguayan dictator Solano Lopes was traveling about Europe, learning fine manners and seducing Madame Linch. Machado de Assis was a boy, and so neither Helena nor Iaiá Garcia nor Quincas Borba nor Capitu nor Counselor Aires – none of his literary characters – had joined the world. It is true that in the sciences, Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira had already taken his ‘philosophical voyage’ and Father José Mariano da Conceição Veloso had written Flora Fluminense.

In Brasil Gerson – História das ruas do Rio [History of the streets of Rio] -I read on page 381: “On Farani Street lived Senator Cristiano Ottoni, the first director of Central do Brasil railway, while Dona Mathilde Lutz, mother of the most illustrious of scientists, had her

Swiss-Brazilian school.”2

Close to my grandmother’s, just after my parents’ place. Piedade Street, now known as Clarice Índio do Brasil. There, I spent my childhood. The Lutz’s house was gone, but the school still stood. It is where Santa Ursula University stands today.

In biology, evolution was the object of polemics. And we must not forget our Fritz Müller – the princess’s protégé – he of the basic biogenetic law. Darwin called him the prince of observers. He corresponded with Europe’s great scientific centers. As Lutz would do later. Fritz Müller from Desterro, Santa Catarina, with Haeckel from Berlin, with Huxley from London. He received invitations from Europe: “A professorship in Berlin? No, I’d rather teach the children here. Besides, I like to go barefoot.”

I quote the great Otto Bier: “On 30 April 1878, Pasteur, Jubert, and Chamberland’s sensational communication on germ theory was

presented before the Paris Academy of Sciences.”3 Lutz was a medical student, already nearing the end of his studies in Switzerland. He earned his diploma in 1878 and his doctorate of medicine, after defending his dissertation, in 1880.

In addition to specializations in biology, gynecology, and obstetrics. Surgery with Lord Lister in London.

Back in Brazil in 1881. Exams to revalidate his medical diploma. He wanted to practice medicine in Brazil. Still an Empire. It had changed a little but not much. After all, it has been said, the century would only end in 1914.

It is true that the republican club already existed, and the abolitionist movement was growing stronger day by day. Despite the Revolta do Quebra-quilos [Kilo-breaker Rebellion], we had incorporated the metric system. Pedro II had already traveled about the United States and Europe. Bahia’s Tropicalist School had flowered.

It was the time of Zola, of Hugo, of Anatole France. Ibsen wrote Doll’s House and Tolstoy bequeathed us his brilliant War and Peace. In Paris, Impressionists revolutionized painting. In Germany, Nietzsche’s philosophy, Wagner’s music. And Rudolf Virchow, a master who – always stately and sure – rambled the roads of cellular pathology, of anthropology, of politics, and even of street barricades.

The fact is that Lutz came back. He certainly would have had no trouble settling in Europe. A university chair or clinical practice. But he came back. And with a sense of humor.

From a story told by Gustavo de Oliveira Castro: a wise and pretentious foreigner visits the Brazilian’s laboratory. Lutz asks him a series of questions, and bit by bit the visitor finds he has no more answers. Embarrassed, he complains: “Are you testing me?” To which Lutz responds: “Indeed. And you’re really not making much of an impression.” Somewhat caustic, it’s true. But to the point, and amusing.

In 1908, at Oswaldo Cruz’s invitation, Lutz comes to Rio. A Rio that had changed much in a short time. Because of Cruz and of Pereira Passos, urban planner and mayor. Ouvidor Street had lost its prestige to Central Avenue. The Municipal Theater had been built. I remember my grandmother telling stories about the Proclamation of the Republic and the turn of the century: “People were crying in the streets because they missed the old Emperor.” Purchases from Europe by overseas post. Door-to-door salesmen. The iceman, the sweets vendor, the fishmonger, the bucket of ice for ice-cream, and the parakeet that pulled out a card to tell your fortune.

Adolpho Lutz comes to Manguinhos. He is a grown man, over fifty, a scientist respected around the world. Behind him are his days of studying leprosy in Hawaii, his directorship of Instituto Bacteriológico do Estado de São Paulo, and his clinical practices in Petrópolis, Limeira, and San Francisco, California. At last he can devote himself entirely to his research.

And at Manguinhos at its zenith. From Aragão’s recent work on the evolutionary cycle of Haemoproteus columbae and the campaigns against yellow fever, smallpox, and bubonic plague. Chagas disease, only the following year.

At Manguinhos, where one arrived by boat or by train, Lutz finally settles in. Despite a few trips, he was to work there, as energetically as always, until the end of his days, in 1940. Hugo Souza Lopes tells us that at the end of Lutz’s life, already blind, he kept abreast of the latest scientific discoveries thanks to his daughter Bertha, who read to him.

Dr. Lutz’s laboratory stood to the right as you entered the castle building, on the first floor, today housing Instituto Oswaldo Cruz head office. One spoke quietly as one passed the door. Out of respect, or fear.

In order to preface the first book of Adolpho Lutz’s Complete Works, I received a list of the great master’s earliest studies, conducted between 1878 and 1883. The scope of his interest is already palpable in his pure zoology articles on cladoceran crustaceans, in his clinical cases, and in his correspondence, where he analyzes living conditions in Brazil.

In 1878, “Beobachtungen über die Cladoceren der Umgegend von Leipzig” as well as “Untersuchungen Über die Cladoceren der Umgebung von Bern,” both addressing the systematic study of Cladocera found in waters near these two European cities. The first article was reported to the local society of naturalists by Karl Georg Friedrick Rudolf Leuckart (1822-1898), professor of zoology at Leipzig, with whom Lutz learned new microscope techniques.

These are freshwater planktonic crustaceans, though marine species also exist; at certain times of the year, they can be the main primary consumers on the food chain.

His work was not limited to species classification. Exhibiting a modern ecological vision, he established a relationship with the different types of environment and the other species found there. The second of these two studies, conducted during a spring and a summer, develops a theme proposed by a Berne University monograph competition. In the paper, Lutz says he found 42 species distributed across 19 genera. In pencil, he added some notes to the printed text.

He praised the work of P. E. Müller and Sars in Denmark and Christiania (now Oslo) and described the differences between species found in Switzerland, addressing their geographic distribution and annual variations. Impressed with the similarities, Lutz cites Müller:

Cette faune appartient à une aire zoologique qui, selon l’état

actuel de nos connaissances, occupe toute la partie centrale et

occidentale de l’Europe à partir des hautes montagnes de la

Scandinavie jusqu’aux Alpes, du centre de la Russie jusqu’a

l’Atlantique 4 .

Further on, he advises that the region where he worked does not lend itself to the study of vertical distribution because the points in question were all found at 500 to 600 meters above sea level.

Surface fauna, and fauna from deeper regions. He pointed to the mechanism of dissemination, underscoring the overflowing of running waters and transport by aquatic birds, thereby eliminating wind transport. He also studied the role of cladoceran predators and inter-species competition.

These were unquestionably thorough studies, where the master, still young, already displayed his qualities as a keen observer.

Next came two papers on medical topics. In “Ein Fall von Acuter fibrinõser Bronchitis,” Lutz examines a case of acute fibrinous bronchitis, which he observed while assistant physician at St. Gallen’s Cantonal Hospital. He believed the rarity of the case justified its publication.

In 1880, at University of Bern, he defended his doctoral dissertation: “Ueber die Therapeutische Wikung der Quebrachoprãparate.” The study was translated into Portuguese when he had his diploma recognized by the Empire of Brazil: “Sobre o efeito terapêutico do quebracho-colorado” [On the therapeutic effect of red quebracho], dated 1881. On the cover, it states that Adolpho Lutz holds the diploma of doctor of medicine, surgery, and obstetrics from University of Bern.

Next comes “Literatura sobre as preparações denominadas Quebracho” [Literature on preparations designated ‘quebracho’]. There are fourteen references from 1879 to 1880.

He describes the plants from which the product is removed and states that: “in today’s pharmacology it is known by the name red quebracho because of its ocherish color, thereby distinguishing it from white quebracho.”

He introduces a new preparation technique, which he calls Extratum depuratum. He tells of conducting experiments on himself, which occasioned only a slight sensation of warmth on his head and no noteworthy effect on blood pressure or temperature.

He then moves on to study how this substance affects dyspnea. His observations took place at the Bern medical clinic and at Saint-Gallen’s Cantonal Hospital. He separates the studied cases into:

a) Primary diseases or maladies of the respiratory organs, such

as pulmonary tuberculosis, stenosis of the larynx and the

trachea, bronchial stenosis, pulmonary emphysema, etc.

b) Respiratory changes in the absence of any primary disease

or malady of the respiratory organs, with a chapter on changes

caused by circulatory anomalies.

c) Respiratory changes not caused by any primary disease or

malady of the respiratory or circulatory organs.

After an in-depth analysis of the cases related to each one of the categories, he concludes:

Comparing these observations of red quebracho and Penzoldt’s

experiments with white quebracho, one finds clear agreement.

Since we know of no other substances that produce the same

effect, it is quite likely that the principle of efficacy is the same,

or at least very similar.

However, it cannot be aspidospermine but must be a substance

that is more efficacious when administered in small doses and

less toxic in large doses. While they are not panaceas, both

preparations have nevertheless produced such favorable results

that we believe they are destined to fill a gap in our therapeutic

arsenal and we hope that they soon will be available to all who

are ill.

According to the era’s model, the following theses correspond to the various disciplines:

Descriptive anatomy: “The choledoch duct often passes through

the head of the pancreas.”

Physiology: “A mixed diet is what best suits man, as proven by

his organization.”

Surgical pathology: “Elephantiasis arabum can be caused by

different pathological processes.”

Gynecology: “Chronic metritis and ovaritis are the most frequent

causes of hysteria.”

And so on. Next, the Hippocratis aphorismi, in Latin of course: ‘Natura corporis est in medicineprincipium studii”(Sect. VI Aph. 6), and it continues: ‘Vita brevis, ars longa, occasio praeceps, experimentum periculosum, judicium difficile” (Sect. I Aph. I).

Closing his dissertation, in its Portuguese translation, we read the official declaration that it was found in accord with pertinent statutes, signed by doctors J. J. Pizarro, Nuno de Andrade, and Oscar Bulhões on 20 December 1881.

This is, without any doubt, a virtuoso work.

The two next articles, entitled “Correspondenz-Blatt für Schweizer Aerzte,” contain information that Lutz sent to Swiss physicians, mostly on Brazil’s medical courses and to the revalidation of diplomas from other countries. He is highly critical of teaching in Brazil and of people’s conduct. He points out that the main foreign influence is still French. He leaves the impression of a hint of jealousy.

Lutz and Oswaldo were two strong personalities. But they were complementary, different. That’s why they understood each other. They admired each other. Oswaldo directed. In the lab, Lutz carried out his research work. He was an example.

Much has been said about the success of European institutions when imported to the tropics. One must adapt them to local conditions or they will fail.

I have already written about Oswaldo. His ability to blend, within his complex personality, the modern European man – Kaiser moustache, top hat, hound’s-tooth tie – with Brazilian traditions – plantation master, a local fellow.

In his own way, Lutz adjusted too. He understood Brazil. He stayed and was successful. He left a deep mark on the generation that worked with him, as he left a mark on those that followed. It’s no accident that stories of Dr. Lutz are still told in the halls of the Fundação Oswaldo Cruz . Even today he fascinates us.

Neiva, his disciple and collaborator on a number of studies, wrote:

Many times I tried to find an explanation for the amazing amount

of information that Adolpho Lutz managed to accumulate in

various departments of human knowledge. I felt I had found a

partial explanation in the fact that he was trained in

Switzerland… In his mastery of several languages, in his long

trips abroad – factors that nevertheless did not explain it all … It

was, however, because his burning eagerness to investigate

and to learn came mainly – and this is the most natural

explanation – from his being a born naturalist, a condition that

imbues those possessing this talent with a perpetual thirst for

knowledge.5

This brings to mind a similar story. About old Cancio, great-uncle to my friend Arlindo Fábio. He was a typical gaúcho from Brazil’s southern borderlands, tall, upright. Having come to Rio with the troops of the Revolution of 1930, he stuck to wearing his wide-brimmed hat, a kerchief round his neck, boots, spurs, and a dagger tucked under his vest.

A reporter interviewed him: “General, you, who were among the brightest soldiers of the revolution, who abandoned your lands, your woman, your cattle, your pampa, who took risks and made so many sacrifices, do you now intend to return to the peace of your homelands, or are you going to make a further sacrifice, taking part in organizing the country anew?”

To which he replied, in plain-spoken frontier language: “Ora, peleo porque me gusta pelear.”

Luiz Fernando Rocha Ferreira da Silva

Professor of Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública, Fundação Oswaldo

Cruz

 

1 CALMON, P. História de D. Pedro II. Tomo I. Infância e mocidade, 1825-1853. Rio de Janeiro: J. Olympio Ed., 1975.

2 GERSON, B. História das ruas do Rio. 4.ed. Rio de Janeiro: Livr. Brasiliana Ed., 1965.

3 BIER, O. Bacteriologia e Imunologia. 17.ed. São Paulo: Melhoramentos, 1976.

4 ‘This fauna belongs to a zoological region that, according to our current state of knowledge, covers the entire central and western parts of Europe, from Scandinavia’s high mountains to the Alps, from central Russia to the Atlantic.”

5 NEIVA, A. Necrológio do Professor Adolpho Lutz – 1855-1940. Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, t. 36, fasc. 1, p.I-XXIII, 1941.