Manuel Argerich

Manuel Gregorio Argerich or Manuel Argerich (1835–1871) was an Argentine philosopher, author, lawyer, politician, mathematician and medical doctor.

Personal life Manuel Gregorio Argerich was born in Buenos Aires in 1835. His brother, Juan Antonio, was born in 1840 and was, like Manuel, a key figure during the cholera and yellow fever epidemics. He helped organize the commission to organize a plan to manage the epidemic with José Roque Pérez. He was a professor of surgery and director of an orphan's home. They were descendants of Dr. Cosme Argerich.

Medical career

Battle of Caseros As medical doctor, he was conscripted as a medical officer into the army] under the command of Argentine caudillo Juan Manuel de Rosas, then governor of Buenos Aires. He cared for the wounded and injured soldiers during the Battle of Caseros in which Rosas' authoritarian regime was finally defeated. Following the battle, which led to flight of Rosas to Great Britain, Argerich was documented to have stayed in the field voluntarily after Rosas' defeat, treating not only wounded soldiers and fellow officers formerly under Rosas' command, but also Urquiza's soldiers stricken by smallpox, with complete indifference as to which uniform his patients wore.

Buenos Aires Epidemics

Although he was committed to his responsibilities as a physician, he was conflicted, he said to José Manuel Estrada 3 days before he died: "My Children! My Wife! Have I the right to defy death and risk abandoning them forever?" Argerich wrote the lyrics for Los Consejos de Don Javier, or The Advice of Don Javier, and was put to music in 1892 by Felice Lebano. It was first played at the Buenos Aires' Apollo Theater on September 1, 1892. In anticipation of the premier, La Nación issued a review on July 14, 1892 stating that the music by Lebano, in particular, made the work innovative, Zarzuela music. It was one of the first popular works of Zarzuela theater in Argentina.

Death During the great yellow fever epidemic of 1871, Argerich, tirelessly continued his care of the sick until finally succumbing to the disease on May 25, 1871, the 61st anniversary of the Argentine Revolution. He was one of the 13,614 victims of the Buenos Aires Yellow Fever epidemic.

Three days later, at his funeral, his contemporary Jose Manuel Estrada, Argentine writer, eulogized him, a portion of which is translated from Spanish:

Argerich is buried in Buenos Aires at the La Chacarita Cemetery (Spanish: Cementerio de la Chacarita). His gravesite was declared a National Monument in 1970 and is a highlight of prominent graves in a tour of that cemetery.