Manuel Bento de Sousa

Manuel Bento de Sousa
OSE
Manuel Bento de Sousa OSE
Born	5 December 1835; Ponte da Barca, Viana do Castelo, Portugal
Died	29 April 1899 (aged 63); Lisbon, Portugal
Nationality	Portuguese
Occupation(s)	Physician and professor

Manuel Bento de Sousa OSE (5 December 1835 – 29 April 1899) was a Portuguese physician, anatomist, and noted polemicist writer.

A most prestigious clinician and surgeon in his day, his most important scientific works were conducted in the field of anatomophysiology: notably, in 1870, a purely intellectual inquiry led him to correctly postulate (though without scientific confirmation) the taste sensory component of the intermediate nerve of Wrisberg.^[1] This hypothesis was later confirmed by the findings of Carlos Tavares in 1883, leading to the description of the gustatory nerve of Sousa.^[2]

In 1875–1876, Bento de Sousa served as President of the Lisbon Society of Medical Sciences.^[1]

As a writer, he penned A Parvónia in 1868 (under the pseudonym "Marcos Pinto"), a satirical account of the vices of Lisbon society, and O Doutor Minerva in 1894, mocking the current teaching of the History of Portugal.

Distinctions

National orders

Officer of the Order of Saint James of the Sword^[3]

References

^ ^a ^b "Bento de Sousa (1875/1876)" (in Portuguese). Sociedade das Ciências Médicas de Lisboa. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
^ Laranjeira, João Teixeira (1917). Breve estudo sobre a lingua: o nervo gustativo de Souza, emanado do intermediario de Wrisberg [A brief study of the tongue: the gustatory nerve of Sousa, branch of the intermediate nerve of Wrisberg] (in Portuguese). Porto: Imprensa Nacional de Jayme Vasconcellos. hdl:10216/17386.
^ Curry Cabral, José (29 November 1892). "Dr. Manuel Bento de Sousa" (PDF). Diario Illustrado (in Portuguese). No. 7068. Lisbon. Retrieved 21 May 2020.