Portugal Banknotes 10000 Escudos banknote 1989 António Egas Moniz
Bank of Portugal - Banco de Portugal
Obverse: Portrait of Professor Egas Moniz (1874-1955), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in1949; a drawing representing a cut of the human brain & a representation of the vascular system.
Reverse: 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.
Issued by: Banco de Portugal.
Printed by: British American Bank Note, Inc.
Watermark: Portrait of Professor Egas Moniz.
Size: 177 x 75mm.
Portugal banknotes - Portugal paper money
1986-1994 Issue
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António Egas Moniz
António Caetano de Abreu Freire Egas Moniz (29 November 1874 – 13 December 1955), known as Egas Moniz, was a Portuguese neurologist and the developer of cerebral angiography. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern psychosurgery, having developed the surgical procedure leucotomy — known better today as lobotomy — for which he became the first Portuguese national to receive a Nobel Prize in 1949 (shared with Walter Rudolf Hess).
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. At the same time, he pursued a demanding political career.
Moniz was born in Avanca, Estarreja, Portugal, as António Caetano de Abreu Freire Egas Moniz. He attended Escola do Padre José Ramos and Colégio de S. Fiel dos Jesuítas, studied medicine at the University of Coimbra, then trained in neurology in Bordeaux and Paris. In 1902, he became a professor in the Department of Neurology, but soon left that post on entering politics in 1903. He established the Partido Republicano Centrista and represented it in the Portuguese parliament from 1903 to 1917. Later he was Portugal's ambassador to Madrid (1917) and minister of foreign affairs (1918), in which function he attended the Paris Peace Conference, 1919. Meanwhile he continued to practice medicine and teach physiology and anatomy, and in 1911 he became a professor of neurology at the newly established University of Lisbon.
In 1920, he gave up politics and returned to medicine and writing full-time. In 1927 Moniz developed cerebral angiography, a technique allowing blood vessels in and around the brain to be visualized; in various forms it remains a fundamental tool both in diagnosis and in the planning of surgeries on the brain.
For this, he was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize. He also contributed to the development of Thorotrast for use in the procedure and contributed many lectures and papers on the subject. He is considered a pioneer in the field.
In 1936, he published his first report of performing a prefrontal leucotomy on a human patient, and subsequently devised the leucotome for use in the procedure. He judged the results acceptable in the first 40 or so patients he treated, claiming, "Prefrontal leukotomy is a simple operation, always safe, which may prove to be an effective surgical treatment in certain cases of mental disorder." He also claimed that any behavioral and personality deterioration that may occur was outweighed by reduction in the debilitating effects of the illness. But he conceded that patients who had already deteriorated from the mental illness did not benefit much, and he did no long-term follow up. The procedure enjoyed a brief vogue, and in 1949 he received the Nobel Prize, "for his discovery of the therapeutic value of leucotomy in certain psychoses."
In 1949, Moniz was shot by a patient, and subsequently used a wheelchair. He continued in private practice until 1955, when he died just as his procedure was falling into disrepute.
The Nobel Medal for Physiology or Medicine
The medal of the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute represents the Genius of Medicine holding an open book in her lap, collecting the water pouring out from a rock in order to quench a sick girl's thirst.
The inscription reads: Inventas vitam juvat excoluisse per artes
loosely translated "And they who bettered life on earth by their newly found mastery." (Word for word: inventions enhance life which is beautified through art.)
The words are taken from Vergilius Aeneid, the 6th song, verse 663;
Lo, God-loved poets, men who spake things worthy Phoebus' heart;
and they who bettered life on earth by new-found mastery
The name of the laureate is engraved on the plate below the figures, and the text "REG. UNIVERSITAS MED. CHIR. CAROL." stands for the Karolinska Institute.
The Nobel Medal for Physiology or Medicine was designed by Erik Lindberg.
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (Swedish: Nobelpriset i fysiologi eller medicin) administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the fields of life sciences and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will. Nobel was personally interested in experimental physiology and wanted to establish a prize for progress through scientific discoveries in laboratories. The Nobel prize is presented to the recipient(s) at an annual ceremony on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel's death, along with a diploma and a certificate for the monetary award. The front side of the medal provides the same profile of Alfred Nobel as depicted on the medals for Physics, Chemistry, and Literature; its reverse side is unique to this medal.
As of 2014, 105 Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine have been awarded to 206 men and 11 women. The first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded in 1901 to the German physiologist Emil Adolf von Behring, for his work on serum therapy and the development of a vaccine against diphtheria. The first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Gerty Cori, received it in 1947 for her role in elucidating the metabolism of glucose, important in many aspects of medicine, including treatment of diabetes.
Some awards have been controversial. This includes one to António Egas Moniz in 1949 for the prefrontal leucotomy, bestowed despite protests from the medical establishment. Other controversies resulted from disagreements over who was included in the award. The 1952 prize to Selman Waksman was litigated in court, and half the patent rights awarded to his co-discoverer Albert Schatz who was not recognized by the prize. The 1962 prize awarded to James D. Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins for their work on DNA structure and properties did not acknowledge the contributing work from others, such as Oswald Avery and Rosalind Franklin who had died by the time of the nomination. Since the Nobel Prize rules forbid nominations of the deceased, longevity is an asset, one prize being awarded as long as 50 years after the discovery. Also forbidden is awarding any one prize to more than three recipients, and since in the last half century there has been an increasing tendency for scientists to work as teams, this rule has resulted in controversial exclusions.