The Royal European Academy of Doctors-Barcelona 1914 (RAED) offers its 4th installment of the series that reminds the most remarkable academicians of its centennial history, this time with another of its illustrious figures: the renowned Catalan ophthalmologist Hermenegildo Arruga (1886- 1972), pioneer in the intervention of cataracts. Great figures of science and thought that have been part of the RAED and that the current Governing Board wants to thank, recognize and claim, in the conviction that who has no memory, has no future. The selection of these selected academicians, from all fields of knowledge, is the result of research carried out for the publication of the “Centennial Book” of the Royal Academy, published three years ago. Personalities that transcend their historical context to appear today as references of knowledge.
Son of the already ophthalmologist Eduardo Arruga, Hermenegildo was the one who consolidated a recognized saga that nowadays, in its 4th generation of dedication to ocular health, maintains and cultivates its prestige. The activity of Hermenegildo Arruga in at that time the Academy of Doctors of the University District of Barcelona appears already collected in the Annals of the institution that review the works presented between the years 1945 and 1962, and his admission as academician of honor is collected in 1953, when he was already a predominant figure in Spanish medicine.
He also excelled in the design of specific ophthalmological surgical instruments, of which the capsular claw of Arruga stands out, used for the extraction of the opaque cataract or crystalline lens. This led him to combine his medical work with that of numerous conferences in which he shared his advances. He was also recognized by numerous medical and academic institutions in Spain and abroad.
His contribution to public health and knowledge of his specialty led him to be recognized as Count de Arruga, knight of the Order of Isabel the Catholic, bearer of the Grand Cross of the Order of Alfonso X the Wise and the Great Cross of the Civil Health Order and the Goni Medal, among many other first level distinctions.
