Wenceslao Díaz Gallegos (1834–1895) was a Chilean scientist and medical surgeon, widely considered as one of the fathers of sanitation in the country.
[1] Díaz graduated as a medical surgeon in 1859, at the Universidad de Chile School of Medicine, when it was located on the building in the intersection of San Francisco and Las Delicias, the current Libertador General Bernardo O’Higgins Avenue.
From that position he pushed the introduction of modern medical instruments like the thermometer and the hypodermic syringe, which was used to administer morphine, atropine and cocaine in the treatment of patients.
He described the main characteristics and consequences of the disease in the medical report “Memory of the Cholera Health Service Directive Commission 1887-1888”.
[1] He was a founding member of the Medical Society of Santiago (1869) and one of the editors of the first issue of its journal, the Revista Médica de Chile (1872).