Miguel O'Gorman
Miguel O'Gorman was an Irish physician, who served in Buenos Aires during the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata.Biography
O'Gorman was born in Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, son of Thomas O'Gorman and Mary Bakin, belonging to a traditional Irish family. He completed his elementary studies in his native country, and obtained a doctorate in medicine in the Reims University, France, country where the O'Gorman family had served in the Irish brigades.
He arrived at Rio de la Plata in 1777, in the expedition of Pedro de Cevallos, whom he had accompanied in the capture of Santa Catarina and Colonia del Sacramento. O'Gorman was personal physician of Cevallos and his successor Juan José de Vértiz y Salcedo.
In 1801, Miguel O'Gorman together with Cosme Argerich had founded the first medical school in Buenos Aires. In 1805, Gorman had introduced in the city, the smallpox vaccine. Years before introducing the vaccine, he was sent to London by Charles III to learn about the new prophylactic method.
Miguel O'Gorman was uncle of Thomas O'Gorman, the husband of Marie Anne Périchon de Vandeuil, and the ancestor of Camila O'Gorman, executed by order of Juan Manuel de Rosas in 1848.
