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U.Porto Memory

Teachers and Students of the Medical-Surgical School of Porto

Laurinda de Moraes Sarmento

Laurinda de Moraes Sarmento 1867 – [?] Doctor, the first woman to enroll in Medical-Surgical School of Porto

Laurinda de Moraes Sarmento was the first-born daughter of Anselmo Evaristo de Moraes Sarmento, a tradesman from Aveiro, and of D. Rita de Cássia Oliveira Moraes, who was born in Porto. The family lived in Rua das Oliveiras, in the parish of Vitória. Laurinda was born on the 28^th October 1867 and was baptized by Father Nicolau José Ferreira on the 21^st November in Parish Church of Nossa Senhora da Vitória. Her godparents were António Joaquim de Moraes Sarmento, a clerk in Porto Court of Appeal, and D. Margarida Emília da Costa Oliveira, Laurinda’s paternal grandmother and a widow.

Laurinda spent her childhood and youth in Porto. Besides one brother, she had three younger sisters of about the same age: Aurélia, Guilhermina and Rita, born in 1869, 1870 and 1872, respectively. While her mother was occupied educating their five children, her father worked as a tradesman at the printing company "Imprensa Portuguesa" and as a journalist, editing the periodicals "Gazeta Literária do Porto" and "A Actualidade", and later "A Ideia Nova – diário democrático".

Laurinda’s moral and ethical upbringing was strongly influenced by her father’s open-mindedness, a quality that stemmed from being a descendant of the Moraes de Aveiro, a family persecuted during the absolutist reign of D. Miguel. The family’s influence has also contributed to stress the importance of education as grounds for personal and social promotion.

In addition to the liberal values held by the family, Laurinda was likewise influenced by those who engaged her father for professional reasons or as friends. Among these were such celebrated individuals as Oliveira Martins, Ramalho Ortigão, Camilo Castelo Branco, Antero de Quental and Teófilo Braga. The house of the Moraes Sarmento was a privileged place for the circulation of liberal principles and the ideas of the time, when the establishment of a democratic culture and mentality was a key concern for the country.

Alongside this atmosphere, the fact that the five brothers and sisters got their diplomas in higher education is also an important fact. Both Laurinda and her sisters got their diplomas in Porto before the turn of the 19^th century.

Laurinda, 18 years old, and Aurélia, two years younger, once in Polytechnic Academy of Porto attended General Physics, General Inorganic Chemistry and General and Biological Organic Chemistry, mandatory subjects to access Medical-Surgical School of Porto. The two sisters enrolled in this School after passing the exams for Botany and Zoology, in July 1886. At the beginning of the new academic year, Laurinda de Moraes Sarmento was the first woman to enrol in Medical-Surgical School of Porto, starting an academic path of five years.

In the penultimate year of her course, Laurinda attended External Pathology and Therapeutics, Operative Medicine or Operations and Internal Pathology, concluding her classes during 1890-1891. In the subject of Obstetrics or Parturition she was "approved with praise" together with her sister Aurélia. On 9^th November 1891, with 24 years old, Laurinda defended the "Ato Grande" in Medical-Surgical School of Porto, soon after her sister.

The Dissertation, presided by Doctor José Carlos Lopes, with professors Pedro Augusto Dias, Ilídio Aires Pereira do Vale, António Joaquim de Moraes Caldas and António de Azevedo Maia as examiners, was entitled Breves Considerações sobre a Hygiene do Vestuario Feminino (Brief Considerations on Hygiene of Female Attire).

Initially dedicated to her parents, brothers and sisters, the Dissertation is next dedicated to her great-aunt and uncle Venância Rosalina de Moraes Lucena and Jerónimo de Moraes Sarmento, "Liberal and persecuted people from the past who, both in prison and in odious exile, professed the magnitude of their political faith", as is inscribed in the dedicatory. Finally, a dedicatory to Teófilo Braga and his wife, D. Maria do Carmo Xavier Braga, to the memory of their deceased children, and also to the memory of Dr. António Vitorino da Mota.

The teaching staff of Porto Medical and Surgical School wasn’t forgotten – Doctors João Pereira Dias Lebre, Agostinho António do Souto, Eduardo Pereira Pimenta, A. H. d'Almeida Brandão, Ricardo d'Almeida Jorge and Roberto Belarmino do Rosário Frias –, as well as the professors from the Polytechnic Academy - Aarão Ferreira de Lacerda, António Joaquim Ferreira da Silva, Conde de Campo Belo, José Diogo Arroio and Manuel Amândio Gonçalves – and those from Secondary School, among whom were Flórido Teles de Menezes Vasconcelos and José Vitorino Ribeiro. The dissertation was published in late 1991 by the Portuguese Press.

After concluding their courses, Laurinda and Aurélia started a private practice in n. 579 in the same street where the family lived, Rua do Almada. It specialized in women and children’s illnesses and it held a round-the-clock childbirth service. However, a few months later Laurinda abandoned the private practice when she married her old colleague, Dr. Abílio da Silva Carvalho with whom she had two daughters, Laurinda and Maria, between 1893 and 1894.

Later on, trying to resume her medical practice, Laurinda took a public exam to fill a vacancy for an auxiliary doctor in Santo António General Hospital together with her sister Aurélia and Maria Paes Moreira. The latter won, despite the public complaint filed by the sisters Moraes Sarmento denouncing several irregularities in the selection process, particularly during the practical exams, and even questioning the behaviour of their old colleague during the theoretical exam. However, the legal action to impeach the nomination was dismissed.

There aren’t enough data to trace the personal and professional path of Laurinda de Moraes Sarmento during the first decades of the 20^th century.
(Universidade Digital / Gestão de Informação, 2011)