death_date work_institution birth_place name field birth_date article_title birth_name
24 may 1937 california , hawaii mallecina , salas , asturias , spain luis f. alvarez medicine 4 january 1853 luis f. Álvarez
 luis fernández alvarez
luis f. Álvarez

luis fernández Álvarez -lrb- 1 april 1853 -- 24 may 1937 -rrb- was a spanish american physician and researcher who practiced in california and hawaii .
fernández was actually his principal surname -lrb- his father 's surname -rrb- , per spanish naming customs .
however , he is best known by his mother 's surname , as in the english-speaking world the last name is the principal surname , although , again , this is contrary to spanish naming customs .
his american-born children and descendants took his last surname for that reason , as well , albeit without the diacritic .
Álvarez was born in a small village called mallecina , salas , asturias .
his father was eugenio fernández , who was in charge of the business and palace affairs in madrid of don francisco de paula marín , a hawaian royal prince .
he was orphaned at an early age : his mother died when he was three , and he lost his father at the age of seven .
when he was 13 , one of his brothers took him to havana where he secured a good education .
he learned to speak english fluently .
in 1878 , he married clementina schutze and in 1887 graduated from cooper medical college -lrb- now stanford university -rrb- with a medical degree .
after practicing in san francisco , he traveled to hawaii as physician on the .
in honolulu , he was asked by the government to stay and become a government physician .
Álvarez quickly learned to speak the hawaiian language .
in 1895 , Álvarez resigned his position in waialua to prepare himself for work as superintendent of a new experimental hospital for the treatment of leprosy which was to be established in kalihi , a suburb of honolulu .
in order to learn research bacteriology , Álvarez went -- at his own expense -- for six months of intensive study at johns hopkins university .
on his return , he developed a method for the better diagnosis of macular leprosy .
with a small mouse-tooth forceps he would lift up a little piece of skin , snip it off with scissors , grind it into a fluid in a small glass mortar , and then stain the fluid for hansen 's bacilli .
this method or a modification of it has been used ever since .
Álvarez developed a serum by injecting hansen 's bacilli into horses .
he used this on a number of hansen 's disease patients with encouraging results .
