A Filipino Doctor at the Birth of Immunology and National Revolution: The Career of Francisco Tongio Liongson, MD

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology and Science and Society Program, College of Science, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City Philippines

2 Science and Society Program, College of Science, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City Philippines

3 College of Science, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City Philippines

10.30476/rhm.2024.103717.1239

Abstract

This paper reviews the scientific and political career of Francisco Tongio Liongson, MD (1869-1919), the first Filipino scientist to defend a doctoral thesis in immunology. Liongson, an Ilustrado, was the first Filipino physician to do research on immunology. We review the development of immunological paradigms in the last 30 years of the 19th century and how these influenced Liongson’s scientific and clinical approaches to medicine as narrated in his doctoral thesis. We explore how Metchnikoff’s phagocytic and evolutionary theory of the immune system influenced Liongson’s clinical and diagnostic approaches. We contextualize Liongson’s medical training with the evolving political consciousness of the Ilustrados in Madrid, who initially campaigned for political reforms in the Philippine colony. Liongson, like many of the Ilustrados, realized that Spanish liberal support for reforms was not possible, and the political solution was independence from the Metropolitan power. The revolutionary career of Liongson reached its highlight with his becoming a medical officer of the Filipino Army of Liberation and as a Professor of Medicine in the Filipino Republic’s national university. With the defeat of the Filipino Republic by the Americans in 1902, Liongson opted for a parliamentary struggle for independence. In 1916, he was elected as the first Senator from Pampanga province and advocated for improving health services until he died in 1919.

Highlights

Benjamin Vallejo Jr. (Google Scholar)

Keywords

Journal of Research on History of Medicine
Volume 14, Issue 3
August 2025
Pages 239-252

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