Victor Gomoiu (April 18, 1882 – February 6, 1960) was a Romanian surgeon, anatomist, folklorist and medical historian, who served as Minister of Health and Social Protection in 1940. Noted before 1910 for his work in descriptive surgery and pathology, focusing on the treatment of tuberculosis, genital diseases and tumors, he soon became one of the main contributors to medical historiography and bibliography. He founded several hospitals and edited medical journals, setting up a collection of medical instruments which became the basis of a national museum in Craiova. He became a professor at the University of Bucharest, an expert for the League of Nations, and, after distinguished service in World War I, a recipient of the Legion of Honor; additionally, he served for 22 years as president of the International Society for the History of Medicine, of which his wife Viorica was also an active member. A protégé of Queen Helen and administrator of her Brâncovenesc Hospital, Gomoiu fell out with King Carol II, and was arrested in 1934 for protesting against his rule. He returned to serve in two consecutive far-right governments, but, during World War II, emerged as a protector of the Romanian Jews, denouncing the policy of deportations to Transnistria. Despite this stance and his international profile, Gomoiu was arrested by the postwar communist regime, and spent time in confinement at Sighet and Aiud prisons. He had been posthumously rehabilitated by the 1980s, but his work was only fully recovered after the Romanian Revolution of 1989.
Biography
Early life and work Born in Vânju Mare, Mehedinți County, he was the first child of Romanian Orthodox priest Gheorghe and his wife Ana. He attended primary school in his native village, followed by Traian High School in Turnu Severin from 1893 to 1900. Between 1900 and 1905, he studied at the medical faculty of the University of Bucharest. Meanwhile, he rose steadily through the hospital ranks, from extern at Colțea Hospital in 1903 to intern there in 1905 to apprentice doctor at Bucharest's central military hospital in 1910. Gomoiu was a disciple of anatomist Thoma Ionescu. Alongside Dimitrie Gerota, Ernest Juvara, and Victor Papilian, he continued Ionescu's work in descriptive anatomy as well as, in some instances, physical anthropology. In 1906, Gomoiu published in Bucharest the first volume of his Istoricul Societăței Studenților în Medicină ("History of the Medical Students' Society"), with a plate by Ary Murnu; also that year, his study on eye disease among the rural population saw print at Târgu Jiu. Affiliated with the left-wing agrarian current, or Poporanism, he established in that city the literary magazine Șezătórea Săteanului ("Villager's Sitting"), joining an editorial office which also included George Coșbuc and G. Dumitrescu Bumbești-Jiu. It was here that he published some of his first contributions in ethnomedicine. He took his first trip outside the country in 1908, visiting states from Austria-Hungary to Great Britain. Gomoiu published steadily, and also lectured at the Medical Students' Society and the Surgical Society. Topics included meningoencephalitis, cerebral atrophy, facial nerve paralysis, fibrous tissue neoplasm, lipoma, the anatomy of the endothelium, corneal transplantation, skin grafting, dental implants, hysterectomy, various types of cysts and "rare tumors", and talus bone expulsion. These works were taken up in Eraclie Sterian's magazine, Spitalul, of which Gomoiu was co-editor, or published as brochures. His doctoral thesis, on facial anaplasia, was awarded a magna cum laude in 1909, and published the same year. It was followed in 1910 by Gomoiu's introduction to inguinal hernia surgery, his reviews of surgery as applied to genital tuberculosis, vaginal hydrocele, urethrocele, and varicocele, and a work on the physiological role of cholesterol. A winner of the Manoah Hillel scholarship, that year and the next also saw his first contributions as a medical bibliographer and librarian, with catalogues of entries for the University of Bucharest's graduation papers in medicine. For his service in the Romanian Army, Gomoiu was concentrated in Medgidia. Gomoiu soon lost his father to pancreatic cancer and found it hard to provide for himself, accepting jobs for which he was overqualified. In March 1911, recommended by Francisc Rainer, he began working as a surgical docent and became director of the Techirghiol tuberculosis sanatorium. He modernized the institution, systematizing records, constructing a laboratory, planting a grove of cluster pines, and furnishing a small facility for the study of regional climatology and radioactivity. He also began experimenting with thalassotherapy, light therapy, and the use of medicinal clay. This inaugurated a ten-year practice at various hospitals, during which Gomoiu patented various new surgical techniques. In November, after a disagreement with medical inspector Gheorghe Proca, who suggested that the sanatorium was unhygienic, Gomoiu handed in his resignation. In 1913, a second-class surgeon at Filantropia Hospital, Gomoiu published a piece on "the radical treatment of vaginal hydrocele" in the French journal Lyon Chirurgical, and his opening lesson on "small surgery" (Mica chirurgie). That year, he also performed his military obligation by accompanying the ambulatory health service sent to the Ottoman Empire during the Second Balkan War and performing surgery within the unit. In parallel, he studied craniometry, publishing a study of 24 craniums in Revista Științelor Medicale, then as a booklet, and following up in 1915 with Cercetări asupra perimetrului cranian ("Researching the Cranial Perimeter"). The same years saw his many conferences at the Surgical Society printed in several editions, alongside separate studies of skin cancer, the sympathetic nervous system in the abdomen, gas gangrene of the thorax, and gastrostomy techniques. In 1916, he and Ionescu together discovered the link between stellate ganglion removal and sympathectomy.
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