Fernando Altamirano (July 7, 1848 - October 7, 1908) was a Mexican

Mexican people

Mexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity....

 physician

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

, botanist and naturalist

Naturalist

Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...

. He was born in Aculco

Aculco

Aculco de Espinoza is a town and the seat of the municipality called Aculco in Mexico State.-History:Aculco was founded approximately in 1110 A.D. by the Otomies, despite the fact that its name comes from Nahuatl...

, studied in Querétaro

Querétaro

Querétaro officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Querétaro de Arteaga is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 18 municipalities and its capital city is Santiago de Querétaro....

, and died in Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

. Altamirano was the founder and the director of the National Medical Institute of Mexico (Instituto Medico Nacional) from 1888 to 1908.

He published more than 250 papers on pharmacology

Pharmacology

Pharmacology is the branch of medicine and biology concerned with the study of drug action. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function...

 of Mexican plants and on physiology

Physiology

Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...

. He was also interested in the industrial uses of Mexican plants.

Altamirano collaborated with many internationally recognized botanist of the period, like Joseph Nelson Rose

Joseph Nelson Rose

Joseph Nelson Rose was an American botanist. He was born in Union County, Indiana. His father died serving during the Civil War when Joseph Rose was a young boy. He later graduated from high school in Liberty, Indiana....

, George Russell Shaw and Edward Janczewski

Edward Janczewski

Edward Janczewski was a Polish biologist , rector of the Jagiellonian University, and member of the Academy of Learning. He married Jadwiga Szetkiewicz .In 1862, Janczewski obtained a degree at Vilna...

.

At least one genus and nine species of plants and animals were named after him, many of them by Joseph Nelson Rose

Joseph Nelson Rose

Joseph Nelson Rose was an American botanist. He was born in Union County, Indiana. His father died serving during the Civil War when Joseph Rose was a young boy. He later graduated from high school in Liberty, Indiana....

.

Genus and Species named after Fernando Altamirano

• Altamiranoa (Rose, 1903)
• Eryngium altamiranoi (Hemsl. & Rose, 1906)
• Pinus altamiranoi (Shaw in Sargent, 1905)
• Bumelia altamiranoi (Rose & Standl., 1924)
• Coryphantha altamiranoi (Britton & Rose, 1923)
• Leucophyllum altamiranii (Urbina, 1906)
• Phytolacca altamiranii (Ramirez Goyena, 1909)
• Ribes altamirani (Janczewski, 1906)
• Mesoscincus altamirani (Dugés, 1891)
• Ambystoma altamirani (Dugés, 1895)

Species named by Fernando Altamirano

• Euphorbia elastica (Altam. & Rose, 1905)