Agustín Yáñez and Girona Biography

Agustín Yáñez y Girona

(Barcelona, ​​1789-1857) Spanish scientist.After studying grammar and philosophy at the Conciliar Seminary of Barcelona, ​​he began studies of cosmography and mathematics in 1803.Shortly after, he was a brilliant student at the Barcelona College of Surgery, where he studied physics, botany and chemistry until the latter, led by Juan Ametiler, was suppressed.He also attended the chemistry lessons of Francisco Carbonell y Bravo in the chair created by the Royal Board of Commerce of Barcelona, ​​an institution that contributed significantly to the rebirth of teaching.

When the fights against Napoleon began, he had to interrupt his studies, and for some time he dedicated himself to working in his father's pharmacy office.In 1814, when the chairs that had been suppressed were reestablished, and Francisco Carbonell was still in exile from Barcelona, ​​Yáñez was appointed to temporarily hold a chair in applied chemistry that he ran until 1816, the date of Carbonell's return.Simultaneously he attended the physics lessons of Pedro Vieta and the botany lessons of Juan Francisco Bahí.

In 1815, at the age of 26, without any official title, but with merits recognized by his professors and demonstrated in brilliant public exercises, he was admitted to the Royal Academy of Natural Sciences and Arts of Barcelona.A month after joining this corporation, he presented an interesting Report on the chemical properties of coloring matters and their application to the art of dyeing, which was the first of a long series of works on applied chemistry, geology and Mineralogy that he was presenting regularly.

When the San Victoriano College of Pharmacy in Barcelona began to function, whose inauguration had been delayed because of the war, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in philosophy and pharmacy from said College.In order to appear for the examinations for pharmacy chairs convened by the Royal Superior Government Board of Pharmacy, he had to hastily graduate as a graduate and doctor.

For this it was necessary for him to travel to Madrid, where he attended some of Mariano Lagasca's botanical lessons.After having presented brilliant exercises, he was appointed Professor of Natural History at the College of Pharmacy of Barcelona in 1816.Since then he displayed intense activity both in his chair and in the Academy and in politics, and became constitutional mayor of Barcelona.

In 1820 he published his Lessons in Natural History , the first elementary didactic work of his class in Spain, which he later reissued with important additions by raising the level required of students to begin studies pharmacy.When the University was reestablished in Barcelona, ​​abolished since the reign of Felipe V, Agustín Yáñez occupied the chair of mineralogy, in which he later ceased when the University was suspended again due to the absolutist reaction.He participated in the founding of the Economic Society of Friends of the Country of Barcelona; He was secretary during the year that its first stage lasted and again when the Society was reconstituted in 1834.

Of liberal tendencies, in 1823 he was dispossessed of the chair at the College of Pharmacy and did not return until 1830.Once restored in his chair, he did not stop participating in public activities.He was president of the Academy of Natural Sciences and Arts of Barcelona; commissioned by the Academy he wrote the eulogies of Mariano La Gasca, Francisco Carbonell y Bravo and other great men of his generation.He was appointed rector in commission of the University of Barcelona in 1856 and separated from the rector by Royal Order in 1857, to the unanimous protest of all the professors of that University.