Born in Rio de Janeiro on December 26, 1862, Victor Pereira Godinho graduated from the Rio de Janeiro School of Medicine in 1887. He then moved to São Paulo, where he joined the state’s Sanitary Service. He was director of the Isolation Hospital (1915-1919) and professor at the São Paulo School of Pharmacy and Dentistry (1899-1922). Under commission to the São Paulo government, he led the fight against the plague in the northern state of Maranhão in 1904. In 1911, he and Emilio Ribas came up with the idea of building the Campos do Jordão Railroad to facilitate the transportation of tuberculosis patients who traveled to the health resort for treatment. Author of one of the earliest manuals of bacteriology published in Brazil, he was also one of the first to urge that medical schools establish chairs in tropical diseases. He founded and directed the journal Revista Médica de São Paulo (1898-1914) and was head of the Paulista League against Tuberculosis. He died in Rio de Janeiro on September 26, 1922.