José de Acosta, Spanish Jesuit missionary and naturalist (b. 1540)
José de Acosta (1539 or 1540 in Medina del Campo, Spain – February 15, 1600 in Salamanca, Spain) was a sixteenth-century Spanish Jesuit missionary and naturalist in Latin America. His deductions regarding the ill effects of crossing over the Andes in 1570 related to the atmosphere being too thin for human needs; a variety of altitude sickness is now referred to as Acosta's disease.