A Escola Tropicalista Baiana: um mito de origem da medicina tropical no Brasil

Abstract

Este artigo pretende problematizar as abordagens vigentes sobre a gênese da medicina tropical no Brasil, pondo em cena atores, conceitos e práticas médicas do período oitocentista, geralmente percebidos como antagônicos ao processo de institucionalização desse campo disciplinar. É nosso objetivo rever a rígida demarcação entre dois períodos - pré-científico e científico - no desenvolvimento da cultura médica no período imperial.

Mortalidade escrava durante a epidemia de cólera no Rio de Janeiro (1855-1856): uma análise preliminar

“…Linking the epidemic with living conditions was thus consistent with the medical thought that had gained firm footing with the creation of the Rio de Janeiro Society of Medicine (Sociedade de Medicina do Rio de Janeiro) (1829)(1830)(1831)(1832)(1833)(1834)(1835) and that underscored the environmental etiology and paludal nature of disease (Edler, 2002;Ferreira, 2009). These ideas, together with an emphasis on depraved customs, were part of the common medical discourse in various places where cholera occurred in the nineteenth century, illustrating what Rosenberg (1987) called an alliance between the predisposing causes of disease and morality.…”

Teorias sobre a propagação da febre amarela: um debate científico na imprensa paulista, 1895-1903

“…In Brazil, as Edler (2002) explains, the medical environment at the time was heir to a large number of practices, concepts and methods. According to this historian of medicine, there were three principal groups in dispute during the nineteenth century: a group linked to clinical anatomy, a further group to medical topography, and a third to experimental medicine.…”

“…The characteristic institutional area for the first group was the hospital; the second group was considered to represent statistical medicine, owing to its reliance on statistical methods, and was therefore treated with reserve; the last group, representing laboratory work, burst onto the scientific scene with an open challenge to the way medical knowledge was produced. In Rio de Janeiro, various societies and medical journals advocated the need to increase research into diseases prevalent in Brazil, with a view to dispelling the unhealthy image of the Empire in the eyes of European nations (Chalhoub, 1993;Edler, 2002). Nineteenth century Brazilian physicians encouraged the spread of local scientific research, in which new ideas on parasitic etiologies blended with theories on climate and race during the second half of the nineteenth century (Chalhoub, 1993).…”

Clima, cerebro y degeneración en Cabanis

“…Así, aun cuando Cabanis reserve el concepto de 'degeneración' para los órganos y tejidos, utiliza frecuentemente el concepto de 'regeneración' para referirse al mejoramiento de las condiciones físicas y morales de individuos y grupos. Él es un férreo defensor de la higiene pública y considera que la sabia aplicación de medidas higiénicas puede alterar los efectos nocivos del clima (Edler, 2002) y producir individuos de excelencia, competentes e idóneos, tanto física como moralmente.…”