Tropical Disorders and the Forging of a Brazilian Medical Identity, 1860-1890

Abstract

H IISTORIANS of Latin America have only recently begun to revise the longstanding image of nineteenthcentury Latin American physicians who faithfully (and passively) reproduced European medicine in their mainly tropical countries. Traditional historians in Latin America tended to debate how thoroughly European medicine was adopted. The more critical historians argued that Latin Americans were slow to embrace European medical models and thus remained sunken in backwardness.' The more optimistic observers pointed to medical strides made in their nations, indicating a faithful local replication and understanding of the advances emanating from European and, to a lesser extent, U.S. centers.2 Whether they viewed the state of local medicine in more or less optimistic terms, both camps considered the source of medical knowledge to be primarily European. This depiction was not entirely wrong. Brazil's concerted efforts after the turn of the century to sanitize cities and backlands can be seen as evidence of how closely governments and medical authorities adhered to the highly successful methods used to eradicate disease in European colonies and the U.S. South. The Brazilian government's desire to emulate those successes motivated it to support Oswaldo Cruz, director of public health between 1903 and 19og, in his efforts to eradicate bubonic plague, smallpox, and yel-