ABSTRACT
O trabalho analisa aspectos do exercício dos ofícios de cura de médicos e barbeiros-sangradores no Rio de Janeiro, entre 1840 e 1889, com base em nomes e endereços encontrados no Almanaque Laemmert. Além de localizar geograficamente os espaços de atuação desses agentes na cidade, são identificados os anunciantes que se repetiram ao longo do tempo e aqueles que mudaram de endereço. O cruzamento com dados das fontes cartoriais e eclesiásticas, que indicam objetos relacionados à prática terapêutica, como sarjetas, globos para sangrar e navalhas, permite compreender melhor as mudanças na atuação desses terapeutas em contexto caracterizado pela desqualificação das artes de cura populares, a crise da escravidão e mudanças nas concepções acadêmicas sobre as doenças.
This work analyzes aspects of the healing work performed by doctors and barber- surgeons in Rio de Janeiro between 1840 and 1889, based on the names and addresses in the Laemmert Almanaque. This not only provided the geographic location of where these agents were active within the city, but also identified the advertisers who featured repeatedly and those who moved to other locations. By cross-referencing this data with notary public sources and church records, which identified objects used in therapeutic practices, such as fleams, cupping-glasses and lancets, one can to better understand the way these therapists worked in a context characterized by the disqualification of the popular arts of healing, the slavery crisis and changes in academic concepts about diseases.
Subject(s)
Humans , History, 19th Century , Barber Surgeons/history , Physicians/history , Brazil , Medicine, Traditional/historyABSTRACT
La sepsis como complicación temible del trauma ha acompañado al hombre a través de la historia en especial en la antigüedad. En el presente trabajo se analiza la evolución histórica del controlquirúrgico de la sepsis desde el Antiguo Egipto hasta la Edad Media. Se describe cómo los diferentes tratamientos tuvieron una evolución paradójica: empezando desde una relativa cura apiógena de los egipcios y alejandrinos, hasta el irrefrenable deseo de ver supurar la lesión, típico en la EdadMedia. También se exponen las causas de la ambigüedad de los griegos a la hora de promover o limitar la supuración, sustentadas en el humoralismo clásico, y cómo esta concepción fue la semilla del dogma galénico la pus es buena y laudable, dogma que marcó la pauta del cuidado de las heridas durante más de mil años, y que fue responsable, junto con la pérdida de valiosos conocimientos quirúrgicos en el Medioevo, del establecimiento de la cauterización como tratamiento de elección para muchos tipos de lesión. Finalmente, se presentan las razones epistemológicas del fracaso del intento de derrumbar el dogma galénico durante el siglo XIII.
Sepsis, as a fearsome complication of trauma, has accompanied mankind throughout history, particularly in the Antiquity. In this article the historical evolution of surgical sepsis control and of the importance of suppuration is reviewed, from the Ancient Egypt through the Middle Ages. The evolutionof different therapeutic approaches for wounds is described, from the non-suppurative healing of the Egyptians and Alexandrians to the irrepressible desire of seeing wound suppuration that was common in the Middle Ages. The causes of the ambiguity of Greeks concerning the promotion or limitation of suppuration are presented. They were based on the classical theory of Humoralism. This conception became the framework of the Galenic dogma expressed as the good and laudable pus, which served as the basisfor wound care during more than one thousand years. It was responsible, together with the loss of valuablesurgical knowledge during the Middle Ages, of the establishement of cauterization as the treatment of choice for different types of lesions. The epistemological reasons for the failure to overthrow the Galenic dogma duringthe XIII Century are also discussed.