Entre o exame do corpo infantil e a conformação da norma racial: aspectos da atuação da Inspeção Médica Escolar em São Paulo / Between the examination of children’ s bodies and the shaping of racial norms: aspects of the activities of the São Paulo State School Medical Inspection Service

Este artigo analisa aspectos da atuação da Inspeção Médica Escolar, órgão criado em 1911 como dependência do Serviço Sanitário de São Paulo e transferido em 1916 para a pasta da Instrução Pública. Detém-se, de modo mais específico, sobre as práticas de exame individual dos alunos, buscando compreender os propósitos a que responderam, seu papel na configuração de padrões de normalidade e anormalidade, bem como o componente racial que presidiu tais práticas. Para tanto, toma como fontes artigos publicados no periódico Imprensa Médica, obras escritas pelo médico-chefe do órgão, Balthazar Vieira de Mello, e os Anuários do Ensino, publicação oficial da Diretoria Geral da Instrução Pública.

This article analyzes aspects of the activities of the School Medical Inspection Service, an agency created in 1911 under the São Paulo State Sanitary Service and transferred in 1916 to the Secretary of Public Instruction. It focuses, more specifically, on the practice of the individual examination of students with the purpose of understanding the motivations behind these practices, the role they played in establishing standards of normality and abnormality, as well as their underlying racial tenor. To this end, its sources are articles published in the periodical Imprensa Médica, works written by the agency’s head physician, Balthazar Vieira de Mello, and the Anuários do ensino, the official publication of the General Board for Public Instruction.

The "Oriental" Problem: Trachoma and Asian Immigrants in the United States, 1897-1910 / 의사학

This essay examines the period between 1897 and 1910, when trachoma, a contagious eye disease, became an "Oriental" problem that justified exclusionary immigration policy against Asians entering the United States. It also investigates the ways in which the public fear and alleged threat of the eye disease destabilized and undermined the rights of Asian immigrants. Many scholars have explored the link between trachoma and southern and eastern European newcomers, in particular Jews, but they have not paid much attention to Chinese or Japanese immigrants, for whose exclusion trachoma played a significant role. This is primarily because the number of Asian immigrants was much smaller than that of their European counterparts and because the Chinese Exclusion Acts, which had already been in place, functioned as a stronger and more lasting deterrent to Asian immigration than exclusion or deportation through medical inspection. Moreover, into the 1910s, medical and scientific innovations for detecting parasitic diseases (e.g. hookworm) helped American authorities exclude Asians in larger numbers. Still, the analysis of the discourses surrounding trachoma and immigration from Asia, though short-lived, demonstrates the role of medical inspection in controlling and regulating Asian immigrants, in particular Chinese and Japanese, into the United States and in constructing their legal and political rights. In 1906, the fear of trachoma justified an order to segregate Japanese students from white children in San Francisco even at the cost of compromising their rights as citizens. Along with fierce criticisms against immigration officials by the American public, the 1910 investigation of the San Francisco Immigration Office problematized the admission of trachoma-afflicted Asian immigrants. Those critical of the Immigration Office and its implementation of American immigration policy called for exclusionary measures to limit the privileges of exempt classes and domiciled aliens and hinder the exertion of their rights to leave and reenter their adopted country. The two examples show that trachoma was a convenient excuse to condemn inefficient immigration policy and regulate allegedly diseased Asian bodies. In 1910, the federal government made a decision to relegate to steamship companies full responsibility for medical inspection at Asian ports. Since they had to pay a fine for every immigrant excluded at American borders for medical reasons, including trachoma, steamship companies carried out more rigorous examinations. With medical advancements and growing interest in parasitic diseases, trachoma soon lost its appeal to immigration authorities. However, the association of immigration, race, and disease has continued to provide a rationale for immigration control beyond American borders.

Incapacidad laboral total

Se realizó un estudio longitudinal, descriptivo y retrospectivo con el objetivo de conocer el comportamiento de la incapacidad permanente para el trabajo en el municipio "San Cristóbal" durante el decenio 1982-1991, y se aplicó el método de encuesta por el que se recogieron datos que fueron extraídos del modelo oficial de peritaje médico laboral y de la entrevista con el peritado. Los resultados fueron plasmados en tablas de contingencias donde se relacionan las variables por cada año estudiado, y se aplicó la prueba estadística de chi cuadrado. El número de individuos dictaminados con incapacidad laboral total fue de 693; predominó en reportes el año 1988 con 114 casos y muy discretamente el sexo femenino sobre el masculino, el grupo etáreo de 45 a 54 años con 360 casos y la artrosis como entidad valorada por ortopedia, con análisis estadísticos significativos. No resultó estadísticamente significativo, el predominio de la hipertensión arterial sistémica entre las entidades valoradas por la especialidad de medicina interna como causas de incapacidad laboral. Fue muy significativa la variación del número de dictaminados por la comisión en cada uno de los años estudiados y que el porcentaje de ellos que se encontraban realizando trabajos que demandan esfuerzo físico de moderado a intenso al momento de aplicar la encuesta, ascendió al 64,9.

A longitudinal, descriptive and retrospective study was conducted in order to know the behavior of permanent labor disability at the municipality of San Cristóbal during 1982-1991. A survey was done to collect data taken from the official model of medical inspections and from the interview with the disabled worker. The results were shown in contingency tables where the variables are related by every year studied. The chi square statistical test was applied. The number of individuals with labor disability was 693. As for reports, the year 1988 predominated with 114. There was a discreet prevalence of females over males. The highest amount of cases was found in the age group from 45 to 54 years. As regards diseases, arthrosis was the most assessed by orthopedics with significant statistical analyses. The predominances of systemic arterial hypertension among the affections evaluated by the speciality of internal medicine as causes of labor disability was not statistically remarkable. The variation of the number of persons considered as disabled by the commission each year was highly representative. The percentage of those who had jobs demanding from moderate to intense physical effort at the time the survey was applied ascended to 64.9.