Print version ISSN 0101-3262
GONDRA, José Gonçalves. Homo hygienicus: education, hygiene and man's reinvention. Cad. CEDES [online]. 2003, vol.23, n.59, pp. 25-38. ISSN 0101-3262. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0101-32622003000100003.
What did the hygienists read? What did they do with that information? Exploring this twofold question, I work on the hypothesis that the manuals adopted to train the Brazilian Eighteenth Century physicians contributed to delineate and confirm the hygiene doctrine among us, which entailed, for example, reordering the concepts of medicine and humanity. Describing the world they saw based on a pendulum that told right from wrong, as well as the ways that lead to one or the other, these physicians graduated in the Imperial Court. However varied their strategies, they all pointed at a similar objective: producing hygienic, hygienized and hygienist citizens. Such degree of affinity was due to what they were supplied with, which includes their readings.
Keywords : Education; Hygiene; Hygienization.