The long-term objectives are to publish a book plus several articles on the history of yellow fever and medical science in Brazil. Brazil is the largest and most populous country of Latin America, and yet until recently its medical and scientific history has scarcely been studied seriously at all. The yellow fever epidemics began in their modern phase in Brazil in 1849, and were essentially over by 1910 although sporadic outbreaks occurred in outlying areas as late as 1928. They killed an estimated 100,000 persons, and had enormous medical, economic, political and social consequences not only for Brazil but for other nations as well. Yet despite the plentiful descriptions of yellow fever in the United States, the Caribbean and Panama, and even Africa, no work has been published on the Brazilian phase that is based on a thorough use of both primary and printed sources (85% of which are in Portuguese). Thus, my specific aims are to (1) Place the medical history of Brazil in a broader and more meaningful historical context. This must be done by a trained historian conversant with overall aspects of Brazilian history, and not left by default to amateurs writing narrow and laudatory accounts of """"""""great doctors."""""""" (2) To describe Brazil's preeminent historical medical problem--yellow fever. Though other diseases, such as tuberculosis, claimed over time more lives, no other disease was so frequently described in both the medical and """"""""secular"""""""" literature. From 1850 on contemporary sources, such as newspapers, Congressional debates, medical journals, public health records, traveller's accounts, and diplomatic correspondence all seem to concur that yellow fever was the undisputed scourge and shame of Brazil. My methodology is to explore this vast body of archival and printed sources so as to explain the role of all interested parties, not only the victims and their doctors, but also health authorities at all levels of government, plus other key agencies such as the church, hospitals, pharmacies, and teaching and research centers. It will then be possible to trace the modernization of medical science in Brazil from 1850 (traditional and pre-scientific) to 1930 (modern medicine in place at least in certain urban centers). I have completed 21 months of field research in Brazil, and now seek added funding for a full sabbatical in 1985-86 (already awarded) to be used for writing.
