Abstract
Tetanus and other widespread endemic diseases of Brazil's early national period speak to intimate details of common life and give clues to big, vexing questions, such as why Brazil's population expanded dramatically at the turn of the twentieth century. Tetanus was for a long time one of Brazil's deadliest afflictions, especially among infants, but historians know very little about it. Using archival sources from across the Empire and early Republic, this article argues tetanus disproportionately killed the enslaved population, but gradually diminished in virulence for nearly all groups across the country by the second half of the 1800s. This decline should be attributed only partially to medical knowledge. Rather, indirect demographic and technological changes were more important factors in Brazil.
Highlights
Tetanus and other widespread endemic diseases of Brazil’s early national period speak to intimate details of common life and give clues to big, vexing questions, such as why Brazil’s population expanded dramatically at the turn of the twentieth century
Three decades after Victorino’s death, traumatic and neonatal tetanus had largely disappeared in some parts of Brazil and become infrequent in others
One popular Brazilian medical textbook from 1865 remarked that one “can distinguish a spasm, which consists of one permanent contraction of the muscle fibers, from a convulsion, which alternates between contraction and relaxation of the same fibers.”6 It added, “tetanus is the most elevated degree of spasm, while epilepsy is of convulsion” (Langgaard, 1865, p.537)
Summary
Assistant Professor of Latin American Studies/ Soka University of America. Recebido para publicação em julho de 2011. Aprovado para publicação em agosto de 2012. Tetanus among slaves and freeborn in Brazil. Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, v.19, supl., dez. Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, v.19, supl., dez. 2012, p.107-132
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