“The science of these people I don't keep to myself": the medical discourse in fluminense farmers' manuals from the 19th century

Abstract

The article aims to investigate how the issue of health care is presented in manuals written by farmers from the countryside of the Province of Rio de Janeiro for their peer group throughout the 19th century. We consider that the wealthiest owners already had this type of production in their libraries, imported from places whose production context was similar to that experienced in nineteenth-century Brazil. We argue that they used these manuals as guides, which would teach them how to overcome possible crises and how to best manage their coffee producing units, aimed at the international agro-exporter market. And that, based on their experience with farming, they began to record his experiences following this book model, but revealing the specificities of the place. Therefore, we can also understand these works as a portrait of important issues present in the societies in which their authors were inserted at the time of their production, including the growing incorporation of medical-scientific discourse and its practical use in everyday activities at the time.