The emergence of tropical medicine in Portugal: The School of Tropical Medicine and the Colonial Hospital of Lisbon (1902-1935)

Abstract

The School of Tropical Medicine was founded in 1902 along with the Colonial Hospital of Lisbon. The Portuguese government recognized the importance of colonising the tropics and therefore supported the creation of a specific locus of medical training that would prove to be crucial to the clinical and experimental study of tropical diseases. This paper examines the importance of such institutions for the emergence of a new scientific area of research while also functioning as a consolidation factor for the Third Portuguese Colonial Empire. The creation of a new concept of medical practice with respect to tropical diseases characterizes a specific aspect of colonization: it underlies and drives the discourse of colonization itself. Consultation of data collected by the Portuguese Tropical School and the Colonial Hospital during the period between 1902 and 1935, the starting point of the present study, seeks to shed light on the ongoing debate concerning the history of tropical medicine within European colonial discourse.

Public health and tropical modernity: the combat against sleeping sickness in Portuguese Guinea, 1945-1974

“…The report concluded that the disease was only "lightly endemic" and "apparently benign," with "irregular dissemination across the territory" (Sequeira, 1935a, p.11). It took into account the previous experiences of teams sent by the Escola de Medicina Tropical to study, locate and eradicate trypanosome on the island of Príncipe, where programs had been implemented between 1904and 1913(Amaral, 2008, and later in (Northern) Angola. The fact that the same author published a similar contribution in French illustrates the tentative incorporation of PG into international medical networks (Sequeira, 1935b).…”

O lugar da medicina tropical nas dissertações da escola médica portuense, 1875-1923

“…Em 1887, iniciou-se oficialmente esse ensino na Escola Naval de Lisboa, e, quinze anos mais tarde, o curso foi transferido para a Escola de Medicina Tropical. Como Isabel Amaral (2008) bem explicou, a emergência da medicina tropical portuguesa fez-se em grande medida a partir dessa escola, a par do Hospital Colonial, principalmente da primeira década do século XX em diante.…”

O Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo: marcas de sua criação, 1940-1959

“…As origens do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de Lisboa, criado em 1935, remontam à antiga Escola de Medicina Tropical -fundada em 1902 para oferecer ensino teórico e prático das chamadas doenças tropicais aos facultativos que se destinassem à Armada e às colônias portuguesas 5 . Porém, o que eram as doenças tropicais?…”