Jesuítas e medicina no Brasil colonial

Abstract

O objetivo deste artigo é analisar a ação dos jesuítas na área da saúde no Brasil colonial. Os inacianos incorporaram esta tarefa aos árduos ideais missionários e educacionais, mantendo em seus colégios boticas e enfermarias e atuando informalmente como físicos, sangradores e até cirurgiões. A escassez de médicos, pelo menos até o século XVIII, o alto preço das drogas e dos remédios oriundos de Portugal e do Oriente e a sua freqüente deterioração nos navios e nos portos obrigaram-nos a se voltarem para os recursos naturais oferecidos pela terra e para os saberes curativos dos indígenas.This article considers the Jesuit action in the health domain and the healing arts in colonial Brazil. The curing hands of the Jesuits were a great anchor to colonial health. Since the beginning of its establishment and organization, the Company of Jesus in Brazil have incorporated this task among its arduous missionary and educational goals by keeping pharmacies and infirmaries in its colleges. The scarcity of licensed physicians trained in the medical schools of Europe, at least until the eighteenth century, the high price of drugs and remedies coming from Portugal and the East, and their frequent deterioration en route on merchant ships and in port warehouses, obliged the colonial physicians to revert to local natural resources and to the healing knowledge of the indigenous people.Cet article analyse l'action des jésuites dans la médecine au Brésil colonial. Les ignaciens ont incorporé cette tâche a ses idéaux missionnaires et éducatifs en maintenant des pharmacies et des enfermeries dans leurs collèges, aussi que en agissant informellement en tant que physiciens, saigneurs et même chirurgiens. Le manque de médecins, du moins jusqu'au XVIIIe siècle, le prix excessif des drogues et des médicaments provenant du Portugal et d'Orient, bien que son habituelle déterioration dans les vaisseaux et dans les ports, les ont obligé a se tourner vers les ressources naturelles et les connaissances de la pharmacopée indienne.