Molding soldiers, forming citizens: Doctor Eduardo Augusto Pereira de Abreu, the Paraguayan War, and physical education in Brazil

Abstract

The article discusses Eduardo Augusto Pereira de Abreu's Estudos higiênicos sobre a educação física, intelectual e moral do soldado (Hygienic studies on the physical, intellectual, and moral education of soldiers), published in 1867. Marked by the experience of the Paraguayan War, this was one of the first works that endeavored explicitly to conjoin medical and military concerns and to establish a clear link between molding a soldier and forming a citizen, both ready to defend the fatherland. Placing heavy emphasis on the practice of physical activities tied in with civism, robustness, and good health, the book both anticipated and influenced subsequent debates in Brazil on the importance of physical education.