Febres paulistas and the São Paulo society of medicine and surgery: a controversy among spokespeople from different arenas of knowledge

Abstract

At the close of the nineteenth century, São Paulo physicians were debating a disease they classified as "febres paulistas" (São Paulo fevers). The article present a brief overview of the role of fevers within Brazilian nosology at that time and describes how science then explained febres paulistas, malaria, and typhoid fever. Changes in the medical field meant febres paulistas were no longer classified as forms of malaria but instead considered cases of typhoid fever. Following the Society's debates surrounding this shift, the article analyzes the scientific lines that tended to identify febres paulistas with malaria or typhoid fever and also the line that believed these fevers were an independent nosological entity.