Mentor do dr. Humphreys: “saúde”, “doença” e “higiene” em um manual de medicina popular do final do século XIX

Abstract

This work aims, from the observation of a specific model of reading the health-disease phenomenon and therapeutic suggestion of the 19th century, to analyze some of the nuances that marked the process of insertion of homeopathy in that century, within a framework of disputes over space and legitimation in relation to orthodox medicine and other varied formats of knowledge and popular healing practices of the period. The study of the content of a homeopathic manual of popular medicine from the end of the 19th century, the “Humphrey’s Mentor”, focusing on the format of the discursive elements and the definition of dissemination strategies by its author, seems to point out some ways to understand aspects of a broader panorama in the field of health in the period: marked by different interpretations about “health” and “disease” and by the existence of different practices and agents of healing, at a time when medical hygiene was being appropriated as a central element for intervention initiatives on bodies and spaces.