Júlio Afrânio Peixoto
Encyclopedia
Dr. Júlio Afrânio Peixoto (Lençóis
, Bahia
, Brazil
December 17, 1876 — Rio de Janeiro
, January 12, 1947) was a Brazilian physician, writer, politician, historian, university president, and pioneering eugenicist. He held many public offices, including Brazilian congressional representative from Bahia in the federal Câmara de Deputados (federal congressman) (1924–1930), first the president of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, member of the Brazil-United States Cultural Institute, president of the Academia Brasileira de Letras, and honorary doctorates from Coimbra University and the University of Lisbon, Portugal
.
, at Brazil's oldest medical school, in 1897, when he was only 21 years old. His work "Epilepsy and crime" attracted national and international attention. In 1902 he moved to the then-Brazilian capital, Rio de Janeiro, and became a public health inspector and the director of the local mental hospital (Hospital Nacional de Alienados, currently Hospital Juliano Moreira). In 1907 he began lecturing at the Faculdade de Medicina. He married Francisca de Faria, in 1912, and they had one child, a son, "Juquinha" ("Little Juca"), who was both mentally ill and of poor physical health and who died in 1942. The extent to which his son's disabilities may have influenced Afrânio's opinions as a eugenicist is still debated. Dr. Júlio Afrânio Peixoto died of prostate
cancer
on January 12, 1947, at 70 years of age.
Afrânio Peixoto was active in many areas: mental health, public health, criminology, and workers' health. He was important in establishing the foundations of workers' health when he took the chair of forensic medicine in both the medical and law schools in Rio de Janeiro in 1907. From his pioneering studies of occupational risks
and job-related accidents and diseases, many publications were released, and legal safety nets were finally established for Brazilian workers.
The only negative aspect of Afrânio Peixoto's highly successful career in medicine was his dispute with Brazilian parasitologist Carlos Chagas
over the cause of what later became known as Chagas disease
. Afrânio Peixoto used his influence and prestige to dispute Carlos Chagas' clinical and parasitological findings and to transfer credit for the discovery of the trypanosome
to Oswaldo Cruz, much to the disadvantage of everyone concerned. Chagas disease is a chronic and debilitating parasitosis caused by a trypanosome
that is vectored by a biting bug
in rural areas. A commission of the Brazilian National Academy of Medicine
reviewed the evidence and decided completely in favor of Carlos Chagas and against Afrânio Peixoto, whose real motive may have been professional resentment when he was passed over for the directorship of the Brazilian Department of Public Health in preference for his rival.
Afrânio Peixoto's principal works are: Rosa mística, drama (1900); Lufada sinistra, novel (1900); A esfinge, novel (1911); Maria Bonita, novel (1914); Minha terra e minha gente, history (1915); Poeira da estrada, literary criticism (1918); Trovas brasileiras (1919); José Bonifácio, o velho e o moço, biography (1920); Fruta do mato, novel (1920); Castro Alves, o poeta e o poema (1922); Bugrinha, novel (1922); Dicionário dos Lusíadas, linguistic dictionary (1924); Camões e o Brasil, essays (1926); Arte poética, essay (1925); As razões do coração, novel (1925); Uma mulher como as outras, novel (1928); História da literatura brasileira (1931); Panorama da literatura brasileira (1940); Pepitas, essays (1942); Collected works (1942); Literary works , ed. Jackson, 25 vols. (1944); Collected novels (1962). In addition to these, he published the commented works of other authors and numerous books on medicine, history, oratory, and literature.
In 2017, the Brazilian copyright on Afrânio Peixoto's works expires; after this, they can be distributed freely on the internet.
. Afrânio was a leftist, but not a fanatical leftist. He was interested in human genetics and eugenics. He held now-discredited views on race, but he was never antisemitic. Júlio Afrânio Peixoto was also an atheist and a freemason.
Lençóis
Lençóis is a municipality/county in the state of Bahia in Brazil. The population in 2004 is 9,590. The town has a well-preserved colonial atmosphere and is the starting point for treks into Chapada Diamantina....
, Bahia
Bahia
Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
December 17, 1876 — Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, January 12, 1947) was a Brazilian physician, writer, politician, historian, university president, and pioneering eugenicist. He held many public offices, including Brazilian congressional representative from Bahia in the federal Câmara de Deputados (federal congressman) (1924–1930), first the president of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, member of the Brazil-United States Cultural Institute, president of the Academia Brasileira de Letras, and honorary doctorates from Coimbra University and the University of Lisbon, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
.
Biography
Born and raised in the backlands of Bahia and schooled mostly at home, Afrânio Peixoto nevertheless graduated in medicine in SalvadorSalvador, Bahia
Salvador is the largest city on the northeast coast of Brazil and the capital of the Northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. Salvador is also known as Brazil's capital of happiness due to its easygoing population and countless popular outdoor parties, including its street carnival. The first...
, at Brazil's oldest medical school, in 1897, when he was only 21 years old. His work "Epilepsy and crime" attracted national and international attention. In 1902 he moved to the then-Brazilian capital, Rio de Janeiro, and became a public health inspector and the director of the local mental hospital (Hospital Nacional de Alienados, currently Hospital Juliano Moreira). In 1907 he began lecturing at the Faculdade de Medicina. He married Francisca de Faria, in 1912, and they had one child, a son, "Juquinha" ("Little Juca"), who was both mentally ill and of poor physical health and who died in 1942. The extent to which his son's disabilities may have influenced Afrânio's opinions as a eugenicist is still debated. Dr. Júlio Afrânio Peixoto died of prostate
Prostate
The prostate is a compound tubuloalveolar exocrine gland of the male reproductive system in most mammals....
cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
on January 12, 1947, at 70 years of age.
Medicine
Afrânio Peixoto was a student and follower of Juliano Moreira, who initiated the scientific treatment of mental illness in Brazil and who invited his young protege to Rio de Janeiro.Afrânio Peixoto was active in many areas: mental health, public health, criminology, and workers' health. He was important in establishing the foundations of workers' health when he took the chair of forensic medicine in both the medical and law schools in Rio de Janeiro in 1907. From his pioneering studies of occupational risks
Occupational Hazard
Occupational Hazard is the fourth studio album by noise rock band Unsane, released on June 23, 1998 under Relapse Records. The song "Committed" is featured on the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater soundtrack.-Track listing:#"Committed"#"This Plan"#"Over Me"...
and job-related accidents and diseases, many publications were released, and legal safety nets were finally established for Brazilian workers.
The only negative aspect of Afrânio Peixoto's highly successful career in medicine was his dispute with Brazilian parasitologist Carlos Chagas
Carlos Chagas
Carlos Justiniano Ribeiro Chagas, or Carlos Chagas , was a Brazilian sanitary physician, scientist and bacteriologist who worked as a clinician and researcher. He discovered Chagas disease, also called American trypanosomiasis in 1909, while working at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute in Rio de Janeiro...
over the cause of what later became known as Chagas disease
Chagas disease
Chagas disease is a tropical parasitic disease caused by the flagellate protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. T. cruzi is commonly transmitted to humans and other mammals by an insect vector, the blood-sucking insects of the subfamily Triatominae most commonly species belonging to the Triatoma, Rhodnius,...
. Afrânio Peixoto used his influence and prestige to dispute Carlos Chagas' clinical and parasitological findings and to transfer credit for the discovery of the trypanosome
Trypanosoma
Trypanosoma is a genus of kinetoplastids , a monophyletic group of unicellular parasitic flagellate protozoa. The name is derived from the Greek trypano and soma because of their corkscrew-like motion. All trypanosomes are heteroxenous and are transmitted via a vector...
to Oswaldo Cruz, much to the disadvantage of everyone concerned. Chagas disease is a chronic and debilitating parasitosis caused by a trypanosome
Trypanosoma
Trypanosoma is a genus of kinetoplastids , a monophyletic group of unicellular parasitic flagellate protozoa. The name is derived from the Greek trypano and soma because of their corkscrew-like motion. All trypanosomes are heteroxenous and are transmitted via a vector...
that is vectored by a biting bug
Reduviidae
Reduviidae is a large, cosmopolitan family of predatory insects in the suborder Heteroptera...
in rural areas. A commission of the Brazilian National Academy of Medicine
Academia Nacional de Medicina
Academia Nacional de Medicina is the Brazilian National Academy of Medicine, a body composed by the most august representatives of Brazilian medicine....
reviewed the evidence and decided completely in favor of Carlos Chagas and against Afrânio Peixoto, whose real motive may have been professional resentment when he was passed over for the directorship of the Brazilian Department of Public Health in preference for his rival.
Literature
It is in his writings that Afrânio Peixoto lives on, although most of his vast and varied literary output is currently out of print in Brazil and has apparently not been translated. The Library of Congress online catalog http://www.loc.gov/index.html shows no English language translations and few modern editions in Portugues (see: Peixoto, Afrânio). Other Brazilian literary figures of the first half of the twentieth century have fared better in the public's memory. The humorous short story The Alienist by Machado de Assis, for example, is required reading for many Brazilian university entrance exams, but students do not know that this could almost be a satire on Afrânio Peixoto and the Hospital Nacional de Alienados that he directed.Afrânio Peixoto's principal works are: Rosa mística, drama (1900); Lufada sinistra, novel (1900); A esfinge, novel (1911); Maria Bonita, novel (1914); Minha terra e minha gente, history (1915); Poeira da estrada, literary criticism (1918); Trovas brasileiras (1919); José Bonifácio, o velho e o moço, biography (1920); Fruta do mato, novel (1920); Castro Alves, o poeta e o poema (1922); Bugrinha, novel (1922); Dicionário dos Lusíadas, linguistic dictionary (1924); Camões e o Brasil, essays (1926); Arte poética, essay (1925); As razões do coração, novel (1925); Uma mulher como as outras, novel (1928); História da literatura brasileira (1931); Panorama da literatura brasileira (1940); Pepitas, essays (1942); Collected works (1942); Literary works , ed. Jackson, 25 vols. (1944); Collected novels (1962). In addition to these, he published the commented works of other authors and numerous books on medicine, history, oratory, and literature.
In 2017, the Brazilian copyright on Afrânio Peixoto's works expires; after this, they can be distributed freely on the internet.
Political views
In his political views, amply expressed while he was living, Júlio Afrânio claimed to be on the side of whatever government is in power. During his lifetime Brazil had five constituitions and ranged from democracy to dictatorship under Getúlio VargasGetúlio Vargas
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas served as President of Brazil, first as dictator, from 1930 to 1945, and in a democratically elected term from 1951 until his suicide in 1954. Vargas led Brazil for 18 years, the most for any President, and second in Brazilian history to Emperor Pedro II...
. Afrânio was a leftist, but not a fanatical leftist. He was interested in human genetics and eugenics. He held now-discredited views on race, but he was never antisemitic. Júlio Afrânio Peixoto was also an atheist and a freemason.
See also
- Article on Afrânio Peixoto in the Portuguese language Wikipedia
- Article on Afrânio Peixoto in the Biblioteca Virtual