Tea, Coffee, Curare, and Tropical Climate in the Experiments of the Brazilian Experimental Physiology in late Nineteenth-Century

Abstract

Objective: this work deals with the development of the Brazilian experimental physiology in late nineteenth-century. Content: it analyzes some experiments on toxic plants, the nutritional effects of coffee, herb mate, dried meat and the food consumption in hot and cold environments, held at the Laboratory of Experimental Physiology in the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, created in 1880. This laboratory was financed by the Imperial Government, Ministry of Agriculture, and personally supported by the emperor Pedro II. It was created and headed by the Brazilian Physician João Baptista Lacerda and the French physiologist Louis Couty. Conclusions: While its organization was based on the European physiology, its researches privileged national themes. The physiologists were interested not only on the classical issues of physiology, but on the plants and natural products that played a role on the Brazilian economy. They even created their own experimental apparatuses, such as a cold chamber for climatic studies. In order to legitimate the Brazilian physiology, in Brazil and abroad, the researchers associated scientific and practical in­terests in their studies. The chance of social-economical use of their studies could explain the interests of the Brazilian elite and the support of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Keywords

• experimental physiology
• circulation of knowledge
• history of science in Brazil