Physiological Research on Blood and Interpretations of Brazil in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

Abstract

Objective: analyze how research on blood physiology in Brazil informed the debates about historical and social development of Brazilian society. Development: through Brazilian historiography and the investigation of scientific works from Walter Oswaldo Cruz and Hematology Department of Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, this paper interpret the social content of scientific concepts on blood in medical works about the so called tropical anemias, racial distribution of blood groups and measurement of hemoglobin quantity. Conclusion: In opposite to the historiography that restricts physiology history to some personalities, instituttions and facts, alternative histories fo physiology offers a richer framework in which knowledge production goes beyond natural sciences.

Keywords

• history
• health
• blood
• physiology
• Brazil.