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“Para que os jovens médicos paraguaios exercitem uma dupla missão, científica e patriótica”: a contribuição do naturalista e botânico Moisés Santiago Bertoni (La Civilización Guaraní, 1922-1927)

2016; Volume: 15; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.25761/anaisihmt.92

0303-7762

Eliane Cristina Deckmann Fleck,

History of Medicine and Tropical Health

The Swiss naturalist and botanist Moises Santiago Bertoni (1857- 1929) settled firstly in Misiones, Argentina (1884-1887), and after in Paraguay (1887-1929), where, in 1894, he founded the colony Puerto Bertoni and dedicated himself to research on the native fauna and flora and the natives, to the writing of his books – written in six languages and published through his publishing house, Ex-Sylvis –, as well as to the issuing of his observations in scientific publications of America and Europe. Throughout the almost four decades he lived in the region, Bertoni made sure to keep in tough with the production of the biggest centers of scientific research in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Guatemala and Equador, in particular, with the studies of Ethnology published in the Annaes da Biblioteca Nacional, in the Revista Brasileira and in the Revista do Instituto Historico e Geografico Brasileiro. Among his most important works are the – unfinished – work Descripcion fisica, economica y social del Paraguay and the three tomes of La Civilizacion Guarani. This article concentrates, especially, on the Libro II of the latter work, entitled La Medicina Guarani, dedicated by the author to the young Paraguayan medics, with the expectation that they understood their formation and work as a double mission, scientific and patriotic.