Book rescues collection directed by a doctor who guided hygienist initiatives between 1935 and 1938
How does a certain cultural object become a didactic work, as happened with the collection Bibliotheca Popular de Hygiene: health for all, written by doctor Sebastião Barroso, published between 1935 and 1938? What, after all, is a school manual? The questions are examined in the study carried out by professor Heloísa Helena Pimenta Rocha for her professorship thesis, presented to the Faculty of Education at Unicamp. The work is now available in the book titled Rules of Good Living for Everyone: the Popular Hygiene Library by Dr. Sebastião Barroso, from the publisher Mercado das Letras, with financing from Fapesp.
“The title of the work is inspired by the type of content covered by the books in the collection and the purposes of intervening in the population’s ways of living, which guided initiatives in the field of hygiene”, states the author. Concern with health and hygiene issues assumed an important dimension in the first half of the 20th century in Brazil. Cities grew and, at the same time, the number of endemic or epidemic diseases increased.
The period was marked by initiatives aimed at expanding schooling, the dissemination of hygienist ideas and the movement in favor of rural sanitation. Especially from the 1920s onwards, the idea that health problems were related to the population's lack of education became common in the discourse of intellectuals and in the initiatives of public authorities. School manuals published in this context and aimed at primary schools, addressed topics related to cleanliness, nutrition, physical exercise and disease prevention.
In the study, the author analyzes the relationships between book, text and author, also highlighting the role of the editor in the way the collection was produced and aimed at different audiences. The author, doctor Sebastião Barroso (1866-1941), was an important disseminator of knowledge produced in the field of hygiene. A member of the team of public health scientist Oswaldo Cruz, Barroso also worked in the states of Minas Gerais, Pernambuco and Bahia, in addition to collaborating with various press organizations at the time. The editor, educator Lourenço Filho, was one of the most representative names in the educational renewal movement known as “Escola Nova”,
The 27-volume collection (published at the time by Editora Melhoramentos) Initially it was aimed at the general public. Its intended use for school audiences coincided with the moment in which circulation was reduced by almost half. For the author, the change is suggestive that the decision aimed to increase the number of readers of an editorial venture that, perhaps, had not achieved the expected success. For didactic use, The small books now have an appendix, containing guidance for teachers, in addition to indicating other titles from the publisher related to the topics covered. “The study showed that the composition of the covers and the wide use of images, among other characteristics, sought to give a 'popular' character to the books in the collection, as part of the editorial strategies implemented with a view to reaching the public”, adds the teacher.
"The images they occupied a significant place in the constitution of a rhetoric that aimed to shape readers' behaviors. The collection of images present in the pages of Sebastião Barroso's works, which includes numerous engravings and some black and white photographs, may be indicative of the mutations in relation to the understanding of diseases and their agents, as well as the prescriptions derived from them for prevention. of evils and the preservation of health”, says Heloísa.
Issues relating to communicable diseases, agents involved in their transmission, and prophylactic actions are recurrent in the titles of the Bibliotheca Popular de Hygiene. For the author, the explanation for this emphasis can be found, among other aspects, in the author's own trajectory, marked by his work in public health bodies focused on rural prophylaxis. “Different types of images run through the collection’s titles, which can be read as an investment in making the hygiene message accessible, even to those who have not mastered the writing codes”, she adds.
The copies studied by the teacher were acquired online and researched in various collections, such as the National Library, Monteiro Lobato Children's Library and Escola Normal de Minas Gerais, as part of a broader project financed by CNPq. The set of titles was consulted in the Historical Collection of Editora Melhoramentos, “which allowed access to privileged information about the year of publication, circulation and price at which the books were sold”, reports the author.
Since her master's degree, the professor has dedicated herself to studying the relationships between education and health. His doctoral thesis also gave rise to a book: “The hygiene of customs: education and health in the São Paulo Institute of Hygiene project (1918-1925)”. In the publication, Heloísa dedicated herself to the study of the health reform instituted in São Paulo in 1925, “which shifted the emphasis of health policy from policing to health education”.
