The article analyzes how the diseases that struck captives in colonial areas were named and explained in the treatise Observações sobre as enfermidades dos negros (1776), written by French surgeon for the troops on Santo Domingo Island, Jean-Barthélemy Dazille. Its translation into Portuguese by Surgeon-Major Antônio José Vieira de Carvalho informs us about the circulation of knowledge among these agents who worked overseas. Strongly informed by neo-Hippocratism and by other lines of enlightened medicine, Dazille's treatise and its translation raises considerations about the dangers of the so-called torrid zones, the general living and working conditions of "Negroes," and the ways in which these were attenuated.
slavery and disease; Jean-Barthélemy Dazille (1732/3-1812); enlightened medicine; Santo Domingo Island; Minas Gerais