The article analyzes certain scientific ideas tbatBrazilianpbysicians, andparticularly sypbilologists, b ave bela about tbis disease. During tbe 1920's especially, tbese specialists constructed a uniqitely Brazilian version oftbe disease as tbey debated withforeign specialists on tbe origins, symptoms, and incidence of sypbilis in Brazil. In tbeirformulations, syphilis became a kind of natural symbol tbrougb whicb tbey expressed tbeirdesires to play a leading role witbin tbe International scientific community andputforth efforts to earn Brazil a new status in tbeworld ranking ofnations contesting tbe notion tbat Brazil was forever doomed to backwardness and barbarism becanse it was a tropical country with a racially mixed population.
medicai anthropology; history of medicine; sexuality; nationalism; syphilis