The article reproduces and comments on an important primary source that is often cited in studies on Brazil's history of health but which few are familiar with in its entirety: the October 1916 speech by physician Miguel Pereira, in which he referred to rural Brazil as an "enormous hospital." The standard interpretation is that this source had a steady, decisive influence on public health policies in the first half of the twentieth century. In this text, I endeavor to deepen our knowledge of the historical circumstances which produced this expression that synthesized the 'evils of Brazil', especially in regard to the era's discussion of mandatory military recruitment and of the army as a 'civics school'.
Miguel Pereira; sanitarism; nationalism; army; Brazil
