Although Brazil's twentieth century medicine was strong in the clinical tradition, this was no structural barrier to innovations from the realm of laboratory experiments, contrary to what some historians have argued. The broad debate over the rules of 'experimental methods' reveals a dimension of the struggle waged between proponents of rival medical theories, within a context where dissension among physicians threatened their scientific authority vis-à-vis that of other types of healers.
experimental medicine; history of medicine; history of Brazil