Abstract
This article offers preliminary reflections about educational proposals aimed at the combat of venereal diseases in the Navy, disseminated in two works by military doctors in the 1920s and 1930s in Brazil: Diseases in the World (1923), by the doctor and Captain-of-Corvette João Pires Porto-Carrero, and Venereal Diseases in the Brazilian Navy (1933), written by the doctor and Captain-of-Sea-and-War Artur do Valle Lins. The analysis focuses on two central aspects: the national debates about venereal diseases as obstacles to the construction of a Brazilian nation, and their presence in educational proposals presented in books produced by military doctors about the fight against venereal diseases in the Brazilian Naval Force. Through the analysis of these publications, it was possible to notice an intimate relationship between eugenics, sanitarism and the fight against such diseases in the context of a construction project in the Brazilian nation, something that was present not only in the educational army proposals, but has also permeated national debates in the medical field.
Key-words:
Brazilian Navy; venereal diseases; eugenics; sanitarism; health education