The press and hygiene in nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro

Intensive efforts to urbanize the city of Rio de Janeiro and civilize its inhabitants began in the nineteenth century and the press was considered one of the most important instruments in this process of civilization, publishing a wide variety of knowledge and novelties in its periodicals that suggested a new way for the population to live.

In the article On caring for the body: the press and hygiene in nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro, Vinicius Cranek Gagliardo, Researcher at the Center for Research in Assistive Technologies/Hermínio Ometto Foundation, Professor at Nossa Senhora Auxiliadora Institute and Araras Secretary of Education, examines the pedagogical discourse constructed during this period and recommendations related to bodily hygiene and care.

Women and men became the targets of a series of prescriptions in the press that described in detail how the people of the city should care for their body and health, after all, a healthy body was a prerequisite for shaping men and women suitable to contribute to the future of the Empire.

Countless everyday elements became the target of hygiene measures by the authorities and doctors who worked in the city. Various periodicals, some edited by physicians and surgeons, described ways of caring for the body that included “daily cleaning and grooming, which have such a strong influence on health”.

Medical journals during the first half of the nineteenth century were nearly always published under the care of one of Rio de Janeiro’s medical institutions, such as the Society of Medicine or later, the Imperial Academy of Medicine. These specialized institutions and periodicals came to regulate the behavior of the medical corps, establishing scientific norms for the production, dissemination, review, and validation of medical knowledge, especially about problems related to the public and private health of the inhabitants .