Júlio Afrânio Peixoto

Infobox Writer
name = Júlio Afrânio Peixoto


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pseudonym = Afrânio Peixoto
birthname =
birthdate = December 17, 1876
birthplace = Lençóis, Bahia, Brazil
deathdate = January 12, 1947
deathplace = Rio de Janeiro
occupation = Physician, writer, politician
nationality = Brazilian
ethnicity =
citizenship =
period = 1900-1947
genre = Novels, histories, biographies, linquistics
subject =
movement = Symbolism
notableworks = "Rosa Mística"
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partner =
children =
relatives =
influences = Machado de Assis, Euclides da Cunha
influenced =
awards = Academia Brazileira de Letras Academia Nacional de Medicina


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portaldisp = Dr. Júlio Afrânio Peixoto (Lençóis, Bahia, Brazil December 17, 1876 — Rio de Janeiro, January 12, 1947) was a Brazilian physician, writer, politician, historian, university president, and pioneering eugenicist. He held many public offices, including Brazilian congressional representative from Bahia in the federal "Câmara de Deputados" (federal congressman) (1924-1930), first the president of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro), member of the Brazil-United States Cultural Institute, president of the Academia Brasileira de Letras, and honorary doctorates from Coimbra University and the University of Lisbon, Portugal.

Biography

Born and raised in the backlands of Bahia and schooled mostly at home, Afrânio Peixoto nevertheless graduated in medicine in Salvador, at Brazil's oldest medical school, in 1897, when he was only 21 years old. His work "Epilepsy and crime" attracted national and international attention. In 1902 he moved to the then Brazilian capital, Rio de Janeiro, and became a public health inspector and the director of the asylum ("Hospital Nacional de Alienados", currently "Hospital Juliano Moreira"). In 1907 he began lecturing at the "Faculdade de Medicina". He married Francisca de Faria, in 1912, with whom he had only one son, "Juquinha" ("Little Juca"), who was both mentally ill and of poor physical health and who died in 1942. To what extent his son's disabilities may have influenced Afrânio's opinions as a eugenicist is still debated. Dr. Júlio Afrânio Peixoto died without heir from prostate cancer on January 12, 1947, at 70 years of age.

Medicine

Afrânio Peixoto was a student and follower of Juliano Moreira, who initiated the scientific treatment of mental illness in Brazil and who invited his young protege to Rio de Janeiro.

Afrânio Peixoto was active in many areas: mental health, public health, criminology, and workers' health. He was important in establishing the foundations of workers' health when he took the chair of forensic medicine in both the medical and law schools in Rio de Janeiro in 1907. From his pioneering studies of occupational risks and job-related accidents and diseases, many publications were released, and legal safety nets were finally established for Brazilian workers.

The only negative aspect of Afrânio Peixoto's highly successful career in medicine was his dispute with Brazilian parasitologist Carlos Chagas over the cause of what later became known as Chagas disease. Afrânio Peixoto used his influence and prestige to dispute Carlos Chagas' clinical and parasitological findings and to transfer credit for the discovery of the trypanosome to Oswaldo Cruz, much to the disadvantage of all concerned parties. Chagas disease is a chronic and debilitating parasitosis caused by a trypanosome that is vectored by a biting bug in rural areas. A commission of the Brazilian National Academy of Medicine reviewed the evidence and decided completely in favor of Carlos Chagas and against Afrânio Peixoto, whose real motive may have been professional resentment when he was passed over for the directorship of the Brazilian Department of Public Health in preference for his rival.

Literature

It is in his writings that Afrânio Peixoto lives on, although most of his vast and varied literary output is currently out of print in Brazil and has apparently not been translated. The Library of Congress online catalog [http://www.loc.gov/index.html] shows no English language translations and few modern editions in Portugues (see: Peixoto, Afrânio). Other Brazilian literary figures of the first half of the twentieth century have fared better in the public's memory. The humorous short story "The Alienist" by Machado de Assis, for example, is required reading for many Brazilian university entrance exams, but students do not know that this could almost be a satire on Afrânio Peixoto and the "Hospital Nacional de Alienados" that he directed.

Afrânio Peixoto's principal works are: "Rosa mística", drama (1900); "Lufada sinistra", novel (1900); "A esfinge", novel (1911); "Maria Bonita", novel (1914); "Minha terra e minha gente", history (1915); "Poeira da estrada", literary critism (1918); "Trovas brasileiras" (1919); "José Bonifácio, o velho e o moço", biography (1920); "Fruta do mato", novel (1920); "Castro Alves, o poeta e o poema" (1922); "Bugrinha", novel (1922); "Dicionário dos Lusíadas", linguistic dictionary (1924); "Camões e o Brasil", essays (1926); "Arte poética", essay (1925); "As razões do coração", novel (1925); "Uma mulher como as outras", novel (1928); "História da literatura brasileira" (1931); "Panorama da literatura brasileira" (1940); "Pepitas", essays (1942); "Collected works" (1942); "Literary works" , ed. Jackson, 25 vols. (1944); "Collected novels" (1962). In addition to these, he published the commented works of other authors and numerous books on medicine, history, oratory, and literature.

Afrânio Peixoto may well become known once again to readers, but only in 2017 when the Brazilian copyright on his works expires and these can be distributed freely on the internet. These works are a window to the past, to a Brazil long since replaced by modernity and a headlong rush to development at any price, to a Brazil that was the child to today's young adult.

Political views

In his political views, amply expressed while he was living, Júlio Afrânio claimed to be at side of any government in power. During his lifetime Brazil had five constituitions and ranged from democracy to dictatorship under Getúlio Vargas. Afrânio was a leftist, but not a fanatical leftist. He was interested in human genetics and eugenics. He held now discredited views on race, but he was never antisemitic. Júlio Afrânio Peixoto was also an atheist and a freemason.

Legacy and link with eugenics

While he was living, Dr. Júlio Afrânio Peixoto was, both respected and hated.His books, more than 90, were read and sold very well.Today, he is a forgotten person in Brazil.His books aren't edited, since for many decades.If good art, doesn't gets older, the literature of this author was bad, it because really got older.

While he was living,until 1930 decade, Dr. Júlio Afrânio Peixoto, gave support to eugenics.In fact, he was the leader of eugenics in Brazil.Eugenics in Brazil was a complete failure.The failure of eugenics in Brazil, came for three main razons:

1-Total opposition from public opinion, we must remember that in 1930, more than 95% of brazilian people was catholic.Worldwyde, eugenics was a popular movement only with protestants, jews and xintosists (in Japan ).

2-No rich or powerfull person, gave real support to eugenics, in Brazil.The brazilian military and Roman catholic church clergy was against eugenics , from its first day.

3-The brazilian scientific community nerver gave, real support to eugenics.This was became bigger, when Dr. Júlio Afrânio Peixoto wrote a fake work, against Carlos Chagas, in 1921.This was terrible for the scientific prestige, of this eugenicist.Being a freemason, his public job wasn't retired.

Two sentences told by this brazilian eugenicist

* "I'll would exchanges all my titles, for the right to have an alive descendency." >Sentence told, when he lost his only son, an always sick and retarded person.

* "Every man dies two times.The second death comes, when he is forgotten."

See also

* Article on Afrânio Peixoto in the Portuguese language Wikipedia [http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afr%C3%A2nio_Peixoto]
* Article on Afrânio Peixoto in the Biblioteca Virtual (in Portuguese) [http://www.biblio.com.br/defaultz.asp?link=http://www.biblio.com.br/conteudo/biografias/afraniopeixoto.htm]

References

* Joaquim A. César Mota, Eliane M. Teixeira Lopes, Silvana M. L. Cóser; Organized by Micael M. Herschmann and Carlos Alberto Messeder Pereira. "A Invenção do Brasil Moderno". Rio de Janeiro: Rocco Publishing House.