The eclectic world of those who healed

surgeons of Cavalry Regiments in the captaincy of Minas Gerais and their communications to the royal sphere (1771/1807)

Abstract

In this article, we will deal with the universe of subjects who, alongside doctors, formed the hierarchical structure of public health, the surgeons. However, in total distinction from the former, these were socially seen as inferior, as they performed mechanical tasks, such as dressing wounds, fractures, dislocations, tumor extractions, abscesses and minor surgical interventions. Due to their practical training, dispensing with the intellectual knowledge of physicians, surgeons were much more easily found. They could have come from groups of bleeders, barbers, and many others who were healing in the municipalities. Surgeons thus formed, alongside agents of the healing arts, most of the structure responsible for applying therapies to patients in the captaincy of Minas Gerais. In view of the marked absence of physicians trained in European universities, it was up to surgeons to care for all sorts of illnesses, and many of them sought to act on two well-defined fronts: as party surgeons (working alongside a city council) or providing their services services in a military regiment.