Between Goa and America: knowledge about cancer in two books written by Jesuits (XVIII century)

knowledge about cancer in two books written by Jesuits (XVIII century)

Abstract

In this work, we comparatively analyze two works written by Jesuits in the early XVIII century, the first in India and the second in America, which contained a chapter on cancer. Both works were influenced by the humoral theory/Hippocratic-Galenic medicine, with appropriations, on the one hand, of magical-astrological knowledge and, on the other, of Ayurvedic medicine. It was possible to verify that the work written in America was more aggressive in treatments due to the investment in surgical removals and cauterizations, while the work written in Goa presented options more associated with the use of plants and plasters in diseases. It is pointed out that a comparative analysis of the works depends on an analysis of the networks involving provincial procurators and the participation of missionaries in the macroeconomic structuring at the beginning of the first modernity. The sources analyzed consisted of medical-surgical and pharmacy treatises from the early XVIII century, period dictionaries, as well as Cartas Anuas from the Jesuit Province of Paraguay and bibliography on the first modernity.