Publicação
Seeds against Smallpox: Joaquim Vás and the Scientific Translation of Wild Plantain Seeds in Goa
| dc.contributor.author | Roque, Ricardo | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2019-01-09T15:50:46Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2019-01-09T15:50:46Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2018 | |
| dc.description.abstract | In 1914, the Goan doctor António Joaquim Vás revealed to the medical community that he had discovered and applied, with clinical success, the curative secrets that wild plantain seeds offered against the effects of smallpox. Since his discovery in 1894 of the regular use of such seeds among the Hindu population in the region of Madras (now known as Chennai) in British India, Joaquim Vás was convinced that he had found a therapy that would effectively cure the terrible disease of smallpox. In this historical context, in India—one of the world regions most severely affected by the virus—Western-style medicine waged an inglorious and uncertain battle against smallpox, and vaccination was not yet widespread.1 The hypothesis that wild plantain seeds could cure smallpox was taken seriously by several Goan doctors. However, the uniqueness of the news of this discovery contrasts with current historical narratives concerning the fight against this disease, which suggest that the expansion of vaccination in the twentieth century led to the historical achievement of “eradicating smallpox.” But at the time when Joaquim Vás reported his seemingly astonishing discovery, the question of the prophylactic supremacy of vaccination had not yet been resolved. This chapter focuses on the narrative of António Joaquim Vás’s discovery as a starting point to analyze how this type of seed was the target of a collective endeavor by Goan practitioners of Western-style medicine, with a view to transforming the seed from an object used in Indian medicine to a scientific object of therapeutic use in the fight against smallpox. | pt_PT |
| dc.description.version | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion | pt_PT |
| dc.identifier.citation | Roque, R. (2018). Seeds against Smallpox: Joaquim Vás and the Scientific Translation of Wild Plantain Seeds in Goa. In Bala, P. (Ed.), Learning From Empire: Medicine, Knowledge, and Transfers under Portuguese Rule, pp. 174-206. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing | pt_PT |
| dc.identifier.isbn | 978-1-5275-1592-5 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10451/36305 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | pt_PT |
| dc.publisher | Cambridge Scholars Publishing | pt_PT |
| dc.subject | Vás, António Joaquim | pt_PT |
| dc.subject | Goa | pt_PT |
| dc.subject | History of science | pt_PT |
| dc.subject | Portuguese empire | pt_PT |
| dc.title | Seeds against Smallpox: Joaquim Vás and the Scientific Translation of Wild Plantain Seeds in Goa | pt_PT |
| dc.type | book part | |
| dspace.entity.type | Publication | |
| oaire.citation.conferencePlace | Newcastle | pt_PT |
| oaire.citation.endPage | 206 | pt_PT |
| oaire.citation.startPage | 174 | pt_PT |
| oaire.citation.title | Learning From Empire: Medicine, Knowledge, and Transfers under Portuguese Rule | pt_PT |
| person.familyName | Roque | |
| person.givenName | Ricardo | |
| person.identifier.ciencia-id | F11E-615F-A697 | |
| person.identifier.orcid | 0000-0002-9304-4103 | |
| person.identifier.rid | M-6065-2013 | |
| person.identifier.scopus-author-id | 26324711900 | |
| rcaap.rights | restrictedAccess | pt_PT |
| rcaap.type | bookPart | pt_PT |
| relation.isAuthorOfPublication | 52c40b1b-c121-4183-b851-1e4a52a601f5 | |
| relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery | 52c40b1b-c121-4183-b851-1e4a52a601f5 |