Chemistry in the training of doctors and pharmacists

Torres Homem’s speech (Brazil, nineteenth century)

Abstract

Although it can be considered a pioneer because it deals with teaching chemistry in Brazil in the 19th century, Joaquim Vicente de Torres Homem’s speech in the chair of medical chemistry and elementary principles of mineralogy, proclaimed in a session of the Chamber of Deputies in 1834, it is still little known or mentioned by those who study the formal and regular instruction of the first doctors and pharmacists graduated in Brazil. The idea of this work, then, is to present, with an introductory text, an unprecedented edition of this important document from the time of the institutionalization of medical and pharmaceutical knowledge after the reorganization of medical schools in 1832.