Madeira Island as Center for the Treatment of Pulmonary Diseases in the Mid-19th Century

Abstract

The microbiological revolution of the late 19^th century produced a profound change not only in the pathology, in the clinic and in the treatment of chronic and contagious diseases, but also in epidemiology and preventive medicine. In this context, the study of diseases and their relation to the environment occupied a central position. Although the starting point of the ecological approach was the Hippocratic treatise on airs, water and places – inspiring an environmentalist tradition that remained for more than two millennia – 19^th century medicine began to look again at geography and the environment as disease conditioning factors.
The island of Madeira with its very particular climate began to be spoken at the international level in the late 18^th century and during the first half of the 19^th century as the ideal place to treat diseases of the respiratory system such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, pleuritis or bronchitis. The mild temperature, the good insolation, the maritime and mountainous geography, the depressive barometry and the hygrometry were factors studied and highlighted by the national and international medical community as excellent for the treatment of these diseases.
With this work we intend at first contextualize from the environmental and climatic point of view the particularities of the island of Madeira to justify its search as a climatotherapeutic resort for several decades, based on the medical studies of the island between the end of the 18^th century until the mid-19^th century. Secondly, we intend to show how the therapeutic use of Madeira climate was achieved, thought the institutionalization of the Funchal Hospice, the first hospital in Portugal dedicated to the treatment of pulmonary diseases.
For that we use documents of the time such as medical manuals, medical theses and periodicals articles that allow us to follow the ideas and medical justifications for the search and therapeutic use of the elements of the Madeira climate for the treatment of pulmonary diseases.

Keywords

Madeira; Portugal; Hospital; Climatotherapy; Funchal Hospice; Tuberculosis; Pulmonar Diseases.