J Martins E Silva

Sobre a circulacao do sangue e anotacoes cardiovasculares J Martins E Silva

In the book "About Blood Circulation and Cardiovascular Annotations", by Professor J. Martins e Silva, the work is divided in 111 printed pages, which surgeon José Francisco Brandão published in 1761 with the purpose of supporting the study of blood circulation by his students. In fact, this good intention was resumed not to his own text but to a translation of a book by a French author (whose identity he did not disclose), in which Dr. Brandão, confessing not wanting to write a book, limited himself to adding comments and notes. Although the definition of the blood circulation model had been defined by William Harvey one hundred and thirty-three years earlier, it was found that this design would not be completely understood or accepted by contemporary authors and those of the following 150 years, which included the original translated work and Dr. Brandão himself. In the latter there were also detected, significant omissions of relevant works and conclusions dating back to antiquity. In the work now published, Brandão's text and the original that he translated are commented in order to foresee an evolution of the knowledge about the blood circulation and the cardiovascular system, from the first observations to the present. A propósito da edição da obra "Instrucçaõ Breve sobre a Circulaçam do Sangue" pelo cirurgião José Francisco Brandão, em 1761, João Martins e Silva, Professor da Faculdade de Medicina de Lisboa e um dos mais conceituados investigadores da História da Medicina Portuguesa, revisita toda a história da circulação sanguínea, apresentando, numa investigação profunda e rigorosa, os marcos históricos que precederam e envolveram a descoberta, proporcionando um testemunho vivo e detalhado do enorme esforço que foi necessário para a sua total compreensão e aceitação.