In this article, I present an overview of bourgeois capitalist society's reactions to the classification of the use/abuse of alcoholic beverages as a disease, a change that occurred in the mid-nineteenth century. Relying main- ly on primary sources, I endeavor to recapture this history of the process by which a popular costume became labeled as a disease, based on changes in the social, political, and economic patterns that had prevailed since the late eighteenth century. In focusing on Brazil, I also intend to analyze how medicine - and doctors in particular - wielded an influence in the conso-lidation of this new attitude here. As a broad exploration of the topic, the article seeks to relate relevant attitudes and aspects from other societies to the movements that gained ground in Brazil and that worked to deter the consumption of alcoholic beverages, especially cheap hard liquor [aguardente] - known popularly as parati. The essay covers the period from the mid-nineteenth century to the second decade of the twentieth, but extends some observations beyond these dates.