Between 1910 and 1913, two renowned physicians in the city of São Paulo found themselves engaged in a scientific controversy regarding the classification of a disease then assailing the state. Antonio Carini, director of the Instituto Pasteur de São Paulo, believed the illness to be small pox, while Emílio Ribas, director of the Serviço Sanitário, claimed it was allastrim, or milk pox. The controversy started in the Sociedade de Medicina e Cirurgia but later migrated to other forums and came to incorporate other figures as well. This presentation and discussion of the polemic is meant as a contribution to our understanding of the process by which a scientific consensus is constructed and solidified within the field of the biomedical sciences.
social science studies; history of science; sociology of science; history of public health