This study investigated the emergence of childhood as a social problem and how the subject was treated by hygienists, whom were graduates from the Medical School of Rio de Janeiro. This institution allowed broad dialogue with countries regarded as paradigms of civilization with regard to dissertations on the subject. At the same time, we attempted to analyze the imprints left by these hygienists' discourses on two institutions created between 1875 and 1899 in Rio de Janeiro, focused on children who were classified as orphans, abandoned, and destitute in the specialized literature and records of detention facilities. Working with knowledge-producing discourses focused on the management of these children in order to disseminate the mentioned discourses, our sources were constituted of theses, books and specialized journals, as well as documents from the boarding schools, which recorded their reform projects and described their daily and operational practices, such as regulations and reports.
hygiene; childhood; boarding schools; Rio de Janeiro (1875-1899)
