Fernandes da Silva (Dr Julião)

Carta critica sobre o método curativo dos medicos funchalenses. MDCCLXI is the title of a volume of 310 pages, published in the form of a letter that ends with these words: ‘O seu mais dependente e intimo venerador I. F. D. S., Madeira 7 de Setembro de 1755’ (Your most dependent and intimate admirer I. F. D. S., Madeira, 7 September 1755). It gives neither the place (lugar) of publication nor the name of the printer.

As its title clearly indicates, this work is a lengthy critique – at times severe and biting, but very judicious and always well grounded by the knowledge of the time – of the way in which physicians practised medicine in Madeira in the mid-18th century. Although the author was young in years, as he himself admits in the letter, he displays an abundant store of knowledge of the healing art and was well versed in the works of the great masters, who at that time held full authority in medical matters.

On the value of the book from a strictly scientific point of view we can say nothing, since we entirely lack the competence to do so. The distinguished annotator of ‘Longing for the Homeland’ (Saudades da Terra) says of it ‘that it is curious and even useful, not only for the medical history of this archipelago but also for the study of the customs of the period. The phonetic spelling and aggressive diction of this letter reveal it to be the work of some bold innovator of the school of Luís António Verney’.

This important work treats several subjects with great interest and undoubtedly with remarkable proficiency, such as the measles epidemic, which claims so many victims here in Madeira, the illness and death of Bishop Dom João do Nascimento, and the causes of elephantiasis and the way to cure it. The book is altogether very curious and worth reading even by those outside medical science.

Who wrote this interesting book? Neither Inocêncio Francisco da Silva in the Diccionario Bibliographico nor Dr Álvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo in his valuable annotations to the work of Dr Gaspar Frutuoso gives us the slightest indication on this point. It was pure chance that allowed the distinguished Madeiran Councillor (conselheiro, honorary title of the royal council) Manuel José Vieira to discover the name, hidden perhaps for more than a century, of the talented and learned author of the Carta critica. Among the papers left by the late physician César A. Mourão Pita (see that entry), Councillor Vieira found a printed copy of the work and a manuscript copy, both of which we presume belonged to the illustrious Madeiran and eminent physician Dr António da Luz Pita (see that entry). A quick and simple comparison of the two volumes at once revealed that they were one and the same work. The manuscript, which appears to be the author’s own autograph, contains something the printed copies lack: an excessively laudatory letter dated 28 August 1755 from the Convent of São Francisco (St Francis of Assisi) in this city, written by Friar João de São José and addressed to the author of the book. For reasons unknown to us, this letter did not accompany the printed edition of the work. The manuscript names Dr Julião Fernandes da Silva as its author, and his name matches the initials found at the end of the printed volume perfectly. This interesting manuscript was discovered in July 1907 and promptly acquired by the Funchal Municipal Library (Biblioteca Municipal do Funchal), where it is at present. Dr Julião Fernandes da Silva was the son of Manuel da Silva and was born in Funchal between 1723 and 1726. He graduated in medicine from the University of Coimbra (Universidade de Coimbra), completing the course on 17 November 1748. Besides the Carta Critica, he wrote a work entitled Exame de Sangradores, which is mentioned in the Diccionario Bibliographico Portuguez.

The Diário do Commercio (‘Commercial Daily’) of 12 December 1909 published a detailed article on this subject, written by one of the editors of this Elucidario.

The illustrious professor and academician Dr Augusto da Silva Carvalho, who has published such valuable works on the history of medicine in Portugal, intended to deal at length with the Carta Critica… of Dr Julião Fernandes da Silva cited above, since it is a work of great scientific value for the period in which it was written, and so to rescue the name of its distinguished author from undeserved oblivion. He communicated this a few years ago to one of the editors of the Elucidario Madeirense, but as far as we know this promised and undoubtedly interesting study has not been published to date.