ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the formation of the imaginary net which supports the popularization of biomedicine is partially linked to what Carlos Cossio called 'public opinion', an authorized or qualified opinion transmitted via an argumentative rhetoric that intends to influence popular opinion. The popularization of biomedicine was thus dependent, in large part, on the activity of certain legitimated carriers or spokespeople who helped translate and give shape to the lived experience of a collective. In order to understand the institutional supports related to the popularization of biomedical practice and knowledge in the fin de siecle, the chapter made use of the literary production of that time, particularly its novels. The chapter discusses the process of popularization of biomedicine during the period of its institutionalization in Brazil, from the late nineteenth century to the second decade of twentieth century.
