This paper deals with the discussions about the ways of yellow fever transmission that took place between the years of 1896 and 1900 in the Sociedade de Medicina e Cirurgia de São Paulo, and centers around the figure of one of the most important physicians of the period, Luis Pereira Barreto. It discusses the main arguments defended by the physicians involved in the controversies and shows the contribution of that society in the process of the acceptance of the theory of culicidean transmission of the disease in Brazil.
public health; yellow fever; culicidean transmission