João Barbosa Rodrigues and “The Decrease of Water in Brazil”

Abstract The article has as its central theme the text A Diminuição das Águas no Brasil (‘The Decrease of Water in Brazil’), written by João Barbosa Rodrigues and published in the Report of the 3 rd Meeting of the Latin American Scientific Congress, held in the city of Rio de Janeiro, in 1905. Among the aspects highlighted, the construction of the author’s narrative, when defending his thesis on the decrease in the volume of water in rivers and springs throughout the country, brings peculiar aspects of his educational background as a botanist and scientist and of his network of relationships with the Brazilian and international scientific community.