John Banister: an Elizabethan surgeon in Brazil

In Brazil's sixteenth-century history, very few references are made to health professionals. On the expedition of Edward Fenton, dispatched by the English Crown in 1582 to set up a trading post in Asia, was the famous barber-surgeon and physician John Banister. The naval squadron, diverted from its original route to repeat the feats of Sir Francis Drake, stopped over in Africa, crossed the Atlantic and anchored off the Santa Catarina coast in Brazil. In these waters, the expedition degenerated into piracy and returned unsuccessful to Europe. John Banister is considered the person who liberated English anatomy from mediaeval slavery, shedding upon it the light of the Renaissance. It was the first time that anyone of this importance in the area of health had visited these latitudes.