The spread of schooling in Brazil represented a long and complex process that required the adoption of a set of strategies directed towards the health of the students, as well as the identification and correction of every "abnormality". The School Medical Inspection in Sao Paulo (Brazil) - created in 1911, as a section of the Sanitary Service, and transferred, in 1916, to the General Management of Public Instruction - is analyzed, in an; attempt to understand the relationship between the hygiene guidelines and the objectives of creating a modern and universal elementary education, between the late 19(th) and early 20(th) Century. Some of the practices instituted in the elementary schools of Sao Paulo are examined, as well as the performance of the school's medical staff, and especially the practices that aimed at producing scientific knowledge with regard to childhood.41199+