[Poverty and Sickness. The precarious lives of lower-class families in Würzburg and Göttingen, 1800-1850].

Abstract

This contribution focuses on the medical practice of the policlinics in Würzburg and Göttingen in the first half of the nineteenth century. In these institutions patients were treated free of charge by medical students and assistant physicians who, in turn, were able to gain further experience and develop their skills. The policlinics were therefore an important part of poor-healthcare in both these cities. The essay tries in particular to illustrate healthcare for poor patients against the background of their everyday lives and working environment. Based on the situation of individual poor patients, the concepts of 'sickness' and 'poverty' are discussed as mutually dependent determinants of the 'reality of life' among the urban lower classes. This contribution combines the evaluation of medical practice journals and patient histories with the analysis of source materials on urban poor relief and healthcare. It looks particularly at the children and elderly people who attended the policlinics. The encounters between physicians and poor patients documented in the sources not only provide valuable insights into historical patient behaviours, they also open up new perspectives of the physician-patient relationship during the nineteenth century transition from the 'sickbed-society' to hospital medicine.