Medizin, Gesellschaft, und Geschichte : Jahrbuch des Instituts fur Geschichte der Medizin der Robert Bosch Stiftung最新文献

The nearly 500 pages of letters (edited and commented in a medical dissertation by the author), written by a Prussian Princess in the 19th century to Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homoeopathy, provide a fairly complete patient history thanks to the homoeopathic method which obliges patients to observe and describe the complaints and the changes they experience during treatment. The achievements of Hahnemann's therapy were so remarkable that the patient engaged his disciple Dr.Julius Aegidi as her court physician during the years 1831 to 1834. In no other of Hahnemann's published case histories so many dreams are described. The diagnosis within the historical context could be hysteria, hypochondria and melancholy. The therapy consisted in the prescription of homoeopathic remedies but also, among other prescriptions, in taking placebos, application of mesmerism, diet and life style advice. Hahnemann was opposed to vaccination. The doctor-patient-relationship became very intense. It can be said that Hahnemann acted as a psychotherapist. As the Princess rather liked speaking about her complaints her compliance in describing symptoms was excellent. It was less so in taking verum, applying mesmerism and changing her lifestyle. The success of the treatment was limited by the Princess's court and family circumstances and probably by Hahnemann's restriction to psora theory and C30 potencies. The dissertation is the most extensive patient history from Hahnemann's medical practice ever published.

The social competence of the medieval nobleman was closely associated with his male sense of honour. One essential aspect of his masculinity was the ability to produce progeny. The childlessness of a good ruler needed special justification, the childlessness of a bad ruler was seen as God's punishment. In terms of canon law, the inability to procreate was irrelevant as long as the marriage could be consummated. Considering the importance of the procreative capacity and its symbolic significance one must ask to what extent it was possible to ascertain sterility in the Middle Ages. In the case of noblemen one can assume that they could obtain certainty about their fertility through their premarital and extramarital intercourse. This might explain why some rulers and nobles accepted a childless marriage without deeming it necessary to take another wife (or plan their itinerary in a way that enabled them to produce progeny).

This paper describes the physician-patient relationship in early modern Thuringia. Its main historical source are a hundred patient records concerning 'mole pregnancies'. The physician Johann Storch (1681-1751) published these records in 1749. Firstly, the quantitative exploration shows that among his patients were not only wealthy people but also wives of craftsmen and day labourers. The paper explores the conceptual history of mole pregnancies since Hippocrates' times. It also describes the social role of healers and patients and addresses the issue of god's role. Although theoretical works of the time emphasize the important role of god, he does not feature strongly in the patient records investigated. The body image of Storch's patients is also thematised in the paper. Storch and his patients had the same perception of body and illness. Unlike today, physicians and patients shared similar notions about illness and healing.

The risk factor concept was developed in American epidemiological studies ongoing since the 1940s researching the causes of chronic cardiovascular diseases. By looking at the depiction of this model in a variety of media in Germany between 1968 and 1986 we can put its close interaction with contemporary socio-political debates under scrutiny. Thereby, a strong connection between the various agents' political and economic interests on the one hand and the incorporation of the risk factor concept into their specific agendas will become apparent. The risk factor concept was not fundamentally changed in the process but it was adapted to contemporary conditions and political constellations. Thereby, so it will be argued, the medical uses of the model, especially regarding the prevention of chronic cardiovascular disease, were forced into the background of public debates.

The article deals with the history of the Hospital of the Brothers of St. John of God (in German: "Barmherzige Brüder"; official name "Ordo Hospitalarius Sancti Joannis a Deo") in the capital of Upper Austria, Linz, from its founding in 1757 to c. 1780. Primarily, the organisational development and the patients of the institute are discussed. The order's hospital already functioned as a medical hospital for the treatment of acute diseases: It was oriented towards the reestablishment of health of its inmates during short time and offered treatment by a staff of learned medical experts, among them academically trained physicians. The accommodation of the patients yet took place in a largely undifferentiated manner, as most of them were situated in a large common hall. This was obviously a consequence of the comparatively little capacity of the organisation, too, which sustained about 12 beds in the beginning, and about 20 around 1780. Nonetheless, the number of patients treated there summed up to nearly 1% of the entire male population of Upper Austria even during the first decade of its existence. In early modern time, only men were admitted to this hospital, the average age of them being only ca. 30 years. As far as social status is concerned, most of them (according to a representative sample out of the admissions of 1757-1767) were handicraftsmen (more than two thirds), labourers and servants. Thus, the organisation was obviously destined to broad social strata, but by no way displays itself as a poorhouse. Average annual mortality was 10 to 13%, which is comparable to that of other hospitals of the order in 18th century Austria. Most of the admitted persons suffered from "fever" or inner diseases and were dismissed as healed already after some weeks of stay.

Although many medical texts are preserved from Ancient Egypt, these texts are giving only little information about the relationship between the Egyptian doctor and the patient. The aim of this article is to draw the reader's attention to personal documents such as letters between members of the royal court or private persons as well as to literary texts from the New Kingdom until the Roman Period. The article does also focus on Mesopotamian legal texts (Codex Hammurapi) and letters from the kingdom of Mari.

During the time of the Wilhelmine Empire, there were multiple interdependencies between adherents of the life reform movement (vegetarians, naturopathists, nudists, etc.) and new religious movements such as esoteric groups like the theosophists in the alternative cultural milieu around 1900. These networks became visible in the form of double memberships in associations. However, there were also ambiguous affiliations, migration between groups and syncretistic beliefs without institutional belonging. The similarity between patterns of argumentation for this specific lifestyle and the congruence of chosen goals, ways and goods of salvation become particularly clear in this context. These forms of "methodical lifestyle" may lead to the development of a specific ethos or habitus (Max Weber). To illustrate these processes, this article analyses the report of a Leipzig lady who ate raw fruits and vegetables only, and examines her broader social context. Thereby the analysis will employ sociological theories of conversion to explain the case of Hedwig Bresch.

Taking a german professor of pharmacology, Wolfgang Heubner (1877-1957), as an example, the paper shows how hagiographic traditions were used to construct a scientific ideal in Post-War Germany. This ideal tended to (re-)legitimate German Science after World War II and to justify institutional and personal continuities in the 1950s, but I argue that it is a specific construction of the 1950s, thus serving to build a new image of science in a democratic society.

The debate about the organisation of nursing became acute during the last decades of the 19th century when big modern Jewish hospitals were built in several cities of the Habsburg Monarchy. This led to an increase in the demand for nurses and to the initiation of a discussion about the professionalisation of Jewish nursing. In these debates different actors with different intentions were involved. While hospitals were looking mainly for inexpensive and unlimited working nurses, middle-class organisations such as B'nai B'rith emphasised the necessity for women to learn a useful profession to be able to support their husbands economically. Furthermore, feminists and women's associations tried to set new standards for female education, emphasising economic independence and improving the working conditions for women. Jewish feminists such as Henriette Weiss in Vienna, Ida Fuerst in Budapest, and Julie Leipen in Prague tried to build up Jewish nursing schools. The different strategies of implementations and the result of their efforts will be the main focus of this paper.