Social and Health Care Access for the Physically Disabled in 19th Century French-Speaking Switzerland : A Double Process of Exclusion and Integration

uring the 19th century, an unprecedented process of medicalisation and institutionalisation unfolded in Europe. At the beginning and at the end of the century, respectively, the medical upheavals of anatomoclinic and microbiology had a major influence on the organisation of hospitals and medical studies. Cantonal hospitals, rapidly linked to medical faculties, were created in Switzerland in the second half of the century, and by 1874, the first federal medical exams took place, implying a standardisation of requirements at a national level. The parallel development of urbanised and industrialised areas furthered the densification of a network of care institutions such as infirmaries and dispensaries, whilst medical tourism was developed among the upper classes stimulating the founding of new private clinics. D