Project

Discipline

history of medicine; social history of medicine; medical records; history of the patient; medical practice; gender; medical culture

Lead
Lay summary
This project examines the medical practice of Caesar Adolph Bloesch(1804-1863), physician in the city of Biel in Switzerland. It is basedon his exceptional 25,000-pages casebooks in which he recorded all hisconsultations conducted in the years 1832-1863. The patient recordscontain information on the patients, the patient history, Bloesch'sexamination and therapy. At the beginning of the project a fulltranscription of the volumes of selected years will be available as wellas the general data of the consultations of all years and the data oftwo census of Biel from the period of interest. In addition to the casebooks, Bloesch's extensive notes and publications and further privateand official sources will be used.Despite the efforts of the social history of medicine we are stillinsufficiently informed about the daily medical life of earlier times.This much is true also for the medical practice as the central place ofinteraction between physician and patient, which could tell us a lotabout significant social structures and developments. The project isbased on the general concept of one single medical culture whichphysicians as well patients helped to shape. In consists of twocomplementary studies on the practice form the physician's and thepatients' point of view based on a quantitative as well as aqualitative, a socio-historical as well as a cultural-historicalapproach. They will investigate the structure and importance of themedical practice and the attitudes, roles and behaviours of both actorsin order to improve our knowledge of medical culture and itstransformation in the 19th century.The project is part of a German-Swiss-Austrian working group focussingon the investigation of medical practices from the 17th to the 20thcentury. As each practice is different a special emphasis is laid oncomparison and comparability. Thanks to a rich variety of sources itwill be possible to allow for the specific local conditions and thus toreach conclusions of significance beyond the case in hand.

Direct link to Lay Summary

Last update: 21.02.2013

Active participation

Self-organised

Communication	Title	Media	Place	Year

Title	Year

Number	Title	Start	Funding scheme

In der Fortsetzung des Projekts geht es unverändert darum, auf der Basis von C.A. Bloeschs umfangreichem Praxisjournal Struktur und Bedeutung der ärztlichen Praxis sowie die Verhaltensweisen, Rollen, Wissenspraktiken und Vorstellungen der Akteure zu untersuchen und dadurch unsere Kenntnisse über die medikale Kultur und ihre Veränderung im 19. Jahrhundert zu präzisieren. Im Rahmen von zwei Dissertationen wird nach der Einbettung des Arztes in die Gesundheitslandschaft, nach dem ärztlichen Selbstbild, nach Patiententypen, gesundheitsrelevanten Lebensstilen und den variablen Formen gefragt, wie Wissen in Bloeschs Praxis kursiert. Im Gesamtblick wird eine „Biographie“ von Bloeschs Praxis erstellt. Das Projekt ist Teil einer von einer deutsch-schweizerisch-österreichischen Arbeitsgruppe lancierten Inititative zur Erforschung von Arztpraxen des 17. bis 20. Jahrhunderts. Es widmet dem Vergleich mit anderen Arztpraxen besondere Aufmerksamkeit, da jede Praxis ihre eigenen Besonderheiten aufweist. Dadurch sowie dank der besonderen Quellenlage sollte es gelingen, die spezifische lokale Situation zu berücksichtigen und somit Grundkonstellationen herauszuarbeiten, die über den einzelnen Fall hinaus Geltung haben.