Preliminary Programme

This paper explores the reactions of approximately 30 Swedish doctors and medical students to what they encountered during their travels to Europe's leading medical institutions between 1850-90. The way in which they perceived new innovations was coloured both by the medical education they had received in Sweden, and their experiences abroad. While some Swedes found much to justify their foreign excursions, many others were disappointed by what they felt were the unearned reputations of facilities and individual physicians and professors. Therefore, their decisions about which medical innovations ought to be imported to Sweden were not always based solely on medical proof or reputation but rather their own expectations. Sweden was certainly becoming increasingly part of the European 'core' of modern medical practice during the course of the 19th century. On the other hand, this process was not predetermined by what was happening on the continent but rather subjected to objective criticism by those with first-hand experience. (Show less)

The paper examines the great inequality in health between the well-off southern Finland and the poor and peripheral northern Finland, ruined by the war. The focus is on the role of modern medicine, especially on the role of the child health care as a tool for decreasing the big social and health differences in the country in the postwar years 1945–1955. (Show less)

Swedish midwives were expected to comply with the National Midwifery Act (1856) that specified their qualifications, rights and obligations. In reality, however, it was a different situation especially in rural and sparsely populated areas where midwives often were the only medical professional within reach. According to Swedish law, each parish was to provide the services of a certified midwife. These midwives had received some medical training, These midwives were typically very well trained but still often had to deal with tasks that went beyond their formal scope of practice.
My paper explores how the midwives themselves felt about this situation. How was this issue dealt with at the Swedish Midwives’ Association? What were the midwives’ own testimonies about dealing with daunting tasks that required a great deal of responsibility which, on the one hand boosted their skills, yet on the other was illegal. How did physicians respond to the fact that midwives were performing tasks that theoretically were the sole domain of doctors? How did the National Board of Health approach the problem that lives were being put at risk because there were not enough trained medical professionals in rural and sparsely populated areas? (Show less)

The closing decades of the 19th century saw the dawn of a new and popular trend in the dealings with women's health: gynecological massage. The method was extremely intimate. The therapist brought one hand into the vagina (or anus) and depending on the diagnosis s/he massaged various anatomical structures associated with the reproductive organs. The second hand (or an assistant’s) was used as a back pressure from the outside of the abdomen. The inventor was Thure Brandt (1817-1891), an officer in the Swedish military. Gynecology soon embraced his techniques and they were spread throughout Europe and North America. It was not unusual for physicians to write a thesis devoted to examining Brandt's methods as part of the requirements for their medical degree.

This paper explains Brandt's method, its scientific success, and its popularity as a reaction to the emerging "biomedical paradigm’s" materialistic and compartmentalised approach to body, health and disease, as well as offering a conservative alternative to radical surgery for female fin-de-siècle disorders such as "hysteria" and “chlorosis”. (Show less)