VIRUS
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Die Zeitschrift "Virus - Beiträge zur Sozialgeschichte der Medizin" ist das Publikationsorgan des Vereins für Sozialgeschichte der Medizin und erscheint einmal jährlich.
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Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Austrian Academy of Sciences Press
A-1011 Wien, Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2
Tel. +43-1-515 81/DW 3420, Fax +43-1-515 81/DW 3400 https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at, e-mail: verlag@oeaw.ac.at |
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DATUM, UNTERSCHRIFT / DATE, SIGNATURE
BANK AUSTRIA CREDITANSTALT, WIEN (IBAN AT04 1100 0006 2280 0100, BIC BKAUATWW), DEUTSCHE BANK MÜNCHEN (IBAN DE16 7007 0024 0238 8270 00, BIC DEUTDEDBMUC)
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VIRUS Band 13, pp. 055-073, 2020/07/23
Schwerpunkt: Alternative und komplementäre Heilmethoden in der Neuzeit
With a total of twelve practice diaries written by the Swiss lay-healer Gottfried Wachter (1776–1861), the Institute of the History of Medicine at the University of Zurich is inpossession of an extremely precious historical source. Recorded between the years 1803 and 1843, these notes reveal the methods of therapeutic treatment as applied by a medical practitioner, who had never been trained neither at a university medical faculty nor in a surgeon’s practice. Therefore these diaries allow insights into the daily business of a non-licensed lay-healer in the Swiss countryside (for instance the structure of his day to day practice andpatients’ social profiles, as well as various methods of medical treatment). This article focuses on the factual methods of treatment as applied by Wachter. Did his range of services overlap with those offered by other medical practitioners and surgeons? And – in comparison with other available services – were his methods typical for a lay-healer?
Keywords: Lay-healer, rural practice, practice diary, medical treatments, minor surgery, academization and specialization of medicine, 19th century, Switzerland, Thurgau, social history of medicine