This thesis examines the development of the Edinburgh Royal Maternity Hospital in the context of medical care in Edinburgh during the period 1844-1914. It is based primarily on casebooks of the hospital and, in particular, on in-depth micro-studies of all of the hospital's Indoor and Outdoor cases in four discrete years, at approximately 20-year intervals. The central argument of the thesis is that Over the period 1844- 1914, professionals and patients at the hospital came to understand birth as a medical rather than a social event, and that this had repercussions for both groups as well as the institution itself. Chapter 1 places the thesis in the context of other secondary uork on the development of maternity hospitals and care, and examines the use of casebooks as primary sources. Chapter 2 considers the hospital and its staff in relation to the city and the Edinburgh medical community in particular. Chapter 3 examines the patients who attended. It argues that, in the nineteenth century, their perception of the hospital was as a place of social shelter. However, by 1912 a greater number attended for otherwise unaffordable medical care at birth. Chapter 4 examines the medical treatment given to patients. It argues that there was increasing acceptance of medicalisation by patients in the period studied, and increasing confidence in giving such treatment by the professionals involved. Chapter 5 discusses the staff and male and female trainees at the hospital. It suggests that, prior to the introduction of national requirements, the provision of training was driven by commercial concerns, and therefore varied throughout the period studied, particularly in the amount of practical experience offered. The relationship between the different grades of staff and the treatment they offered, described in the chapter, suggests increasing stratification in the roles of doctors and nurses at delivery and during the puerperium. The increase in nursing care following the birth indicates the creation of a professional role that among the poor had previously been undertaken by family members. The role played by increasing anxiety over infection following the introduction of strict antiseptic measures is discussed. The thesis concludes that in Edinburgh the medicalisation of childbirth among the poor was well-advanced by 1912, and suggests that this was a result of increasing patient acceptance combined with the increasing professionalisation of care.

Pionniers des études jurisprudentielles contemporaines, fondateurs des plus célèbres maisons d'éditionjuridique française, inventeurs de nouveaux genres littéraires et doctrinaux, les arrêtistes du XIXe siècledemeurent néanmoins encore largement méconnus. Au sein de leurs recueils de jurisprudence, Jean-BaptisteSirey, Désiré Dalloz et leurs nombreux collaborateurs, concurrents et successeurs, ont pourtant été des acteursà part entière d'une pensée juridique française trop souvent réduite aux seuls auteurs de la doctrine. Entrethéorie et pratique, l' « arrêtisme » contemporain a ainsi formé, de la Révolution jusqu'aux années 1870, unmouvement majeur de la littérature et de la pensée juridiques. Sur cette période, arrêtistes et commentateursde la doctrine se sont en effet âprement affrontés sur le terrain épistémique et éditorial, opposant travaux etdiscours sur la jurisprudence, et luttant pour le monopole des études jurisprudentielles. A partir des années 1880toutefois, l'arrivée massive des universitaires au sein des recueils de jurisprudence va marquer la fin del'arrêtisme des praticiens. A la Belle Epoque, les auteurs de l' « Ecole scientifique » qui entendent renouvelerl'étude et la science du droit s'emparent à leur tour activement de la jurisprudence ; présenté comme unrapprochement salvateur entre l'Ecole et le Palais, le « projet jurisprudentiel » des professeurs va toutefoiscontribuer à détacher les recueils d'arrêts de la culture praticienne dont ils étaient originellement issus. Il ressortde cette étude une relecture de l’histoire intellectuelle des recueils d’arrêts et des arrêtistes, dontl’historiographie classique en a dressé un portrait partiel, sinon partial. / Pioneers of contemporary case law studies, founders of the most famous French legal publishing companies,inventors of new literary and doctrinal genres, the arrêtistes of the nineteenth century still remain largelyunknown. In their casebooks, Jean-Baptiste Sirey, Désiré Dalloz and their many collaborators, competitors andsuccessors, were actors in their own right on the stage of French legal thinking, a stage too often reduced to theonly authors of the doctrine. Between theory and practice, the contemporary "arrêtisme" formed, from theRevolution to the 1870s, a major movement of literature and legal thought. Over this period, the arrêtistes andthe authors of legal doctrine clashed on epistemic and editorial grounds, opposing work and discourses on caselaw, and fighting for the monopoly of judicial analyses. However, from the 1880s onwards, the influx of universityprofessors in casebooks marked the end of the practitioners’ arrêtisme. During the Belle Epoque, the authors ofthe "Ecole scientifique", who intended to renew the study and science of law, took possession of case law;presented as a salutory reconciliation between the School and the Court, the professors’ "jurisprudential project"nevertheless contributed to separate case law reports from the culture of practitioners they were originallyderived from. What emerges from this study is a re-reading of the intellectual history of casebooks and arrêtistes,of which classical historiography gave a partial –if not biased -picture.