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Doctors, academically educated and authorized, assert that there is more to being a real doctor than having fulfilled the formal criteria. It has been said that there is a particular doctor's ethos, which is based not only on thorough medical education but also on traditional know-how, internalized ethics and good character. This paper contains several studies of the efforts of Swedish physicians to define themselves as doctors, individually and collectively, during the period 1890-1960 and to identify the ethos of their profession. The empirical material consists mainly of texts written by doctors for doctors on different social and political questions pertaining to the profession's interests. Studying the identities, interests and ideals that have been expressed by Swedish doctors in society and on the professional and individual level made it possible to distinguish and describe different aspects of their particular ethos. The starting point for these studies was the discussions during the inter-war period – held above all in Germany but also in Sweden – about the crisis of medicine and of the medical profession (chapter 1). Developments in legislation concerning the authorization of doctors show the ambiguity of the Swedish doctor's legal identity (chapter 2). The Swedish medical profession's efforts to hold on to the concept of internalized ethics meant that formal ethical rules were not accepted until 1951 (chapter 3). A study of medical obituaries revealed that the ideal doctor was seen as a man and a good colleague with his ethics rooted in antiquity (chapter 4). The heterogeneous medical profession has not been able to reach a consensus as to a common identity or common interests and ideals. The efforts of leading men amongst Swedish doctors gain charismatic, traditional and legal legitimacy for the profession have been opposed. After 1960, however, doctor's legitimacy in the scientific field has gained ground (chapter 5). Debate concerning the ethos of the doctors served as a strategy to unite the profession and to draw boundaries against those considered to be unqualified actors in the field of the healing arts. This, in itself, is part of this ethos.

No description available.

Doctors, academically educated and authorized, assert that there is more to being a real doctor than having fulfilled the formal criteria. It has been said that there is a particular doctor's ethos, which is based not only on thorough medical education but also on traditional know-how, internalized ethics and good character. This paper contains several studies of the efforts of Swedish physicians to define themselves as doctors, individually and collectively, during the period 1890-1960 and to identify the ethos of their profession. The empirical material consists mainly of texts written by doctors for doctors on different social and political questions pertaining to the profession's interests. Studying the identities, interests and ideals that have been expressed by Swedish doctors in society and on the professional and individual level made it possible to distinguish and describe different aspects of their particular ethos. The starting point for these studies was the discussions during the inter-war period – held above all in Germany but also in Sweden – about the crisis of medicine and of the medical profession (chapter 1). Developments in legislation concerning the authorization of doctors show the ambiguity of the Swedish doctor's legal identity (chapter 2). The Swedish medical profession's efforts to hold on to the concept of internalized ethics meant that formal ethical rules were not accepted until 1951 (chapter 3). A study of medical obituaries revealed that the ideal doctor was seen as a man and a good colleague with his ethics rooted in antiquity (chapter 4). The heterogeneous medical profession has not been able to reach a consensus as to a common identity or common interests and ideals. The efforts of leading men amongst Swedish doctors gain charismatic, traditional and legal legitimacy for the profession have been opposed. After 1960, however, doctor's legitimacy in the scientific field has gained ground (chapter 5). Debate concerning the ethos of the doctors served as a strategy to unite the profession and to draw boundaries against those considered to be unqualified actors in the field of the healing arts. This, in itself, is part of this ethos.

Polio epidemics appeared in Sweden in 1881 and at the turn of the 20th century the disease became an annual feature in the epidemiological pattern. Due to vaccination starting in 1957 epidemics ceased to exist in Sweden around 1965. This thesis deals with the history polio epidemics in Sweden, 1880-1965 and studies the demographical influence of polio, how the medical authorities investigated and tried to combat it, and the care of those who contracted the disease. A study of polio mortality and incidence in Sweden at the national level during 1905-1962 reveals that the disease caused 6,000 deaths out of the 51,000 cases reported. At the beginning of the 20th century polio primarily attacked children up to 10 years of age. At the end of the period victims were represented in all age groups, but mainly in the ages 15-39. Moreover, a regional incidence study shows considerable regional differences. Sweden and the USA developed different ways of investigating and explaining the causes of polio thinking that led to diverse preventive measures. Moreover, in the 1950’s Sweden developed its own vaccine, different in choice of methods and materials from the widely used Salk-vaccine. When polio was classified as an epidemic in 1905, those infected by polio were usually taken to an isolation hospital. These hospitals were owned and financed by the state. The aftercare of polio victims was organized by philanthropist organizations. Polio was associated with dirt and unhygienic circumstances until the 1950’s when the theory of polio epidemics as a backlash of good hygiene and sanitary standards was established. The theory is built upon the correlation between neonatal mortality and polio incidence. However, correlation analysis at the regional level reveals no significant relationship between these variables. In Sweden, the hygienic movement had been very influential, and this study suggests that the theory quickly was accepted, because it explained why Sweden could be hit by epidemics and still be considered a welfare state with good hygienic and sanitary standards. / digitalisering@umu

The main purpose of this thesis is to study and analyze how concepts of childhood and adolescence were constructed in scientific medicine during the period 1870 to 1930. The focus in the first part of the thesis is to study the sick girl as a stereotype in 1870–1900. In the late nineteenth-century, the poor health of girls was a popular topic in Swedish medical discourse. It was a well-established opinion that a substantial number of Swedish girls suffered from various diseases and ailments. Mass- and coeducation was under debate and physicians became interested in the impact of schools and schooling on children’s health. It is here shown that children, and in particularly adolescents, were de-fined as gendered creatures. The doctors emphasized the universal nature of adolescence and conceptualized pu-berty as a traumatic and risky stage of life and they also tended to focus on middle-class girls. Pubescent girls were seen as most vulnerable to external stress such as mental strain and physical demands. Physicians claimed that ill health inevitably followed when girls were educated in the same way as boys. However, boys and their health were discussed too. The most common ailments for both girls and boys were overstudy, anemia, headaches and disor-dered digestion. It was also shown in various studies, that poorer children were substantially inferior in weight as well as in height. Chlorosis was a common theme in late nineteenth-century medical discourse. Although it appeared mainly as a girls’ disease in medical books and in most sanitary journals, health studies for example, showed that chlorosis could also be a boys’ disease. However, sick boys were rarely spoken of. Medical opinions on overstudy, chlorosis and dress reform could be interpreted as a concern for unhealthy girls as future mothers of the nation. It is not my intention to advertise doctors as vicious oppressors, as opponents of female emancipation. In fact, the doctors often pointed out social factors and unequal circumstances of childhood and adolescence for girls and boys. In early twentieth-century, the scientific opinion of girls changed. Even though gendered notions of children and youths persisted all through the period studied, more and more some doctors, Karolina Widerström, for example, began to question them. The new girl was not weak and ill, but rather healthy and active. However, a dividing line between those who claimed the weakness of girls and those who emphasized the new, healthy girl became more evident after 1900. In this thesis, this disparity is discussed in terms of popular medical discourse and scientific medi-cal discourse. In the latter, girls were still described as more sensitive and more frail than boys and as unfit for higher education and strenuous schoolwork. Thus, the new girl – vivid, healthy and equal to the boy – was above all a con-struction in popular medicine. The uniform medical discourse on girls from the late nineteenth-century thus dissolved. A number of changes in the medical discourse on sickness and health of girls and boys during in this period occurred. First, concepts of sickness and health were modified over time and fewer schoolchildren were considered sick. Fi-nally, in the beginning of the period studied, girls were sicker than boys were, but in the end, in the 1930s, there was no obvious gender difference. Both sexes seemed equally sick (or healthy).

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