This study aims to research the progress and evolution of the Swedish medical discourse regarding childbed fever. Several texts that are considered to be part of said discourse have been chosen, the earliest being Dr. Joseph Elliot's book regarding childbed fever from 1844 and the latest being two articles from the Swedish midwifery and women's health journal Jordemodern from 1903. During this time several discoveries on the subject of hygiene and antiseptics took place in Europe, leading to a quick development in the medical field eventually making its way to Sweden. This knowledge led to a hypothesis that the definition, belived causes and desirable measures taken to control the outbreaks of childbed fever, would change from 1844 to 1903.  By analyzing these sources through a genus theoretical framework a change was indeed found. The disease was originally belived to be airborne and none of the taken measures had any effect. By 1903 the germ theory had arrived and settled in the Swedish medical discourse and it became widely known that the disease was transmitted from doctors and midwifes to the patient by contact and appropriate measures could be taken.  Lastly the studiy aims to present a viable way to use this information in a classroom situation related to the syllabus for both primary and upper secondary school.

Universiẗat, Diss., 2004--Würzburg. / Erscheinungsjahr an der Haupttitelstelle: 2003.

Die biographische Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit dem aus Prag stammenden Gynäkologen und Geburtshelfer Friedrich Wilhelm Scanzoni von Lichtenfels (1821-1891), der an der Universität Würzburg 40 Jahre lang gelehrt hat. Seine Arbeit war bedeutend für die Universität, er gründete eine neue Würzburger Frauenklinik, seine Lehrbücher und Forschungsarbeiten förderten entscheidend die Gynäkologie in Deutschland, und nicht zuletzt profitierte auch die Stadt Würzburg von seiner europaweiten Berühmtheit als Frauenarzt. Eingebettet in einen historischen und fachhistorischen Rahmen werden sein Leben, sein Werk und seine Wirkungsgeschichte dargestellt, dabei auch umstrittene Themen wie seine Einstellung zum Kindbettfieber aufgearbeitet. Besonders prägend für seine Krankheitslehre war die um 1850 durch die Arbeit Virchows neu aufblühende pathologische Anatomie. Scanzoni selbst beschritt forschend viele neue Wege, wie z.B. bei der Zangengeburt bei hinterer Hinterhauptslage. Seine zahlreichen Publikationen, darunter das bekannte Lehrbuch der Geburtshilfe, werden in ihrer Resonanz beleuchtet, aber auch die Höhen und Tiefen seines Weges von der individuellen Seite her betrachtet. Zahlreiche Quellen aus der internationalen Fachliteratur wurden eingearbeitet, wie auch Persönliches, darunter insbesondere der Adelsbrief in Bild und Text. Es entstand ein umfassendes Bild eines bedeutenden Arztes und Forschers, der nicht vergessen werden sollte. / The biographic dissertation concerns with the gynaecologist and obstetrician Friedrich William Scanzoni von Lichtenfels (1821-1891), a native of Prague, who taught at the University of Würzburg for 40 years. His work was eminent for the university, he created a new gynaecological clinic in Würzburg, his textbooks and research projects promoted importantly the gynaecology throughout Germany, and last but not least also the city of Würzburg profited by his European-wide celebrity as a gynecologist. Embedded into a historical and specialized hsitorical framework, his life, his work, and his impact are represented, also contended topics like his attitude to the puerperal fever are worked up. Particularly formative for his pathology was the pathological anatomy blossoming around 1850 by the work of Virchow. Scanzoni took many new paths in research, e.g. with the forceps delivery in converse rotation. His numerous publications, under it the well-known obstetric text book, are lit up in their resonance, furthermore the heights and depths of his career are regarded from an individual point of view. Numerous sources from the international gynaecological literature were included, like also personal sources, under it especially the patent of nobility in picture and text. Developed a comprehensive picture of an important physician and researcher, who should never be forgotten.

In eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain, a bacterial infection which we now know to be caused primarily by a streptococcus, was killing women in childbirth at an alarming rate. The disease, called puerperal, or childbed, fever, was being transmitted primarily from doctor to patient by a doctor’s unwashed hands and filthy, contaminated clothing and linens. Despite this evident and, in retrospect, obvious vector, the doctors of this period never discovered how to prevent their patients from dying a gruesome and painful death. Many physicians wrote extensive accounts of the illness but often ended their works in despair, unable to find the cause. Much of the historical literature blames this befuddlement on personality traits of the physicians, arguing that egos and professional hostilities prevented the kind of cooperation that could have led to progress. This study attempts to show that this failure was not a product of personalities but of the modern physicians’ assumptions and logic. The assumptions were the stillpowerful, but often unnoticed, dictates about the human body handed down from ancient Greek medicine. The logical errors were a product of pre-scientific notions of definition, explanation, and evidence. The author argues that it was not a lack of data that thwarted the physicians, but a series of these intellectual roadblocks that prevented them from understanding and extended the terror of puerperal fever for another two centuries.