["Dedi clysterem purgantem" - Haller and the medicine of childhood (1731-1736)].
Albert Haller practiced medicine in Berne before being appointed Professor of Anatomy and Botany at the University of Göttingen. From 1731 to 1736, he kept a journal detailing the treatments he prescribed to his approximately 300 patients, 63 of whom were children and adolescents. The journal noted 580 pediatric consultations and detailed the ailments, their progression and applied therapies, allowing the reconstruction of case histories, some of which extended for several years. Through analysis of this data, we attempt to answer the questions such as: What diseases led parents to ask for medical interventions for their children? What were the age cohorts of the group of young patients? At one point did Haller perceive as serious their statements and symptoms/ How frequent were consultations? What were the prescribed therapies? Did he base his conclusions on the value of a child's life attributed by physicians and society of the period?
Ritzmann
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Institute for the History of Medicine, University of Zurich.
Boschung
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D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D005858:Germany; D049671:History, 18th Century; D006801:Humans; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000266:history*