[The "Plague Doctor's Mask" in the German Museum for the History of Medicine, Ingolstadt]. / Die Pestarztmaske im Deutschen Medizinhistorischen Museum Ingolstadt.

This paper is part of Forum COVID-19: Perspectives in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The figure of the plague doctor with the beak mask has become the symbol of the plague par excellence. It's little wonder that the plague mask in the collection of the German Museum of the History of Medicine in Ingolstadt (Bavaria) is one of the museum's most popular objects and motifs. This forum paper investigates the figure of the plague doctor on several levels: first, it analyses contemporary textual and image sources in regard to protective clothing used in times of plague and the respective role of the beak-like part of the mask. Then it takes a close look at the Ingolstadt specimen. By examining the mask's materiality and fabrication, questions of its authenticity and practicability are raised. Finally, the Ingolstadt mask is compared with the specimen at the German Historical Museum in Berlin.The conclusion: the beak mask is not mentioned before the mid-seventeenth century, and then only in Italy and Southern France. There is no proof at all of its use during plague outbreaks in Middle Europe. And the specimens in Ingolstadt and Berlin? Both masks present details which suggest that they were not used as protective clothing at all. We do not know, however, if they were produced as replicas for historic reasons or as fakes for the modern art market.

[Ernst von Metternich (1656-1727). A patient-focused view of the medical marketplace around 1720]. / Ernst von Metternich (1656-1727). Ein patientenzentrierter Einblick in den medizinischen Markt um 1720.

In his medical diary the physician Johann Christoph Götz from Nuremberg recorded his visits as well as his consiliary correspondence. The case of Count Ernst of Metternich who dwelled in Ratisbon and suffered from a bladder stone is particularly well documented. Thus, the source which is focusing the doctor permits to take a look at a section of the medical market managed by the patient around 1720. Besides the Medicus ordinarius Metternich's specific network, the patient's network, comprised quite a number of local or transmigratory doctors, surgeons or lay healers as well as (former) invalids, whom he consulted in direct interviews or--in the case of Götz--by letter. The example reveals in which way the medical market was determined by the ego-network. Analyzing this section of the market, which becomes visible through the interaction between Metternich and Götz, one can profit from Pierre Bourdieu's conception of different forms of capital. Financial capital, the exchange of goods or services against money, seems of minor importance. In lieu thereof, different cohesions become obvious, in which social, cultural and symbolical capital could become decisive for the doctor's as well as for the patient's actions and assertive for the market.

[History of homeopathy in Franconia]. / Zur Geschichte der Homöopathie in Franken.

The research for this paper was initiated by an Erlangen exhibition project on the history of homeopathy on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of Samuel Hahnemann's birth in 2005. The founder of homeopathic medicine received his doctor of medicine degree at the University of Erlangen in 1779. As Hahnemann spent only four months in Erlangen, homeopathic physicians, patients and apothecaries in the region from Hahnemann's time until today were investigated. The aim was to provide a concise survey of the general problems in the history of homeopathy derived from regional cases which could be illustrated by objects suitable for an exhibition. Thus, the article is not only about the history of homeopathy in Northern Bavaria (Franconia), but also about a shift in the use of media and about doing science the other way round, viz. by starting at the presentation and ending with the sources. The outcome of the project was that most of the crucial topics of the history of homeopathy could be covered on a micro-historic scale: trials, pharmacy, hospital, patients, university, National Socialism.

[Surgery in letters. The example of Lorenz Heister's epistolary consultation]. / Chirurgie im Brief. Das Beispiel der Konsiliarkorrespondenz Lorenz Heisters (1683-1758).

The consultation letters of Lorenz Heister enable a specific patient-focused analysis. Heister was not only a famous physician of the early German Enlightenment, but a renowned surgeon as well. His double expertise gives his correspondence a unique character. The consultation letters addressed to him testify not only the well known phenomenon of "medicine-by-post", but also the less well known practice of "surgery-by-post". They allow us some insight into the different sensations and strategies of people who suffered from a malady which could call for surgical treatment. Patients' letters enable historians to compare the expression of fears, hopes and actions with those of their fellow-patients who sought in Heister not the surgeon, but the physician. Such a comparative approach suggests a series of issues, of which two are discussed here: representations of the patient's history of suffering (Patientenweg, and representations of the patient's body (Patientenkörper).

[Curing by cutting. Surgical patients in the consulting correspondence of Lorenz Heister (1683-1758)]. / Heilen mit dem Messer. Chirurgische Patienten aus der Konsiliarkorrespondenz Lorenz Heisters.

The consultation letters of Lorenz Heister (1683-1758) are kept in the University Library Erlangen-Nürnberg. Heister was not only a famous physician, but also a renowned surgeon. This double qualification gave a unique character to this correspondence: The letters allow not only a glimpse on the phenomena of "medicine-by-post", but of "surgery-by-post" as well. To those "surgical patients-by-post" belong four men and one woman presented in this study. All of them suffered from a surgical treatable malady, but their decision for or against the surgical therapy was strikingly different, ranging from definite refusal to ardent desire. In spite of their inhomogeneous attitude towards the prospect of a surgical intervention, however, they had one feature in common: they decided by themselves. The frequently cited "informed consent" of our days was a matter of course with the patients of Heister's time.

Misreading pictures: Fabricius Hildanus (1560-1634) and the cure of spinal dislocation.

In 1646, Fabricius Hildanus accompanied his description of a new way to apply a setaceum (seton) in the neck with a nicely carved woodcut. In 1951, this same woodcut was used by an author of the History of Neurological Surgery to illustrate Hildanus's method of "reducing cervical dislocation." In 1997 this striking misreading found its way into the History of Neurosurgery in its Scientific and Professional Contexts. The paper discusses how this ahistoric interpretation was possible and why it was perpetuated for nearly half a century.

["Children are, generally, more difficult to cure than adults". Young patients in the consultory correspondence of the early 18th century]. / "Die Kinder sind überhaupt schwerer zu curiren als Erwachsene". Junge Patienten in der Konsiliarkorrespondenz des frühen 18. Jahrhunderts.

Since Philippe Ariès' History of Childhood scholars have been interested in the history of the sick child in the Early Modern Period. This paper adds one more case study to the current research. It analyses sources connected with the physician and surgeon Lorenz Heister: his handbooks on surgery (1719) and medicine (1744) on the one hand, which reflect the respective therapeutic ideal, and his consultation letters on the other hand, which enable us to have a closer look at Heister's therapeutic practice. It can be shown, albeit with the exception of the lower social classes, that in the case of illness it depended not so much on the age of the sick person than the "style" of the family concerned if expert advice was sought or not. Only one feature depended on age: with the young patients-by-post "surgical" diseases were more common than with adults. It seems that the surgeon's diagnosis "from outside" fitted better to the small patients than the physician's anamnesis-based proceeding.

[Monastery asylum. A contribution to the ethno-psychiatry of Greece]. / Kloster-asyle. Ein beitrag zur ethnopsychiatrie Griechenlands.

The history of the mentally ill in Greece, at least from the foundation of the Kingdom of Greece in 1832 until the incorporation of the Ionian Islands in 1864, is without either lunatic asylums or specialised psychiatrists. Instead, it is a history of the intermingling of two psychiatric concepts. On the one hand, the imported "professional psychiatry" supported by government and Western education physicians and, on the other hand, the indigenous (autochthon) "folk psychiatry" supported by the majority of the people and by the Orthodox church. The interaction of both systems resulted in the phenomenon of the Greek "monastery asylum". This paper, based on rich archival material, presents this little-known chapter of Greece psychiatry from the view-point of social history.

[The professor and his student. The correspondence between Lorenz Heister and Christoph Jacob Trew]. / Der Lehrer und sein Schüler. Die Korrespondenz zwischen Lorenz Heister und Christoph Jacob Trew.

Letters were the central medium of communication in the medical scientific community of the 18th century. Professional as well as personal relationships were established among the various correspondents. These relationships constituted the smallest units of communication which contributed to the regional and international scientific network of the Republic of Letters. A correspondence that grew out of a trusted teacher-student relationship could gain an especially intense character both intellectually and personally. This contribution offers an analysis of an example of just such a correspondence. Lorenz Heister (1683--1758), medical professor at the universities of Altdorf and Helmstedt, and his disciple, Christoph Jacob Trew (1695--1769), who became a renowned physician and natural scientist in Nuremberg, communicated in letters to one another over a span of almost forty years. Their correspondence started as a rather asymmetrical dialogue. Over time, however, Heister and Trew came to meet as equals in almost every field of their competence. Their letters reveal a broad spectrum of scientific, organisational, professional, medical and personal issues which formed the basis of a stable and lasting learned correspondence in the age of Enlightenment.

Lorenz Heister and the challenge of trepanation: a neurosurgical case study from the 18th century.

In the 18th century, medical practice was essentially based on communication. Cranial trepanation, however, was usually performed on an unconscious person. Here the dialogue ceased. It was the only operation which had to be attempted without the positive consent of the patient. Thus trepanation challenged the surgeon's skill not only with its intricate surgical practice, but also with its unusual social setting. The present paper illustrates possible ways out of the "trap of trepanation" by interweaving two points of view. On the one hand, a general account is given on the basis of surgical publications written by Lorenz Heister and his contemporaries. On the other, the unpublished sources of the Heister correspondence serve to reconstruct the case of Heinrich Wilhelm Bachmann, a German merchant who fell victim to a traffic accident and underwent trepanation in 1753. The case study shows how the physician in charge counterbalanced the patient's inability to communicate by strengthening the remaining network of professionals, and ultimately confirming his decisions by use of the post-mortem.