Tools of the Trade

Nineteenth-century medicine is characterised by rapid technological change, new

methods of diagnostics and treatments of disease, long-reaching developments

in medical science, and professionalisation. This has led to great interest in the

period and a large body of scholarly and popular research. However, much of this

scholarship studies British, German and French contexts. There is a pressing need

to study how knowledge and practice were transferred between regions and how

medical technologies were adapted locally.

Using Swedish and Danish medical journals, Kristin Halverson looks more closely

at the relationships between knowledge, practice and device between 1855 and

1897. Medical devices appear frequently in journals and are often related to practical

matters. With this in mind, this study examines four technological concerns in

medicine more closely, namely devices used to examine the nose, throat and eye;

orthopaedic practice; Listerist antisepsis; and the introduction of asepsis. These

cases highlight how technologies were adapted locally and in practice. This is a

history of nuance that highlights the diverse landscape of nineteenth-century

medical practice.