A case of exemplarity: C. F. Rottböll's history of smallpox inoculation in Denmark-Norway, 1766.

Publisher: Almqvist & Wiksell Periodical Co Country of Publication: Sweden NLM ID: 100970319 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Print ISSN: 0346-8755 (Print) Linking ISSN: 03468755 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Scand J Hist

Original Publication: Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell Periodical Co., 1976-

Anthropology, Cultural*/education ; Anthropology, Cultural*/history ; Preventive Health Services*/economics ; Preventive Health Services*/history ; Public Health*/economics ; Public Health*/education ; Public Health*/history ; Smallpox*/ethnology ; Smallpox*/history; Denmark/ethnology ; History of Medicine ; History, 18th Century ; Norway/ethnology ; Research Personnel/education ; Research Personnel/history ; Research Personnel/psychology ; Smallpox Vaccine/history

Smallpox inoculation was one of the great discoveries of the 18th century and has been written into the grand narrative of medical progress, describing the taming of epidemic disease. Setting the perspective of progress aside, the article explores how this medical innovation was situated in 18th-century society and culture. The aim is to investigate how medical practice was intertwined with social structure and cultural patterns. The article takes its case from a book published in Copenhagen in 1766 by Professor C. F. Rottböll, former Head Physician of the Royal Inoculation House in Copenhagen. Being the first medical treatise on inoculation in Denmark-Norway, the book also has a historical section followed by a collection of reports and letters written by a number of other authors from various parts of the kingdom. Through close reading, the article explores how the introduction of the new technique was described in the texts. The reports were written to present practice and discuss cases. In doing so, they also presented a variety of other concerns so that a diversity of aims and intentions are added to the medical ones. The social and rhetorical strategies employed illuminate social ambition and systems of patronage, as well as understandings of history and of truth.

0 (Smallpox Vaccine)

Date Created: 20110202 Date Completed: 20110623 Latest Revision: 20110131

20240829

10.1080/03468755.2010.522042

21280402