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Practicing Biomedicine at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital 1913-1965
Ideas and Improvisations
Series: - Clio Medica Online, Volume: 103
- Clio Medica, Volume: 103
Author:
Tizian Zumthurm uses the extraordinary hospital of an extraordinary man to produce novel insights into the ordinary practice of biomedicine in colonial Central Africa. His investigation of therapeutic routines in surgery, maternity care, psychiatry, and the treatment of dysentery and leprosy reveals the incoherent nature of biomedicine and not just in Africa. Reading rich archival sources against and along the grain, the author combines concepts that appeal to those interested in the history of medicine and colonialism. Through the microcosm of the hospital, Zumthurm brings to light the social worlds of Gabonese patients as well as European staff. By refusing to easily categorize colonial medical encounters, the book challenges our understanding of biomedicine as solely domineering or interactive.
Tizian Zumthurm has defended his Ph.D in February 2018 at the Institute for the History of Medicine at the University of Bern. He is a historian of medicine and Africa, interested in the everyday tensions and connections between theories and practices, between ideas and improvisations.
âIts clear grasp of contemporary debates around agency and biopolitics, the emergence of global health, and the relation of the local and the global, will make it likely for the book or individual chapters to be productively incorporated into medical history courses.â
---- Danelle van Zyl-Hermann, in: Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte (2022) 72 (2): pp.320-321
---- Danelle van Zyl-Hermann, in: Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte (2022) 72 (2): pp.320-321
âAcknowledgements
âList of Illustrations
âIntroduction
â1 Utilizing a Colonial Archive in Gunsbach, Alsace
â2 Theorizing Hospitals in Africa and the Practice of Biomedicine
â3 The Context: Trade, Politics, and Health in Colonial Lambaréné
â4 Albert Schweitzer and His Hospital in Lambaréné: a Short Historiography
1 Between Pragmatism and Order: Medical Organization and Daily Routine
â1 The Hospital Prior to 1927: Establishment and Adaptation
â2 Patient Numbers: Reflecting Global and Local Events in Orderly Records
â3 Patients and Their Stay: Strict Conditions, Varied Degrees of Enforcement
â4 Patient Motivation: Conceptions of Health and Other Treatments
â5 Staff from Europe: Clear Guidelines and Flexible Duties
â6 African Staff: Versatile Training and Reliable Service
â7 Staff in Comparison
â8 Infrastructure: Necessity and Maintenance
â9 Conclusion
2 In and Out of Control: Technologies and Patients in Surgery
â1 Surgery, Technology, and Control
â2 Surgery at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital: Context and Development
â3 Controlling the Surgical Arena: Actors and Organization
â4 Technologies of Control: the Example of Lamps
â5 Controlling Bacteria: Asepsis and Manual Labor
â6 Controlling Patients via Technology: The Example of Anesthesia
â7 Beyond the Operating Theater: Limits and Implications of Control
â8 Conclusion
3 Dimensions of Ignorance: Discourses and Practices of Obstetrics
â1 Depopulation, Domesticity, Ignorance: Framing Maternity Care in Colonial Africa
â2 Maternity Services in Colonial Gabon and at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital
â3 Ignoring Training: Recruitment Priorities
â4 Giving Birth at and Outside the Hospital
â5 Ignoring Context: Maternity Care as a Medical Service
â6 Key Areas of Ignorance: Medication and Feeding
â7 Conclusion
4 Trial and Error: Drugs and the Treatment of Infectious Diseases
â1 Experiments in a Laboratory? The Treatment of Leprosy in Colonial Africa
â2 Leprosy in Lambaréné
â3 Dysentery in Africa and Lambaréné
â4 Trials and Errors: the Use of Pharmaceuticals at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital
â5 Conclusion
5 Healing and âCivilizingâ: Community and Safety in Psychiatric Care
â1 Psychiatric Services and Ideology in Colonial Africa and at the Hospital
â2 The Mentally Ill in Colonial Gabon and at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital
â3 Treating the Mentally Ill at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital: Drugs and Community
â4 Accommodating the Mentally Ill at the Hospital: Perspectives on Safety
â5 Conclusion
6 Conclusions
â1 Connecting Concepts: the Incoherence of Biomedical Practices
â2 The Practice of Global Biomedicine: Schweitzer and the Value of the Local
â3 Taxonomies of Global Health and the Albert Schweitzer Hospital
Bibliography
Archival Sources
âInterviews
âPublished References
âIndex
âList of Illustrations
âIntroduction
â1 Utilizing a Colonial Archive in Gunsbach, Alsace
â2 Theorizing Hospitals in Africa and the Practice of Biomedicine
â3 The Context: Trade, Politics, and Health in Colonial Lambaréné
â4 Albert Schweitzer and His Hospital in Lambaréné: a Short Historiography
1 Between Pragmatism and Order: Medical Organization and Daily Routine
â1 The Hospital Prior to 1927: Establishment and Adaptation
â2 Patient Numbers: Reflecting Global and Local Events in Orderly Records
â3 Patients and Their Stay: Strict Conditions, Varied Degrees of Enforcement
â4 Patient Motivation: Conceptions of Health and Other Treatments
â5 Staff from Europe: Clear Guidelines and Flexible Duties
â6 African Staff: Versatile Training and Reliable Service
â7 Staff in Comparison
â8 Infrastructure: Necessity and Maintenance
â9 Conclusion
2 In and Out of Control: Technologies and Patients in Surgery
â1 Surgery, Technology, and Control
â2 Surgery at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital: Context and Development
â3 Controlling the Surgical Arena: Actors and Organization
â4 Technologies of Control: the Example of Lamps
â5 Controlling Bacteria: Asepsis and Manual Labor
â6 Controlling Patients via Technology: The Example of Anesthesia
â7 Beyond the Operating Theater: Limits and Implications of Control
â8 Conclusion
3 Dimensions of Ignorance: Discourses and Practices of Obstetrics
â1 Depopulation, Domesticity, Ignorance: Framing Maternity Care in Colonial Africa
â2 Maternity Services in Colonial Gabon and at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital
â3 Ignoring Training: Recruitment Priorities
â4 Giving Birth at and Outside the Hospital
â5 Ignoring Context: Maternity Care as a Medical Service
â6 Key Areas of Ignorance: Medication and Feeding
â7 Conclusion
4 Trial and Error: Drugs and the Treatment of Infectious Diseases
â1 Experiments in a Laboratory? The Treatment of Leprosy in Colonial Africa
â2 Leprosy in Lambaréné
â3 Dysentery in Africa and Lambaréné
â4 Trials and Errors: the Use of Pharmaceuticals at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital
â5 Conclusion
5 Healing and âCivilizingâ: Community and Safety in Psychiatric Care
â1 Psychiatric Services and Ideology in Colonial Africa and at the Hospital
â2 The Mentally Ill in Colonial Gabon and at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital
â3 Treating the Mentally Ill at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital: Drugs and Community
â4 Accommodating the Mentally Ill at the Hospital: Perspectives on Safety
â5 Conclusion
6 Conclusions
â1 Connecting Concepts: the Incoherence of Biomedical Practices
â2 The Practice of Global Biomedicine: Schweitzer and the Value of the Local
â3 Taxonomies of Global Health and the Albert Schweitzer Hospital
Bibliography
Archival Sources
âInterviews
âPublished References
âIndex
People interested in the history of medicine, especially in the colonies. Practitioners of Global Health. Students of Medical History. Historians of Africa. People interested in the work of Albert Schweitzer.