[The construction of a medical discipline and its challenges: Orthopedics in Switzerland during the 19th and 20th centuries]. / Die Konstruktion einer medizinischen Disziplin und ihre Herausforderungen: die Orthopädie in der Schweiz im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert.

During the 19th century, numerous figures, with different qualifications, claimed to practice orthopedics: doctors, surgeons, inventors of equipment and instruments, and other empiricists. They performed certain types of techniques, massages, surgical operationsand/or fitted prostheses. The polysemous notion of orthopedics had created conflicts of interest that would reach their height at the end of the 19th century. The integration of orthopedics into the training at the university level enhanced its proximity to surgery, a discipline that has dominated the so-called modern medicine. During the 20th century, various medical branches defend the legitimacy of certain orthopedic practices, thereby threating to a degree the title itself of this specialization. By examining the challenges that have shaped the history of orthopedics in Switzerland, this article also seeks to shed light on the strategies that were implemented in adopting a medical and technical discipline within a transforming society.

[Scoliotic young girls and orthopaedics in Belle Epoque: the urban surge of mecanotherapy in Lausanne and Geneva]. / Jeunes filles scoliotiques et orthopédie a la Belle Epoque: l'essor urbain de la mécanothérapie a Lausanne et Genève.

In Belle Epoque towns marked by the industrial and medical surge, a new technical therapy, called mechanotherapy, emerged, stemming from Swedish medical gymnastics and auxiliary to orthopaedics. Aiming mostly at treating scoliosis, this therapy by movement attracted a sizeable female clientele to these towns, because of the hygienic and social conceptions feeding collective imagination linked to the bodies of scoliotic young girls. Taking the French-speaking Swiss towns of Lausanne and Geneva as examples, the article first seeks to describe the emergence of mechanotherapy as a medical and urban phenomenon. It then addresses the role played by scoliosis in this orthopaedic practice, and examines the clientele attracted to the towns, among which well-born young girls seem to be predominant.

[Diphtheria in Geneva at the end of the 19th century: the emergence of bacteriology and the use of serotherapy]. / La diphtérie à Genève à la fin du XIXe siècle: l'entrée en scène de la bactériologie et l'emploi de la sérothérapie.

At the end of the 19th century, diphtheria was one of the infectious diseases striking children the most. With the development of laboratory medicine, appearing at this time throughout Europe, came the identification of the diphtherial bacillus, which not only causes a local infection, but also produces a poison attacking the whole organism. The discovery of this microbe will be an important vector for bacteriological research, leading to the elaboration of the antidiphtherial serum, considered the first specific and effective therapeutic product in the new experimental medicine. Through the study of diphtheria in the canton of Geneva, we examine the causes and consequences of the application of laboratory techniques and concepts in the sphere of clinical medicine.