Medical Networks.

Based on the case study of the contentious gynaecologist and obstetrician Ludwig Kleinwächter whose career led him from Prague to Innsbruck and finally to the town of Chernovtsy in the eastern most part of the Habsburg monarchy this research project analyses medical- and science historical questions as to the production, transmission and reception of medical knowledge in the field of gynaecology and obstetrics throughout the second half of the 19th century. For the interpretation of these processes, Ludwik Flecks theory of thought-styles and thought-collectives serves as a productive background. The planned study wishes to analyse the multifaceted history of a scholarly life on three different levels and from different perspectives. First of all, aiming at a reconstruction regarding the quantity and topical focus of Kleinwächters oeuvre, the focus will, on the one hand, lie on the subject-specific orientation of his evidence-based and theoretical works. On the other hand, the chosen form of publication will be scrutinized, gaining insight on knowledge dissemination strategies. Then, moving to a more theoretical level, systematic citation analyses will provide the basis for the identification of the underlying thought styles and thought collectives within the discipline. On a praxeological level a reconstruction of the physicians approaches to medical research, through the qualitative analysis of the presented case studies, is targeted. The focus in the last section of this project will lie on the journals and publishing houses that accepted and issued Kleinwächters works. Analyses as to the reception of his works within the scientific community complete the aim of scrutinising the concept of scholarly reputation in order to critically evaluate Kleinwächters integration in the relevant medical societies. Against this backdrop, Kleinwächters scholarly products have to be seen as the essence of scholarly thinking and therefore form the starting point and the central body of sources. A structured bequest including the medical practice records, personal documents, correspondence or unpublished manuscripts does not exist. However, an extensive body of sources autographic or related to Kleinwächter has survived in the consulted archives on national and international level. In order to answer the previously posed research questions on the epistemological prerequisites and empirical approaches in the production, transmission and reception of gynaecological and obstetric knowledge, quantitative and qualitative methods are applied. Flecks fundamental concept of epistemic thought- styles and thought-collectives will be grasped through a network approach as well as a more qualitatively oriented, discursive approach. Thus providing a thick description of the medical and science historical topic.

Based on the case study of the gynaecologist and obstetrician Ludwig Kleinwächter (1839-1906) the project analyzed medical and science historical questions as to the production, transmission and reception of medical knowledge throughout the second half of the nineteenth century. Focused on the work and life of the contentious expert the project tried to identify the quantity and topical focus of his oeuvre, the way the doctor generated his knowledge and the dissemination strategies he chose, illustrating his participation in the contemporary scientific discourse. These questions were set against the background of Kleinwächter's extraordinary biography and had to be seen in a temporal and spatial relationship, covering his career steps in Prague, Innsbruck and Chernovtsy/Bukowina. The analysis of the implementation of antiseptic knowledge and practices into midwifery education and midwifery practice that Kleinwächter initiated in his Innsbruck time and was later legally enforced throughout the Habsburg Monarchy showed how scientific networks within the obstetric and gynaecological field functioned, how power of knowledge was exerted and how new findings were disseminated to related professional groups and the public. A second major result must be seen in the advancement of medical historical research focusing on the former Habsburg territory of Bukovina (today split between Ukraine and Romania). The project succeeded in reconstructing the obstetric market for the second half of the nineteenth century, highlighting Kleinwächter's extraordinary position. However, not only the analysis of the medical expert has furthered historical knowledge on Bukovina but also the focus on the distinct group of Kleinwächter's patients, coming almost exclusively from the large Jewish communities throughout Bukovina. Thus, the Medical Network's project also succeeded from a patient historical perspective in identifying and contextualizing female patients and their needs. The named social and medical historical approaches indeed provide a novel reading of Bukovinian history. A third innovative approach was chosen by conducting research on the Bohemian Vierteljahrschrift für die Praktische Heilkunde (VJPH). As Czech medical historical research in the field of gynaecology and obstetrics has focused primarily on their Czech proponents and the time after the separation of the Medical University into a German and a Czech university, little attention had so far been given to the extensive and highly interesting material. The case of the German language journal shows power relations between the central university in Vienna and its Bohemian counterpart. The journal allows a reconstruction of the strategic profiling of the Prague Medical Faculty, of professional medical careers and of the conjuncture of medical topics. In the wider context of the emerging research of the history of periodicals, the VJPH allows insights on the business of editing medical journals, its staff, as well as on topics of demand and reception within the context of European medicine.