[Surgery in letters. The example of Lorenz Heister's epistolary consultation].

Abstract

The consultation letters of Lorenz Heister enable a specific patient-focused analysis. Heister was not only a famous physician of the early German Enlightenment, but a renowned surgeon as well. His double expertise gives his correspondence a unique character. The consultation letters addressed to him testify not only the well known phenomenon of "medicine-by-post", but also the less well known practice of "surgery-by-post". They allow us some insight into the different sensations and strategies of people who suffered from a malady which could call for surgical treatment. Patients' letters enable historians to compare the expression of fears, hopes and actions with those of their fellow-patients who sought in Heister not the surgeon, but the physician. Such a comparative approach suggests a series of issues, of which two are discussed here: representations of the patient's history of suffering (Patientenweg, and representations of the patient's body (Patientenkörper).