The Dissertations of Doctors of Medicine Active in Estland, Livland and Courland, Defended at European Universities in the Eighteenth Century
Ajalooline Ajakiri, 2010, 3/4 (133/134), 367–402 The dissertations of doctors of medicine active in Estland, Livland and Courland, defended at European universities in the eighteenth century Arvo Tering During the seventeenth century and the fi rst half of the eighteenth century, learned medics of the Russian Baltic provinces and the Grand Duchy of Courland mostly found employment as physicians of wealthier towns and as medical doctors, running private practices or even as chief surgeons in the military hospitals of Tallinn and Riga. However, during the last two decades of the eighteenth century, the demand for educated doctors sud- denly rocketed: the positions of county doctors were created in new county and district centres and mansion owners and landlords introduced a new trend by hiring private doctors into their mansions. From 1802, the fi rst generation of professors of medical and auxiliary disciplines of the newly established Tartu University became the core of learned medical specialists in the Baltic provinces. Most of the medical doctors that practiced in Estland, Livland and Courland during the eight- eenth century and the fi rst half of the nineteenth century had studied in the largest German universities – Halle, Jena or Göttingen, and to a lesser extent Leipzig, Königsberg, Erfurt, Erlangen and in some of the univer- sities of the Netherlands, particularly Leiden.1 Most of these medics had passed a process of being promoted to the position of a med ical doctor, Th e research for this article has been supported by the Estonian Science Foundation grant no 8938 and Target Financed Program no SF0180040s08.
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