Wetenschapsbeoefening en belangenbehartiging: naar een nieuwe geschiedschrijving van negentiende-eeuwse medische genootschappen in de Lage Landen

This paper provides an overview of the historiography of nineteenth-century medical societies in the Low Countries and sketches opportunities for new research. Three research traditions will be identified. The first two traditions correspond to the different reception of the concept of ‘professionalisation’ (the development of medicine into a modern profession) in the Netherlands and Belgium, which resulted in different interpretations of the professional function of medical societies. The third tradition comprises the research into the advisory function of these societies and their political lobby relating to public health. As each of these research traditions discussed medical societies within their own interpretative framework, the historiographical image of nineteenth-century medical societies has also become highly fragmented. While the efforts of medical societies to build and protect their professional interests have been extensively studied, the scientific activities of these medical societies have only received limited attention. This paper suggests that a more complete analysis can be achieved by considering medical societies as research communities. From such a perspective, the scientific practices performed in medical societies can be studied in close relation to their professional functioning, thus enabling new insights into the relation between scientific and professional developments in nineteenth-century medicine.