MARIA RITA LINO GARNEL
The intellectual power of physicians (late 19th century - early 20th century).

The aim of this paper is to understand some of the ideas and strategies used by physicians (as a social and professional class) to reinstate their power in the 19th century. This can be measured in their ability to convince other local powers and other areas of knowledge, and also the growing public opinion, of the importance of Medicine; it can also be measured in the ability to induce change in everyday practices, in the use of the body and generally in the way behaviours were transformed. Medical ideas, benefiting from science's general prestige, did not stop at the treatment of the individual body; their aim was to regenerate the whole of society.