[Discussion on urban environment and public health]

This article is based on a larger empirical study on the discussions on urban environments within the Swedish medical profession, the decades following the introduction of the Swedish Public Health Act 1875. The aim is both to account for the physicians' views upon predictive measures regarding housing and public cleaning, and to test the dominant trend within the history of medicine, which states that the medical profession during the 19:th century was a driving force in a society developing a growing control over its citizens. The study shows that this theory of control and disciplination do not hold ground when tested against the empirical material. The discussion of the medical profession contains elements both of empathy toward weaker groups, and of a paternalist attitude, taking into consideration the mutual obligations between state and citizen. Furthermore, the study shows that the physicians were unwilling to use the power they had in matters regarding public health and urban environments, and that they did not strive to enhance it. They acted as scientific experts in relation to vested interests, but in relation to the state, they acted as obedient civil servants, adjusting themselves to the frames of the public budgets.