Health practitioners at sea: Evolution of a practice and a profession on ships flying the French flag (18th-19th...

What is the place of health practitioners at sea? What role does this officer occupy, straddling the fields of dietetics, prevention and minor traumatology? Four printed books (little used in the history of medicine and medical anthropology) will serve as guides: Letters from a surgeon to Mr. … shipowner on the subject of the plant-based diet proposed for seafarers (M. Poissonnier des Perrières, 1773), Advice to seafarers on their health (G. Mauran, 1786), Lessons on asphyxia or instructions on the assistance to be given to drowned persons and others asphyxiated (L.S.C. Sauvé, 1841) and Treatise on naval hygiene (J.B. Fonssagrives, 1878). From the comparative analysis of these four works covering two centuries of health activity at sea, we will see what evolutionary paths were taken by these embarked practitioners. Far from the image of a simple "luxury barber", surgeons, pharmacists and other health practitioners acquired over time a function of hygienist, intervening in the very organization of life on board and during stopovers (meals, body care, prevention, etc.). They gradually became interested in the relationship between man and the environment, in professional risks and in work accidents (which he prevented and treated), etc. It was a new discipline that was being established, but also a new way of thinking and doing surgery/medicine and maintaining health.