Henry Rider Haggard, the famed author of adventure romances, wrote the novel Dr. Therne (1898) in response to weakening compulsory smallpox vaccination laws, thus entering one of the most heated debates of the late nineteenth century. With Dr. Therne, Haggard aimed to intervene in the lives of the many working-class anti-vaccinationists who, from the 1850s onwards, mobilised to evade what they perceived as a gross – and targeted – extension of state power at the expense of individual rights. Recovering the novel, which has not yet received scholarly attention from historians of medicine, reveals the way fiction was called upon to change minds during a crucial period of Victorian medicine, one that witnessed a climactic shift in public health intervention. This article will examine the reception of Dr. Therne in various print media – middle-class London papers, medical journals and working-class, anti-vaccinationist publications – to consider some new dynamics of the debate which the disagreement over Haggard’s polemic exposes, including the perceived power of fiction (when properly priced and distributed) to change minds, and the contested role of the evangelical press. Additionally, a discussion of the different iterations of Dr. Therne, and a look at an exceptional anti-vaccinationist response in the form of a competing novel, illustrates that pro- and anti-vaccinationists alike contributed to a moment in late Victorian society when the role of fiction was considered a worthy contender in a debate ostensibly about fact.

So far, female physicians have played a minor role in scientific studies of Nazi victims; this also applies to specialists in pathology. Against this background, the present study examines the biographies of the outstanding Jewish pathologists Rahel Rodler (1878–1944), Ruth Silberberg (1906–97), Lotte Strauss (1913–85) and Zelma Wessely (1914–2004). The focus is on their roles as women scientists and their fateful careers after the Nazi rise to power, embedded in the context of the position of women in medical studies and the medical profession of their time as well as in the subject of pathology. The study is primarily based on archival sources from various German, Austrian and Swiss state and university archives, from the British National Archives and from the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington DC. The paper provides three key findings: (1) The four female pathologists were rare exceptions in the contemporary pathological scientific community with a quantitative share of less than 5%. (2) They experienced discrimination on two levels (gender and ‘race’). (3) Thanks to professional excellence and continued dedication, three of the four female pathologists were able to escape from Nazi Germany and achieve remarkable careers in emigration. It can be concluded that Rodler, Silberberg, Strauss and Wessely rose to female role models and pioneer scientists in contemporary pathology.

This work examines the history of smallpox, a highly infectious and epidemic disease, in Argentina, throughout different governments and public health policies from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. The study focuses on the smallpox vaccine and the social and collective significance of universal immunization. It also analyses the relationship between governments of different political orientations and the international community regarding the production of vaccines and vaccination campaigns from their implementation to the eradication of the disease.

From the last decades of the twentieth century, above all, in the more service-oriented post-industrial economies, and in a context of debilitation of public health systems, health care became exponentially profitable, thereby attracting new types of investors. In fact, this new stage entails moving from the commercialisation of health care to its financialisation; that is, medical care becomes just one more financial asset and its price and quality are quoted on the stock exchange. This study intends to participate in the debate initiated by historians of medicine and economic historians with the aim of tracing capitalist traits and market participation in the evolution of health coverage, a process initially promoted by professional doctors who converted their consulting rooms into small clinics and larger hospital companies and which, over time, saw the incorporation of financial capital. In particular, this paper has two specific objectives for the case of Spain. First, to analyse the relationship of collaboration and/or competition between public and private hospitals under democracy and the factors that have conditioned this relationship. Second, to make an initial contribution towards understanding how, in this context, the large private hospital groups have been created in Spain during this period, especially in recent decades with concentration in the hands of financial capital, originating from both the traditional banking sector and investment funds.