WATCHFUL PHYSICIANSS EYES. MEDICINE IN GDANSK IN THE ENLIGHTENMENT (Lekarzy czujne oczy. Medykalizacja w Gdansku doby oswiecenia)

In the Enlightenment one of the most important tasks of monarchies (due to the modernization processes) was to control and to improve citizens' physical condition. The process of medicalization (M. Foucault) was one of instruments that rulers used to exercise their power and domination. It was inspired by discussions led by scholars and physicians. Yet, it was highly complicated to implement those mechanisms of rationalization in the city of Gdansk, as the second partition of the Republic of Poland in 1793 meant for it both a transformation and a change of the sovereign. In this period one could observe a vivid discussion between the city council and local physicians (especially those from the Physicians' Society) over the project of medicalization. Nevertheless, it did not succeed because of political situation and a weakness of physicians' milieu in Gdansk. The final effect of the above-mentioned debates was visible in a modernization project proposed by a new governmental centre (since 1793 it was Berlin). It was to intensify the process of medical control by interception of the power by the authorities stronger involved in its modern representation. That local version of modernization seemed to be a very flexible version of the broader vision, and one of the most innovative in a whole Europe. In Gdansk were established basic elements of the process of medicalization: modernization of hospitals, medical control of poverty, surgeons' professionalisation, elements of the population policy (Entbindungs-Lehranstalt von Westpreussen). The example of Gdansk illustrates the fact, that society must consent to the medical control.