O problemach i zadaniach lekarzy prowincjonalnych ziem Królestwa Polskiego w opinii „Czasopisma Lekarskiego” przełomu XIX i XX w.

The article relies on press reports of provincial doctors published in “Czasopismo Lekarskie” (“Medical Journal”) in the years 1899-1908, and reflects the concerns and problems of the then environment of rural and small-town doctors on the Polish lands. According to the reports, there were two groups of concerns: the first was gaining the trust of the rural people who, for various reasons, at the beginning of the 20th century preferred to get help from quacks, herbalists, healers, and barber-surgeons rather than to seek advice from ‘genuine doctors’. In the period under investigation, the provincial doctor ceased to be a ‘gentlemen’ doctor; thus, their material situation changed radically. The problem was not only numerous visits to distant villages or towns, constant readiness to provide assistance often in extreme situations or work in challenging conditions, but also issues of unfair competition, lack of solidarity between doctors, problems related to non-standardised medical fees, the issue of choosing medicaments (either cheap or expensive), or a great need for cyclical training. This problem was to be dealt with by regional medical societies. The doctor in the province needed to be a specialist in many fields of medicine. Showing incompetence towards a sick peasant was one of the reasons why doctors were losing their authority, but it also undermined confidence in contemporary medicine, thereby pushing the rural population into the hands of quacks and barber-surgeons. The second issue, closely related to the first one, is the improvement of the provincial doctor’s self-image, which involved constant education and, above all, learning about the psychology and specificity of the behaviour of the rural people. In the press of the period, this topic was brought up by Władysław Biegański, Franciszek Grodecki, Teodor Dunin, Franciszek Wychowski, Antoni Kędzierski, Antoni Troczewski, Witold Chodźko, et al.