French Doctors at Sea: An Imperial Contamination of Medical Practices

The profile of the French merchant navy physician changed considerably between 1870 and 1900. This evolution paralleled that of the civilian medical corps on land and had its own original features: fewer came from the Navy, they were younger and therefore less experienced, and they did not commit for long. In addition to the changes taking place within naval and imperial medicine, their careers were maturing in the context of safer maritime routes and increased interest in long-distance travel. They were also more aware of the scientific progress of their time and sailed in contact with different medical spheres, military and civil, French and foreign, domestic and distant.

The archives of the Messageries Maritimes Company show that there was a clear difference between the conception these men had of their profession in a shipboard situation, the needs of the maritime company that employed them and the reality of daily life at sea and in port. Relations between practitioners and captains were often stormy, particularly as each represented two different but complementary conceptions of imperial penetration. Through the addition of heterogeneous profiles, the aim is to understand what unites these men around this maritime speciality of the medical practice. Above all, it helps to understand how medical knowledge and practices traveled the world along maritime lines in the first half of the 20th century.