Medical Reports from the 1800s and What they Tell about Health Conditions, Population and the Work of Doctors in Peripheral Norway

Reports of Norwegian medical officers from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries provide detailed information for the entire country down to the level of individual health districts. The nineteenth-century reports are of special medical historical interest. The design of the reports makes it possible to compare the real health situation to the perception of it held by health personnel. Data on epidemic diseases from the period 1868–1900 have been excerpted and compared to the written descriptions in the reports and interpreted in relation to the overarching medical and social contexts. This analysis illustrates the importance of health perception as an independent historical agent.