History of Medicine
As far back as available documents reveal, the Vaud Alps have long been a perfect example of what any rural and mountainous region exhibits in terms of sanitary and medical practices. Thus, from the Middle Ages, the presence of practitioners with varied skills is noted, ranging from herbalists and itinerant drug vendors, to "bone-setters" holding "secrets", surgeons, and midwives who acquired knowledge through practical apprenticeship, to some rare (at least before the 19th century) attestations of learned doctors with foreign university degrees, sometimes of great renown (such as, in the 18th century, Albert de Haller, who, though appointed inspector of the Bex saltworks, settled in the region for reasons unrelated to medicine). The medical and sanitary organization, like elsewhere, is governed by various regulations regarding epidemics, drug trade, and health control. Institutions for receiving and treating the sick also reflect what is observed elsewhere, with a few geographical specificities: long before the invention of the modern hospital in the 19th century, small hospice-type institutions along the plains of Chablais served pilgrims, treated the sick, and fed the poor. This proto-medical Alpine history also includes some practices on the margins of true medicine, such as the thermal baths known here and there, which—like the Lavey baths—would not be truly exploited medically until the 19th century.
If we are to speak of a "medical boom" in the Vaud Alps, it too is contemporary with the broader societal "medicalization" process observed elsewhere in Europe. This transformation includes the history of the medical profession's shift to a unified and professional body (through standardized training in medical faculties), the subordination of other healthcare providers (such as midwives and caregivers) to medical authority, and their marginalization or even legal prohibition (as seen with the large, vague category of "bone-setters"). This process also entails the construction of a medical system centered around infirmaries and modernized hospitals (in Aigle, Château-d'Oex, etc.), designed to meet the healthcare needs of the entire population, a process that began in the late 19th century and continues to this day.
One striking feature, however, significantly shaped the medical history of the Vaud Alps: the exploitation of specific geo-climatic factors. Indeed, through a broad societal and cultural movement, medical science began, in the mid-19th century, to recognize the therapeutic power of high-altitude air, and more generally, the Alpine environment as potent agents against various diseases, particularly tuberculosis. This vast movement turned the Vaudois Alps, and Leysin in particular, into the site of a true healthcare industry, orchestrated by influential promoters, entrepreneurs, and doctors, such as Auguste Rollier, known worldwide for his heliotherapy methods. Between the late 19th century and the 1960s, thousands of patients (at times several thousand at once) would ascend to the region to undergo long-term sanatorium treatments in large establishments or small clinics. These institutions, in addition to serving as places for treatment and scientific teaching, essentially became the economic backbone of the region.
After the golden age of sanatorium medicine, abruptly interrupted in the 1950s with the advent of new therapeutic methods, the transition to new uses was not without difficulty. Some institutions continued their medical vocation in other forms, while others were repurposed for tourism, education, or even demolished. Despite this shift, medicine, as a crucial driver of economic development and social transformation in the Vaud Alps, continues to shape the architecture of buildings, urban fabric, the very landscape, and beyond, influencing both the natural and cultural history of the region.
(Written in collaboration with Prof. Vincent Barras)
