Medicine and Health Services in Naples (1750-1810)

Abstract

Naples was one of the largest cities in Europe at the end of the 18th century, the capital of a Kingdom where social and economic backwardness often went together with a lively scientific and medical life. Attempts at reforming medical teaching, public health institutions and hospitals punctuated the revolutionary and Napoleonic period: from the enlightened despotism of the Bourbons to the advanced experiments, on a French model, of the Murat period, medical life in Naples changed deeply.