Medical hospitals in pre-Enlightenment Central Europe. The example of the Hospital of the Order of St. John of God in Feldsberg/Valtice and its patients 1630–1660

Abstract

The article analyses the earliest patient records surviving from the little hospital of the Catholic Hospitaller Order of St. John of God in Feldsberg (today in Southern Moravia) for the period 1630-1660. The hospital had only 10 regular beds and even these were under-used. Still it worked according to the principle of a medical hospital, concentrating on the short-term therapy of diseases. Average duration of stay was only 35 days and mortality scored more than 20%. Nearly three quarters of those admitted were released as cured after a few weeks. "Fevers" dominated the diagnostic spectrum. Analysis of the main sociodemographic characteristics of the indoor-patients showed that they were all male and mainly between 16 and 35 years old--almost 90% were of Catholic faith. Most of them had worked as servants or craftsmen, and a considerable number were migrants.