Draining Land to Care for Men. Four Doctors Serving a Swampy Region in the 19th Century : the Double in Périgord. The Double, a small area in Périgord consisting of brushland swamp, was experiencing economic and health problems during the first half of the 19th century. The need drain and open the region was imposed upon the Second Empire while the relationship to swampy regions, to forests and to hygiene evolved. This laborintensive enterprise, finished at the end of the century, was the work of local notables among whom four doctors were to be counted respectively as the precursor, the theorist, the head engineer and the successor of the project. Relaying hygienists’ arguments, moved by the devastating fevers they directly witnessed, the doctors were worried about the difficulties of Double and its inhabitants since they were also landowners. Beyond the debates on the virtue of 19th century drainage projects, the micro-history approach makes it possible to retrace the nature of their involvement and carry out a nuanced analysis of the roles of these doctors and of hygienists in draining theses wetlands.