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City physician (German: Stadtphysicus, Stadtphysikus, Stadtarzt; Swedish: stadsfysikus, stadsläkare, Finnish: kaupunginfysikus, kaupunginlääkäri, from Latin physicus) was a historical title in the Late Middle Ages for a physician appointed by the city council. The city physician was responsible for the health of the population, particularly the poor, and the sanitary conditions in the city. His duties also included the supervision of pharmacies and the supervision of those engaged in medical tasks, such as midwives and barber surgeons. In addition, he had forensic duties such as assessing the injuries of living persons, external postmortem examinations, and conducting autopsies in cases of non-natural and unexplained deaths. In times of epidemic, many city physicians published small, printed books of guidelines. His functions combined aspects of the modern health minister, chief medical officer, coroner, and medical/pharmaceutical licencing authority.
The role existed in what are today a number of European countries, including Germany, Estonia, Finland, Norway, Poland, Sweden, and Switzerland.[1][2][3]
- ^ "[EKSS] "Eesti keele seletav sõnaraamat" 2009". www.eki.ee (in Estonian). Archived from the original on 2022-01-13. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
- ^ Brzeziński, Tadeusz (2000). Historia medycyny (in Polish) (Wyd. 3 ed.). Warszawa: Wydawn. Lekarskie PZWL. ISBN 978-83-200-2416-6. OCLC 50170715.
- ^ "Noen har skrevet stadsfysikatets historie". Tidsskrift for den Norske Legeforening (in Norwegian Bokmål). 2000-04-20. ISSN 0029-2001. Archived from the original on 2022-02-02.