oa ‘Het gaat niet zozeer om het genezen, maar om het hervormen’ - Over de rol en betekenis van het zeehospitaal voor kinderen in het hygiëneoffensief van het eind van de negentiende eeuw

Hygiene, good health, and education have always been closely linked in the history of mankind. In this article we pay attention to the role of sea hospitals within the broader movement and struggle for improved hygiene. They were built for children suffering from rachitis and scrofulosis. The focus here is on the French sea hospital at Berck-sur-Mer (founded in 1861) and the two Belgian sea hospitals (founded in 1881 and 1884). In the first part, the analysis deals with the meaning of a growing medicalisation of childhood. We therefore concentrate on the transition from a ‘hospice’ to ‘hospital’. The relationship between the medical dimensions of the sea hospitals and their pedagogical dimensions is at the heart of the second part. The normalising techniques of the sea hospitals are regarded as central to the reconstruction of childhood, aiming at making children part of the social body.