Jeunes filles scoliotiques et orthopédie à la Belle Epoque: l’essor urbain de la mécanothérapie à Lausanne et Genève

Abstract

In Belle Epoque towns marked by the industrial and medical surge, a new technical therapy, called mechanotherapy, emerged, stemming from Swedish medical gymnastics and auxiliary to orthopaedics. Aiming mostly at treating scoliosis, this therapy by movement attracted a sizeable female clientele to these towns, because of the hygienic and social conceptions feeding col lective imagination linked to the bodies of scoliotic young girls. Taking the Frenchspeaking Swiss towns of Lausanne and Geneva as examples, the article first seeks to describe the emergence of mechanotherapy as a medical and urban phenomenon. It then addresses the role played by scoliosis in this ortho - paedic practice, and examines the clientele attracted to the towns, among which well-born young girls seem to be predominant.