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The aim of this paper is to analyse the technical, conceptual and institutional changes from which, through macroscopic pathology, a new medical science (microscopic pathology) emerged. The "early" pathology was mainly implemented by the Ecole de Paris, at the beginning of the 19th century. After 1850, histo-pathology emerged, in German university institutes (which were separate buildings from the wards and from the dissecting rooms of the hospitals). The birth of histo-pathology is also linked with technical improvements in mass manufactured microscopes, with better techniques for fixing and staining histological samples and lastly, in (1848) withVirchow's cellular theory. Among French doctors, only one, the very famous physician Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893) was aware of these dramatic changes. Charcot wrote many texts which are testimonies of an epistemological rupture between two very different types of medicine, the old French "médecine d'hôpital" and the new "lab medicine", developed in German speaking countries and based on the microscope.

Hausväterliteratur designates works aimed at landlords and their wives in order to help them in the management of their estate. Among a wide-ranged list of topics tackled in these sizeable volumes, child welfare seldom fails to appear, though generally rather briefly. We consider in this paper a number of German works, most of them dating from the 17th century, though beginning with Johann Coler (1593) and winding up with Johann Joachim Becher (1714). These works include some advice on how to diagnose and manage the most common ailments, as well as some basic educational principles. A brief "pediatric" pharmacopoeia is often added. Although this review concerns only works in German, we have added references to a document taken from English literature, the diary of the clergyman and landlord Ralph Josselin. Dating from the same period (1643-1683), this document shows us how a landlord and his wife actually treated their sick children, thus shifting from theory to practice. "Hausväterliteratur" can be considered as an early stage of what was later termed "Domestic Medicine".