Protomedyk, fizyk miejski, fizyk okręgowy Wolnego Miasta Krakowa (1815—1846) Z dziejów organizacji służby zdrowia na ziemiach polskich w XIX w.

The article presents organisational principles and forms of activity of the “medical police” of the Free City of Cracow (1815—1846), with particular emphasis on the tasks of the protomedic and two physicists: the urban and regional physicists. The “governmental instructions” for the physicists, adopted by the Senate in 1844, have been subjected to a detailed analysis. Their content demonstrates that the main tasks of the “health officials” were to take care of the health of the inhabitants of Cracow and the district, including preventing and combating epidemics, controlling the food sold, taking care of the sanitary conditions in hospitals, police detention centres, the building of Criminal Prisons, etc., as well as supervision over doctors, surgeons, midwives and pharmacists, combating the activities of charlatans and unlicenced midwives, carrying out vaccinations, carrying out health examinations of “public women,” preparing court and medical opinions, issuing death certificates, examining slaughtered animals, etc. For the purposes of the article, the names of persons appointed as protomedics and physicists have been identified. The text is based primarily on archival materials stored in the National Archive in Cracow (the “Archive of the WMK”) and in the Archive of the Jagiellonian University.