[From isolation to opening: the evolution of the practice of medicine in the canton of Jura. I. The economic and social framework].

Conditions for life from nowadays are compared to those reigning during the first half of this century in the canton Jura, a rural area with some manufactures. Roads were poorly developed and unsafe, hygiene was rudimentary, social security virtually inexistent and perinatal and children's mortality frightfully high. Birth, life and death took place at ones home at candle-light and without assistance. These past conditions are revived to elucidate the enormous medical developments over the past 50 years.