This study focuses on municipal doctors and examines the emergence of “state medicine” in the modern Ottoman Empire. The establishment of local medical and sanitary organizations proceeded as an inseparable part of the reorganization of the new provincial system. Municipalities established in each administrative unit became the center of public health measures, and doctors trained at the new civilian medical school (1867) were appointed to each municipality. The percentage of municipal doctors employed in each region of Aydın Province gradually increased, from 40% in 1880 to 50% in 1890, and then to 80% in 1900. Hence, the turn of the 20th century signaled a time of change in the spread of state medicine in the modern Ottoman Empire. When the number of municipal doctors began to increase in the 1890s, significant efforts to improve the local sanitation administration also accelerated. These included the development of laws related to smallpox vaccination and food hygiene, employment and training of auxiliary personnel such as vaccinators and chemical inspectors, production of domestic vaccines, and development of chemical testing facilities.

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