Social History of Medicine

Contribution à l'histoire du "patient" contemporain. L'autonomie en santé : du self-care au biohacking

by Klein Alexandre

Histoire, médecine et santé, 1, à paraitre juin 2012.

The ‘miracle of childbirth’: the portrayal of parturient women in medieval miracle narratives’

by Hilary Powell

published in 'Social History of Medicine', 2012

This paper explores how tales of difficult births found in medieval miracle narratives can contribute to our... more This paper explores how tales of difficult births found in medieval miracle narratives can contribute to our understanding of the experience of pregnancy and childbirth in twelfth-century England. While rare in the early collections, pregnant and parturient women are increasingly visible in the miracula from the later twelfth century. This paper seeks to explain why childbirth miracles began to appear more frequently and became more medical in character. The discussion centres on the two miracle collections belonging to St Thomas of Canterbury, written by Benedict of Peterborough and William of Canterbury in the 1170s. Explanations for the more frequent appearance of childbirth miracles are found, not in the changing relationship between humans and saintly intercessors, nor in the contemporary interest in the maternity of the Virgin Mary but in the specific context of the cult of St Thomas and the new emphasis given to lay testimony.

Darwin in Literature and Science

by Martin Willis

This is the bibliography for my work on Darwin in Literature and Science for my forthcoming Readers Guide to... more This is the bibliography for my work on Darwin in Literature and Science for my forthcoming Readers Guide to Literature and Science. Any suggestions appreciated!

Research Report for Rockefeller Archive

by Neici Milagros Zeller

It is caused of the womans part or of the mans part": the role of gender in the diagnosis and treatment of sexual dysfunction in early modern England

by Jennifer Evans

Women’s History Review, 20/3 (July 2011), 439–457.

Philip Barrough wrote in 1590 that barrenness ‘is caused of the woman’s part or of the mans part’. By the eighteenth... more Philip Barrough wrote in 1590 that barrenness ‘is caused of the woman’s part or of the mans part’. By the eighteenth century, however, barrenness was perceived as a female disorder distinguished from male impotence. Few historians have addressed the uncertainty surrounding early modern definitions of infertility, choosing instead to adopt set terms that fit comfortably with modern ideas. This article highlights the difficulties surrounding the gender distinction of the terms barrenness and impotence during this period. Moreover, the discussion examines the role of gender in diagnosing these disorders and argues that ideas of gender were more central to diagnosis of poor sexual health than to effectual treatment. Although it initially appears that barrenness and impotence were treated with separate remedies, many treatments were described as effectual for both sexes. Additionally, the ingredients used in such recipes were often sexual stimulants that functioned to stimulate the reproductive organs and genitalia of both sexes.

‘Gentle Purges corrected with hot Spices, whether they work or not, do vehemently provoke Venery’: Menstrual Provocation and Procreation in Early Modern England

by Jennifer Evans

Social History of Medicine, 25/1 (February 2012), 2-19.

Throughout the early modern period, medical writers described a plethora of remedies designed to provoke menstruation.... more Throughout the early modern period, medical writers described a plethora of remedies designed to provoke menstruation. This article will address the close relationship these substances had with provokers of lust. Historians have often viewed emmenagogues as covert expressions of abortive drugs. While they acknowledge that some women utilised these treatments for their intended purpose, to restore a regular menstrual cycle, they have more frequently asserted that they were more likely to be employed to remove an unwanted pregnancy. This article asserts that this understanding is in need of reappraisal and argues that these substances can be viewed as a key component of early modern fertility and sexual health care. This article demonstrates that provokers of venery and emmenagogues shared similar humoral virtues and that many compound remedies designed to restore purgation contained potent aphrodisiacs. By promoting a healthy menstrual cycle these substances ensured that the female reproductive system was fecund.

‘The Doctor’s Wife, (by the Blessing of God) helps Barrenness’: Gender and Infertility Treatments in Early Modern England.

by Jennifer Evans

Accepted for inclusion in the provisionally entitled, Gender, Health and Medicine in Historical Perspective edited by Sarah Toulalan.

The tensions and relationships between male medical knowledge and female medical understanding and practice have... more
The tensions and relationships between male medical knowledge and female medical understanding and practice have been examined by many scholars. In particular the development of man-midwifery and the contest between male physicians and female midwives has been extensively scrutinised.  Similarly research has been conducted on domestic medicine and the role of women in treating illness within the home.  This chapter will contribute to the debate surrounding the gendered nature of obstetric and gynaecological medicine in the early modern period. It will address issues relating to the nature and extent of women’s medical practice in this area. This research will examine the similarities and disparities between barrenness remedies offered in printed, male authored, medical texts and those recorded in the manuscript receipt collections kept by women. Moreover, it will assess a selection of advertisements to establish the extent to which male physicians and female practitioners were willing to publically offer treatments for fertility problems. It will highlight the many ways that, alongside men and independently, women were actively involved in the treatment of generative disorders both inside the home and in the broader medical market place of early modern England.

'Bewitched in their privities': Medical Responses to Infertility Witchcraft in Early Modern England

by Jennifer Evans

Societas Magicas Newsletter, issue 27 (Spring 2012) 1-5.

This essay investigates the predominantly naturalistic therapeutic response of early modern medical writers to cases... more This essay investigates the predominantly naturalistic therapeutic response of early modern medical writers to cases of magically caused infertility. For much of the early modern period medical writers and others accepted that infertility could be caused by witchcraft, achieved through the use of an enchantment or by utilising the ligature spell. Across the period there were only two recorded cases of impotence magic in England. Although this may have made discussions about magically induced sterility a mostly theoretical exercise, it is apparent that medical writers encouraged their readers to accept that the only legitimate response to this form of sexual health issue was to employ a natural remedy. In particular medical writers emphasised the efficacy of provokers of lust, aphrodisiacs, in curing sterility of this nature. In some cases, such as Swiss physican Theophile Bonet, medical writers claimed to have cured magical impotence with the use stimulating substances, like ‘Chocolad’. In suggesting that early modern medicine had a particular interest in promoting these natural medicinal cures for magically caused sexual health problems, this essay explores the question of whether, in the post-reformation landscape, men and women readily turned to the ritualistic treatments offered by cunning folk.

Context and History in Literature and Science

by Martin Willis

This paper is a report on the final plenary session on Historicism in Literature and Science at the British Society... more This paper is a report on the final plenary session on Historicism in Literature and Science at the British Society for Literature and Science Annual Conference at Oxford in April 2012.

And it's only short - a page and a half!

'Constructing Moral Hospitals: Childhood Health in Irish Reformatories and Industrial Schools, c.1851-1890' in Anne Mac Lellen and Alice Mauger (eds), Childhood Illness in Irish History (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2013)

by Ian Miller

Within this chapter I probe into the bio-psychological paradigms that underpinned mid-nineteenth century‘moral... more Within this chapter I probe into the bio-psychological paradigms that underpinned mid-nineteenth century‘moral hospitals’ in Ireland by charting how childhood health was negotiated and managed in reformatories and industrial schools in light of pressing socio-cultural anxieties over juvenile criminality. I begin by suggesting that criminality was then widely understood with reference to an organic framework that legitimated ideas that the bodies and minds of child criminals had abnormally developed in the absence of nurturing parental influence. This precept encouraged the development of an official strategy towards Irish reformatories and industrial schools that emphasised bodily and psychological reform for destitute children as a means of restoring normative patterns of physical, mental and moral growth.

I continue by demonstrating that reformatories and industrial schools were designed to create healthy institutional environments intended to juxtapose criminal environments where the “dangerous classes” were feared to be being reared. As part of this, the physiological and psychological roots of criminal psychology were targeted by mechanisms set in place to allow for appropriate nurturing. As examples, I focus on the multiple uses of outdoor work and diet as a means of reinstating normal processes of childhood growth and preventing future criminality. I conclude by suggesting that although moral treatment dominated initial approaches to the institutional management of juvenile criminality, forms of medical superintendence emerged in response to adjusting institutional health demands and a need to adapt to incorporate shifting forms of biomedical knowledge – in particular germ theory. Importantly, the types of disease encountered in reality were often those not obviously connected to criminality, meaning that reformatories and industrial schools ultimately purported to be providing services bordering upon paediatric healthcare. Overall, I explore what reformatories and industrial schools were meant to be as a guide to furthering our knowledge of their development in Ireland and to better illuminate how these sites ultimately transformed into places where the sanctity of childhood would ultimately become threatened and undermined.

Heart-Breaking History: Voices of Sick Children from the Past

by Hannah Newton

‘More like cooking than science: Narrating the Inside of the laboratory, Britain 1880-1914’

by Keir Waddington

The Case History in Medieval Islamic Medical Literature: Tajārib and Mujarrabāt as Source

by Cristina Álvarez Millán

in Medical History, 54.2 (April 2010), pp. 195-214.

Medical Anecdotes in Ibn Juljul's Biographical Dictionary

by Cristina Álvarez Millán

in Suhayl (Journal for the History of the Exact and Natural Sciences in Islamic Civilization, 4 (2004), pp. 141-158.

Medical Anecdotes in Ibn Juljul's Biographical Dictionary

by Cristina Álvarez Millán

in Suhayl (Journal for the History of the Exact and Natural Sciences in Islamic Civilization, 4 (2004), pp. 141-158.

The Public Body - Collections and Exhibitions of the German Hygiene-Museum in Central Europe in the 1920s

by Thomas Steller

Forthcoming 2013

During the Weimar Republic the German Hygiene-Museum in Dresden became a prominent place to make biomedical knowledge... more During the Weimar Republic the German Hygiene-Museum in Dresden became a prominent place to make biomedical knowledge public in Germany and abroad. I focus on the question as to which actor networks allowed the German Hygiene-Museum to function as a conduit for biomedical knowledge to Central Europe and through advanced visualization strategies to become a widely recognized and sought-after partner for doing health education afterwards. In Addition this paper addresses the importance of traveling health exhibitions and educational materials in Central Europe in the nineteen-twenties for the Museum.
Initially the wide range of the Museums activities all over Europe is sketched out. Then its cooperation with the League of Nations for the provision of teaching collections to nursing schools Poland and Russia is shown.
By presenting the Hygiene-Exhibition in Vienna in 1925 processes of negotiation and the competing (political) agendas of the city of Vienna, the state of Austria, the Museum and the Deutsches Reich are reconstructed. It is argued that hygienic knowledge in the 1920s was politically significant and thus contested.

Public Health and the Pre-Modern City: A Research Agenda

by Guy Geltner

History Compass 10 (2012): 231-45

How and to what extent did pre-modern people go about creating healthier environments? Can we reasonably talk about... more How and to what extent did pre-modern people go about creating healthier environments? Can we reasonably talk about public health when it comes to earlier urban societies? This essay briefly surveys a few tenacious misconceptions about preventative (as opposed to curative) health care in pre-modern cities, and then proceeds to review a budding scholarly literature that explores how urban dwellers, organizations, and governments, especially in medieval Europe and the Near East, identified and addressed the particular health risks attendant upon their milieus. The article concludes by pointing out several fruitful directions in which this emerging historical field can develop.

Response to Shelton

by Helen King

Social History of Medicine 25 (2012): 232-238

This article responds to Mr Shelton's comments on my piece 'History without historians?' While the first piece... more This article responds to Mr Shelton's comments on my piece 'History without historians?' While the first piece reflected on the reception of his work on William Smellie, in which Shelton alleged that 'murder-to-order' of pregnant subjects was carried out to make possible the illustrations published by Smellie, this response takes up the comments made by Mr Shelton about his own ways of carrying out historical research.

The Perfect Solution: How Trans Fats Became the Healthy Replacement for Saturated Fats

by David Schleifer

David Schleifer. 2012 “The Perfect Solution: How Trans Fats Became the Healthy Replacement for Saturated Fats.” Technology and Culture 53(1): 94-119.

Trans fats became part of the American food system due to a complex interplay among activism, industrial technology,... more Trans fats became part of the American food system due to a complex interplay among activism, industrial technology, and nutritional science. Some manufacturers began using partially hydrogenated oils, which contain trans fats, in the early twentieth century. Medical authorities began framing saturated fats as unhealthy in the 1950s. In the 1980s, activist organizations, including the Center for Science in the Public Interest, condemned food corporations’ use of saturated fats and endorsed trans fats as an acceptable alternative. Nearly all targeted corporations responded by replacing saturated fats with trans fats, which fit easily into their existing products. Trans fats thus became the perfect solution to the political problem of saturated fats and to the technical problem of what to use in their place. Activists helped precipitate technological change, but by 1994, trans fats were no longer regarded as a solution. Instead, they became regarded as a new nutritional problem.

Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, "Le Vaccin et ses simulacres. Instaurer un être pour gérer une population, 1800-1860",Tracés, revue de sciences humaines, 2011

by Jean-Baptiste Fressoz

The story of the smallpox vaccine is of particular interest for analysing the role of knowledge in the exercise of... more The story of the smallpox vaccine is of particular interest for analysing the role of knowledge in the exercise of power after the Revolution. Rather than establishing compulsory vaccination, the French Government decided to intervene in the medical sphere so as to impose a particular definition of the new virus. Human experimentation, clinical observation, the graphic definition of the vaccine and the statistical reorganisation of medical information enabled the doctors to impose the somewhat improbable definition of a non-virulent and perfectly benign virus preserving from smallpox for ever. The instauration of a vaccine is exemplary of an indirect mode of government relying on the proper definition of things. This helps to understand why the problem of contamination by vaccine, which had been noticed right at the beginning of the nineteenth century, was taken into account by the medical authorities in the 1860s only.