Making Medicine Scientific

John Burdon Sanderson and the Culture of Victorian Science
Erscheinungsjahr 2002
ISBN: 978-0-8018-6897-9
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 240 Seiten, Format (B × H): 164 mm x 237 mm, Gewicht: 513 g

In Victorian Britain scientific medicine encompassed an array of activities, from laboratory research and the use of medical technologies through the implementation of sanitary measures that drained canals and prevented the adulteration of milk and bread. Although most practitioners supported scientific medicine, controversies arose over where decisions should be made, in the laboratory or in the clinic, and by whom—medical practitioners or research scientists. In this study, Terrie Romano uses the life and eclectic career of Sir John Burdon Sanderson (1829-1905) to explore the Victorian campaign to make medicine scientific.

Sanderson, in many ways a prototypical Victorian, began his professional work as a medical practitioner and Medical Officer of Health in London, then became a pathologist and physiologist and eventually the Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford. His career illustrates the widespread support during this era for a medicine based on science. In Making Medicine Scientific, Romano argues this support was fueled by the optimism characteristic of the Victorian age, when the application of scientific methods to a range of social problems was expected to achieve progress. Dirt and disease as well as the material culture of experimentation —from frogs to photographs—represent the tangible context in which Sanderson lived and worked. Romano's detailed portrayal reveals a fascinating figure who embodied the untidy nature of the Victorian age's shift from an intellectual system rooted in religion to one based on science.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Romano, Terrie M

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Geschichte der Medizin
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Naturwissenschaften, Technik, Medizin

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: From Evangelical to Medical Officer of Health
Chapter 1: Choosing Medicine
Chapter 2: Medical Officer of Health
Part II: Making a Career in Medical Research
Chapter 3: Before the Germ Theory: The Cattle Plague of 1865-1866 and the State Support of Pathology
Chapter 4: From Clinician-Researcher to Professional Physiologist: Making the Pulse Visible
Chapter 5: Becoming a Research Pathologist: The Rise of Laboratory Medicine in Britain
Chapter 6: Focusing on Physiology: Capturing the Venus's-Flytrap's Electrical Activity
Part II: The Medical Sciences: Critics and Allies
Chapter 7: Physicians, Anti vivisectionists, and the Failure of the Oxford School of Physiology
Chapter 8: A Corner Turned? Experimental Medicine in Late Victorian Britain
List of Abbreviations
Appendix: Researchers Associated with Burdon Sanderson in Britain
Notes
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Romano, Terrie M
Terrie M. Romano is working for the Canadian government. She is currently working on a history of carnivorous plants.