I created a free 6-week online course (MOOC) with FutureLearn on ancient health: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/ancient-health which ran twice in 2017. It's due to run again at the start of 2018
Since my PhD on ancient Greek ideas about menstruation, I've been interested in setting medical texts within their cultural contexts of production and reception. Recently I've been doing more on the reception end, looking at the uses of Hippocratic gynaecology in medicine up to the nineteenth century. See http://medienportal.univie.ac.at/uniview/professuren/detailansicht/artikel/helen-king-der-mythos-um-die-weiblichkeit/
My most recent monograph, The One-Sex Body on Trial (2013), concerns the reception of two ancient stories about women and the challenge this poses to Laqueur's model of change in the history of the body. I have also recently published on the humours in ancient medicine, the role of Hippocratic medicine in the later history of phobia, the reception of the plague of Athens, and the senses in medicine.
Que se passait-il quand on tombait malade dans l'Antiquité? Cet ouvrage examine la façon dont on ... more Que se passait-il quand on tombait malade dans l'Antiquité? Cet ouvrage examine la façon dont on se représentait le corps et son fonctionnement dans le monde gréco-romain. Il analyse le statut précaire du médecin à une époque où aucun diplôme officiel ne sanctionne sa formation. À côté des œuvres de figures célèbres, d'Hippocrate à Galien, différents thèmes sont abordés, comme ceux de l'éthique médicale, des relations entre le patient et son médecin, du traitement des «maladies des femmes». Le dernier chapitre s'intéresse à l'héritage de la médecine antique dans la culture occidentale jusqu'à l'époque contemporaine. Complété par un choix de sources et de documents iconographiques commentés, l'ouvrage offre une introduction claire et concise accessible aux non spécialistes.
http://www.chuv.ch/iuhmsp/ihm_home/ihm_publications/ihm_bhms.htm
Table of contents:
I PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Manfred Horstmanshoff, Helen King and Claus Z... more Table of contents:
I PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Manfred Horstmanshoff, Helen King and Claus Zittel
II INTRODUCTION Helen King
III HISTORY OF PHYSIOLOGY IN CONTEXT: CONCEPTS, METAPHORS, ANALOGIES
PHYSIOLOGIA, FROM GALEN TO JACOB BORDING Vivian Nutton
PHYSIOLOGICAL ANALOGIES AND METAPHORS IN EXPLANATIONS OF THE EARTH AND THE COSMOS Liba Taub
THE RECEPTION OF THE HIPPOCRATIC TREATISE ON GLANDS Elizabeth Craik
BETWEEN ATOMS AND HUMOURS. LUCRETIUS’ DIDACTIC POETRY AS A MODEL OF INTEGRATED AND BIFOCAL PHYSIOLOGY Fabio Tutrone
LOSING GROUND: THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ATTRACTION FROM THE KIDNEYS Michael R. McVaugh
THE ART OF THE DISTILLATION OF ‘SPIRITS’ AS A TECHNOLOGICAL MODEL FOR HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY: THE CASES OF MARSILIO FICINO, JOSEPH DUCHESNE AND FRANCIS BACON Sergius Kodera
THE BODY IS A BATTLEFIELD – CONFLICT AND CONTROL IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY PHYSIOLOGY AND POLITICAL THOUGHT Sabine Kalff
HERMAN BOERHAAVE’S NEUROLOGY AND THE UNCHANGING NATURE OF PHYSIOLOGY Rina Knoeff
THE ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF MIND: DAVID HUME’S VITALISTIC ACCOUNT Tamás Demeter
MORE THAN A FADING FLAME. THE PHYSIOLOGY OF OLD AGE BETWEEN SPECULATIVE ANALOGY AND EXPERIMENTAL METHOD Daniel Schäfer SUFFERING BODIES, SENSIBLE ARTISTS. VITALIST MEDICINE AND THE VISUALIZING OF CORPOREAL LIFE IN DIDEROT Tomas Macsotay
IV BLOOD
BLOOD, CLOTTING AND THE FOUR HUMOURS Hans L. Haak
AN ISSUE OF BLOOD. THE HEALING OF THE WOMAN WITH THE HAEMORRHAGE (MARK 5.24B-34; LUKE 8.42B-48; MATTHEW 9.19-22) IN EARLY MEDIEVAL VISUAL CULTURE Barbara Baert, Liesbet Kusters, Emma Sidgwick
THE NATURE OF THE SOUL AND THE PASSAGE OF BLOOD THROUGH THE LUNGS: GALEN, IBN AL-NAFĪS, SERVETUS, İTAKİ, ‘AṬṬĀR Rainer Brömer
SPERM AND BLOOD, FORM AND FOOD. LATE MEDIEVAL MEDICAL NOTIONS OF MALE AND FEMALE IN THE EMBRYOLOGY OF MEMBRA Karine van ’t Land
THE MUSIC OF THE PULSE IN MARSILIO FICINO’S TIMAEUS COMMENTARY Jacomien Prins
‘FOR THE LIFE OF A CREATURE IS IN THE BLOOD’ (LEVITICUS 17:11). SOME CONSIDERATIONS ON BLOOD AS THE SOURCE OF LIFE IN SIXTEENTH CENTURY RELIGION AND MEDICINE AND THEIR INTERCONNECTIONS Catrien Santing
WHITE BLOOD AND RED MILK. ANALOGICAL REASONING IN MEDICAL PRACTICE AND EXPERIMENTAL PHYSIOLOGY (1560-1730) Barbara Orland
V SWEAT AND SKIN
THE ‘BODY WITHOUT SKIN’ IN THE HOMERIC POEMS Valeria Gavrylenko
SWEAT: LEARNED CONCEPTS AND POPULAR PERCEPTIONS, 1500-1800 Michael Stolberg
OF THE FISHERMAN’S NET AND SKIN PORES: REFRAMING CONCEPTIONS OF THE SKIN IN MEDICINE 1572-1714 Mieneke M. G. te Hennepe
VI TEARS AND SIGHT
VISION AND VISION DISORDERS: GALEN’S PHYSIOLOGY OF SIGHT Véronique Boudon-Millot
EARLY MODERN MEDICAL THINKING ON VISION AND THE CAMERA OBSCURA: V.F. PLEMPIUS’ OPHTHALMOGRAPHIA Katrien Vanagt
THE TERTIUM COMPARATIONIS OF THE ELEMENTA PHYSIOLOGIAE. JOHANN GOTTFRIED VON HERDER’S CONCEPTION OF “TEARS” AS MEDIATORS BETWEEN THE SUBLIME AND THE ACTUAL BODILY PHYSIOLOGY Frank W. Stahnisch
VII BODY AND SOUL
FROM DOUBT TO CERTAINTY. ASPECTS OF THE CONCEPTUALISATION AND INTERPRETATION OF GALEN’S NATURAL PNEUMA Julius Rocca
METABOLISMS OF THE SOUL: THE PHYSIOLOGY OF BERNARDINO TELESIO IN OLIVA SABUCO’S NUEVA FILOSOFÍA DE LA NATURALEZA DEL HOMBRE (1587) Marlen Bidwell-Steiner
“FULL OF RAPTURE”. MATERNAL VOCALITY AND MELANCHOLY IN WEBSTER’S DUCHESS OF MALFI Marion A. Wells
THE SLEEPING MUSICIAN: ARISTOTLE’S VEGETATIVE SOUL AND RALPH CUDWORTH’S PLASTIC NATURE Diana Stanciu
Chlorosis was a disease that emerged around 1700 and continued into the nineteenth century: green... more Chlorosis was a disease that emerged around 1700 and continued into the nineteenth century: greensickness was something very similar but flourished in the sixteenth century. Both disorders were thought to affect predominantly young girls at puberty - although eventually 'late chlorosis' and even 'male chlorosis' came into being. What I am showing here is how, under the label 'disease of virgins', the combination of symptoms was based on a classical Greek text associated with Hippocrates. What happened was that this text was filtered through ideas about the body associated with the later doctor, Galen, and also read into specific manuscripts that slanted the symptoms in a certain way. As a result of this, the disease picture that emerged was very different from the original Hippocratic text. As ideas about disease causation continued to change, this disease of young girls was attributed to different aspects of the body and organ systems - the stomach, the bowels, the emotions, the heart - but I explore the continuities as well as the shifts in this mysterious diagnosis.
'a rich and complex narrative with a cast of thousands ... confronts problems central in the hist... more 'a rich and complex narrative with a cast of thousands ... confronts problems central in the history of medcine' - according to Ann Hanson in the International Journal for the Classical Tradition, 8 (2001), pp. 268-271 , at least!
‘an engaging introduction to Greco-Roman medicine – one that is grounded in the primary sources, ... more ‘an engaging introduction to Greco-Roman medicine – one that is grounded in the primary sources, written and visual, and deploys a sophisticated analytical lens’ (Aestimatio 6, 2009, 162-6)
Written as a result of teaching a second-year undergraduate module on this topic, the book is aim... more Written as a result of teaching a second-year undergraduate module on this topic, the book is aimed at students but also at anyone who would like an overview of current ideas on this field of research. One of my best moments in relation to it was addressing a general-interest adult audience, and a man came up to me just before the talk and said 'I've read your book!' 'Which one?' I asked. 'Greek and Roman Medicine' he replied. 'I read the first half before my lunch and the second half after it'.
That's what I wanted to create - something accessible, readable, but also stimulating! Something that leaves the reader with questions (there's a list of questions at the end of the book, in fact) but makes them able to engage with debates on the subject.
edited collection of essays including my introduction and my paper on what counts as 'health' for... more edited collection of essays including my introduction and my paper on what counts as 'health' for a woman in Hippocratic gynaecology
[About the book] Les avancées des nouvelles techniques d’intervention sur le développement prénat... more [About the book] Les avancées des nouvelles techniques d’intervention sur le développement prénatal et la procréation, ainsi que l’essor des travaux sur l’histoire de la parenté, du corps et de la sexualité, ont favorisé l’émergence de nouveaux questionnements sur ce qui construit notre identité d’être humain et ses multiples dimensions culturelles. La figure de l’embryon est au cœur de ces interrogations. Pour saisir l’évolution des regards portés sur l’être humain en devenir, au confluent de l’histoire de la médecine, de la philosophie, des religions et des images, cet ouvrage rassemble des contributions des chercheurs de différentes disciplines qui se sont penchés sur l’histoire de la représentation scientifique, symbolique et imaginaire de l’embryon.
was going to do in the New Age’ (p. 125). I am not entirely sure that this conclusion can be sust... more was going to do in the New Age’ (p. 125). I am not entirely sure that this conclusion can be sustained, but any attempt to extend the horizons of the NT student must be applauded, and it is nice to see such a wealth of nonbiblical material as Kee presents here, from Dioscorides and Galen to Plutarch and the magical papyri. A forceful attack on Morton Smith and J.M. Hull (pp. 12ff.) makes many good points, but Kee seems not to have faced up to Morton Smith’s contention that the relatively late appearance of magic in our sources is a social fact, not a chronological one. The book is marred by occasional inaccuracies (why Hiatros, p. 65?) and by the inclusion in an appendix of J.H. Charlesworth’s unfortunate attempt (now retracted) to read a scrap of leather used by a Qumran scribe to try out his pen as ’4Q Therapeia: Cryptic Notes on the Medical Rounds of Omriel’.
one of my earliest pieces for a general interest audience, published in 'History Today'... more one of my earliest pieces for a general interest audience, published in 'History Today'. Possibly my favourite opening line so far...
This paper situates Rodrigo de Castro Lusitano's De uniuersa mulierum medicina (1603), within... more This paper situates Rodrigo de Castro Lusitano's De uniuersa mulierum medicina (1603), within the longer history of gynaecology and of the questions raised by having a separate branch of medicine dedicated to women. I argue that the focus of 'gynaecology' has historically been on difference: on women's bodies being seen as fundamentally different from those of men. I argue that one danger of the recent resurrection of a focus on difference is that it could lead to negative changes to women's roles in society.
Que se passait-il quand on tombait malade dans l'Antiquité? Cet ouvrage examine la façon dont on ... more Que se passait-il quand on tombait malade dans l'Antiquité? Cet ouvrage examine la façon dont on se représentait le corps et son fonctionnement dans le monde gréco-romain. Il analyse le statut précaire du médecin à une époque où aucun diplôme officiel ne sanctionne sa formation. À côté des œuvres de figures célèbres, d'Hippocrate à Galien, différents thèmes sont abordés, comme ceux de l'éthique médicale, des relations entre le patient et son médecin, du traitement des «maladies des femmes». Le dernier chapitre s'intéresse à l'héritage de la médecine antique dans la culture occidentale jusqu'à l'époque contemporaine. Complété par un choix de sources et de documents iconographiques commentés, l'ouvrage offre une introduction claire et concise accessible aux non spécialistes.
http://www.chuv.ch/iuhmsp/ihm_home/ihm_publications/ihm_bhms.htm
Table of contents:
I PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Manfred Horstmanshoff, Helen King and Claus Z... more Table of contents:
I PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Manfred Horstmanshoff, Helen King and Claus Zittel
II INTRODUCTION Helen King
III HISTORY OF PHYSIOLOGY IN CONTEXT: CONCEPTS, METAPHORS, ANALOGIES
PHYSIOLOGIA, FROM GALEN TO JACOB BORDING Vivian Nutton
PHYSIOLOGICAL ANALOGIES AND METAPHORS IN EXPLANATIONS OF THE EARTH AND THE COSMOS Liba Taub
THE RECEPTION OF THE HIPPOCRATIC TREATISE ON GLANDS Elizabeth Craik
BETWEEN ATOMS AND HUMOURS. LUCRETIUS’ DIDACTIC POETRY AS A MODEL OF INTEGRATED AND BIFOCAL PHYSIOLOGY Fabio Tutrone
LOSING GROUND: THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ATTRACTION FROM THE KIDNEYS Michael R. McVaugh
THE ART OF THE DISTILLATION OF ‘SPIRITS’ AS A TECHNOLOGICAL MODEL FOR HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY: THE CASES OF MARSILIO FICINO, JOSEPH DUCHESNE AND FRANCIS BACON Sergius Kodera
THE BODY IS A BATTLEFIELD – CONFLICT AND CONTROL IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY PHYSIOLOGY AND POLITICAL THOUGHT Sabine Kalff
HERMAN BOERHAAVE’S NEUROLOGY AND THE UNCHANGING NATURE OF PHYSIOLOGY Rina Knoeff
THE ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF MIND: DAVID HUME’S VITALISTIC ACCOUNT Tamás Demeter
MORE THAN A FADING FLAME. THE PHYSIOLOGY OF OLD AGE BETWEEN SPECULATIVE ANALOGY AND EXPERIMENTAL METHOD Daniel Schäfer SUFFERING BODIES, SENSIBLE ARTISTS. VITALIST MEDICINE AND THE VISUALIZING OF CORPOREAL LIFE IN DIDEROT Tomas Macsotay
IV BLOOD
BLOOD, CLOTTING AND THE FOUR HUMOURS Hans L. Haak
AN ISSUE OF BLOOD. THE HEALING OF THE WOMAN WITH THE HAEMORRHAGE (MARK 5.24B-34; LUKE 8.42B-48; MATTHEW 9.19-22) IN EARLY MEDIEVAL VISUAL CULTURE Barbara Baert, Liesbet Kusters, Emma Sidgwick
THE NATURE OF THE SOUL AND THE PASSAGE OF BLOOD THROUGH THE LUNGS: GALEN, IBN AL-NAFĪS, SERVETUS, İTAKİ, ‘AṬṬĀR Rainer Brömer
SPERM AND BLOOD, FORM AND FOOD. LATE MEDIEVAL MEDICAL NOTIONS OF MALE AND FEMALE IN THE EMBRYOLOGY OF MEMBRA Karine van ’t Land
THE MUSIC OF THE PULSE IN MARSILIO FICINO’S TIMAEUS COMMENTARY Jacomien Prins
‘FOR THE LIFE OF A CREATURE IS IN THE BLOOD’ (LEVITICUS 17:11). SOME CONSIDERATIONS ON BLOOD AS THE SOURCE OF LIFE IN SIXTEENTH CENTURY RELIGION AND MEDICINE AND THEIR INTERCONNECTIONS Catrien Santing
WHITE BLOOD AND RED MILK. ANALOGICAL REASONING IN MEDICAL PRACTICE AND EXPERIMENTAL PHYSIOLOGY (1560-1730) Barbara Orland
V SWEAT AND SKIN
THE ‘BODY WITHOUT SKIN’ IN THE HOMERIC POEMS Valeria Gavrylenko
SWEAT: LEARNED CONCEPTS AND POPULAR PERCEPTIONS, 1500-1800 Michael Stolberg
OF THE FISHERMAN’S NET AND SKIN PORES: REFRAMING CONCEPTIONS OF THE SKIN IN MEDICINE 1572-1714 Mieneke M. G. te Hennepe
VI TEARS AND SIGHT
VISION AND VISION DISORDERS: GALEN’S PHYSIOLOGY OF SIGHT Véronique Boudon-Millot
EARLY MODERN MEDICAL THINKING ON VISION AND THE CAMERA OBSCURA: V.F. PLEMPIUS’ OPHTHALMOGRAPHIA Katrien Vanagt
THE TERTIUM COMPARATIONIS OF THE ELEMENTA PHYSIOLOGIAE. JOHANN GOTTFRIED VON HERDER’S CONCEPTION OF “TEARS” AS MEDIATORS BETWEEN THE SUBLIME AND THE ACTUAL BODILY PHYSIOLOGY Frank W. Stahnisch
VII BODY AND SOUL
FROM DOUBT TO CERTAINTY. ASPECTS OF THE CONCEPTUALISATION AND INTERPRETATION OF GALEN’S NATURAL PNEUMA Julius Rocca
METABOLISMS OF THE SOUL: THE PHYSIOLOGY OF BERNARDINO TELESIO IN OLIVA SABUCO’S NUEVA FILOSOFÍA DE LA NATURALEZA DEL HOMBRE (1587) Marlen Bidwell-Steiner
“FULL OF RAPTURE”. MATERNAL VOCALITY AND MELANCHOLY IN WEBSTER’S DUCHESS OF MALFI Marion A. Wells
THE SLEEPING MUSICIAN: ARISTOTLE’S VEGETATIVE SOUL AND RALPH CUDWORTH’S PLASTIC NATURE Diana Stanciu
Chlorosis was a disease that emerged around 1700 and continued into the nineteenth century: green... more Chlorosis was a disease that emerged around 1700 and continued into the nineteenth century: greensickness was something very similar but flourished in the sixteenth century. Both disorders were thought to affect predominantly young girls at puberty - although eventually 'late chlorosis' and even 'male chlorosis' came into being. What I am showing here is how, under the label 'disease of virgins', the combination of symptoms was based on a classical Greek text associated with Hippocrates. What happened was that this text was filtered through ideas about the body associated with the later doctor, Galen, and also read into specific manuscripts that slanted the symptoms in a certain way. As a result of this, the disease picture that emerged was very different from the original Hippocratic text. As ideas about disease causation continued to change, this disease of young girls was attributed to different aspects of the body and organ systems - the stomach, the bowels, the emotions, the heart - but I explore the continuities as well as the shifts in this mysterious diagnosis.
'a rich and complex narrative with a cast of thousands ... confronts problems central in the hist... more 'a rich and complex narrative with a cast of thousands ... confronts problems central in the history of medcine' - according to Ann Hanson in the International Journal for the Classical Tradition, 8 (2001), pp. 268-271 , at least!
‘an engaging introduction to Greco-Roman medicine – one that is grounded in the primary sources, ... more ‘an engaging introduction to Greco-Roman medicine – one that is grounded in the primary sources, written and visual, and deploys a sophisticated analytical lens’ (Aestimatio 6, 2009, 162-6)
Written as a result of teaching a second-year undergraduate module on this topic, the book is aim... more Written as a result of teaching a second-year undergraduate module on this topic, the book is aimed at students but also at anyone who would like an overview of current ideas on this field of research. One of my best moments in relation to it was addressing a general-interest adult audience, and a man came up to me just before the talk and said 'I've read your book!' 'Which one?' I asked. 'Greek and Roman Medicine' he replied. 'I read the first half before my lunch and the second half after it'.
That's what I wanted to create - something accessible, readable, but also stimulating! Something that leaves the reader with questions (there's a list of questions at the end of the book, in fact) but makes them able to engage with debates on the subject.
edited collection of essays including my introduction and my paper on what counts as 'health' for... more edited collection of essays including my introduction and my paper on what counts as 'health' for a woman in Hippocratic gynaecology
[About the book] Les avancées des nouvelles techniques d’intervention sur le développement prénat... more [About the book] Les avancées des nouvelles techniques d’intervention sur le développement prénatal et la procréation, ainsi que l’essor des travaux sur l’histoire de la parenté, du corps et de la sexualité, ont favorisé l’émergence de nouveaux questionnements sur ce qui construit notre identité d’être humain et ses multiples dimensions culturelles. La figure de l’embryon est au cœur de ces interrogations. Pour saisir l’évolution des regards portés sur l’être humain en devenir, au confluent de l’histoire de la médecine, de la philosophie, des religions et des images, cet ouvrage rassemble des contributions des chercheurs de différentes disciplines qui se sont penchés sur l’histoire de la représentation scientifique, symbolique et imaginaire de l’embryon.
was going to do in the New Age’ (p. 125). I am not entirely sure that this conclusion can be sust... more was going to do in the New Age’ (p. 125). I am not entirely sure that this conclusion can be sustained, but any attempt to extend the horizons of the NT student must be applauded, and it is nice to see such a wealth of nonbiblical material as Kee presents here, from Dioscorides and Galen to Plutarch and the magical papyri. A forceful attack on Morton Smith and J.M. Hull (pp. 12ff.) makes many good points, but Kee seems not to have faced up to Morton Smith’s contention that the relatively late appearance of magic in our sources is a social fact, not a chronological one. The book is marred by occasional inaccuracies (why Hiatros, p. 65?) and by the inclusion in an appendix of J.H. Charlesworth’s unfortunate attempt (now retracted) to read a scrap of leather used by a Qumran scribe to try out his pen as ’4Q Therapeia: Cryptic Notes on the Medical Rounds of Omriel’.
one of my earliest pieces for a general interest audience, published in 'History Today'... more one of my earliest pieces for a general interest audience, published in 'History Today'. Possibly my favourite opening line so far...
This paper situates Rodrigo de Castro Lusitano's De uniuersa mulierum medicina (1603), within... more This paper situates Rodrigo de Castro Lusitano's De uniuersa mulierum medicina (1603), within the longer history of gynaecology and of the questions raised by having a separate branch of medicine dedicated to women. I argue that the focus of 'gynaecology' has historically been on difference: on women's bodies being seen as fundamentally different from those of men. I argue that one danger of the recent resurrection of a focus on difference is that it could lead to negative changes to women's roles in society.
Langages et métaphores du corps dans le monde antique
A preliminary attempt to think about beards and blood in classical and Renaissance medicine, midw... more A preliminary attempt to think about beards and blood in classical and Renaissance medicine, midwifed by Veronique Dasen
... (2 vols). London: Pickering and Chatto; 2007. ↵: Cody L. F. . Birthing the Nation. ... Edinbu... more ... (2 vols). London: Pickering and Chatto; 2007. ↵: Cody L. F. . Birthing the Nation. ... Edinburgh: E. and S. Livingstone; 1952. ↵: Porter R.,; Bynum WF. Jordanova L. Gender, Generation and Science: William Hunter's Obstetrical Atlas. In: Porter R., Bynum WF, editors. ...
Perhaps the most famous disease in history is the 'plague of Athens', an epidemic and often fat... more Perhaps the most famous disease in history is the 'plague of Athens', an epidemic and often fatal condition which hit Athens for the first time in 432/431 BC. It has attracted a wide range of retrospective diagnoses not only because of the continuing threat played by new diseases such as Ebola but also because of the high level of detail given by the sole surviving account, that of Thucydides. In this paper I shall indicate something of the influence of this account until the present day. In particular, I shall investigate the key words of the ancient Greek text on which different diagnoses have been based, and will address the question of whether these show a specialised medical terminology. Do they indicate Thucydides' knowledge of contemporary Hippocratic medicine, or the dependence of Hippocratic writers on the everyday vocabulary of health in the late fifth century BC? How far can the symptoms of the plague of Athens be mapped on to any disease currently known? And how does this disease help us in teaching the complexities of ancient language and issues of 'technical' vocabulary?
In 1995, the medieval scholar Caroline Walker Bynum published her paper ‘Why all the fuss about t... more In 1995, the medieval scholar Caroline Walker Bynum published her paper ‘Why all the fuss about the body?’ in which she described the body as ‘no topic or, perhaps, almost all topics’. Twenty years on, and coming to the body as a scholar of classical and early modern society, I will revisit this theme. While it has been argued that the ancient Greek and Roman body was a ‘one-sex’ body in which women were seen as men without sufficient heat to push out their organs of generation, in the year before Bynum’s paper was published the classical scholar Anne Carson described the ancient woman in the opposite way, as ‘that creature who puts the inside on the outside’. I will examine in particular the inside/outside body as I ask how far we have moved on from the 1990s, with regard to understanding the relationships between sex and gender in the history of western Europe. My case studies will concern both gender as something performed, and sex as something extending beyond the binary.
Part of the museum's 'Matters of the Heart' month, this talk outlined the history of lovesickness... more Part of the museum's 'Matters of the Heart' month, this talk outlined the history of lovesickness, from Sappho and the various ancient stories of doctors detecting that the cause of their patients' symptoms was love, through the Middle Ages in which the condition was gendered male, and into the Renaissance. While the main cure remained sexual possession of the object of desire, medical treatments were also offered. I then described some of the myths that persist around hysteria - its alleged ancient Greek 'origins' and Victorian 'vibrators' among them - again looking at gender issues.
In this short paper I will propose that narrative and dissection represent two opposed poles of e... more In this short paper I will propose that narrative and dissection represent two opposed poles of explanation: while narrative ties together, dissection pulls apart. I will briefly reflect on a range of ancient Greek narrative texts, from Hippocratic case histories to the patient accounts of Aelius Aristides, linking them to modern ways of making sense of chronic illness, before considering how the identity of the physician has been linked since the sixteenth century more to dissection than to narrative. How has the story of dissection been told, and how does it play out with contemporary medical students for whom it may no longer be a key part of their development of a professional identity?
this is a short interview with my OU colleague Dr Jessica Hughes, on the ancient story of Agnodic... more this is a short interview with my OU colleague Dr Jessica Hughes, on the ancient story of Agnodice and its reception in the history of medicine
Who wrote the Hippocratic Oath? What does it say? How widely has it been sworn, over the 2500 yea... more Who wrote the Hippocratic Oath? What does it say? How widely has it been sworn, over the 2500 years of its existence? And how has it been used, up to the 1947 Nuremberg doctors' trial, and the 1973 Roe vs Wade case?
This paper challenges Laqueur’s claims for a shift from a one-sex to a two-sex body in the eighte... more This paper challenges Laqueur’s claims for a shift from a one-sex to a two-sex body in the eighteenth century by investigating the reception of the Hippocratic case history of Phaethousa of Abdera; having previously given birth, after her husband was exiled, she stopped menstruating, grew a beard and eventually died. Laqueur’s model focuses only on the genitalia, rather than considering secondary characteristics as markers of sex (Will Fisher, 2001). Medical retellings of this story show the coexistence of one-sex and two-sex bodies in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, challenging Laqueur’s insistence that his model remains intact, any apparent divergences being mere ‘skirmishes at its metaphysical periphery’ (Laqueur 2003, 303). I demonstrate how different models of the female body drew on the same ‘authority’ and read the same text in such a way that it could be accommodated into new explanatory frameworks.
Some sixteenth-century writers omitted the ending of the case history – her death – in order to argue that sex change from female to male was indeed possible: others included Phaethousa alongside stories of the sudden emergence of a penis, arguing that no ‘change’ occurred, such a ‘woman’ really being male all along. The story could also illustrate theories about the role of emotion (lust, as her husband was not available to satisfy her; sorrow, as she missed him so much) and the power of the imagination (by thinking of her husband, she came to resemble him), or feature as an example of disorders such as menstrual suppression and uterine prolapse.
Recent work on Jane Sharp’s The Midwives Book (1671) has looked at her re-use of male authorities... more Recent work on Jane Sharp’s The Midwives Book (1671) has looked at her re-use of male authorities to put a female spin on the story of procreation, mocking the male organs as, in Elaine Hobby's words, ‘comical and sickly’. While investigating the tradition of ridicule in the work of seventeenth-century midwives, particularly their attacks on men’s knowledge as based on theory rather than experience, books rather than bodies, this paper will argue that midwives should in fact be understood as building on an already-existing male unease about their unpredictable organs. I will show that vernacular medical texts, including the lively and vigorous midwifery texts, are far more closely based on the sixteenth-century Latin tradition than has so far been recognised.
This paper develops my existing work on the ‘Hippocratic imperative’: the position taken by Hippo... more This paper develops my existing work on the ‘Hippocratic imperative’: the position taken by Hippocratic gynaecology, in which women are an entirely different sex, needing separate treatment. This model re-entered European mainstream medicine in the sixteenth century, and thus poses a challenge to Laqueur’s claims for a shift from a one-sex to a two-sex body in the eighteenth century. Here, I shall investigate the reception of the Hippocratic case history of Phaethousa of Abdera; having previously given birth, after her husband was exiled, she stopped menstruating, grew a beard and eventually died. Laqueur’s model focuses only on the genitalia, rather than considering secondary characteristics such as the beard as markers of sex. Medical retellings of this story show the coexistence of one-sex and two-sex bodies in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, challenging Laqueur’s insistence that his model remains intact, any apparent divergences being mere ‘skirmishes at its metaphysical periphery’ (Laqueur 2003, 303). I demonstrate how different models of the female body drew on the same ‘authority’ and read the same text in such a way that it could be accommodated into other explanatory frameworks.
This is the published report of a session that Helen King and I co-organized for the 5th Attendin... more This is the published report of a session that Helen King and I co-organized for the 5th Attending to Early Modern Women Conference, College Park, MD, November 2003. The session had several assigned pre-readings (translations from primary sources, and two lists of texts on women's medicine that were in circulation in the 15th and 16th centuries). The intent of the session was to assess both the impact of the printing revolution on trends in the field of women's medicine, and also to discuss the ways in which obstetrics and gynecology were diverging in this period. The latter field (focusing on fertility issues as well as diseases of the reproductive organs) took on a pronounced identity as a field in which male expertise was not simply possible, but laudable. The rediscovery of the male-authored Hippocratic gynecological texts in the 16th century sealed that transition.
The report was published in: Structures and Subjectivities: Attending to Early Modern Women, ed. Joan Hartman and Adele Seeff (Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press, 2007), pp. 100-101.
This brief "Correspondence" in *The Lancet*, co-authored with Helen King, addresses the problem t... more This brief "Correspondence" in *The Lancet*, co-authored with Helen King, addresses the problem that much "history" published in medical and science journals never undergoes peer review by historians themselves and does not conform to the norms of historical research or criticism. This problem is aggravated by the exclusion of Humanities publications (where most historians publish) from scientific and biomedical databases. Consultation with historians who are experts in their fields would help bridge these disciplinary gaps and make for better science and medicine.
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http://www.chuv.ch/iuhmsp/ihm_home/ihm_publications/ihm_bhms.htm
I PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Manfred Horstmanshoff, Helen King and Claus Zittel
II INTRODUCTION
Helen King
III HISTORY OF PHYSIOLOGY IN CONTEXT: CONCEPTS, METAPHORS, ANALOGIES
PHYSIOLOGIA, FROM GALEN TO JACOB BORDING
Vivian Nutton
PHYSIOLOGICAL ANALOGIES AND METAPHORS IN EXPLANATIONS OF THE EARTH AND THE COSMOS
Liba Taub
THE RECEPTION OF THE HIPPOCRATIC TREATISE ON GLANDS
Elizabeth Craik
BETWEEN ATOMS AND HUMOURS. LUCRETIUS’ DIDACTIC POETRY AS A MODEL OF INTEGRATED AND BIFOCAL PHYSIOLOGY
Fabio Tutrone
LOSING GROUND: THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ATTRACTION FROM THE KIDNEYS
Michael R. McVaugh
THE ART OF THE DISTILLATION OF ‘SPIRITS’ AS A TECHNOLOGICAL MODEL FOR HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY: THE CASES OF MARSILIO FICINO, JOSEPH DUCHESNE AND FRANCIS BACON
Sergius Kodera
THE BODY IS A BATTLEFIELD – CONFLICT AND CONTROL IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY PHYSIOLOGY AND POLITICAL THOUGHT
Sabine Kalff
HERMAN BOERHAAVE’S NEUROLOGY AND THE UNCHANGING NATURE OF PHYSIOLOGY
Rina Knoeff
THE ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF MIND: DAVID HUME’S VITALISTIC ACCOUNT
Tamás Demeter
MORE THAN A FADING FLAME. THE PHYSIOLOGY OF OLD AGE BETWEEN SPECULATIVE ANALOGY AND EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
Daniel Schäfer
SUFFERING BODIES, SENSIBLE ARTISTS. VITALIST MEDICINE AND THE VISUALIZING OF CORPOREAL LIFE IN DIDEROT
Tomas Macsotay
IV BLOOD
BLOOD, CLOTTING AND THE FOUR HUMOURS
Hans L. Haak
AN ISSUE OF BLOOD. THE HEALING OF THE WOMAN WITH THE HAEMORRHAGE (MARK 5.24B-34; LUKE 8.42B-48; MATTHEW 9.19-22) IN EARLY MEDIEVAL VISUAL CULTURE
Barbara Baert, Liesbet Kusters, Emma Sidgwick
THE NATURE OF THE SOUL AND THE PASSAGE OF BLOOD THROUGH THE LUNGS: GALEN, IBN AL-NAFĪS, SERVETUS, İTAKİ, ‘AṬṬĀR
Rainer Brömer
SPERM AND BLOOD, FORM AND FOOD. LATE MEDIEVAL MEDICAL NOTIONS OF MALE AND FEMALE IN THE EMBRYOLOGY OF MEMBRA
Karine van ’t Land
THE MUSIC OF THE PULSE IN MARSILIO FICINO’S TIMAEUS COMMENTARY
Jacomien Prins
‘FOR THE LIFE OF A CREATURE IS IN THE BLOOD’ (LEVITICUS 17:11). SOME CONSIDERATIONS ON BLOOD AS THE SOURCE OF LIFE IN SIXTEENTH CENTURY RELIGION AND MEDICINE AND THEIR INTERCONNECTIONS
Catrien Santing
WHITE BLOOD AND RED MILK. ANALOGICAL REASONING IN MEDICAL PRACTICE AND EXPERIMENTAL PHYSIOLOGY (1560-1730)
Barbara Orland
V SWEAT AND SKIN
THE ‘BODY WITHOUT SKIN’ IN THE HOMERIC POEMS
Valeria Gavrylenko
SWEAT: LEARNED CONCEPTS AND POPULAR PERCEPTIONS, 1500-1800
Michael Stolberg
OF THE FISHERMAN’S NET AND SKIN PORES: REFRAMING CONCEPTIONS OF THE SKIN IN MEDICINE 1572-1714
Mieneke M. G. te Hennepe
VI TEARS AND SIGHT
VISION AND VISION DISORDERS: GALEN’S PHYSIOLOGY OF SIGHT
Véronique Boudon-Millot
EARLY MODERN MEDICAL THINKING ON VISION AND THE CAMERA OBSCURA: V.F. PLEMPIUS’ OPHTHALMOGRAPHIA
Katrien Vanagt
THE TERTIUM COMPARATIONIS OF THE ELEMENTA PHYSIOLOGIAE.
JOHANN GOTTFRIED VON HERDER’S CONCEPTION OF “TEARS” AS MEDIATORS BETWEEN THE SUBLIME AND THE ACTUAL BODILY PHYSIOLOGY
Frank W. Stahnisch
VII BODY AND SOUL
FROM DOUBT TO CERTAINTY. ASPECTS OF THE CONCEPTUALISATION AND INTERPRETATION OF GALEN’S NATURAL PNEUMA
Julius Rocca
METABOLISMS OF THE SOUL: THE PHYSIOLOGY OF BERNARDINO TELESIO IN OLIVA SABUCO’S NUEVA FILOSOFÍA DE LA NATURALEZA DEL HOMBRE (1587)
Marlen Bidwell-Steiner
“FULL OF RAPTURE”. MATERNAL VOCALITY AND MELANCHOLY IN WEBSTER’S DUCHESS OF MALFI
Marion A. Wells
THE SLEEPING MUSICIAN: ARISTOTLE’S VEGETATIVE SOUL AND RALPH CUDWORTH’S PLASTIC NATURE
Diana Stanciu
Table of contentx
http://www.ircps.org/publications/aestimatio/rreviews.htm
That's what I wanted to create - something accessible, readable, but also stimulating! Something that leaves the reader with questions (there's a list of questions at the end of the book, in fact) but makes them able to engage with debates on the subject.
http://www.chuv.ch/iuhmsp/ihm_home/ihm_publications/ihm_bhms.htm
I PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Manfred Horstmanshoff, Helen King and Claus Zittel
II INTRODUCTION
Helen King
III HISTORY OF PHYSIOLOGY IN CONTEXT: CONCEPTS, METAPHORS, ANALOGIES
PHYSIOLOGIA, FROM GALEN TO JACOB BORDING
Vivian Nutton
PHYSIOLOGICAL ANALOGIES AND METAPHORS IN EXPLANATIONS OF THE EARTH AND THE COSMOS
Liba Taub
THE RECEPTION OF THE HIPPOCRATIC TREATISE ON GLANDS
Elizabeth Craik
BETWEEN ATOMS AND HUMOURS. LUCRETIUS’ DIDACTIC POETRY AS A MODEL OF INTEGRATED AND BIFOCAL PHYSIOLOGY
Fabio Tutrone
LOSING GROUND: THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ATTRACTION FROM THE KIDNEYS
Michael R. McVaugh
THE ART OF THE DISTILLATION OF ‘SPIRITS’ AS A TECHNOLOGICAL MODEL FOR HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY: THE CASES OF MARSILIO FICINO, JOSEPH DUCHESNE AND FRANCIS BACON
Sergius Kodera
THE BODY IS A BATTLEFIELD – CONFLICT AND CONTROL IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY PHYSIOLOGY AND POLITICAL THOUGHT
Sabine Kalff
HERMAN BOERHAAVE’S NEUROLOGY AND THE UNCHANGING NATURE OF PHYSIOLOGY
Rina Knoeff
THE ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF MIND: DAVID HUME’S VITALISTIC ACCOUNT
Tamás Demeter
MORE THAN A FADING FLAME. THE PHYSIOLOGY OF OLD AGE BETWEEN SPECULATIVE ANALOGY AND EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
Daniel Schäfer
SUFFERING BODIES, SENSIBLE ARTISTS. VITALIST MEDICINE AND THE VISUALIZING OF CORPOREAL LIFE IN DIDEROT
Tomas Macsotay
IV BLOOD
BLOOD, CLOTTING AND THE FOUR HUMOURS
Hans L. Haak
AN ISSUE OF BLOOD. THE HEALING OF THE WOMAN WITH THE HAEMORRHAGE (MARK 5.24B-34; LUKE 8.42B-48; MATTHEW 9.19-22) IN EARLY MEDIEVAL VISUAL CULTURE
Barbara Baert, Liesbet Kusters, Emma Sidgwick
THE NATURE OF THE SOUL AND THE PASSAGE OF BLOOD THROUGH THE LUNGS: GALEN, IBN AL-NAFĪS, SERVETUS, İTAKİ, ‘AṬṬĀR
Rainer Brömer
SPERM AND BLOOD, FORM AND FOOD. LATE MEDIEVAL MEDICAL NOTIONS OF MALE AND FEMALE IN THE EMBRYOLOGY OF MEMBRA
Karine van ’t Land
THE MUSIC OF THE PULSE IN MARSILIO FICINO’S TIMAEUS COMMENTARY
Jacomien Prins
‘FOR THE LIFE OF A CREATURE IS IN THE BLOOD’ (LEVITICUS 17:11). SOME CONSIDERATIONS ON BLOOD AS THE SOURCE OF LIFE IN SIXTEENTH CENTURY RELIGION AND MEDICINE AND THEIR INTERCONNECTIONS
Catrien Santing
WHITE BLOOD AND RED MILK. ANALOGICAL REASONING IN MEDICAL PRACTICE AND EXPERIMENTAL PHYSIOLOGY (1560-1730)
Barbara Orland
V SWEAT AND SKIN
THE ‘BODY WITHOUT SKIN’ IN THE HOMERIC POEMS
Valeria Gavrylenko
SWEAT: LEARNED CONCEPTS AND POPULAR PERCEPTIONS, 1500-1800
Michael Stolberg
OF THE FISHERMAN’S NET AND SKIN PORES: REFRAMING CONCEPTIONS OF THE SKIN IN MEDICINE 1572-1714
Mieneke M. G. te Hennepe
VI TEARS AND SIGHT
VISION AND VISION DISORDERS: GALEN’S PHYSIOLOGY OF SIGHT
Véronique Boudon-Millot
EARLY MODERN MEDICAL THINKING ON VISION AND THE CAMERA OBSCURA: V.F. PLEMPIUS’ OPHTHALMOGRAPHIA
Katrien Vanagt
THE TERTIUM COMPARATIONIS OF THE ELEMENTA PHYSIOLOGIAE.
JOHANN GOTTFRIED VON HERDER’S CONCEPTION OF “TEARS” AS MEDIATORS BETWEEN THE SUBLIME AND THE ACTUAL BODILY PHYSIOLOGY
Frank W. Stahnisch
VII BODY AND SOUL
FROM DOUBT TO CERTAINTY. ASPECTS OF THE CONCEPTUALISATION AND INTERPRETATION OF GALEN’S NATURAL PNEUMA
Julius Rocca
METABOLISMS OF THE SOUL: THE PHYSIOLOGY OF BERNARDINO TELESIO IN OLIVA SABUCO’S NUEVA FILOSOFÍA DE LA NATURALEZA DEL HOMBRE (1587)
Marlen Bidwell-Steiner
“FULL OF RAPTURE”. MATERNAL VOCALITY AND MELANCHOLY IN WEBSTER’S DUCHESS OF MALFI
Marion A. Wells
THE SLEEPING MUSICIAN: ARISTOTLE’S VEGETATIVE SOUL AND RALPH CUDWORTH’S PLASTIC NATURE
Diana Stanciu
Table of contentx
http://www.ircps.org/publications/aestimatio/rreviews.htm
That's what I wanted to create - something accessible, readable, but also stimulating! Something that leaves the reader with questions (there's a list of questions at the end of the book, in fact) but makes them able to engage with debates on the subject.
Some sixteenth-century writers omitted the ending of the case history – her death – in order to argue that sex change from female to male was indeed possible: others included Phaethousa alongside stories of the sudden emergence of a penis, arguing that no ‘change’ occurred, such a ‘woman’ really being male all along. The story could also illustrate theories about the role of emotion (lust, as her husband was not available to satisfy her; sorrow, as she missed him so much) and the power of the imagination (by thinking of her husband, she came to resemble him), or feature as an example of disorders such as menstrual suppression and uterine prolapse.
The report was published in: Structures and Subjectivities: Attending to Early Modern Women, ed. Joan Hartman and Adele Seeff (Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press, 2007), pp. 100-101.
The full citation is: Helen King and Monica H. Green, “On the Misuses of Medical History,” The Lancet 391 (7 April 2018), 1354-55. It is available for open-access download at this link: https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(18)30490-2.pdf.