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Bodily Fluids, Chemistry and Medicine in the Eighteenth-Century Boerhaave School

  • Book
  • © 2020

Overview

Authors:
  1. Ruben E. Verwaal

    1. Institute for Medical Humanities, Durham University, Durham, UK

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  • Explores the importance of bodily fluids to the development of medical knowledge in the eighteenth century
  • Reveals the lives and works of the scientists in the Boerhaave School, which grew to become a European-wide community of physicians and chemists
  • Shows how chemical experimentation on bodily fluids allowed doctors to gain a better understanding of physiological processes, reinventing ancient humoral theory

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine (PSMEMM)

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xv
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Ruben E. Verwaal
    Pages 1-27

  3. Savouring Alchemy

    • Ruben E. Verwaal
    Pages 29-59

  4. The Nature of Blood

    • Ruben E. Verwaal
    Pages 61-90

  5. Piss Prophets and Urine Matters

    • Ruben E. Verwaal
    Pages 91-122

  6. Crying Over Spilt Milk

    • Ruben E. Verwaal
    Pages 123-158

  7. Sweat It Out

    • Ruben E. Verwaal
    Pages 159-194

  8. Semen in Flux

    • Ruben E. Verwaal
    Pages 195-228

  9. Conclusion

    • Ruben E. Verwaal
    Pages 229-239

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 241-295
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Keywords

About this book

This book explores the importance of bodily fluids to the development of medical knowledge in the eighteenth century. While the historiography has focused on the role of anatomy, this study shows that the chemical analyses of bodily fluids in the Dutch Republic radically altered perceptions of the body, propelling forwards a new system of medicine. It examines the new research methods and scientific instruments available at the turn of the eighteenth century that allowed for these developments, taken forward by Herman Boerhaave and his students. Each chapter focuses on a different bodily fluid – saliva, blood, urine, milk, sweat, semen – to investigate how doctors gained new insights into physiological processes through chemical experimentation on these bodily fluids. The book reveals how physicians moved from a humoral theory of medicine to new chemical and mechanical models for understanding the body in the early modern period. In doing so, it uncovers the lives and works of an important group of scientists which grew to become a European-wide community of physicians and chemists.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Institute for Medical Humanities, Durham University, Durham, UK

    Ruben E. Verwaal

About the author

Ruben E. Verwaal is NWO Rubicon Research Fellow at the Institute for Medical Humanities, Durham University, and curator of the medical collections at the Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam. He specialises in history of early modern science and medicine, material culture, and critical medical humanities. 

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Bodily Fluids, Chemistry and Medicine in the Eighteenth-Century Boerhaave School

  • Authors: Ruben E. Verwaal

  • Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51541-6

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: History, History (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-51540-9Published: 28 October 2020

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-51543-0Published: 28 October 2021

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-51541-6Published: 27 October 2020

  • Series ISSN: 2524-7387

  • Series E-ISSN: 2524-7395

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XV, 295

  • Topics: Intellectual Studies, History of Medicine, European History, History of Science

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