A history of neurophysiology in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: from concept to experiment
نویسنده
چکیده
provides an excellent guide to the secondary literature on Einthoven, Lewis, and the electrocardiogram (ECG), as well as to available translations of Einthoven's papers. High-quality reproductions of several ECG tracings as well as of handwritten letters and diagrams not only make the book an aesthetic success, but also allow the reader access to primary source material. These documents are especially valuable for the historian interested in seeing the actual tracings and following the technical discussions. The first group of letters are primarily concerned with instrumental details, as Einthoven and Lewis worked out the best method for recording the ECG. Next, the two discussed the proper interpretation of the wave; in the last period they attempted to understand its formation. These letters are central for understanding the history of ideas about the ECG. But there is more than merely the history of the ECG in these letters, for the slim size of this volume belies its substantial value for historians interested in a broad range of topics in early twentieth-century medicine. Allbutt, Osler, Wenckebach, and many other leading physicians of the day crossed paths with Einthoven and Lewis. The frank, practical exchanges about arranging meetings in each other's country, addressing various societies, or meeting particular individuals give a fascinating insight into the class structure of British and Dutch medicine. Both Einthoven and Lewis had to deal with the impact of World War I on the conduct of medical research, and then with the issue of how to treat scientists who were former enemies. Historians of early twentieth-century medicine will want to spend a few minutes with this book; those interested in the development of cardiology will want to read it. Joel Howell University of Michigan Medical Center
منابع مشابه
Critical Study of Right to be wrong From the point of view ofcollectivists, utilitarians, and virtuosos
circuit right discourse is one of the most common theories in the contemporary period about regulating human social relations. The formation of this course of thought and the exhibition of a unidimensional understanding of the concept of right in the West is the result of socio-political changes in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was during this period that thinkers’ response to th...
متن کاملThe concept “ system of philosophy ” in
In this essay I shall examine and discuss the concept “system of philosophy” as a methodological tool in the history of philosophy. I shall do so in two moves. First I shall analyze the historical origin of the concept in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Thereafter I shall undertake a discussion of its methodological weaknesses — a discussion, which is not only relevant to the writing ...
متن کاملLiterary responses to animal experimentation in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Britain.
The fact that British men of letters in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries commented on the subject of animal experimentation is well known. Apart from anti-vivisectionists and modern advocates of animal rights, who have been keen to cite the most critical of these responses, ' scholars have considered them in three main areas of research. In the history of ideas some of those literary so...
متن کامل"La femminil pazienza": Women Painters and Natural History in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries
متن کامل
Strategic voices of care and compassion. Describing the mad, their afflictions and situations in Amsterdam and Utrecht in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
Painting a picture of the lives of the early modern mad outside institutions has not yet been done in the Netherlands. However, by looking at notarial documents and admission requests, we can learn more about how the mad were cared for outside the institutions, and the impact their behaviour had on the people close to them. Investigating these sources for both Amsterdam and Utrecht in the seven...
متن کاملCharles Raven. Naturalist, historian, theologian
centuries (C.B. Schmitt); science in the early Royal Society (M.D. Hall); science and religion in the seventeenth century (P.M. Rattansi); the growth of Netherlands science in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries (W. D. Hackmann); the rise and fall of Scottish science (J. R. R. Christie); scientific careers in eighteenth-century France (R. Hahn); the development of a professional care...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید
ثبت ناماگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید
ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- Medical History
دوره 29 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 1985