Uncertain Readings The present study outlines the interaction between precision and uncertainty in the scientific milieu of electrophysiology during the 1830s and 1840s. The introduction of the galvanometer marked the beginning of a new phase in animal electricity research. Whereas phenomena such as the shock produced by electric ray and the electric eel and the twitch of the frog's leg, hitherto had constituted the main body of evidence of the existence of animal electricity, the introduction of the galvanometer drew attention to instrumental rather than organic features. The German physiologist Emil du Bois-Reymond was one of the most eager advocates of the new electromagnetical technique. The article gives a picture of his efforts to convince himself as well as the contemporary scientific community of the accuracy of his experimental equipment. It also reflects on du Bois-Reymonds doubts and feelings of uncertainty and comments upon the contemporary scientific debates on the topic.
...MoreDescription Looks at how Emil du Bois-Reymond advocated new electromagnetical techniques in electrophysiology during the 1830s and 40s and the role of the galvanometer.
Article Jülich, Solveig (2004) Inledning: Tema Teknomedicin. Polhem: Tidskrift för Teknikhistoria (p. 5).
Chapter
Danişman, H. H. Günhan;
(2006)
The Introduction of American Surgical Technology in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th Century
(/isis/citation/CBB001022421/)
Thesis
Tousignant, Noemi R.;
(2006)
Pain and the Pursuit of Objectivity: Pain-Measuring Technologies in the UnitedStates, c. 1890--1975
(/isis/citation/CBB001561511/)
Article
Finkelstein, Gabriel;
(2003)
M. du Bois-Reymond Goes to Paris
(/isis/citation/CBB000340617/)
Article
De Palma, Armando;
Pareti, Germana;
(2011)
Bernstein's Long Path to Membrane Theory: Radical Change and Conservation in Nineteenth-Century German Electrophysiology
(/isis/citation/CBB001211240/)
Article
Finkelstein, Gabriel;
(2014)
Emil du Bois-Reymond on “The Seat of the Soul”
(/isis/citation/CBB001213875/)
Article
Sánchez Miñana, Jesús;
Lusa Monforte, Guillermo;
(2009)
De músico a óptico: los orígenes de Francesc Dalmau i Faura, pionero de la luz eléctrica y el teléfono en España
(/isis/citation/CBB001021928/)
Article
A.J. Wright;
(2015)
What If Beddoes & Davy Had Attempted Surgical Anesthesia In 1799?
(/isis/citation/CBB504065170/)
Article
Francesco Fiorucci;
(2010)
Nota a Celso, De Medicina 7, 12, 1C
(/isis/citation/CBB853053422/)
Article
Johnson, Ericka;
(2007)
Surgical Simulators and Simulated Surgeons: Reconstituting Medical Practice and Practitioners in Simulations
(/isis/citation/CBB000780239/)
Chapter
Saunders, Barry;
(2007)
CT Suite: Visual Apprenticeship in the Age of the Mechanical Viewbox
(/isis/citation/CBB000953732/)
Article
Richard A. Reinhart;
(2020)
The Stethoscope in 19th-Century American Practice: Ideas, Rhetoric, and Eventual Adoption
(/isis/citation/CBB628696697/)
Article
Tom Quick;
(2020)
‘Challenging Incommunicability: Tool Use amongst Women Medical Practitioners in Britain, 1860–1914’
(/isis/citation/CBB194902959/)
Book
Thomas Schlich;
Christopher Crenner;
(2017)
Technological Change in Modern Surgery: Historical Perspectives on Innovation
(/isis/citation/CBB403385801/)
Article
Günter Dörfel;
Ernst Weihreter;
(2021)
The Fifty Percent Machines—A Short History of Influence Machines and an Elementary Theory of Their Efficiency: An Attempt
(/isis/citation/CBB062159175/)
Article
Jones, Alan Victor;
(2006)
Towards Safer Working: The Hazards and the Risks of Introducing Electrical Equipment in British Coal Mines up to about 1930
(/isis/citation/CBB000700483/)
Chapter
Jardine, Nicholas;
(1997)
The mantle of Müller and the ghost of Goethe: Interactions between the sciences and their histories
(/isis/citation/CBB000076387/)
Article
Stahnisch, Frank W.;
(2010)
Der Rosenthal'sche Versuch oder: Über den Ort produktiver Forschung---Zur Exkursion des physiologischen Experimentallabors von Isidor Rosenthal (1836--1915) von der Stadt aufs Land
(/isis/citation/CBB001021506/)
Chapter
Gradmann, Christoph;
(2001)
Geschichte und Naturforschung im “technisch-induktiven Zeitalter”: Ernst Hallier und Emil Du Bois-Reymond als Kulturhistoriker
(/isis/citation/CBB000102610/)
Article
Tomislav Petković;
(2013)
The Achievement, Legacy, Intuition, and Cosmopolitanism of Nikola Tesla
(/isis/citation/CBB450450448/)
Article
Schiffer, Michael Brian;
(2008)
A Cognitive Analysis of Component-Stimulated Invention: Electromagnet, Telegraph, and the Capitol Dome's Electric Gas-Lighter
(/isis/citation/CBB000950498/)
Be the first to comment!