Article ID: CBB014181121

Publicity, politics, and professoriate in fin-de-siècle Vienna: The misconduct of the embryologist Samuel Leopold Schenk (2020)

unapi

This essay uses the case of the fin-de-siècle Vienna embryologist Samuel Leopold Schenk to analyze the factors at play in allegations of misconduct. In 1898, Schenk published a book titled Theorie Schenk. Einfluss auf das Geschlechtsverhältnis (Schenk’s theory. Influence on the sex ratio). The book argued that, by changing their diet, women trying to conceive could influence egg maturation and consequently select the sex of their offspring. This cross between a scientific monograph and a popular advice book received enormous publicity but also spurred first the Vienna Medical Association and then the Senate of the University of Vienna to accuse Schenk of poor science, self-advertisement, quack medical practice, and wrong publisher choice. Formal proceedings against Schenk ended in 1900 with the unusually harsh punishment of early retirement. Schenk died two years later. I examine the elements of the case, from the science of sex determination and selection, to the growth of print media and advertising within the changing demographic and political landscape of Vienna. I argue that the influence of the public, via the growing media, upon science was the main driver of the case against Schenk, but also that the case would have had a more limited impact were it not for the volatile political moment rife with anti-Semitism, nationalism, and xenophobia. I draw the attention to the importance of setting cases of misconduct in the broader political history and against the key social concerns of the moment.

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Authors & Contributors
Ossicini, Stefano
Liv Grjebine
Bryan E. Denham
Ghislaine Filliatreau
Watson, Lindsay R.
Verhoeven, Piet
Concepts
Science and society
Mass media
Public opinion
Public understanding of medicine
Public understanding of science
Medicine
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
21st century
20th century
18th century
20th century, late
Places
Great Britain
Vienna (Austria)
Italy
Germany
France
Barcelona (Spain)
Institutions
United States. Food and Drug Administration
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