Steere-Williams, Jacob (Author)
Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Volume: 39
Pages: 225-243
Industrial capitalism has engendered human and animal bodies toxic in myriad and uneven ways—internal, external, environmental, ecological. This article examines the entanglements of public health, technology, coal, and the body through a singular chemical: carbolic acid (also known as phenol). Derived from coal tar production in British factories, carbolic acid exploded in use from the 1870s in Europe and across colonial environments. Though heralded as the first public health and surgical “magic bullet,” chemists and coroners clamored to legislate carbolic acid as a dangerous poison—by 1900, carbolic acid poisonings and suicides were leading causes of death around the Atlantic World. Though used as a common household disinfectant, carbolic acid was used on the bodies of Indians and Africans during the third plague pandemic. This article thus asks big questions about regulation, the disabled colonial body, the unequal burdens of toxicity, and the invisible health impacts of the industrial revolution.
...MoreArticle Mara Mills; Jaipreet Virdi; Sarah F. Rose (2024) Disability, Epistemology, Sciencing. Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 1-24).
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