Article ID: CBB874878228

Medical Machines as Symbols of Science? Promoting Electrotherapy in Victorian Canada (October 2017)

unapi

This article tackles a common assumption in the historiography of medical technology, that new medical instruments in the nineteenth century were universally seen as symbols of the scientific nature of medical practice. The article examines the strategies used by Jenny Trout, the first woman in Canada licensed to practice medicine, and J. Adams, a homeopathic physician, to advertise electrotherapy to the residents of Toronto in the 1870s and 1880s. While electrotherapy involved complex electrical technology, the doctors in this study did not draw attention to their instruments as proof of the legitimacy of their practice. In fact the technology is almost entirely absent from their promotional texts. While both doctors wanted their practice to be associated with scientific medicine, neither saw their instruments as immediately or obviously symbolic of science.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB874878228/

Similar Citations

Book Kirk-Montgomery, Allison; McKellar, Shelley; (2008)
Medicine and Technology in Canada 1900--1950 (/isis/citation/CBB000951647/)

Article A.J. Wright; (2015)
What If Beddoes & Davy Had Attempted Surgical Anesthesia In 1799? (/isis/citation/CBB504065170/)

Book Timmermann, Carsten; Anderson, Julie; (2006)
Devices and Designs: Medical Technologies in Historical Perspective (/isis/citation/CBB000774419/)

Article Weaver, Lawrence T.; (2010)
In the Balance: Weighing Babies and the Birth of the Infant Welfare Clinic (/isis/citation/CBB001020992/)

Book Vostral, Sharra Louise; (2008)
Under Wraps: A History of Menstrual Hygiene Technology (/isis/citation/CBB000831088/)

Book Snow, Stephanie J.; (2008)
Blessed Days of Anaesthesia: How Anaesthetics Changed the World (/isis/citation/CBB000951519/)

Article Jamieson, Annie; (2013)
More Than Meets the Eye: Revealing the Therapeutic Potential of “Light”, 1896--1910 (/isis/citation/CBB001320563/)

Book Hasegawa, Guy R.; (2012)
Mending Broken Soldiers: The Union and Confederate Programs to Supply Artificial Limbs (/isis/citation/CBB001214277/)

Article Hilaire-Pérez, Liliane; Rabier, Christelle; (2013)
Self-Machinery? Steel Trusses and the Management of Ruptures in Eighteenth-Century Europe (/isis/citation/CBB001213359/)

Article Donzé, Pierre-Yves; (2010)
Making Medicine a Business in Japan: Shimadzu Co. and the Diffusion of Radiology (1900--1960) (/isis/citation/CBB001220551/)

Article John Kirkup; (2016)
Lord Lister’s Antiseptic Steam Spray (/isis/citation/CBB250627949/)

Book Shelley McKellar; (2018)
Artificial Hearts: The Allure and Ambivalence of a Controversial Medical Technology (/isis/citation/CBB433691060/)

Article Jülich, Solveig; (2004)
Inledning: Tema Teknomedicin (/isis/citation/CBB000772812/)

Book Thomas Schlich; Christopher Crenner; (2017)
Technological Change in Modern Surgery: Historical Perspectives on Innovation (/isis/citation/CBB403385801/)

Thesis Cohen, Sara Jo; (2011)
Medical Screening: Medical Imag[in]ing, the Body, and the Self (/isis/citation/CBB001567331/)

Article Gavrus, Delia; (2010)
Envisioning Cyclopropane: Scientific or Medical Technology Product? (/isis/citation/CBB001211523/)

Article Schwartz, Mallory; (2010)
A Cup Full of Domesticity: The “Duke-Fingard” Vaporizer (/isis/citation/CBB001024909/)

Book Friedrich, Christoph; Bernschneider-Reif, Sabine; (2003)
Rosarium litterarum: Beiträge zur Pharmazie- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte: Festschrift für Peter Dilg zum 65. Geburtstag (/isis/citation/CBB000780042/)

Authors & Contributors
McKellar, Shelley
Cohen, Sara Jo
Wright, A. J.
Weaver, Lawrence T.
Vostral, Sharra Louise
Timmermann, Carsten
Concepts
Medicine and technology, relationships
Medical technology
Medicine
Electrotherapy; radiotherapy
Anesthesia
Technology
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
18th century
21st century
20th century, late
20th century, early
Places
United States
Canada
Japan
Germany
Europe
Institutions
University of Toronto
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment