“Origin of Forms and Qualities: Robert Boyle's Reply to William Harvey” (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “Origin of Forms and Qualities: Robert Boyle's Reply to William Harvey”
Author: Ashley J. Inglehart
Abstract: This paper looks at famed chemist (or chymist) Robert Boyle’s Origin of Forms and Qualities and considers an un-named target of Boyle: William Harvey. Boyle published Origin of Forms and Qualities in 1666 as an attempt to eliminate reliance on Aristotelian forms, promoting instead his own corpuscular philosophy. In “The Historical Part” of Origin of Forms and Qualities, Boyle provides examples and experiments historically understood as involving substantial change, which he attempts to describe in terms of quality-less, uniform corpuscles.
His very first example involves the hatching of an egg, or the development of a chick from diaphanous fluid. This paper argues that Boyle’s use of this example —from his introduction of it, to his description of how the egg develops, to his concluding remarks regarding the explanatory power of Harvey’s “plastick principle”— is a direct response to. Harvey had communicated his own views on the generation of chick eggs some fifteen years prior in Exercitationes de Generatione Animalium.
A detailed analysis of his reply to Harvey can allow us to understand not only Boyle’s own account of animal generation but his methodical commitments more generally. Harvey holds that proper explanation lies in an account of the four Aristotelian causes, and his description of the plastic principle within the chick-egg is closely tied to his account of those causes. Boyle, however, rejects this approach and places the explanatory focus upon the material effects and modes of operations.
Date: 11/4/2018
Primary URL: https://hss2018.hssonline.org/en/77-media/abstract-archive/abstract/public/353/origin-of-forms-and-qualities-robert-boyle-s-reply-to-william-harvey
Primary URL Description: online program page for this presentation
Conference Name: History of Science Annual Meeting 2018
The Practice of Copying in Making Knowledge in Early Modern Europe: An Introduction (Article)
Title: The Practice of Copying in Making Knowledge in Early Modern Europe: An Introduction
Author: Katherine Reinhart
Author: Sietske Fransen
Abstract: Though the study of copying, imitation, forgery, and reproduction have a long lineage in the history of art, this special issue, and its introduction, seek to investigate the role of copying texts, and especially images, in the process of making new knowledge in the Early Modern period. By looking at a wide variety of images produced in contexts such as artist workshops, learned societies, and publishing houses, and compared with the texts and terminologies of copying and knowledge that surround them, we are not only expanding the scope of when and where copying takes place but also, and especially, emphasizing its importance to the process of creating knowledge. Copying—both its process and how we understand it—has not been a stable concept, and this introduction digs deeper into how Early Modern artists and natural philosophers conceived of and implemented this practice.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/02666286.2019.1628611
Primary URL Description: Taylor & Francis Online Volume 35, 2019 - Issue 3, 211-222.
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Word & Image
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Copying images in the archives of the early Royal Society (Article)
Title: Copying images in the archives of the early Royal Society
Author: Katherine M. Reinhart
Author: Sietske Fransen
Author: Sachiko Kusukawa
Abstract: This article argues that the copying of text and image was a key process in acquiring, approving, and recording knowledge in the early Royal Society of London. In particular, it focuses on how the administrative archives were set up and sustained in the nascent Society to preserve and establish new knowledge through a copying practice. Images were copied alongside texts to facilitate the collaborative scientific practice among the members of the Royal Society; to communicate essential features of an argument; to serve as proof of rare phenomena; and to establish priority for an invention or an idea. This copying practice was part of a unique system of emphasizing, prioritizing, and preserving for
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/02666286.2019.1628629
Primary URL Description: Online Journal of Word & Image, Volume 35, 2019 Issue 3, 256-276
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Word & Image
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Sexual Dimorphism and Hermaphroditism in Nature (Article)
Title: Sexual Dimorphism and Hermaphroditism in Nature
Author: Ashley Inglehart
Abstract: Sexual dimorphism” denotes the existence of two distinct forms of sex: male and female. Animals, in which the differences in secondary sex characteristics are extreme, are sometimes described as sexually dimorphic. While present literature distinguishes between one’s biological sex and the socially constructed role of gender, early modern medical treatises have no separate term. Explanations of sex consequently consider not only physical traits associated with the sexes but those of psychological disposition and sexual proclivities as well.The following article outlines the history of the idea of sexual dysmorphism from the classical to the early modern era.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-319-20791-9_182-1
Primary URL Description: url page for article
Access Model: open
Format: Other
Periodical Title: Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences
Publisher: Springer
Science in Circulation: Coins, Copying, and the Materiality of Scientific Imagery (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Science in Circulation: Coins, Copying, and the Materiality of Scientific Imagery
Author: Katherine Reinhart
Abstract: In the late seventeenth century, a vibrant trade of coins and medallions was taking place across Europe. Cast in an assortment of metals and alloys, these medals depicted events of national significance such as the signing of a peace treaty or the marriage of a sovereign. These coins circulated throughout Europe where they were collected, traded, and sometimes satirized by rival nations. In France, medals were issued to amplify the glory of the King Louis XIV and his reign. Yet in addition to battles and monuments, coins were also cast to commemorate the triumphs of science. In particular, the activities and discoveries of the young Académie royale des sciences in Paris – from their discovery of new moons to
the construction of the observatory – became immortalized in numerous medals. The materiality of the coins, in particular the value and durability of the metal, meant they had the ability to travel to a greater degree than other more delicate or ephemeral objects of the Academy. These medals had multiple functions as they circulated both within the walls of the Academy, and in
philosophical and aristocratic circles abroad. The visual allegories and events depicted on the coins were also copied into different formats including printed books and other medals. This paper will explore the coins and medals created
on behalf of the French Scientific Academy – what they depicted, how they were used, and why scientific activity became memorialized in metal. This paper will also consider the materiality and mobility of these objects, and how they were dispersed and replicated in service of science and the French state.
Date: 09/01/2020
Primary URL: https://sites.google.com/view/eshsbologna2020/home
Primary URL Description: 9th European Society for the History of Science (ESHS) Conference website
Conference Name: 9th ESHS Conference, Visual, Material and Sensory Culture of Science, Bologna, Italy
Instruments & Iconography in the early Académie royale des sciences (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Instruments & Iconography in the early Académie royale des sciences
Author: Katherine Reinhart
Abstract: Instruments are abundant in the visual imagery created by the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris, the first scientific society of France. From its foundation in 1666 under King Louis XIV, the Academy’s visual products – including paintings, drawings, prints, and coins – repeatedly depicted numerous scientific instruments. Sometimes the instrument portrayed was a specific apparatus developed and used by the Academy such as Christiaan Huygens’s pendulum clock; in other instances, a generalized flask or scope stood in for a category of device. Yet, these instruments often had much larger meanings within the work of art, and these meanings varied depending on the work’s intended audience.
This paper will explore the instruments depicted in the visual culture of the French Royal Academy of Sciences, and how these instruments contributed to an iconography of natural philosophy developing at the time. In particular, it will look at how this iconography became part of the visual strategy deployed by young Academy during the late seventeenth century. This paper will seek to answer questions including why instruments were given precious visual real estate in the small space of a print or coin? And, in an image laden with epistemic and political messages, what did these instruments mean? Drawing from a range of archival and printed primary sources, this paper will reveal the important role of instruments in the visual culture of early modern science.
Date: 09/15/2020
Primary URL: https://scientific-instrument-commission.org/sic-conferences/item/xxxix-scientific-instrument-symposium
Primary URL Description: Conference website
Secondary URL: http://scientific-instrument-commission.org/
Secondary URL Description: Website of The Scientific Instrument Commission which is a constituent group in the Division of History of Science and Technology (DHST) under the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IUHPST).
Conference Name: XXXIX Scientific Instrument Symposium, London, September 2020 (held virtually)
“Genesis, Creation, and Generation in Robert Boyle’s Natural Philosophy” (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: “Genesis, Creation, and Generation in Robert Boyle’s Natural Philosophy”
Author: Ashley Inglehart
Abstract: This paper examines the problem of generation -how plants, animals, and minerals come into existence- as considered by eminent English Aristocrat, Robert Boyle. Boyle, most noted today for work in pneumatics, addresses the problem in more than twenty treatises spanning roughly forty years. His understanding of the forces of generation, moreover, would remain closely tied to his ideas about God and the biblical account of Creation throughout his life.
I show how Robert Boyle took up the imagery of seminal principles for religious purposes and made them cohere with his larger mechanical and experimental project. I likewise expand upon the influence that Boyle’s Theological Voluntarism had upon his epistemology and methodological approach to experiment. In doing so, Boyle would contribute to a larger project of rejecting Aristotelian essentialism in favor of a modern approach to science. Both his approach and ideas about the forces of generation would go on to have tremendous influence in medicine, philosophy, and the birth of science itself.
Date Range: Dec. 3, 2021
Location: Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota
Primary URL: https://cse.umn.edu/cbi/events/fall-2021-colloquium-ashley-inglehart
Primary URL Description: event web page of Charles Babbage Institute
Images for the King: Art, Science, and Power in Louis XIV's France (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: Images for the King: Art, Science, and Power in Louis XIV's France
Author: Katherine Reinhart
Abstract: This project investigates the epistemic and political functions of images in a pivotal early modern scientific institution: the Académie royale des sciences. During the Academy’s formative period, from its inauguration in 1666 to the death of King Louis XIV in 1715, the Academy produced a wealth of images in the form of drawings, prints, medallions, and paintings, and was subject to widespread visual representation. Like England’s Royal Society, the Academy was pivotal in the development of early modern natural philosophy as one of the first and best-funded scientific institutions in Europe. This project interrogates how various images and objects were created, selected, and deployed in the service of knowledge production and as a means of broadcasting monarchical power. In addition, this project accounts for the graphic and pictorial practices of both the natural philosophers, assembled in Paris by Louis XIV, and the artists with whom they regularly collaborated. Ultimately, it reveals how various types of visual material – from anatomical drawings to allegorical reliefs on coins – were an indispensable part of the Academy’s projects, as well as providing tangible evidence of the scientific ambitions of the French state.
Date Range: November 16, 2020
Location: Institute for Research in the Humanities (IRH), University of Wisconsin
Primary URL: https://irh.wisc.edu/event/images-for-the-king-art-science-and-power-in-louis-xivs-france/
Primary URL Description: webpage for IRH event featuring Solmsen Fellow (2020-21), Katherine Reinhart
Marriage and Medicine in Modern America (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: Marriage and Medicine in Modern America
Author: Kely O'Donnell
Abstract: This seminar explores histories of health, gender, and sexuality, by focusing on the intertwining of two institutions that have fundamentally shaped our culture: medicine and marriage. It uses marriage as a lens for viewing the historical and social transformations of the American medical profession, as well as to examine the medicalization of intimate relationships in the broader society. Weekly readings cover topics such as: eugenics, LGBTQ marriage and adoption, disability rights, sexuality and reproduction, sex education, health activism, the changing gender composition of the health professions, and the reform of medical education and training. Students also analyze a variety of primary sources, ranging from scientific studies and medical advice literature to popular magazines and romantic comedy films.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://courses.yale.edu/
Primary URL Description: Yale webpage for full course catalog. See HSHM 409, Spring 2022.
Audience: Undergraduate
“Behind the Great Doctors: Locating the Physician’s Wife in the History of American Medicine” (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: “Behind the Great Doctors: Locating the Physician’s Wife in the History of American Medicine”
Author: Kelly O'Donnell
Abstract: Partners in practice, nurses (lay and trained), cultural messengers, political activists, financial backers, secretaries—these are only some of the roles frequently played by doctors’ wives, comprising what amounts to a shadow labor force within the medical profession. This talk offers a preliminary argument for the need to consider marriage and romantic partners in our histories more closely, as they are essential to understanding the transformations of American medicine. A true integration of this social world in our histories of health care holds the potential to radically alter our understanding of labor dynamics and the transmission of knowledge and prestige about medicine within society and culture.
At the same time, this talk will also reflect on the major methodological difficulties in documenting this domestic realm. While this history is urgent, doctors’ wives have evaded the scrutiny of medical historians for a number of reasons. Not only is much of the history of medicine cataloged in the heavily curated professional papers of physicians, but partners of physicians were often heavily invested in upholding a particular image of their husbands for the public and posterity. By expanding our archive and reading older sources creatively, we can begin to appreciate doctors’ wives as a missing piece in the puzzle of our health care histories.
Date Range: April 23, 2022
Location: Saratoga Springs, NY
Primary URL: https://www.histmed.org/saratoga-springs
Primary URL Description: webpage on AAHM website for the 95th Annual Conference for the American Association for the History of Science (AAHM).
Secondary URL: https://www.histmed.org/documents/AAHM2022_FinalProgram.pdf
Secondary URL Description: Final Program for 95th annual meeting of the American Association for the History of Medicine. See page 55 for Kelly O'Donnell's listing.
Hippocratic Vows: The Doctor’s Wife and the History of American Medicine, Hosted by The Beaumont Medical Club (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Hippocratic Vows: The Doctor’s Wife and the History of American Medicine, Hosted by The Beaumont Medical Club
Abstract: Marrying a doctor became an aspirational goal for many young women in the twentieth century United States. For those who succeeded in securing a physician, however, married life was often hard work. From fundraising and engaging in political activism to answering patients’ phone calls, the labor of the doctor’s wife was an essential part of the history of American medicine. My new research reveals that spouses of physicians had an under-appreciated but significant impact on the growth, reception, and reform of the medical profession.
Author: Kelly O'Donnell
Date: 04/08/2022
Location: Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT (virtual)
Primary URL: https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/hippocratic-vows-the-doctors-wife-and-the-history-of-american-medicine-with-kelly-odonnell-phd-hosted-by-the-beaumont-medical-club/
Primary URL Description: Event web page of the Beaumont Medical Club at Yale School of Medicine