Human radiation for medicine, spiritism and hypnosis in Argentina: scientific controversies around vital radiations (1880-1930).

In the mid-nineteenth century, magnetic theories penetrated other recognized medical practices in Argentina in order to rationalize their procedures, in a culture that accepted and validated magnetism as a positive science. At the start of the twentieth century, mesmerists created a society, published books and journals, and carried out a large welfare programme; there were public lectures, and magnetic treatment for spiritualists and the general public, emphasizing the therapeutic properties of mesmerism. Magnetologists/mesmerists measured vital radiation and built devices using sensitive objects as 'physical' evidence of it. There was an interest in acquiring and using artefacts to measure human radiation useful in medicine. Magnetic practices survived until the end of the 1920s, when they lost importance.

The origins and early years of the Magnetic and Meteorological department at Greenwich Observatory, 1834-1848.

As one of his first acts upon becoming Astronomer Royal in 1835, George Airy made moves to set up a new observatory at Greenwich to study the Earth's magnetic field. This paper uses Airy's correspondence to argue that, while members of the reform movement in British science were putting pressure on the Royal Observatory to branch out into geomagnetism and meteorology, Airy established the magnetic observatory on his own initiative, ahead of Alexander von Humboldt's request for British participation in the worldwide magnetic charting project that later became known as the 'Magnetic Crusade'. That the Greenwich magnetic observatory did not become operational until 1839 was due to a series of incidental factors that provide a case study in the technical and political obstacles to be overcome in building a new government observatory. Airy attached less importance to meteorology than he did to geomagnetism. In 1840, he set up a full programme of meteorological observations at Greenwich - and thus turned his magnetic observatory into the 'Magnetic and Meteorological department' - only as the price of foiling an attempt by Edward Sabine and others in the London scientific elite to found a rival magnetic and meteorological observatory. Studying the origins of Airy's Magnetic and Meteorological department highlights how important the context of other institutions and trends in science is to understanding the development of Britain's national observatory.

Imperceptible signs: remnants of magnétisme in scientific discourses on hypnotism in late nineteenth-century France.

In 1880s France, hypnotism enjoyed unique medico-scientific legitimacy. This was in striking contrast to preceding decades when its precursor, magnétisme animal, was rejected by the medical/academic establishment as a disreputable, supernaturally tinged practice. Did the legitimation of hypnotism result from researchers repudiating any reference to the wondrous? Or did strands of magnetic thinking persist? This article interrogates the relations among hypnotism, magnétisme, and the domain of the wondrous through close analysis of scientific texts on hypnotism. In question is the notion that somnambulist subjects possessed hyperacute senses, enabling them to perceive usually imperceptible signs, and thus inadvertently to denature researchers' experiments (a phenomenon known as unconscious suggestion). The article explores researchers' uncritical and unanimous acceptance of these ideas, arguing that they originate in a holdover from magnétisme. This complicates our understanding of the continuities and discontinuities between science and a precursor "pseudo-science," and, more narrowly, of the notorious Salpêtrière-Nancy "battle" over hypnotism.

Making Kew Observatory: the Royal Society, the British Association and the politics of early Victorian science.

Built in 1769 as a private observatory for King George III, Kew Observatory was taken over in 1842 by the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS). It was then quickly transformed into what some claimed to be a 'physical observatory' of the sort proposed by John Herschel - an observatory that gathered data in a wide range of physical sciences, including geomagnetism and meteorology, rather than just astronomy. Yet this article argues that the institution which emerged in the 1840s was different in many ways from that envisaged by Herschel. It uses a chronological framework to show how, at every stage, the geophysicist and Royal Artillery officer Edward Sabine manipulated the project towards his own agenda: an independent observatory through which he could control the geomagnetic and meteorological research, including the ongoing 'Magnetic Crusade'. The political machinations surrounding Kew Observatory, within the Royal Society and the BAAS, may help to illuminate the complex politics of science in early Victorian Britain, particularly the role of 'scientific servicemen' such as Sabine. Both the diversity of activities at Kew and the complexity of the observatory's origins make its study important in the context of the growing field of the 'observatory sciences'.

Weathering the empire: meteorological research in the early British Straits Settlements.

This article explores meteorological interest and experimentation in the early history of the Straits Settlements. It centres on the establishment of an observatory in 1840s Singapore and examines the channels that linked the observatory to a global community of scientists, colonial officers and a reading public. It will argue that, although the value of overseas meteorological investigation was recognized by the British government, investment was piecemeal and progress in the field often relied on the commitment and enthusiasm of individuals. In the Straits Settlements, as elsewhere, these individuals were drawn from military or medical backgrounds, rather than trained as dedicated scientists. Despite this, meteorology was increasingly recognized as of fundamental importance to imperial interests. Thus this article connects meteorology with the history of science and empire more fully and examines how research undertaken in British dependencies is revealing of the operation of transnational networks in the exchange of scientific knowledge.

John Tyndall and the Early History of Diamagnetism.

John Tyndall, Irish-born natural philosopher, completed his PhD at the University of Marburg in 1850 while starting his first substantial period of research into the phenomenon of diamagnetism. This paper provides a detailed analysis and evaluation of his contribution to the understanding of magnetism and of the impact of this work on establishing his own career and reputation; it was instrumental in his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1852 and as Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution in 1853. Tyndall's interactions and relationships with Michael Faraday, William Thomson, Julius Plücker and others are explored, alongside his contributions to experimental practice and to emerging theory. Tyndall's approach, challenging Faraday's developing field theory with a model of diamagnetic polarity and the effect of magnetic forces acting in couples, was based on his belief in the importance of underlying molecular structure, an idea which suffused his later work, for example in relation to the study of glaciers and to the interaction of substances with radiant heat.

Hansteen's magnetometer and the origin of the magnetic crusade.

In the early nineteenth century, Norwegian mathematician and astronomer Christopher Hansteen (1784-1873) contributed significantly to international collaboration in the study of terrestrial magnetism. In particular, Hansteen was influential in the origin and orientation of the magnetic lobby in Britain, a campaign which resulted in a global network of fixed geomagnetic observatories. In retrospect, however, his contribution was diminished, because his four-pole theory in Untersuchungen der Magnetismus der Erde (1819) was ultimately refuted by Carl Friedrich Gauss in Allgemeine Theorie des Erdmagnetismus (1839). Yet Hansteen's main contribution was practical rather than theoretical. His major impact was related to the circulation of his instruments and techniques. From the mid-1820s, 'Hansteen's magnetometer' was distributed all over the British Isles and throughout the international scientific community devoted to studying terrestrial magnetism. Thus in the decades before the magnetic crusade, Hansteen had established an international system of observation, standardization and representation based on measurements with his small and portable magnetometers.

John Tyndall and the Royal Medal that was never struck.

Just once in its long history has a Royal Medal been awarded but not presented. John Tyndall FRS (1820-93) was the chosen recipient in 1853 for his early work on diamagnetism but declined to accept it. The story of why Tyndall felt compelled to turn down this considerable honour sheds light on the scientific politics and personal relationships of the time, on the importance given to the study of magnetism, and on Tyndall's own character and career.

[Little histories of magnetic cures]. / Petite histoire des remèdes magnétiques.

Men were very early fascinated by magnetism because of its manifest and particular working at distance, which looked different of gravity. It was tryed to be explained by mecanism, for exemple Descartes and Boyle. Paracelse valued the therapeutics with magnets and conceived medicines as working by a magnetic virtue. Gilbert limited the medicinal properties of magnet but helded it to be animated. Many authors praised remedies that work at distance of the evil as Bacon, Van Helmont, Croll, Porta, Goclenius, Digby. Such a belief related to magic ideas of this time. In the Bacon's way Boyle collected facts of magnetic cures, and his actual testing of the divisibility of bodies led him to conceive imponderable corpuscles. Newton supposed a subtil and universel fluid going through every solid body. Mesmer misappropriated this idea by founding the animal magnetism of which physical working was only proceeding from the inside of the patient by an effect of suggestion (psychosomatic). Homeopathy took again the notion of remedies having an infinite or a magnetic virtue, which partly issued from Paracelse's and Mesmer's doctrines, which were extolled in Germany at the time of Hahnemann. The latter decided in favour of a spiritualist and not corpuscular interpretation of the working of his homeopathic medicines.

Skull lichens: a curious chapter in the history of phytotherapy.

Lichens growing on skulls were known in late medieval times as usnea or moss of a dead man's skull and were recommended as highly beneficial in various diseases. They were, in addition, the main ingredient of Unguentum armariun, a liniment used in a curious medical practice: the magnetic cure of wounds. We can place this chapter of the history of phytotherapy within the wider cultural context of the period, which saw the definition of nature become increasingly more fluid and open to a variety of novel interpretations.

Mathematical representations in science: a cognitive-historical case history.

The important role of mathematical representations in scientific thinking has received little attention from cognitive scientists. This study argues that neglect of this issue is unwarranted, given existing cognitive theories and laws, together with promising results from the cognitive historical analysis of several important scientists. In particular, while the mathematical wizardry of James Clerk Maxwell differed dramatically from the experimental approaches favored by Michael Faraday, Maxwell himself recognized Faraday as "in reality a mathematician of a very high order," and his own work as in some respects a re-representation of Faraday's field theory in analytic terms. The implications of the similarities and differences between the two figures open new perspectives on the cognitive role of mathematics as a learned mode of representation in science.

[About machines and instruments (I): the body of the automaton in the work of E.T.A. Hoffmann]. / Sobre máquinas e instrumentos (I): el cuerpo del autómata en la obra de E.T.A. Hoffmann.

Immediately after becoming interested in animal magnetism, and undoubtedly as a result of this interest, E.T.A. Hoffmann used automata as the central characters in some of his most notable works. This paper aims to show how this interest reveals the author's critical attitude towards a conception of the human being which, developing in parallel to anatomy-based medicine, had led in the eighteenth century to a doctrine whose most complete expression is to be found in "L'homme machine," by J.O. De La Mettrie. Nowadays we can see these tales, like those dedicated to animal magnetism, as a cry of alarm against one of the consequences of such a mechanical conception of a human being: the growth of "biopower," or of "biopolitics," terms coined by Foucault in his last works; but also against the risks entailed by the Promethean drive of modernity.

Jackson, Todd, and the concept of "discharge" in epilepsy.

PURPOSE: To explore the historical origins of the modern concept of electrical discharges in the brain in epilepsy. METHODS: I have examined the writings of Hughlings Jackson (1835-1911) and Robert Bentley Todd (1809-1860), especially their Lumleian Lectures on convulsive disorders to the Royal College of Physicians of 1890 and 1849, respectively; and also the influence of Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) on the former and Michael Faraday (1791-1867) on the latter. RESULTS/CONCLUSIONS: Contrary to the widely taught view that Jackson was the first to propose electrical discharges in epilepsy it is clear that the discharges suggested by Jackson, influenced by the evolutionary philosopher, Herbert Spencer, were chemical, based on katabolism and anabolism. Jackson had no understanding or proposal based on physics or electricity. On the other hand, Todd had earlier proposed and described electrical concepts of discharges in epilepsy, influenced by his contemporary and colleague in London, Michael Faraday, who at the time was laying the foundations of our modern understanding of electricity and magnetism. Todd and Faraday saw "nervous polarity" as another polar force interchangeable with the polar forces of electricity and magnetism.