'A remedy for this dread disease': Achille Sclavo, anthrax and serum therapy in early twentieth-century Britain.

In the years around 1900 one of the most significant practical consequences of new styles of bacteriological thought and practice was the development of preventive vaccines and therapeutic sera. Historical scholarship has highlighted how approaches rooted in the laboratory methods of Robert Koch, Louis Pasteur and their collaborators were transformed in local contexts and applied in diverse ways to enable more effective disease identification, prevention and treatment. Amongst these, the anti-anthrax serum developed by the Italian physician Achille Sclavo (1861-1930) has received little to no attention from historians. This article positions Sclavo's serum as a neglected but significant presence in British microbiology, which achieved widespread uptake amidst a wave of optimism, despite prolonged uncertainty about its mechanism of action and dosage. After being introduced to Britain in 1904 by the enterprising first medical inspector of factories Thomas Morison Legge, within a matter of months the serum became regarded by medical practitioners as an effective treatment of cutaneous anthrax, though access to 'fresh' serum and the necessary speedy diagnosis remained problematic. Like the disease anthrax itself, discussion of 'Sclavo's serum' was out of all proportion to the relatively low number of cases, reflecting a deep-seated fascination with the wider possibilities afforded by effective serum therapy.

Perspectives on human regeneration.

Regeneration is a concept that has fascinated humans for centuries. Whether we have been trying to bring things back to life, extract additional resources from the world, or remodel our living spaces-domestic and urban-it is often presented as an unproblematic force for good. But what exactly does it mean to regenerate a body, mind or space? This paper, which introduces a collection of contributions on the theme of human regeneration, explores the limits and possibilities of regeneration as a conceptual tool for understanding the biological realm. What does it mean to be regenerated? How can a scholarly focus on this concept enrich our histories of bodies, ageing, disability and science, technology and medicine? As a secondary goal, I identify two distinct aspects of regeneration-'hard' and 'soft' regeneration-which concern the medical and social elements of regeneration respectively. By recognising that everything from cosmetics and fictions to prosthetics and organs grown in vitro display a combination of 'hard' and 'soft' elements, we are better placed to understand that the biological and social must be considered in consort for us to fully appreciate the meanings and practices that underpin multiple forms of human regeneration.

"Replace them by Salads and Vegetables": Dietary Innovation, Youthfulness, and Authority, 1900-1939.

The events of the First World War fueled public fascination with rejuvenation at the same time as medical scientists began to explore the physiological potential of so-called "vitamine." The seemingly bottomless capacity of vitamins to maintain bodily function and appearance offered a possible mechanism for achieving bodily renewal, alongside established dietary practices such as abstention from alcohol and meat. Drawing on mainstream medical publications, popular dietary texts and advertising materials, this paper outlines how vitamins and other dietary practices played an important but hitherto unrecognized role in reconfiguring ideas about anti-aging and rejuvenation. I argue that new ways of understanding food and its relationship with the body were at the heart of attempts by various groups to claim expertise about and authority over diet and its effects, not just on the human body in general, but on the aging process in particular.

Anti-reductionism at the confluence of philosophy and science: Arthur Koestler and the biological periphery.

The Hungarian-born intellectual Arthur Koestler produced a wide-ranging corpus of written work throughout the mid twentieth century. Despite being the subject of two huge biographies in recent years, his long-standing engagement with numerous scientific disciplines remains unexplored. This paper situates Koestler's scientific philosophy within the context of mid-twentieth-century science and explores his relationship with key figures, including Dennis Gábor, C. H. Waddington, Ludwig von Bertalanffy and J. R. Smythies. The argument presented is threefold. First, surprisingly, serious scientists, particularly in the biological sciences, took Koestler's scientific work seriously; second, despite Koestler's best efforts, his allies could not agree on a single articulation of anti-reductionism; and third, the reductionist/anti-reductionist debates of the mid twentieth century constituted a battle for the authority to speak on behalf of 'science' that led Koestler into direct conflict with figures including Peter Medawar. By exploring the community associated with Koestler, the paper sheds new light on the status of scientific authority and the relationship between scientists' metaphysical beliefs and their practices.

Medical science and the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876: A re-examination of anti-vivisectionism in provincial Britain.

The Cruelty to Animals Act 1876 was an important but ambiguous piece of legislation. For researchers it stymied British science, yet ensured that vivisection could continue under certain restrictions. For anti-vivisection protestors it was positive proof of the influence of their campaigns, yet overly deferent to Britain's scientific elite. In previous accounts of the Act and the rise of anti-vivisectionism, scientific medicine central to these debates has been treated as monolithic rather than a heterogeneous mix of approaches; and this has gone hand-in-hand with the marginalizing of provincial practices, as scholarship has focused largely on the 'Golden Triangle' of London, Oxford and Cambridge. We look instead at provincial research: brain studies from Wakefield and anthrax investigations in Bradford. The former case elucidates a key role for specific medical science in informing the anti-vivisection movement, whilst the latter demonstrates how the Act affected the particular practices of provincial medical scientists. It will be seen, therefore, how provincial medical practices were both influential upon, and profoundly affected by, the growth of anti-vivisectionism and the passing of the Act. This paper emphasises how regional and varied medico-scientific practices were central to the story of the creation and impact of the Cruelty to Animals Act.

'Recharge my exhausted batteries': Overbeck's Rejuvenator, Patenting, and Public Medical Consumers, 1924-37.

Although historians have shown that there has been a complex and multi-layered relationship between the body, medicine and the force of electricity, many avenues remain to be explored. One of the most prominent of these is the way in which electrotherapy technologies were marketed to a wide variety of different end users and intermediaries. This paper offers the first historical analysis of one such device - the Overbeck Rejuvenator - a 1920s electrotherapy machine designed for use by the general public. Its inventor, Otto Overbeck, was not a medical man and this enabled him to use aggressive strategies of newspaper advertising, using testimonials to market his product alongside appeals to his own scientific authority. He commissioned the prestigious Ediswan Company to manufacture the Rejuvenator on a large scale, and took out patents in eleven countries to persuade users of the efficacy of the device. In response to Overbeck's activities, the British Medical Association enlisted an electrical engineer to examine the Rejuvenator, contacted practitioners whose endorsements were being used in publicity material, and denied Overbeck permission to advertise in the British Medical Journal. Despite this, the Rejuvenator brought its inventor wealth and notoriety, and helped redefine the concept of 'rejuvenation', even if the professional reception of such a device was almost universally hostile. This paper shows how the marketing, patenting and publishing of Overbeck combined to persuade members of the laity to try the Rejuvenator as an alternative form of therapy, bypassing the medical profession in the process.

A poster of pustules: representations of early twentieth century industrial anthrax in Britain.

In the decades around 1900, industrial anthrax attracted significant attention from medical practitioners, legislators and the general public in Britain. Attempts to reduce the incidence of the disease ranged from basic health measures - preventing workmen from eating inside factories and trialling the use of respirators - through to national legislation making disinfection of dangerous materials mandatory. Another effort involved the production of industrial warning posters (or cautionary notices) which were designed for use in the factory environment. In the case of anthrax, the context in which these notices appeared adds to our understanding of not only the disease itself, but also the relations between those producing such posters and those who encountered them in an industrial setting.