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SUMMARY:'It is indeed a thing ominous for a Toad to be born of Woman': tak
 ing experimental frogs and toads seriously - Charlotte Sleigh (University 
 of Kent)
DTSTART:20120521T120000Z
DTEND:20120521T131500Z
UID:TALK37598@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Sophie Waring
DESCRIPTION:During the final months of his life\, Jan Swammerdam spent a g
 reat deal of time with frogs\, making their description the grand finale o
 f his posthumously published _Bybel der Natuure_ (1679/1737). Histories of
  biomedicine often portray Swammerdam's experiments as the first step in a
  soon-to-unfold discipline of neurophysiology. But what did Swammerdam him
 self\, without this benefit of hindsight\, think that he was doing? Frogs\
 , this paper argues\, were not neutral laboratory tools for experimenters\
 , but entities sticky with cultural connotations. In particular the frog h
 ad a status\, ongoing from the medieval period\, as a creature that could 
 be generated by putrefaction. Such beliefs required considerable theologic
 al and experimental untangling in the early-modern period\, not least by S
 wammerdam himself. Swammerdam's frogs are shown to occupy a crucial\npivot
 -point in his rhetoric\, linking the lower insects with God's greater crea
 tion – even humans themselves.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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