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SUMMARY:Consensus\, correspondence and the development of the 'second opin
 ion' in Nuremberg's medical reformation\, 1560–1598 - Hannah Murphy (Uni
 versity of California\, Berkeley)
DTSTART:20121023T160000Z
DTEND:20121023T173000Z
UID:TALK40291@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Peter Murray Jones
DESCRIPTION:When he died in 1598\, Joachim Camerarius the younger\, botani
 st\, humanist and municipal physician to the imperial city of Nuremberg\, 
 left behind him more than 3000 letters sent by 190 physicians from Antwerp
  to Rome\, and as far east as Constantinople. As evidence of a social netw
 ork\, Camerarius' letters describe a densely populated circle of learned\,
  practicing physicians\, with strong interests in botany and\, more specif
 ically\, in the pharmaceutical dimensions of herbal knowledge. Corresponde
 nce was a form of exchange\; as well as letters\, Camerarius received plan
 ts\, books\, drawings and remedies. It was also a form of collaboration\, 
 in that the physicians who sent letters to Camerarius\, used this network 
 to offer information\, consult on cases\, and to discuss and share identif
 ication of local and rare plants.  In early modern medical discourse\, cor
 respondence became a  scientific technique - a means of slowly testing evi
 dence\, and achieving through corroborative reporting\, a consensus that l
 egitimated it. \n\nFocusing specifically on letters between Camerarius\, t
 he renowned botanist Carolus Clusius (1526-1606)\, and their Bohemian circ
 le of acquaintances\, my paper examines shared attempts to identify the an
 emone\, a species to which both Clusius and Camerarius devoted long chapte
 rs in their published volumes. Comparing the incremental\, communal proces
 s of identification in their letters\, to the authors' published results\,
  my paper shows that observation was a dynamic practice. For botany\, and 
 I argue for medicine more generally\, consensus became the professional pr
 erequisite for both knowledge held and decisions made. As an element of th
 e growing professionalization of practical medicine\, this epistemological
  shift had ramifications for the social organization of medicine as well. 
 Having looked at the place of consensus in theory\, my paper traces the de
 velopment of the 'second opinion'\, in what Camerarius himself termed Nure
 mberg's 'medical reformation'.  
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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