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SUMMARY:Poison trials\, panaceas and proof: debates about testing and test
 imony in early modern European medicine - Alisha Rankin (Tufts University)
DTSTART:20180301T153000Z
DTEND:20180301T170000Z
UID:TALK98512@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Lauren Kassell
DESCRIPTION:At the courts of sixteenth-century Europe\, a number of prince
 ly physicians and surgeons tested promising poison antidotes on condemned 
 criminals. These tests were contrived trials\, in which a convict took a d
 eadly poison followed by the antidote. The medics sometimes shared detaile
 d descriptions of their poison trials in printed publications or private c
 orrespondence\, much as they shared case histories of ill patients. Yet th
 ese very same physicians disputed the value of remarkably similar tests on
  animals conducted by charlatans and empirics in marketplace shows. Someti
 mes\, however\, these worlds overlapped directly. In 1583\, an empiric nam
 ed Andreas Berthold published a work in Latin praising the virtues of a ma
 rvellous new drug\, a clay called 'Silesian terra sigillata'. Berthold pre
 sented the drug as a perfect Paracelsian remedy for poison and\, like most
  antidotes\, useful against many other illnesses as well. While such lofty
  claims might easily have been disregarded\, Berthold noted that his reade
 rs did not have to 'trust me on my bare words'. He concluded his book with
  three testimonial letters from powerful figures – two German princes an
 d one town mayor – about trials they had conducted on the drug in 1580 a
 nd 1581. In all three cases\, physicians had given poison to test subjects
  (two used dogs\, one a condemned criminal)\, followed by the antidote. In
  every case\, the subjects who were given the Silesian terra sigillata sur
 vived the poison. These testimonial letters provided official legitimacy t
 o an alchemical empiric\, in the form of tests conducted by physicians. Me
 anwhile\, other alchemists began to use a different form of testimony to d
 emonstrate the marvellous effects of their antidote cure-alls: testimonial
  letters from patients describing their miraculous recoveries\, which phys
 icians derided as a perversion of the case history. Some of these alchemis
 ts likewise ridiculed the poison trial as a lowly and irrelevant form of p
 roof. This talk examines the overlap between the genres of poison antidote
  and panacea and the debates these drugs engendered in attempts to 'prove'
  their efficacy.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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