Anatomical Mercury
Changing Understandings of Quicksilver, Blood, and the Lymphatic System, 1650-1800
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5837057 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Marieke M A Hendriksen (0000-0001-7347-4432, University of Groningen, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 70 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 516-548 |
| Publication date | 2014-10-16 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-5045 • E-ISSN: 1468-4373 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jhmas/jru030 |
| PMID | 25324429 |
| OpenAlex | W2141568921 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 9 |
The use of mercury as an injection mass in anatomical experiments and preparations was common throughout Europe in the long eighteenth century, and refined mercury-injected preparations as well as plates of anatomical mercury remain today. The use and meaning of mercury in related disciplines such as medicine and chemistry in the same period have been studied, but our knowledge of anatomical mercury is sparse and tends to focus on technicalities. This article argues that mercury had a distinct meaning in anatomy, which was initially influenced by alchemical and classical understandings of mercury. Moreover, it demonstrates that the choice of mercury as an anatomical injection mass was deliberate and informed by an intricate cultural understanding of its materiality, and that its use in anatomical preparations and its perception as an anatomical material evolved with the understanding of the circulatory and lymphatic systems. By using the material culture of anatomical mercury as a starting point, I seek to provide a new, object-driven interpretation of complex and strongly interrelated historiographical categories such as mechanism, vitalism, chemistry, anatomy, and physiology, which are difficult to understand through a historiography that focuses exclusively on ideas
Historiography · Mercury · Vitalism · History of Medicine Studies · History of Science and Natural History · Medical History and Innovations
Science incarnate
Lost Royal Society documents on ‘alkahest’ (universal solvent) rediscovered
Alchemy Vs. Chemistry
Experimenting with Chymical Bodies
Newton and Newtonianism
History and Material Culture
Advertising cadavers in the republic of letters
Alchemy as Studies of Life and Matter
Vitalizing Nature in the Enlightenment
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,25 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2022 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |