Trust, Protocol, Gender, and Power in Interwar British Biomedical Research
Kathleen Chevassut and the "Germ" of Multiple Sclerosis
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9089612 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Stephen T Casper (0000-0003-2915-8592, Clarkson University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 66 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 180-215 |
| Publication date | 2011-04-01 |
| 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/jrq025 |
| PMID | 20478897 |
| PMCID | PMC3071216 |
| OpenAlex | W2164329117 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 8 |
In March 1930, reports of the discovery of an organism causative of multiple sclerosis circulated in the British press. At the same time, news of a therapeutically efficacious vaccine also reached the ears of neurologists and patients afflicted with the debilitating degenerative disease. It was soon shown that no organism had been discovered. The events leading up to this ultimately painful episode reveal many of the central problems created when social conventions and a sense of decorum scripted received understanding of good scientific practice rather than actual regulatory frameworks. In the absence of such frameworks, few means were present to censor inappropriate scientific conduct. This story thus provides a window into an emergent world of state-sponsored biomedical research; a world where recrimination, gossip, misogyny, uncertainty, exaggeration, and dreams and delusions of scientific and therapeutic progress were collapsed together.
Aesthetics · Art · Cognitive science · Exaggeration · Germ theory of disease · Gossip · Late 19th century · Multiple sclerosis · Pathology · Period (music) · Political science · Power (physics) · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · Scientific discovery · Sociology · State (computer science) · Historical Medical Research and Treatments · History · History of Medical Practice · Law · Medicine · Neurology and Historical Studies · Psychology
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |