Irritating Experiments

Hubert Steinke is currently a research assistant at both the Universities of Bern and Zurich. He received his MD and MA from Bern and his PhD from Oxford University. His publications include books and articles on Haller, the Republic of Letters, and popular medicine in early modern Europe

• List of FiguresAbbreviationsAcknowledgementsIntroductionPART I: THE EVOLUTION OF A NEW CONCEPT1 Theories of Animal Motion before 17502 Experimentation in the Göttingen Laboratory3 Haller’s Changing Views on Irritability and SensibilityPART II: THE EUROPEAN CONTROVERSY4 The Uses of Experiment5 Irritability, Sensibility, and Medical Philosophy6 The Debate and the Medical and Public Sphere7 ConclusionBibliographyAppendix: The Spread of ExperimentIndex

”…Steinke’s book is a liberation… The topic is both boundless and intricate, involving such disparate fields as science, literature, art, and philosophy… Steinke manages to steer deftly through this complexity […] and the cultural landscape he shows us is one that only a wide-open window can offer.”in: Bulletin for the History of Medicine, Vol. 81, 2007“…an important contribution to the history of eighteenth-century medicine.”in: Metascience, Vol. 16, 2007. Pp. 157–160“…Grounded upon an impressive knowledge of primary and secondary sources…this book provides a breath-taking narrative of one of the most complex chapters in the history of physiology. It is convincing both in its treatment of the more theoretical aspects of eighteenth-century physiology and in its detailed discussion and interpretation of the animal experiments… However, the book reaches its apogee when it reconstructs the controversy provoked by Haller’s experiments, providing a model analysis.” in: Journal of the History of Medicine, Vol. 62, 2007“I liked this book… [Irritating Experiments] needed to be written, especially in English, because it fills a rather large hole in the history of laboratory-based medical theories, and also provides a helpful resource for those interested in the uptake of Haller’s ideas throughout Europe. I have no doubt that I will be recommending it to historians at future conferences.” in: The British Journal for the History of Science 40 (2007), pp. 610-611“…a detailed examination of Haller’s convictions and their reception in the second half of the 18th century.”in: Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, Vol. 24, No 1 (2007), 479-480