In the mid-1870s, the experimental therapy of lamb blood transfusion spread like an epidemic across Europe and the USA. Doctors tried it as a cure for tuberculosis, pellagra and anemia; proposed it as a means to reanimate seemingly dead soldiers on the battlefield. It was a contested therapy because it meant crossing boundaries and challenging taboos. Was the transfusion of lamb blood into desperately sick humans really defensible?The book takes the reader on a journey into hospital wards and lunatic asylums, physiological laboratories and 19th century wars. It presents a fascinating story of medical knowledge, ambitions and concerns - a story that provides lessons for current debates on the morality of medical experimentation and care.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
»Insgesamt hat die schwedische Medizinhistorikerin eine interessante und lesenswerte Studie vorgelegt, der [...] das Verdienst gebührt, ein ansonsten nur randständig wahrgenommenes Thema quellen- und facettenreich auszuleuchten.«
Reihe
Sprache
Verlagsort
Zielgruppe
Produkt-Hinweis
Illustrationen
31
31 s/w Abbildungen
Klebebindung, 32 SW-Abbildungen
Dateigröße
ISBN-13
978-3-8394-5163-2 (9783839451632)
DOI
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Boel Berner is a sociologist, historian, and professor emerita at Linköping University in Sweden. In her research she investigates the character and power of technical and medical expertise, historically and today. She has studied technical education and work, the gendered nature of technical knowledge, household technology, and issues of risk. Her current work is oriented towards the history of medicine. It focuses, besides issues of blood donation and transfusion, on the politics of blood group analysis in the interwar years.
Autor*in
Boel Berner, Linköping University, Schweden
