Medicalising Electricity in the Dutch Republic, 1745-1789

Author(s)

  • Floris Winckel Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51769/bmgn-lchr.9700

Keywords:

electricity, medicalisation, boundary-work, electrotherapy, Musschenbroek, Barneveld, Deiman

Abstract

This article sheds light on the processes and tactics used by eighteenth-century electricians in making medical electricity a legitimate remedy in the Dutch Republic. Electricity’s medical value was by no means self-evident in the years following 1746, when the first Dutch patient was treated with it. Understandings of its effects on the body were still unclear and judgements on the efficacy of electrotherapy varied. The subsequent four decades saw the development of various theories, practices, and instruments of electrotherapy across Europe and North America. This development has thus far been little studied in the context of the Dutch Republic, despite the Republic’s prominent role in the wider history of electricity. Understanding how electricity became a legitimate component of the Dutch materia medica provides an insight into the ways transnational scientific knowledge is translated in local contexts.

Dit artikel werpt licht op de processen en strategieën die achttiende-eeuwse experts op het gebied van elektriciteit in de Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden aanwendden om de medische inzet van elektriciteit te legitimeren. De medische waarde van elektriciteit was geenszins vanzelfsprekend in de periode rond 1746, het jaar waarin de eerste Nederlandse patiënt met elektriciteit werd behandeld. Een duidelijk begrip van de invloed van elektrotherapie op het lichaam was er op dat moment niet en het oordeel over de effectiviteit ervan varieerde. In de vier daaropvolgende decennia werden diverse theorieën over, praktijken van, en instrumenten voor elektrotherapie ontwikkeld in Europa en Noord-Amerika. De bloei van elektrotherapeutisch onderzoek in de Nederlandse Republiek zelf is tot nu toe echter weinig bestudeerd, ondanks de prominente rol van de Republiek in de bredere geschiedenis van elektriciteit. Dit artikel reconstrueert hoe elektriciteit een legitiem onderdeel van de Nederlandse materia medica werd en biedt inzicht in de verschillende manieren waarop transnationale wetenschappelijke kennis in lokale contexten werd vertaald.

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Author Biography

  • Floris Winckel, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

    Floris Winckel is a PhD student at the Rachel Carson Center in Munich, where he is part of the international doctoral program Rethinking Environment. His research examines the history of snowflake science from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, with a particular focus on practices of observation and visualisation, and their relationship to different environments. His previous research addressed episodes in the history of eighteenth-century Dutch science and medicine. He is currently interested in intersections between history of science and environmental history. E-mail: floris.winckel@rcc.lmu.de. 

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Published

2022-09-30

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Winckel, F. (2022). Medicalising Electricity in the Dutch Republic, 1745-1789. BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review, 137(3), 60-86. https://doi.org/10.51769/bmgn-lchr.9700