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Losing One’s Temper: Contingency in Early Modern Medicine

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Book cover Contingency and Natural Order in Early Modern Science

Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science ((BSPS,volume 332))

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Abstract

How scientific knowledge relates to medical practice is not always straightforward. On the one hand, natural philosophers deal with the universal, with what is true regardless of all circumstances; on the other hand, physicians struggle with the immediate and pressing needs of the individual patient. Yet, in Galenic medicine there were three ways of dealing with various forms of life: the notion of temperament, a fluid understanding of disease, and a rigid method of semiotics. These three fields were interconnected; the contingencies of one were the foundations of another. Together, they bridged the gap between the universe and the patient, taming the four primary qualities of the material world for use in medical practice. Indeed, they also took on a moral dimension, providing rules of conduct to help physicians face the unknown.

Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability.

- Sir William Osler (William Bean (ed.) Sir William Osler: Aphorisms from his Bedside Teachings and Writings (New York: Schuman 1950): 129)

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See, for example, Biagioli (1998).

  2. 2.

    See Gaukroger (2006), Shapin (1996), Schriner (1993).

  3. 3.

    Dear (1995).

  4. 4.

    King (1970), French (2003). See also Cook (2010).

  5. 5.

    Broman (2003).

  6. 6.

    See, for example, Maclean (2002, 68–100), Wear (2000), Siraisi (1997).

  7. 7.

    See Park (1985, 225–36).

  8. 8.

    See, for example, Cook (1987, 61–77), Webster (1976).

  9. 9.

    On the history of Galenic thought, see Temkin (1973), Nutton (1979).

  10. 10.

    On Rivière’s life and influence, see Brockliss and Jones (1997). On Hoffmann, see French (1990, 88–110), King (1970, 181–204).

  11. 11.

    On Harvey, see French (1994) and Bylebyl (1979a, b). On Richard Lower, one of the first to transfuse animal blood into a human and assistant to Thomas Willis, see Frank (1997, 65–110). While historians of medicine have traditionally considered Thomas Sydenham the father of modern medicine and the “English Hippocrates,” Peter Anstey and John Burrows have shown that Sydenham’s most influential works, and therefore his reputation, belong to John Locke. See Anstey (2011a, b) and Anstey and Burrows (2009).

  12. 12.

    On the translation and transmission of Rivière’s work, see Leong (2018). My thanks to Elaine for giving me an advance copy of this work.

  13. 13.

    Rivière (1657, 4).

  14. 14.

    Ibid., 20.

  15. 15.

    Ibid., 21.

  16. 16.

    Ibid, 12–13.

  17. 17.

    Ibid., 44.

  18. 18.

    Ibid., 46–55.

  19. 19.

    Ibid., 44.

  20. 20.

    Ibid., 67.

  21. 21.

    Ibid., 70.

  22. 22.

    Ibid., 73–76.

  23. 23.

    Ibid., 76.

  24. 24.

    Ibid., 81–82.

  25. 25.

    Ibid., 85.

  26. 26.

    Ibid., 86.

  27. 27.

    Ibid., 99. On the seventeenth-century understandings of microcosm-macrocosm, see Norford (1977).

  28. 28.

    On early modern semiotics, see Maclean (2002), Wear (1995, 151–74).

  29. 29.

    Rivière (1657, 116).

  30. 30.

    Ibid., 121.

  31. 31.

    Ibid., 122.

  32. 32.

    Ibid., 123.

  33. 33.

    Ibid., 120.

  34. 34.

    Ibid., 124.

  35. 35.

    Ibid., 134.

  36. 36.

    Ibid., 146.

  37. 37.

    Ibid., 136.

  38. 38.

    Ibid., 149.

  39. 39.

    Ibid., 158.

  40. 40.

    Ibid., 175.

  41. 41.

    Ibid., 208.

  42. 42.

    Ibid., 215–16.

  43. 43.

    Ibid., 86.

  44. 44.

    See Pagel (1967, 1969).

  45. 45.

    On Renaissance anatomy, see Sawday (1995), Carlino (1999). On the medical curriculum in Padua during Harvey’s studies, Bylebyl (1979a, b).

  46. 46.

    Harvey (1847b): 163–64.

  47. 47.

    Ibid., 164–65.

  48. 48.

    Indeed, far enough away from Aristotle that Harvey felt the need to justify his research by recourse to him. Ibid., 158–63.

  49. 49.

    Ibid., 373–74.

  50. 50.

    Ibid., 428–29.

  51. 51.

    Ibid., 399.

  52. 52.

    Ibid., 380.

  53. 53.

    Ibid., 516.

  54. 54.

    Ibid., 380.

  55. 55.

    Ibid., 526.

  56. 56.

    This was very different from Harvey’s attitude in his De Motu Cordis, where the circulation of the blood held only allegorical significance. See Pagel (1951, 1957).

  57. 57.

    Harvey (1847b, 507). See also Gregory (2014).

  58. 58.

    Harvey (1847b, 369).

  59. 59.

    Ibid., 370.

  60. 60.

    Ibid., 402.

  61. 61.

    Harvey (1847a, 516).

  62. 62.

    On research conducted in Oxford in the wake of Harvey’s discoveries, see Frank (1980).

  63. 63.

    A full account of this exchange can be found in Lower (1983, xiii–xxxiv).

  64. 64.

    Ibid., 240.

  65. 65.

    Ibid., 245.

  66. 66.

    Ibid., 216.

  67. 67.

    Ibid., 245.

  68. 68.

    Ibid., 240.

  69. 69.

    Ibid., 258.

  70. 70.

    Ibid., 275.

  71. 71.

    Ibid., 258.

  72. 72.

    Ibid., 200–01.

  73. 73.

    Ibid., 207.

  74. 74.

    Ibid., 283.

  75. 75.

    See Anstey and Principle (2011), Anstey (2010). The philosopher Patrick Romanell believes that the foundations of Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) lie in his medical training. Romanell (1984).

  76. 76.

    [Locke] (1966a, b, 85).

  77. 77.

    Ibid., 85.

  78. 78.

    Ibid., 89.

  79. 79.

    Ibid., 92.

  80. 80.

    Ibid., 88.

  81. 81.

    Ibid., 80–81.

  82. 82.

    Ibid., 85.

  83. 83.

    Ibid., 90–91.

  84. 84.

    Ibid., 86.

  85. 85.

    See Pomata (2005).

  86. 86.

    Peter Anstey (2011a, b, 51–66). For a more critical view, see Milton (2001).

  87. 87.

    Locke (1704, 1919).

  88. 88.

    Hoffmann (1971, 6).

  89. 89.

    Ibid., 3.

  90. 90.

    Ibid., 6.

  91. 91.

    Ibid., 11–12.

  92. 92.

    Ibid., 39–40.

  93. 93.

    Ibid., 51.

  94. 94.

    Ibid., 116.

  95. 95.

    Ibid., 117.

  96. 96.

    Ibid., 118.

  97. 97.

    Ibid., 119.

  98. 98.

    Ibid., 118.

  99. 99.

    Ibid., 115.

  100. 100.

    Ibid., 115.

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    Sean Dyde

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  1. ERC Endeavor Early Modern Cosmology (GA n. 725883), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Venezia, Italy

    Pietro Daniel Omodeo

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    Rodolfo Garau

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Dyde, S. (2019). Losing One’s Temper: Contingency in Early Modern Medicine. In: Omodeo, P.D., Garau, R. (eds) Contingency and Natural Order in Early Modern Science. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, vol 332. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67378-3_13

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