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Die Idee einer historischen Entwicklung der Krankheiten des Menschengeschlechts und ihre Bedeutung für die empirische Medizin des frühen 19. Jahrhunderts
Author(s) -
Bleker Johanna
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
berichte zur wissenschaftsgeschichte
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.109
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1522-2365
pISSN - 0170-6233
DOI - 10.1002/bewi.19850080402
Subject(s) - german , constitution , history of medicine , history , history of science , humanities , philosophy , classics , political science , law , epistemology , archaeology
In early 19th‐century German medicine many doctors had a strong interest in historical pathology. They investigated the historical records of fevers and epidemics in detail, trying to find out how the changing influence of the epidemic constitution worked and hoping that history would help them to define specific disease entities. The underlying theory of this endeavour was that diseases undergo a historical development similar to the evolution of plants and animals. This paper tries to show that historical pathology was, in its time, a legitimate attempt to solve the most urgent problems of empirical medicine.