Suchergebnisse

Moulages are contact media – images made by contagion in the most literal sense: their production relies on a process in which the object to be reproduced is touched by the reproducing material. In the case of dermatological moulages, the plaster touches the infected skin of the sick and, once dried, serves as the negative form for the waxen image of a disease. Focussing on the collection of the Hôpital Saint-Louis in Paris, the article situates the production of dermatological moulages within the visual culture of 19th-century medicine and raises the question how an ancient technique of image production could become such a prevalent tool for the documentation of skin diseases during a period usually associated with the rise of scientific medicine and a reconsideration of theories of contagion in medical aetiology.

Science depends on the unexpected. Yet surprise and its role in the process of scientific knowledge-making has hitherto received little attention, let alone systematic investigation. This collection explores surprise as a historical category, as a staged performance or as a spontaneous reaction, or as part of a personal experience during scholarly endeavors. The texts are arranged in alphabetical order by author's last name, and ranging, randomly, from "A Family Conversation" to "Zufallsfunde." The arbitrariness of that order is meant to suggest the indefinite and surprising ramifications of human understanding. The volume is less a purely erudite collection than an epistemic and emotional exercise in friendship and gratitude, offered by members of Department II in honor of Lorraine Daston.