The aim of this paper is to provide an assessment of the spread of isotope-related techniques in Western Europe and the USA in the two first decades after World War II, by focusing on structural features. In particular, I analyse three major components of the European "isotope industry": radioisotope distribution networks, the establishment of training sites and publications in...
This paper concerns the technologies used in radioisotope production in the French Atomic Energy Commission (the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique) between 1946 and 1958. Particular attention is given to the various instruments used for the bombardment of isotopes, including accelerators and reactors, and their relationship with the CEA's radioisotope preparation laboratories...
This paper aims to examine the rise and the fall of biomedicine in the public legitimization of the development of nuclear energy. Until the late 1950s, biological and medical applications of radioisotopes were presented as the most important successes of the peaceful uses of atomic energy. I will argue that despite the major financial investment, the development of the uses of...
The development of nuclear "piles", soon called reactors, in the Manhattan Project provided a new technology for manufacturing radioactive isotopes. Radioisotopes, unstable variants of chemical elements that give off detectable radiation upon decay, were available in small amounts for use in research and therapy before World War II. In 1946, the U.S. government began utilizing...
This paper analyses the role that patents played in the establishment of the isotope industry. In the first part I survey the number of issued patents on the production of isotopes, also arguing that the isotope industry was typified by inadequate patenting activities. Then I examine the factors that hindered these activities by looking at the history of industrial patents in the...
This paper presents a framework for the study of George Hevesy's research in the 1910s by distinguishing two styles of radioactivity research: the analytical (as practices in Manchester and Vienna in some extent) and the natural historical styles (as practiced in Hungary). Georg Hevesy's approach combined the two types. Indeed, by studying Hevesy's research in context, I show...
El médico militar Felipe Ovilo Canales fue una figura destacada y representativa de los proyectos coloniales españoles en Marruecos durante la Restauración. A diferencia de las iniciativas de otros países europeos, dichos proyectos se orientaron a impulsar y controlar el proceso de reformas del Estado marroquí. En este trabajo se analizará cómo, en el plano de las ideas políticas...
This study presents an in-depth analysis of Alexander von Humboldt's descriptions and critical comments on the colonial society of the different regions he visited during his well-known expedition through the Americas (1799-1804). The criticisms of colonialism that he expressed, reflecting his personal convictions, have already been the focal point of many studies, but Humboldt...
Pedro María González, un cirujano formado en el Colegio de Cádiz, participó en el verano de 1796 en la expedición fletada por el Consulado de Cádiz y que tenía por objeto iniciar relaciones comerciales con Esmirna, la más importante ciudad comercial del Imperio Otomano. A su regreso redactó un texto con el fin de facilitar a otros españoles futuras empresas comerciales, además de...
The aim of this paper is to provide an assessment of the spread of isotope-related techniques in Western Europe and the USA in the two first decades after World War II, by focusing on structural features. In particular, I analyse three major components of the European "isotope industry": radioisotope distribution networks, the establishment of training sites and publications in...
This paper concerns the technologies used in radioisotope production in the French Atomic Energy Commission (the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique) between 1946 and 1958. Particular attention is given to the various instruments used for the bombardment of isotopes, including accelerators and reactors, and their relationship with the CEA's radioisotope preparation laboratories...
The development of nuclear "piles", soon called reactors, in the Manhattan Project provided a new technology for manufacturing radioactive isotopes. Radioisotopes, unstable variants of chemical elements that give off detectable radiation upon decay, were available in small amounts for use in research and therapy before World War II. In 1946, the U.S. government began utilizing...
This paper analyses the role that patents played in the establishment of the isotope industry. In the first part I survey the number of issued patents on the production of isotopes, also arguing that the isotope industry was typified by inadequate patenting activities. Then I examine the factors that hindered these activities by looking at the history of industrial patents in the...
Este artículo examina el trabajo del médico alemán-peruano Max Kuczynski/Máxime Kuczynski-Godard (Berlín, 1890-Lima, 1967) en zonas rurales de Asia Central (1924-1926) y Perú (1938-1948). El texto se enfoca principalmente en el planteamiento científico que avala el gran interés de este patólogo en la antropología y el trabajo de campo con poblaciones nativas. Las reflexiones...
In 1965, 71% of legal abortions in the United States were performed using the surgical procedure of dilation and curettage. By 1972, a mere seven years later, approximately the same percentage (72.6%) of legal abortions in the United States were performed using a completely new abortion technology: the electrical vacuum aspirator. This article examines why, in less than a decade...
Entre las fuentes para una historia social de la terapéutica en México, es pertinente analizar la producción de sus laboratorios farmacéuticos, aún cuando reflejen de manera limitada e indirecta la práctica terapéutica misma. Una primera aproximación a los extractos fluidos de los Laboratorios Codex producidos en el segundo cuarto del siglo XX, permite destacar la diversidad...
The School of Tropical Medicine was founded in 1902 along with the Colonial Hospital of Lisbon. The Portuguese government recognized the importance of colonising the tropics and therefore supported the creation of a specific locus of medical training that would prove to be crucial to the clinical and experimental study of tropical diseases. This paper examines the importance of...
Se estudia el significado original de "epidemia" y su posterior identificación con "peste". Originariamente la palabra griega epidēmķa significaba "visita", "llegada", que en el ámbito de la medicina se refería a la visita del médico al paciente o viceversa, mientras que la palabra latina pestis, "peste", hacía referencia a una enfermedad contagiosa inespecífica. Varios textos de...
British historians initially saw the interwar period as a "golden age" for public health in local government, with unprecedented preventive and curative powers wielded by Medical Officers of Health (MOsH). In the 1980s Lewis and Webster challenged this reading, arguing that MOsH were overstretched, neglectful of their "watchdog" role and incapable of formulating a new philosophy...
This paper focuses on initiatives to improve infant health, as they developed in Norway especially during the interwar period. Falling birth rates were felt as a menace to the survival of the nation and specific initiatives were taken to oppose it. But crises engendered by the reduction in fertility strengthened opportunities for introducing policies to help the fewer children...