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SUMMARY:Fitting for health: steel-trusses in the enlightened economy of he
 althcare - Christelle Rabier (LSE)
DTSTART:20120214T170000Z
DTEND:20120214T183000Z
UID:TALK35086@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:24764
DESCRIPTION:On March 13\, 1761\, Monsieur de Bompré took his pen to write
  to William Blakey\, a surgeon and locksmith\, who had set a shop in Paris
 \, rue des Prouvaires. He was writing on behalf of a friend\, who had suff
 ered from violent diarrhea for two months\, caused by a bilious humor\, an
 d was eventually saved by 'epiquagonera'\, the American ipecacuanha. One n
 ight after his recovery\, on his way back home\, he slipped\, which occasi
 oned pain to the right hand side of the navel. Not noticing it at first\, 
 he then felt pain each time he blew his nose or touched his belly. As it s
 eemed to grow\, he called upon his physician and his surgeon\, who equippe
 d him with a truss. He was sent a steel _brayer_ from Paris\, which was dr
 eadfully aching: the ball applied to the hernia was too big and the steel-
 belt fitted so tightly that when he coughed\, the navel on the left hand s
 ide was nearly opened. As a consequence\, he resumed wearing his truss. On
  his behalf\, M. de Bompré enquired:\n\n_how are the trusses you make\, i
 f they can be put on by oneself\, if they do not incommode breeches as tru
 sses do\, and if they have steel-belt. I am fairly sure that their belts c
 ould be made out of cotton\, so that one could attach them by himself. At 
 last\, please tell me how are made those you advertised\, so that my frien
 d can go to Paris\, or order them if he thinks he can have use of them\, p
 ut them on and take them out by himself._\n\nBompré\, one of Blakey's fif
 ty corresponding customers during the period 1761-71\, was actively seekin
 g information on new body technologies to contain his friend's herniary pr
 oblem. Like other patients\, he had looked in the press and requested advi
 ce from surgeons\; aware of the latest drugs available on the market to cu
 re digestive problems\, he also imagined designs or materials that would h
 elp improving instruments. He was\, above all\, an active consumer\, makin
 g innovation happen.\n\nSteel trusses\, indeed\, fit into the burgeoning '
 consumer society'\, in which healthcare and medicine played a major part. 
 From ore to skin\, from Sheffield to Marennes on the French Atlantic coast
  or Gand\, from nobility to the soldiers and the poor urban dwellers\, ste
 el trusses\, processed along complex and intertwinned chains\, exemplify t
 he intricacies of Enligtenment worlds of manufacturing\, trade and consump
 tion. The paper will argue that\, in a way not dissimilar the route follow
 ed by Boyle's air pump (Shapin & Schaffer)\, the face of medicine changed 
 with the early-modern use of instruments for therapeutics Steel trusses\, 
 accordingly\, represent a lens through which one can uncover not only refa
 shioning of medical care\, but also the manufacturing and innovation proce
 sses\, the marketing and trade\, as well as the consumption of an eighteen
 th-century technology.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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