Sarton medal holder lecture by Rina Knoeff

Rina Knoeff, will give this lecture as Sarton Medal holder, on Friday, October 18, at 5 p.m.: The epidemic constitution: Body, environment, and the idea of contagion at the Campus Ghent University Hospital. The lecture will be followed by a reception.

The epidemic constitution: Body, environment, and the idea of contagion Since the nineteenth-century introduction of the laboratory in medicine, single individual pathogens have identified infectious diseases. Thus, plague is caused by Yersina pestis, cholera by vibrio cholerae and flu by an influenza virus. This raises the question of how contagion was understood in the premodern period, before the discovery of bacteria and viruses. With the example of early modern fevers, Knoeff will show that the idea of contagion reflected complicated interactions between the material qualities of poisonous particles, environmental conditions and moral meanings.

For more information on these lectures and how to register, visit this website.