Nervous conditions : science and the body politic in early industrial Britain / Elizabeth Green Musselman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Musselman, Elizabeth Green, 1971-

Series:

SUNY series, studies in the long nineteenth century

SUNY series in science, technology, and society

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Scientists--Mental health--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Scientists.

Nervous system--Philosophy--History--19th century.

Nervous system.

Science--Philosophy--History--19th century.

Science.

Science--Philosophy.

History.

Nervous System Diseases--history.

Nervous system--Philosophy.

Mental health.

United Kingdom.

History, 19th Century.

Science--history.

Great Britain.

Medical Subjects:

Nervous System Diseases--history.

United Kingdom.

History, 19th Century.

Science--history.

Physical Description:

xi, 276 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [2006]

Summary:

Nervous Conditions explores the role of the body in the development of modern science, challenging the myth that modern science is built on a bedrock of objectivity and confident empiricism. In this fascinating look into the private world of British natural philosophers-including John Dalton, Lord Kelvin, Charles Babbage, John Herschel, and many others - Elizabeth Green Musselman shows how the internal workings of their bodies played an important part in the sciences' movement to the center of modern life, and how a scientific community and a nation struggled their way into existence.

Many of these natural philosophers endured serious nervous difficulties, particularly vision problems. They turned these weaknesses into strengths, however, by claiming that their well-disciplined mental skills enabled them to transcend their bodily frailties. Their adeptness at transcendence, they asserted, explained why men of science belonged at the heart of modern life, and qualified them to address such problems as unifying the British provinces into one nation, managing the industrial workplace, and accommodating religious plurality.

Contents:

The nervous man of science

The social hierarchy of subjectivity

Provincialism and color blindness

Mental governance and hemiopsy

Rational faith and hallucination.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-266) and index.

ISBN:

0791466795

OCLC:

60393860

Publisher Number:

9780791466797