Scale in the history of medicine

• Published in: Studies in history and philosophy of science. Part A 2022-02, Vol.91, p.221-233
• Main Author: Tybjerg, Karin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 21st century; Biobanks; Biological organs; Blood tests; Diagnosis; Epistemology; History of Medicine; History, 18th Century; History, 19th Century; History, 20th Century; History, 21st Century; Humans; Medical diagnosis; Medical materials; Medicine; Pathological collections; Philosophy of science; Scale; Scale models; Science history; Specimens
• ISSN: 0039-3681; 1879-2510
• DOI: 10.1016/j.shpsa.2021.09.005

This is a history of medicine that takes its point of departure in the specimens of human bodily material used to produce medical knowledge. An ordering principle of scale prompts a material and epistemic history of 18th-21st century medicine that highlights shifts in interest towards smaller and smaller units of study: from organs in pathological collections, over microscope slides, to samples in biobanks. The account reveals a set of connected scales of the site of disease, time of diagnosis, size of cohorts, number of disease categories, and technologies of investigation. Moreover, the principle of following the scale of specimens demonstrates the continued importance of physical specimens in medicine, it synthesizes studies of important epistemic objects of medicine such as the organ specimen, the microscope slide and the blood sample, and it draws new historical connections from pathological collections to biobanks. •Scale as an organizing principle in history of medicine.•A history of medicine centred on specimens and specimen collections.•Connections between scales in size, time of diagnosis, cohorts, diagnostic categories and technology.•An epistemic and material history that connects pathological collections, slide collections and biobanks.