ArgumentThe procedure ofWertbestimmungplayed a vital role in the implementation of serum therapy and the standardization of mass-produced pharmaceuticals. In fin-de-siècle Germany, a legal framework was put in place to guarantee serum quality and safety and to minimize any associated public health risks. Because the sera were biological remedies, it was difficult to produce them in uniform quality and the procedure ofWertbestimmung, i.e. determining the potency of the serum based on an objective and comparable value, was extremely complex. Various agents such (...) as bacteria cultures, serum hosts, or test animals had to be regulated. In the years after 1895, numerous efforts to stabilize the procedures ofWertbestimmungwere undertaken by serum producers and members of the state-run survey institute responsible for overseeing serum production. Despite efforts to stabilize the framework and to generate a reliable reference system, the framework's environment and agents were in constant flux: new producers entered the market and procedures were expanded to include other biologicals as well. The article describes the dynamics involved in the sustained efforts to maintain a stable framework in the face of constant alterations between 1895 and the 1920s. (shrink)

Feeding and Being Fed. Supply Cycles and Nutrition Regimes at the Royal Prussian Institute for Experimental Therapy, 1900 to 1910. The article explores the everyday life and especially the feeding practices in the laboratories of the Institute for Experimental Therapy and the Georg Speyer House in Frankfurt, Germany, in the decade after 1900. The text focuses on the experimental animals and their entangled relationship to humans in the two institutes where life‐scientists tested the therapeutic effect of chemicals and dyestuffs on (...) pathogens and tumors. For this purpose countless animal experiments were conducted in the fields of chemotherapy and cancer research. The article focuses on the importance of animal feeding and feeding practices in the experimental processes and serum testing procedures. The behaviour of the animals, their health status, their appetite and weight were constantly monitored and deemed fundamental to the outcome of the experiment. Animal feeding was therefore an important factor within the epistemological process of knowledge production. Animal feeding was both orientated towards the needs of the experiments and governed by economic needs. Within their economic (life) cycles, the ontological status of the animals changed: they became vectors of pathogens and information, economic resources, objects of exchange, living resources and life stock for ongoing experiments, patients, and sometimes even food for other animals. Overall, feeding experimental animals played an important role in the research process. (shrink)

Paul Ehrlich and the Nobel Prize. The Construction of Scientific Excellence. From the first award in 1901 until now the Nobel Prize was and is valued as the highest recognition of the scientific community for the outstanding – excellent – scientific work of a researcher. And insofar, winning the Nobel Prize was a highlight in Paul Ehrlich's life. But from the first nomination in 1901 until 1908, when he was awarded the prize, it was a long way. Between these years (...) Ehrlich had been nominated 89 times by 80 scientists all over the world. The article sketches how excellence has been constructed by using the example of Paul Ehrlich. On the one hand, scientific networks are a precondition for being nominated by colleagues, on the other hand, excellence had been valuated and constructed in complex valuation processes and administrative procedures. The article presents first an overview over the nominations of Paul Ehrlich – who nominated him for what reasons? Moreover, the chapter sketches the relations between some nominators and Paul Ehrlich. After he had been nominated, the nominations were evaluated by members of the Nobel committee. The second part follows the complex procedures of evaluation to find the most excellent scientific work in accordance to Nobel's will. Finally, the Nobel Prize is embedded in broader network relations and the moral and relational economy of networks, which is exemplified by describing Paul Ehrlich relations to Carl Julius Salomonsen. (shrink)