Abstract
This paper describes the scientific practices of the anatomists from the Société Anatomique de Paris (1803–1873) who were collecting anatomical and pathological specimens in Nineteenth-Century Paris and which led to the building of the anatomy and pathology Musée Dupuytren (1835–2016). The framework introduced by Robert Kohler to describe collecting sciences (2007) is useful as a tool to identify the set of diverse practices within pathological anatomy in nineteenth-century Paris. However, I will argue that anatomy and pathology collecting had specific features compared to most collecting sciences. Two main collecting practices could be distinguished: first, “finding” anatomical specimens and second, keeping these specimens. The first kind of practices were at least rhetorically and explicitly motivated by Auguste Comte’s positive philosophy. But “finding” an anatomy or pathology specimen could not be completely compared to finding an object or making a simple observation, as dissecting as well as some experimental practices were also involved. Heterogeneous practices thus coexisted within collecting in anatomy and pathology. Epistemological as well as pragmatic tensions arose. On top of Kohler’s framework, I introduce Sabina Leonelli’s concept of “data journey” to offer a narrative of the diversity of collecting practices involved in the Société Anatomique de Paris and the Musée Dupuytren. I use the concept to analyse how this diversity of practices impacted knowledge production.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Both terms are often used interchangeably, especially in the context of the Société, where both were practised. Anatomy seemed to be used as a shortcut for pathological anatomy. I will use both terms as well depending on the context and sometimes use anatomy as a shortcut for pathological anatomy.
Archives Nationales (Site Pierrefite-Sur-Seine)—Sous-Série AJ—AJ/16/6563—Musée et Collections.
Archives de La Société Anatomique de Paris, Bibliothèque Interuniversitaire de Santé de l’Université de Paris, Cardboard box n°1.
All translations are mine unless stated otherwise.
Most scholars use “positive” as the adjective to refer to Comte’s philosophy in English. “Positivist” or “positivistic” are sometimes used, but they seem more commonly used to refer to the later logical positivism, see (Bourdeau, 2022). Since Comte’s positivism and logical positivism are two different philosophical approaches, it is helpful to keep the distinction. It is not exactly clear why “positivism” was used in the first place to refer to the Vienna Circle, see (Blumberg & Feigl, 1931) who introduced the label. In that paper, “positivistic” was used as an adjective, “positivist” as a noun.
Interestingly, Charles-Nicolas Houël (1815–1881), member of the Société Anatomique de Paris and curator of the Musée Dupuytren for many years, was also one of the founding members of the Société de Biologie.
For convenience, I am using Martineau’s translation—the only translation available still today; however, it should be noted that it was a “freely translated and condensed” as per the title of Martineau’s work.
In French, “pénible”.
For instance, amid a controversy around the autopsy of a victim of a crime, it is said that the widow gave consent for Gilles de la Tourette to collect his brain (Menenteau, 2009, p. 448).
Anna Kingsford, a doctor trained in Paris and antivivisectionist, thus wrote in 1882: “it is noteworthy that for the only incontestable localisation of brain function, science is indebted, not to vivisection at all, but to demonstration by means of clinical observation and the study of pathological anatomy in cases of loss of speech by cerebral injury” (Kingsford, 1882).
In the twentieth century, when such bodies became too scarce, practices changed to only allow dissection on donated bodies.
Archives de la Société Anatomique de Paris, Cardboard box n°1, Register n°1, 18 germinal an XII, quoted by Palluault (1999, p. 133).
See for instance, the discussions quoted by Palluault (1999, pp. 143–44).
For instance, the apothecary Menot writes in a letter in 1814 about the death of an “extraordinary” tall man, offering his service to exhume and transport the remains to the Cabinet of the Societé. The archive also contains the reply from the faculty, but I could not fully decipher the handwriting.
Archives Nationales (Site Pierrefite-Sur-Seine)—Sous-Série AJ—AJ/16/6563—Musée et Collections.
Archives Nationales (Site Pierrefite-Sur-Seine)—Sous-Série AJ—AJ/16/6563—Musée et Collections.
Archives Nationales (Site Pierrefite-Sur-Seine)—Sous-Série AJ—AJ/16/6563—Musée et Collections.
This correspondence can be found at the French National Archives: Archives Nationales (Site Pierrefite-Sur-Seine)—Sous-Série AJ—AJ/16/6563—Musée et Collections.
Archives Nationales (Site Pierrefite-Sur-Seine)—Sous-Série AJ—AJ/16/6563—Musée et Collections.
Bourgery died from cholera in 1849 (B. 1851, p. 145), probably before getting his wife’s due.
One notable exception is the brain of Louis Victor Leborgne, labelled as such. It still bore in addition the name of Paul Broca and the reference to the corresponding publication in the Société’s journal.
As Leonelli notes, some parts of philosophy have already moved away from such a simplistic view of science. (See Gitelman, 2013).
This is mentioned in an American physician letter in 1848, cited by Warner (2003, p. 102).
References
Alberti, S. J. M. M. (2011). Morbid curiosities: Medical museums in nineteenth-century Britain. Oxford University Press.
Archives Nationales (Site Pierrefite-Sur-Seine)—Sous-Série AJ-AJ/16/6563-Musée et Collections
Archives de la Société Anatomique de Paris, Bibliothèque Interuniversitaire de Santé de l’Université de Paris. Retrieved from https://www.biusante.parisdescartes.fr/blog/index.php/bibliotheque-societe-anatomique-de-paris/
B, R. (1851). Le guide du promeneur aux barrières et dans les environs de Paris... Ouvrage orné de gravures et d’un plan. Par B. R. Retrieved from https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k132391v
Barth, J.-B. (1846). Discours à l’addresse de la société. Bulletin du Mois de Décembre 1846.
Blumbserg, A. E., & Feigl, H. (1931). Logical positivism. The Journal of Philosophy, 28(11), 281–296.
Bourdeau, M. (2022). Auguste Comte. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Spring 2022 Edition). https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2022/entries/comte/
Brockliss, L. (1989). “L’enseignement médical et la révolution: Essai de réévaluation”. Rebecca Rogers. Histoire de l’Education, 42, 79–110.
Bulletins de la Société Anatomique de Paris. 1826.
Chamayou, G. (2014). Les corps vils: Expérimenter sur mes êtres humains aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles. LA DECOUVERTE.
Chang, H. (2021). Presentist history for pluralist science. Journal for General Philosophy of Science, 52, 97–114.
Clauzade, L. (2018). Auguste Comte’s positive biology. In M. Bourdeau, M. Pickering, & W. Schmaus (Eds), Love, order, and progress (Vincent Guilluin, Trans.) (pp. 93–127). The Science, Philosophy, and Politics of Auguste Comte. University of Pittsburgh Press.
Comte, A. (2000). The positive philosophy of Auguste Comte (Vol. 1). Batoche Books.
Crignon, C., & Cheminaud, J. (Eds.). (2023). Dupuytren: Musée des Maladies. Presses Universitaires de la Sorbonne.
Deville, J.-C. (1846). “Compte rendu des travaux de 1846.” Archives de la Société Anatomique de Paris. Bibliothèque Interuniversitaire de Santé de l’Université de Paris. Cardboard box n°1.
Dronkers, N. F., Plaisant, O., Iba-Zizen, M. T., & Cabanis, E. A. (2007). Paul Broca’s historic cases: High resolution MR imaging of the brains of Leborgne and Lelong. Brain: A Journal of Neurology, 130(5), 1432–1441.
Edwards, P. N., Mayernik, M. S., Batcheller, A. L., Bowker, G. C., & Borgman, C. L. (2011). Science friction: Data, metadata, and collaboration. Social Studies of Science, 41, 667.
Foucault, M. (1963). Naissance de la clinique. Quadrige. Presses Universitaires de France (PUF).
Gitelman, L. (2013). Raw data is an oxymoron. The MIT Press.
Houël, C.-N. (1857). Manuel d’anatomie pathologique générale et appliquée: Contenant la description et le catalogue du Musée Dupuytren. Baillière.
Kingsford, A. (1882). The uselessness of vivisection. Nineteenth Century February (pp. 171–183).
Knoeff, R., & Zwijnenberg, R. (2015). The fate of anatomical collections. Routledge.
Kohler, R. E. (2002). Landscapes and labscapes. Exploring the lab-field border in biology. The University of Chicago Press.
Kohler, R. E. (2006). All creatures: Naturalists, collectors, and biodiversity, 1850–1950. Princeton University Press.
Kohler, R. E. (2007). Finders, keepers: Collecting sciences and collecting practice. History of Science, 45(4), 428–454.
Konnikova, M. (2013). The man who couldn t speak and how he revolutionized psychology. Scientific American, Retrieved February 8, 2013, from https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/literally-psyched/the-man-who-couldnt-speakand-how-he-revolutionized-psychology/
Leborgne, E. (2019). Valeur de la monnaie de l’Âge Classique au XIXe siècle, par Éric Leborgne (fiche pratique). Retrieved from https://www.fabula.org/actualites/valeur-de-la-monnaie-de-l-ge-classique-au-xixe-siecle-par-eric-leborgne-fiche-pratique_93847.php
Leonelli, S. (2015). What counts as scientific data? A relational framework. Philosophy of Science, 82(5), 810–821.
Leonelli, S. (2016). Data-centric biology: A philosophical study. University of Chicago Press.
Leonelli, S. (2020). Learning from data journeys. In S. Leonelli & N. Tempini (Eds), Data journeys in the sciences (pp. 1–24). Springer.
McAleer, J. (2021). ‘The troubles of collecting’: William Henry Harvey and the practicalities of natural-history collecting in Britain’s nineteenth-century world. The British Journal for the History of Science, 55, 81-100.
Menenteau, S. (2009). Dans les coulisses de l’autopsie judiciaire. In Cadres, contraites et conditions de l’expertise cadavériqeu dans la France du XIXe siècle. Université de Poitiers.
Palluault, F. (1999). Étudiants et praticiens au service de la médecine: La Société Anatomique de Paris de 1803 à 1873. Etude institutionnelle et prosopographique d’une société médicale Parisienne au XIXe siècle. Thèse pour le diplôme d’archiviste paléographe, Paris.
Palluault, F. (2022). La Société Anatomique de Paris et sa contribution aux collections d’anatomo-pathologie. In C. Crignon & J. Cheminaud (Eds), Dupuytren: Musée des Maladies. Presses Universitaires de la Sorbonne.
Pickstone, J. V. (1994). Museological science? The place of the analytical/comparative in nineteenth-century science, technology and medicine. History of Science, 32(2), 111–138.
Pickstone, J. V. (2000). Ways of knowing: A new history of science, technology and medicine. Manchester University Press.
Pierce, S. (1995). On collecting: An investigation into collecting in the European tradition. Routledge.
Radin, J. (2017). Life on ice. University of Chicago Press.
Rey, R. (1993). L’École de Santé de Paris sous la révolution: Transformations et innovations. Histoire de l’Education, 57, 23–57.
Robin, C. (1850). Sur la direction que se sont proposée en se réunissant les membres fondateurs de la Société de Biologie pour répondre au titre qu’ils ont choisi. Comptes Rendus des Séances et Mémoires de la Société de Biologie 1st year (1849), i–xi
Rudwick, M. (2001). Review of The culture of English geology, 1815–1851, Simon J. Knell, Aldershot, 2000. The Times Literary Supplement, no. 27.
Saboly, R. (1981). Les hôpitaux de Poitiers au XIXe siècle. Université de Poitiers.
Sappol, M. (2002). A traffic of dead bodies: Anatomy and embodied social identity in nineteenth-century America. Princeton University Press.
Schmaus, W. (2018). Comte’s general philosophy of science. In W. Schmaus, M. Bourdeau, & M. Pickering (Eds), Love, order, and progress (pp. 27–55). The Science, Philosophy, and Politics of Auguste Comte. University of Pittsburgh Press.
Strasser, B. J. (2017). The ‘data deluge’: Turning private data into public archives. In L. Daston (Ed.), Science in the archives: Pasts, presents, futures.
Strasser, B. J. (2012a). Collecting nature: Practices, styles, and narratives. Osiris, 27(1), 303–340.
Strasser, B. J. (2012b). Data-driven sciences: From wonder cabinets to electronic databases. Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 43(1), 85–87.
Strasser, B. J., & Edwards, P. N. (2017). Big data is the answer…but what is the question? Osiris, 32(1), 328–345.
Tybjerg, K. (2015). From bottled babies to biobanks: Medical collections in the twenty-first century. In R. Knoeff, & R. Zwijnenberg (Eds), Fate of anatomical collections (pp. 263–78). The history of medicine in context. Ashgate.
Tybjerg, K. (2022). Scale in the history of medicine. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 91, 221–233.
Warner, J. H. (2003). Against the spirit of system: The French impulse in nineteenth-century American medicine (1st edn). Johns Hopkins University Press.
Weindling, P. (2012). ‘Cleansing’ anatomical collections: The politics of removing specimens from German anatomical and medical collections 1988–92. Annals of Anatomy/anatomischer Anzeiger: Official Organ of the Anatomische Gesellschaft, 194(3), 237–242.
Zeller, S. (1987). Inventing Canada: Early Victorian science and the idea of a transcontinental nation. University of Toronto Press.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the archivists at the Bibliothèque Interuniversitaire de Santé de Université de Paris for guiding me through the archives of the Société Anatomique de Paris. I also want to thank Claire Crignon and Julie Cheminaud for comments on earlier versions of this paper, as well as Eloïse Quétel, the current curator of the Musée Dupuytren. A shorter and earlier version of this paper was published in French in the collective book Dupuytren : Musée des maladies (Crignon & Cheminaud, 2023). This work was supported by Sorbonne Université’s Emergence Grant “History and Philosophy of the Dupuytren Pathological Collection” directed by Claire Crignon. I also thank anonymous reviewers for their extremely helpful comments and suggestions.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The author has no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Ferry-Danini, J. Collecting human remains in nineteenth-century Paris: the case of the Société Anatomique de Paris and the Musée Dupuytren. HPLS 45, 41 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-023-00592-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-023-00592-5