‘A river that is cutting its own bed’: the serology of syphilis between laboratory, society and the law

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 35 (3):509-524 (2003)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This paper focuses on the role of regulation in the shaping new scientific facts. Fleck chose to study the origins of a diagnostic test for a disease seen as a major public health problem, that is, a ‘scientific fact’ that had a direct and immediate influence outside the closed universe of fundamental scientific research. In 1935, when Fleck wrote his book, Genesis and development of a scientific fact, he believed that the tumultuous early history of the Wassermann reaction had come to an end, and that this reaction was successfully stabilized through the standardization of laboratory practices and thanks to the rise of a specific professional segment—the serologists. He could not have predicted that in the 15 years that followed the publication of his book, regulatory measures—barely metioned in his historical narrative—would play a key role in the destabilization of the original meaning of this reaction. The introduction of mass screening for syphilis—mainly via legislation that introduced obligatory premarital tests and promoted the testing of pregnant women—weakened in fine the link between Wassermann serology and infection by the etiological agent of syphilis, the bacterium Treponema pallidum. Fleck elected to study the Wassermann reaction because of its novelty, its complexity, and because it became the focus of a controversy regarding its origins. However, the Wassermann reaction was also one the first examples of a medical technology regulated by the state and incorporated into legal dispositions. It may therefore be seen as an exemplary case of the close intertwining of scientific investigations, their practical applications and regulatory practices.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 98,169

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

‘A river that is cutting its own bed’: the serology of syphilis between laboratory, society and the law.Ilana Löwy - 2004 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 35 (3):509-524.
Genesis and development of a scientific fact.Ludwik Fleck - 1979 - Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Edited by T. J. Trenn & R. K. Merton.
The Role of Skill in Experimentation: Reading Ludwik Fleck’s Study of the Wasserman Reaction as an Example of Ian Hacking’s Experimental Realism.David Stump - 1988 - PSA Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1988 (1):302-308.
The reading of Ludwik Fleck: Questions of sources and impetus.Eva Hedfors - 2006 - Social Epistemology 20 (2):131 – 161.

Analytics

Added to PP
2017-02-20

Downloads
17 (#1,030,124)

6 months
4 (#1,173,213)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

The demand for pregnancy testing: The Aschheim–Zondek reaction, diagnostic versatility, and laboratory services in 1930s Britain.Jesse Olszynko-Gryn - 2014 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 47:233-247.
Fleck and the social constitution of scientific objectivity.Melinda B. Fagan - 2009 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 40 (4):272-285.
Ways of seeing: Ludwik Fleck and Polish debates on the perception of reality, 1890–1947.Ilana Löwy - 2008 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 39 (3):375-383.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references