Medicine and Poisons in European History

Medicine and Poisons in European History

Residència d’Investigadors, Barcelona, 25–27 September 2014

International conference organised by the History Department at The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK; and the Medical and Scientific Culture Group at the IMF-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain

(Organisers: O.P. Grell, A. Cunningham, and J. Arrizabalaga)

Conference sponsored by the Wellcome Trust and the Faculty of Arts, The Open University

Programme

Thursday 25^th September 2014

17.00–17.15: Ole Peter Grell (The Open University)

Welcome and introduction

17.15–18.15: Toine Pieters (University of Utrecht)

Historic role of pharmacist purifying substances

18.30:  Visit to Hospital de Santa Creu

20.00:  Reception sponsored by Ashgate Publishing

Friday 26^th September 2014

09.00–10.00: Helen King (The Open University)

‘First gut your viper’: acquiring knowledge in Galen’s poison stories

10.00–10.30: Coffee

10.30-11.00: Visit to 18^th Century Anatomical Theatre

11.00–12.00: Monserrat Cabré & Fernando Salmón (University of Cantabria)

Poisons and the medieval humoral body

12.00–13.-00: Jon Arrizabalaga (IMF-CSIC, Barcelona)

Pestis manufacta: plague, poisons, and fear in Old-Regime Europe

13.00-14.00:  Lunch

14.00-15.00: Georgiana Hedesan (University of Oxford)

Paracelsus's alchemical theories of universal poison

15.00–16.00: Alessandro Pastore (University of Verona)

Poisoning as politics: the Italian Renaissance courts

16.00–16.30: Tea

16.30–17.30: Andrew Cunningham (University of Cambridge)

Mercury: ‘one of the most valuable drugs we have’ (1924)

18.00: Visit to the Salvadoriana exhibition (Barcelona Botanical Garden)

20.30: Dinner

Saturday 27^th September

09.00–10.00: Alisha Rankin (Tufts University, USA)

Gender, poison, and antidotes in early modern Europe

10.00-11.00: Helen Bynum (London)

‘I’ll ne’er trust medicine’: Poison on stage

11.00-11.30: Coffee

11.30-12.30: José R. Bertomeu-Sánchez (University of Valencia)

Matthew Orfila and 19^th century French toxicology

12.30-13.30: Anne Hardy (London School of Tropical Medicine)

Collateral benefits: food poisoning agents and their therapeutic applications since 1800

13.30-14.30: Lunch

14.30-15.30: William Bynum (London)

Poison by prescription

15.30-16.30: Tea

16.30-17.00: Closing session

20.30: Conference Dinner