Zitation, Legitimation, Affirmation. Schreibweisen des medizinischen Menschenexperiments 1750–1840

Abstract

This paper deals with the problem of representing human subjects in experimental records and focuses the early experimentation on human beings between 1750 and 1840. Unlike the scientific fragmentation of the body since 1840, which coincides with a specific technique of writing down experiments on human subjects by making them disappear behind numbers and charts, a close reading of different experimental records before the 'vivisectional turn' shows the status of the experimental subject as a witness or even as an agreer. Based on the assumption that the individual played a crucial role in representing experimental practices until the middle of the nineteenth century, the paper wants to point out how this was linked to the discursive practice of citation, legitimation, and affirmation.