Mirko Dra`En Grmek: the Genesis of Scientific Fact and Archaeology of Disease
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Coll. Antropol. 24 (2000) 1: 1–10 UDC 572:902:929 GRMEK Review Mirko Dra`en Grmek: The Genesis of Scientific Fact and Archaeology of Disease S. Fatovi}-Feren~i} and T. Buklija{ Department of History of Medicine, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb, Croatia ABSTRACT Professor Mirko Dra`en Grmek (Krapina 1924 – Paris 2000) was one of the most prominent Croatian scientists. Work in history of science directed him to the crossroads of various fields placing his approach in anthropological perspective. Two models will serve as illustrations of his main theories. The historical reconstruction of scientific dis- covery (mostly on examples of 17th century) will be presented as well as Grmek’s ideas on a concept of disease. The introduction of the term »memoricide« within his activities during aggression on Croatia is mentioned. Introduction number of issues being addressed and in part, remaining unresolved until our ti- Professor Mirko Dra`en Grmek mes, including individual as much as ho- (1924–2000) was one of the most promi- listic approaches to the patient or basic nent Croatian scientists. Generations of questions such as how medicine should students have based their studies on his be conceived in relation to other sciences, concepts. The unique blend of biological, to nature and to living organisms. Stri- linguistic historical, and cultural investi- ving to find answers, Grmek deviated gations gave his approach an anthropo- from the course of making specialisation logical perspective. This paper aims to as most medical practitioners did, but oc- present several aspects of Grmek’s ideas, cupied himself with the research of the specifically focusing on the scientific history of sciences. Stimulus appeared ideas development and the concept of dis- with interest in history of medicine while eases. he was still a student. History of medi- The diversification of medical rese- cine became a strong stimulus for him arch and specialty practice goes back to while he was still a student. Later it 19th century. This resulted in a large turned into elaborating and documenting Received for publication May 18, 2000. 1 S. Fatovi}-Feren~i} and T. Buklija{: Mirko Dra`en Grmek, Coll. Antropol. 24 (2000) 1: 1–10 opera of the most prominent Croatian science in making in modern laborato- physicians and scientists throughout his- ries. tory1. The content and main purpose of The success of the work on Bernard in- those early papers about G. A. Baglivi, stigated Grmek to further explore history Santorio Santorio, Federico Grisogono, of creating scientific knowledge. He took Ru|er Bo{kovi} etc.2–5 was already di- interest in a wide range of problems in rected to analysing not only the back- the course of his career. Probably the best ground of their contributions but also the rounded »series« of studies is the one on origins of their ideas. 17th century science and medicine, and, in particular, about school of iatromecha- nists8–10. Grmek’s interest in 17th century Constructing a Scientific Fact science dates back to the beginning of his In 1963 the College de France invited career when he studied the work of San- Grmek to Paris to analyze the legacy of torio Santorio and Gjuro Baglivi. More- famous French scientist Claude Bernard over, the 17th century was the time of a (1813–1878), the founder of modern ex- mechanistic revolution that introduced perimental physiology6. Bernard´s scien- experimental quantitative method into tific discoveries aside, his work is of pri- science. This revolution in »hard scien- me importance for the history of science ces«, especially physics, did not revolu- because he may be considered the concep- tionize medical practice – this happened tual father of the epistemological shift in 200 years later – but it had a major im- medicine that introduced the experiment pact on biology. as the prerequisite for the acquisition of The most important pieces from Gr- knowledge. Bernard’s book »Introduction mek’s research of the 17th epistemological to the Study of Experimental Medicine« revolution in science were compiled and was the Bible of the newly emerging ex- reinterpreted in his widely acclaimed perimental medicine. In this setting, the book »The first biological revolution« dynamic concept of disease, in which dis- (Figure 1)11. This 1990 book comprises ease was perceived as a dynamic process several ideas that Grmek previously de- involving both noxic agent and response veloped in separate studies, which share of the living body, has prevailed over the a common feature of having importance older patho-anatomical concept that ac- for the advancement of medicine and corded crucial importance at post-mor- physiology. Through examples from the tem examination of the dead body. history of research of vision, blood circu- While reading, selecting, organizing lation, microstructure of the body et cet- and transcribing Bernard’s laboratory no- era, Grmek emphasizes three main ideas: tes, diaries, random papers and scribbles, (i) introduction of animal experiments Grmek was able to witness first hand the and a move from qualitative to quantita- recording and documenting of scientifi- tive experimentation in medicine; (ii) a cally relevant results/facts from the very mechanistic explanation of life and (iii) beginning to the end of an experiment. the establishment of the »new medicine« This was a tempting opportunity for a based on an emerging new science of life. historian of science. We would like to sug- A chapter on Santorio Santorio and gest that, in a way, Grmek was imple- »knowledge networks« in early 17th cen- menting to history of science the ap- tury exemplifies well Grmek’s approach proach similar to the one that social to the historical study of the genesis of anthropologists (such as Latour and scientific knowledge. The move from the Woolgar) were employing to record the particular to the general, to the viewpoint 2 S. Fatovi}-Feren~i} and T. Buklija{: Mirko Dra`en Grmek, Coll. Antropol. 24 (2000) 1: 1–10 Fig. 1. Cover page of the Croatian edition of »The first biological revolution«. that allows a wider and more objective ments that would allow measurements in observation, is particularly evident when medicine. He constructed pulsilogium to comparing Grmek’s early work to his la- record the frequency of pulse and ane- ter studies. mometer to measure the force of the Santorio Santorio was a seventeenth wind. He also perfected Cusani’s hygrom- century physician and scientist who in- eter and constructed a thermometer, pro- troduced quantitative measurement into bably his most famous instrument. medicine. He believed that »medicine has In his early 1947 and 1952 papers, the value of a hypothetical science be- Grmek acknowledged the importance of cause the physicians ignore the quantity influence of Santorio’s predecessors (Ga- of the disease, the quantity of the remedy, len, Heron etc.) as well as contemporaries the quantity of the virtue«12. Thus San- on Santorio’s inventions, but he neverthe- torio Santorio’s goal was to create instru- less focused exclusively on Santorio’s own 3 S. Fatovi}-Feren~i} and T. Buklija{: Mirko Dra`en Grmek, Coll. Antropol. 24 (2000) 1: 1–10 work. On the other hand, in the chapter close to Cartesian idea of the human ma- on Santorio Santorio in »The first biologi- chine. Baglivi stated that the basic unit of cal revolution«, Grmek placed »knowl- the organism was a living fiber, of whose edge networks« in the history of scientific state of tension or laxity depended research right in the spotlight of his in- health, or sickness of the body. terest. This concept was originally devel- Two facets of Baglivi’s career – clinical oped by social anthropologists and sociol- and scientific – are reflected in his two ogists who studied the development of a books, »De praxi medica« and »De fibra scientific fact through interaction of nu- motrice et morbosa«. Scholars studying merous scientists using various informal life and work of Giorgio Baglivi, including 13 and formal communication channels . Grmek, emphasized the dichotomy be- Although developed in the milieu of twen- tween Baglivi, the conservative medical tieth century high-tech laboratory scien- practitioner holding tightly to postulates ce, Grmek has shown that this concept stated by Hippocrates, and Baglivi, the can be successfully applied to the setting modern scientist combining Galileo’s of the early age of modern science, i.e. the ideas of experimental deduction with Ba- seventeenth century, as well. Two key conian empiricism. However, in his late players in the network that he examined works, Grmek thought that the dichot- were two contemporaries and acquain- omy in the person of Baglivi was only su- tances, a physicist, Galileo Galilei, and a perficial14. Baglivi selected from Hippo- physician, Santorio Santorio. The ques- cratic teaching things what he found tion was to determine to whom does the useful for medical practice, such as giving primacy belong, for the invention of ther- more importance to clinical observation moscope and thermometer. Grmek was than to theoretical education and keeping not interested in the definite answer to therapy simple. This »neohippocratism« this question. He did argue that Santorio was a popular movement in 17th century, was the original inventor of those instru- and a natural response to polypharmacy ments, and his hypothesis was that scien- and insufficient clinical education of phy- tific ideas do not exist in the vacuum. sicians. On the other hand, he never sup- Santorio Santorio would never have cre- ported Hippocratic humoral pathology ated his thermoscope and thermometer if and went so far to bend Hippocratic tea- Galileo Galilei had not carried out his chings in order to fit into the frame set up work in physics (thermodynamics). Ac- by mechanicistic philosophers, primarily cordingly, Grmek was interested in the Descartes, and iatrophysicists.