Sparking controversy: Jean Antoine Nollet and medical electricity south of the Alps.
The paper considers a significant episode in the history of eighteenth-century electricity: the controversy over the "medicated tubes". Invented by the Italian erudite Gianfrancesco Pivati, the tubes were said to produce instantaneous cures. Jean Antoine Nollet was one of the main actors of the controversy. In 1749, after touring Italy to see for himself the Italian tubes and their effects, he published a report, discrediting Pivati's accounts. This study shows that the report, which has since been the main source for interpretations of the controversy, hides the key role of the Bologna Istituto delle Scienze in promoting Pivati's invention. Relying on manuscript sources, I propose a change of perspective on the controversy that illuminates the world of Italian experimental philosophy during the Enlightenment and its place in the Republic of Letters. I also analyze the reasons for Nollet's silence over the involvement of the Istituto delle Scienze in the controversy and the relevance of medical electricity in the wider context of contemporary electrical experimental philosophy.
Bertucci
Paola
P
D000047:Academies and Institutes / Q000266:history; D004599:Electric Stimulation Therapy / Q000266:history* / Q000295:instrumentation; D004560:Electricity / Q000266:history; D049671:History, 18th Century; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D012586:Science / Q000266:history