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Locality and circulation in the Habsburg Empire: disputing the Carlsbad medical salt, 1763–1784

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2010

JAKOB VOGEL
JAKOB VOGEL
Affiliation:
Universität zu Köln Historisches Seminar, Albertus-Magnus-Platz, D – 50923 Köln, Germany. Email: Jakob.Vogel@uni-koeln.de.
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Abstract

By looking at the fierce debates in the city of Carlsbad in Bohemia around the fabrication of medical salt by a local doctor, David Becher, from 1763 to 1784, the paper examines the interactions between different spheres or levels of circulation of knowledge in the Habsburg Empire. The dispute crystallized around the definition of the product, about its medical qualities and its relation with the water of the local mineral spring. The city's inhabitants contested the vision of the medical experts, fearing that the extraction of the medical salt from the spring water and its sale outside the town would have a negative effect on the number of visitors to the spa. Their vision implied a more or less ‘popularized’ form of alchemical thinking as it identified the mineral water with the extracted ‘salt’, conceived as the ‘essence’ of the water, produced by evaporation. The Carlsbad salt dispute highlights the complex interactions among the different networks in which knowledge circulated through the Habsburg Empire in the eighteenth century. The different actors relied on specific networks with different logics of discourse and different modes of circulation. In each case the relation between the local, the regional and the imperial had to be negotiated. The paper thus sketches out the different geographies of knowledge in the Habsburg Empire but also its localization in and around Carlsbad.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 43 , Issue 4: Circulation and Locality in Early Modern Science , December 2010 , pp. 589 - 606
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 2010

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References

1 See ZA Prag, České gubernium-publicum (hereafter CG-Pub.), 1764–1773, Sig. L ¼, Becher to the Ministry of the Interior, 30 December 1863. All citations have been translated into English.

2 CG-Pub., 1764–1773, Sig. L ¼, Becher to the Ministry of the Interior, 30 December 1863.

3 On early modern chemical views of salts see Erika Hickel, Salze in den Apotheken des 16. Jahrhunderts, Braunschweig: Tech. Univ., 1965; Geyer-Kordesch, Johanna, Pietismus, Medizin und Aufklärung in Preußen im 18. Jahrhundert. Das Leben und Werk Georg Ernst Stahl, Tübingen: Niemeyer, 2000CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Holmes, Frederic L., Eighteenth-Century Chemistry as an Investigative Enterprise, Berkeley: Office for History of Science and Technology, 1989Google Scholar; Roos, Anna Marie, The Salt of the Earth: Natural Philosophy, Medicine, and Chymistry in England, 1650–1750, Leiden: Brill, 2007CrossRefGoogle Scholar. With particular reference to Scotland, see also Eddy, Matthew, The Language of Mineralogy: John Walker, Chemistry and the Edinburgh Medical School 1750–1800, Farnham: Ashgate, 2008Google Scholar.

4 For an assessment of Becher by the Swedish chemist Jöns Berzelius (1779–1848) see Hlawaczek, Eduard, Geschichte von Karlsbad, in medicinischer, topographischer und geselliger Beziehung, Prague 1839, p. 108Google Scholar. See also Ludwig, Karl, Med. Dr. David Becher, Badearzt in Karlsbad 1725–1792, Carlsbad: Stadtgemeinde, 1925, p. 6Google Scholar; Vladimir Krizek, ‘Der Karlsbader Balneologe David Becher (1725–1792) und seine Zeit’, in Arina Völker (ed.), Dixhuitième. Zur Geschichte von Medizin und Naturwissenschaften im 18. Jahrhundert, Halle: Martin-Luther Universität, 1988, pp. 165–173.

5 See CG-Pub., 1764–1773, letter of the pharmacist Josepha Müller to the empress, 7 February 1772; Josepha Müller, letter to the empress, 20 August 1769.

6 CG-Pub., Sig. L 1/3, II, No. 6, Becher's survey, 9 January 1783.

7 See, amongst others, Festschrift zur 74. Versammlung Deutscher Naturforscher und Ärzte, Carlsbad: published by the city of Carlsbad, 1902, esp. pp. 283–297; Ludwig, op. cit. (4).

8 On the concept of circulating knowledge and its necessary adaptation to the local context see the introduction to this journal issue; and Raj, Kapil, Relocating Modern Science: Circulation and the Construction of Knowledge in South Asia and Europe, 1650–1900, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, pp. 1–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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10 See, for instance, the interesting case of the ‘local expert’ of the Scottish spa Peterhead, Dr William Laing, described in Eddy, M.D., ‘“An adept in medicine”: the Reverend Dr. William Laing, Nervous Complaints and the Commodification of Spa Water’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (2008) 39, pp. 1–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 For Becher's professional career see Ludwig, op. cit. (4), pp. 3 ff.

12 See, for instance, Michel Foucault, La Naissance de la clinique, Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1963; Bettina Wahrig, Globale Strategien und locale Taktiken. Ärtze zwischen Macht und Wissenschaft 1750–1850, Vienna: Böhlau, 2004; see also Erna Lesky (ed.), Gerard van Swieten und seine Zeit, Vienna: Böhlau, 1973.

13 For the health springs and baths of the eighteenth century see, amongst others, Alfred Niel, Die großen k.u.k. Kurbäder und Gesundbrunnen, Graz: Verlag Styria, 1984; Heinz W. Schlaich, ‘Zur Geschichte der bayerischen Heilbäder im Alpenraum – dargestellt an ausgewählten Beispielen’, in Josef Nössing (ed.), Die Alpen als Heilungs- und Erholungsraum. Le Alpi luogo di cure e riposo, Bozen: Verl.-Anst. Athesia, 1994, pp. 61–78.

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15 Concerning the barber–surgeons practising in Carlsbad in 1788, see Anon., Beschrieben zur Bequemlichkeit der hohen Gäste, Carlsbad 1788, pp. 8 ff. This remark contradicts Krizek's assessment, according to which the business of the barber–surgeons virtually came to an end after the fire of 1759. Krizek, op. cit. (4), p. 167.

16 Ludwig, op. cit. (4), p. 5.

17 Ludwig, op. cit. (4), p. 10.

18 See Martin Gierl, ‘Korrespondenzen, Disputationen, Zeitschriften. Wissensorganisation und die Entwicklung der gelehrten Medienrepublik zwischen 1670 und 1730’, in Richard van Dülmen and Sina Rauschenbach (eds.), Macht des Wissens. Die Entstehung der Modernen Wissensgesellschaft, Cologne: Böhlau, 2004, pp. 417–438; Roche, Daniel, Les Républicains des lettres. Gens de culture et lumières au XVIIIe siècle, Paris: Fayard, 1988Google Scholar; Schnalke, Thomas, Medizin im Brief. Der städtische Arzt des 18. Jahrhunderts im Spiegel seiner Korrespondenz, Stuttgart: Steiner, 1997Google Scholar.

19 Becher, David, Neue Abhandlung vom Carlsbad, 1. Teil, chymische und physikalische Untersuchung der Carlsbader warmen Quellen, Prague, 1766Google Scholar; idem, ‘Kurze und gründliche Untersuchung der neuen Sprudelquelle im Karlsbade …’, Abhandlungen einer Privatgesellschaft in Böhmen zur Aufnahme der Mathematik, der vaterländischen Geschichte und der Naturgeschichte (1977) 3, pp. 55–73Google Scholar.

20 See, for instance, Friedrich Hoffmann, Gründlicher Bericht von dem Selterser-Brunnen, dessen Gehalt, Wirkung und Kraft …, Koblenz, n.d.; idem, Kurzer Extrakt aus (tit. tot.) Hern. D. Hoffmanns, Med. Professoris zu Halle, Gründlichen Bericht von denen zu Sedlitz und Seydschütz Bittern Purgier-Brunnen … n.p., n.d. For Hoffmann and his role in eighteenth-century medicine see Geyer-Kordesch, op. cit. (3), esp. pp. 83–118; Jürgen Helm, ‘Hallesche Medizin zwischen Pietismus und Frühaufklärung’, in Notker Hammerstein (ed.), Universitäten und Aufklärung, Göttingen: Wallstein, 1995, pp. 63–96.

21 German doctors were well ahead against, for instance, the Scottish specialists who influenced William Laing in his studies on the Petershead spa. See Eddy, op. cit. (10), p. 5.

22 See, for instance, Carl, Joseph Anton, ‘Abhandlung von dem Gesundbrunnen Heilbrunn in Baiern’, Abhandlung der Churfürstlich-baierischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 2/II (1764), pp. 199–246Google Scholar; Piepenbring, Georg H., Physicalisch-chymische Nachricht von dem sogenannten neuen Mineral-Salz-Wasser auf der Saline bei Pyrmont. Nebst einem Anhang für Aerzte und Nichtärzte, Leipzig, 1793Google Scholar; Schulzen, Christian F., Nachricht vom Böhmischen Bitterwasser, und dessen Salze, Friedrichstadt, 1767Google Scholar; Seips, Johan P., Pyrmontische Mineral-Wasser, und Stahl-Brunnen, Derselben Historie, wahrer Mineralischer Gehalt, Artzney-Kräfte, Gebrauch, Wirckung und Nutzen zur Erhaltung und Wiederbringung der Gesundheit. Beydes vom Trincken und Baden …, 2nd ed., Hannover, 1740Google Scholar; Trampel, Johann E., Beschreibung von den neuentdeckten salzhaltigen Mineralquellen in Pyrmont, und von den Heilkräften derselben, Berlin, 1794Google Scholar.

23 Becher supplied the description of the medical application of the spring later in the three-volume re-edition of his works in 1772, while the first treatise from 1766 only presented a chemical/natural-historical analysis of the spring water.

24 Becher, Vorrede, in Neue Abhandlung, op. cit. (19). For the significance of instruments as markers of the scientific status of knowledge in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries see, amongst others, Marie-Noëlle Bourguet et al. (eds.), Instruments, Travel and Science: Itineraries of Precision from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century, London: Routledge, 2002; Jan Golinski, ‘Barometers of change: meteorological instruments as machines of Enlightenment’, in William Clark et al. (eds.), The Sciences in Enlightened Europe, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999, pp. 69–93.

25 Becher, op. cit. (24), p. iii.

26 Sibum, Otto, ‘Les Gestes de la mesure. Joule, les pratiques de la brasserie et la science’, Annales HSS (1998) 53, pp. 745–774CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27 CG-Pub., 1764–1773, Sig. L ¼, Swietens’ survey, 16 October 1770.

28 Stolleis, Michael, Geschichte des öffentlichen Rechts in Deutschland, Bd. 1: Reichspublizistik und Policeywissenschaft 1600–1800, Munich: Beck, 1998Google Scholar; Laborier, Pascale et al. , Les Sciences camérales. Activités pratiques et histoire des dispositifs publics, Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2009Google Scholar.

29 CG-Pub., 1764–1773, Sig. L ¼, Becher's survey for the court chancellery in Prague, 30 December 1763.

30 For the contemporary discourse on the ‘shortage of forest’ see Rainer Beck, Ebersberg oder das Ende der Wildnis. Eine Landschaftsgeschichte, Munich: Beck, 2003, pp. 97–100, 107–123.

31 CG-Pub., 1764–1773, Sig. L ¼, Count Chotek's note to the court chancellery, 8 December 1763.

32 CG-Pub., 1764–1773, Sig. L ¼, Count Chotek's note to the court chancellery, 8 December 1763.

33 CG-Pub., 1764–1773, Sig. L ¼, Court decree, 25 February 1764.

34 CG-Pub., 1764–1773, Sig. L ¼, letter of the regional government to the dean of the Prague medical school, 12 November 1770.

35 CG-Pub., 1764–1773, Sig. L ¼, letter of the regional government to the district office in Elbogen, 13 December 1763.

36 CG-Pub., 1764–1773, Sig. L ¼, Chotek to the district office, 11 June 1767; magistrate to district captain, 12 June 1767.

37 On this point, and on the following, see CG-Pub., 1764–1773, Sig. L ¼, protocol of the district captain in Elbogen, 18 August 1767.

38 CG-Pub., 1764–1773, Sig. L ¼, protocol of the district captain in Elbogen, 18 August 1767 (undated text of Becher attached to the protocol).

39 CG-Pub., 1764–1773, Sig. L ¼, protocol of the district captain in Elbogen, 18 August 1767 (undated text of Becher attached to the protocol).

40 Hochadel, Oliver, Öffentliche Wissenschaft. Elektrizität in der deutschen Aufklärung, Göttingen: Wallstein, 2003Google Scholar.

41 Golinski, Jan, Science as Public Culture: Chemistry and Enlightenment in Britain, 1760–1820, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992Google Scholar.

42 Hochadel, op. cit. (40), pp. 249–308; Stengers, Isabelle, Die Erfindung der modernen Wissenschaften, Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 1997Google Scholar; Hans-Ulrich Thamer, ‘On the use and abuse of handicraft: journeyman culture and Enlightened public opinion in 18th and 19th Century Germany’, in Steven Kaplan (ed.), Understanding Popular Culture: Europe from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century, Berlin: Mouton, 1984, pp. 275–300.

43 On the hermetic tendencies of alchemy see, amongst others, Kaspar v. Greyerz, ‘Alchemie, Hermetismus und Magie. Zur Frage der Kontinuitäten in der Wissenschaftlichen Revolution’, in Hartmut Lehmann and Anne-Charlotte Trepp (eds.), Im Zeichen der Krise. Religiosität im Europa des 17. Jahrhunderts, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999, pp. 415–432; Claus Priesner and Karin Figala (eds.), Alchemie: Lexikon einer hermetischen Wissenschaft, Munich: Beck, 1998; Anne-Charlotte Trepp, ‘Religion, Magie und Naturphilosophie: Alchemie im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert’, in Lehmann and Trepp, op. cit., pp. 473–493.

44 CG-Pub., 1764–1773, Sig. L ¼, court talk of the regional government, 8 October 1767.

45 CG-Pub., 1764–1773, Sig. L ¼, court talk of the regional government, 8 October 1767.

46 CG-Pub., 1764–1773, Sig. L ¼, regional government of Prague, 18 March 1771.

47 CG-Pub., 1764–1773, Sig. L ¼, court decree, 4 June 1772.

48 See Gabriele Beisswanger, ‘Der Arzneimittelmarkt um 1800: Arzneimittel zwischen Gesundheits-, Berufs- und Gewerbepolitik’, in Bettina Wahrig and Werner Sohn (eds.), Zwischen Aufklärung, Policey und Verwaltung. Zur Genese des Medizinalwesens. 1750–1850, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2003, pp. 147–161.

49 CG-Pub., 1774–1783, Sig. L 1/3, Nr. I 1, Joseph T. Mikan's survey, 8 July 1782.

50 CG-Pub., 1774–1783, Sig. L 1/3, Nr. I 4, report of the Doctors Becher, Mitterbacher, Gruber and the pharmacist Becher to the district office, 30 July 1782.

51 CG-Pub., 1774–1783, Sig. L 1/3, Nr. I 4, report of the Doctors Becher, Mitterbacher, Gruber, and the pharmacist Becher to the district office, 30 July 1782.

52 CG-Pub., 1774–1783, Sig. L 1/3, Nr. II 3, Mikan's survey, 24 February 1783.

53 Ludwig, op. cit. (4), p. 39.

54 Ludwig, op. cit. (4), pp. 39 ff.

55 CG-Pub., 1774–1783, protocol of the district captain in Elbogen, 18 August 1767.

56 CG-Pub., 1774–1783, protocol of the district captain in Elbogen, 18 August 1767.

57 CG-Pub., 1774–1783, protocol of the district captain in Elbogen, 18 August 1767.

58 See Becher, ‘Kurz und gründliche Untersuchung’, op. cit. (19), pp. 55 ff.

59 Becher, ‘Kurz und gründliche Untersuchung’, op. cit. (19), p. 56.

60 See, for instance, CG-Pub., 1774–1783, Sig. L 1/3, II 6, Becher's survey, 9 January 1783.

61 See, for instance, CG-Pub., 1774–1783, Sig. L 1/3, II 5, Dr Mitterbacher's survey, 20 January 1783.

62 CG-Pub., 1774–1783, Sig. L 1/3, Nr. II 7, Gruber's survey, 15 January 1783.

63 Becher, Neue Abhandlung, op. cit. (19), p. 50.

64 Becher, ‘Kurze und gründliche Untersuchung’, op. cit. (19), p. 56.

65 CG-Pub., 1774–1783, Nr. II 7, Gruber's survey, 15 January 1783.

66 See, for instance, Anon., op. cit. (15), p. 21.

67 See, for instance, the ambivalent account of the local doctor Gruber, in CG-Pub., 1774–1783, Nr. II 7, Gruber's survey, 15 January 1783.

68 CG-Pub., 1774–1783, Sig. L 1/3, II 6, Becher's survey, 9 January 1783.

69 Claus Priesner, ‘Salz’, in Priesner and Figala, op. cit. (43), pp. 319 ff.

70 For the Neoplatonic–alchemistic references to the doctrine of the ‘essence’ of substances extracted through distillation see Irmgard Müller, ‘Arzneien für den “gemeinen Mann” zur Vorstellung materieller und immaterieller Wirkungen stofflicher Substate in der Medizin des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts’, in Joachim Telle (ed.), Pharmazie und der gemeine Mann. Hausarznei und Apotheke in deutschen Schriften der Frühen Neuzeit, Wolfenbüttel: Herzog-August Bibliothek, 1982, pp. 27–34, esp. pp. 32 ff.

71 CG-Pub., 1774–1783, Nr. II 6, Becher's survey, 9 January 1783.

72 See Hoffmann, Friedrich, Kurtzer und Gründlicher Bericht von der vortrefflichen Kraft und Würckung des Carls-Bad-Saltzes, Halle, 1734, pp. 9 ffGoogle Scholar.

73 Hoffmann, op. cit. (72), p. 6.

74 Hoffmann, op. cit. (72), p. 6.

75 Hoffmann, op. cit. (72), p. 11.

76 This classic vision of a replacement of alchemy by ‘modern’ chemistry can, for instance, be found in the articles in Z.R.W.M. von Martels (ed.), Alchemy Revisited, Leiden: Brill, 1990. Therein see especially Allen G. Debus, ‘Iatrochemistry and the Chemical Revolution’, pp. 51–66; Maurice Crosland, ‘The Chemical Revolution of the eighteenth century and the eclipse of alchemy in the “Age of Enlightenment”’, pp. 67–77. For the seventeenth century, see, however, Smith, Pamela H., The Business of Alchemy: Science and Culture in the Holy Roman Empire, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994Google Scholar.

77 As a matter of fact, alchemy still had its place in the central European universities of the eighteenth century. See, for instance, Franz Michael Vierthaler, Reisen durch Salzburg, Salzburg, 1799 (reprinted Salzburg: Mayr, 1983), p. 181.