THE BODY IN SCIENTIFIC AND PSEUDO-SCIENTIFIC TREATISES IN THE 18TH CENTURY
THE BODY IN SCIENTIFIC AND PSEUDO-SCIENTIFIC TREATISES IN THE 18TH CENTURY

Summary/Abstract: Governed by the concept of discover and research, The Age of Enlightenment exceeds the boards of cultural activity, being the window towards new scientific perspectives and innovations. Beside philosophy, music, physics and politics, the XVIIIᵗʰ century is a period dedicated to the raise of medicine and the medical literature. The body becomes the central pillar of the study and research treatises, it represents the practical support for theoretical discoveries and it also functions as the main reference for the evolution and improvement of the specialized writings. The diseases that were threatening the people have also been a reason to search, to examine and to deeply analyse the body and its functions in order to heal it. As an effect we have a lot of writings and researches published during the century that generated intellectual wars between those who study medicine and those who spread treatments and healing methods without having ever been in contact with an anatomy book. In this article, we are showing the ways in which the body was explored and the image that it had in the scientific and pseudo-scientific literature of the time, taking into consideration the main works published and the theories revealed by the researchers.

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