Subject

The 19th century is the age of positivity. The scientific elite of the day had a mechanical world view in which there is limited space for emotions. This also applies to medical science. The suffering of the individual is of no importance. The patient is an anonymous victim. A victim of his/her illness, but also the victim of its physician. This book contains description of various diseases and of the often ineffective treatment that doctors used on their patients; patients who were usually too poor to pay for medical treatment and thus were used human guinea pigs. And such is the challenge. 

The questions that I have for this book are as follows: how universal is human suffering? With the passing of time, can such suffering eventually become art? How do you write a text that does justice to the object as well as the people portrayed in it?

Written by: Paul Dijstelberge, Curator at Special Collections, University of Amsterdam