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Los paradigmas fundacionales de la biología surgen en Europa al margen de la medicina, pero las comunidades médicas los apropiarán socialmente, generando tensión en ellas. Originalmente las teorías celular y de la regulación fisiológica, no están relacionadas con lo médico, pero serán asimiladas a la nueva medicina y los estudios sobre herencia y microbiología, que desde su surgimiento si tienen vínculos con las prácticas médicas, serán apropiados de inmediato por esta medicina diferente. Esta 'domesticación social' del conocimiento implica operaciones de traducción donde surgirán versiones híbridas, con particularidades distintas a las europeas. Aquí se analiza y discute la introducción de paradigmas de la biología en México (siglos XIX y XX).The functional paradigms of biology emerged in Europe on the margins of medicine, but medical communities appropriated them into society, thereby generating some friction between them. Originally, cell theory and theories about physiological processes did not concern physicians, but they became assimilated into the new medicine and studies into heredity and microbiology, which since their emergence had been close to medical practice, and were quickly appropriated by this new form of medicine. The 'social domestication' of this knowledge involved a process of translation to the new environment, giving rise to hybrid versions with quite distinct features from their European counterparts. Here, we analyze and discuss the introduction of biology paradigms into Mexico (19th and 20th centuries).

A presença de uma forte tradição clínica na medicina oitocentista não constitui uma barreira estrutural ao ingresso das novidades produzidas no terreno da experimentação em laboratório, como afirmam alguns historiadores. O amplo debate em torno das regras do 'método experimental' revela uma dimensão da luta travada entre adeptos de teorias médicas rivais, num contexto em que a dissensão entre os esculápios ameaçava sua autoridade científica, frente a outras categorias de curadores.Although Brazil's twentieth century medicine was strong in the clinical tradition, this was no structural barrier to innovations from the realm of laboratory experiments, contrary to what some historians have argued. The broad debate over the rules of 'experimental methods' reveals a dimension of the struggle waged between proponents of rival medical theories, within a context where dissension among physicians threatened their scientific authority vis-à-vis that of other types of healers.

Abstract: The law forbidding absinthe was voted under the stress of emotion at the beginning of the First World War following a manipulation of the public opinion and of his representatives who were made to believe that absinthe was a beverage which caused a criminal madness. Beyond deep economic, political and moral reasons, the campaign of the abolitionists relied on scientific issues which, nevertheless had been challenged from the outset. In defending the reality of an absinthism different from alcoholism, Valentin Magnan played a decisive role in the campaign. The historical survey shows that he let himself be won by a singular case and thus made the mistake of inference. Then, having discovered the highly convulsive effect of the essential oil of absinthe, he convinced himself that the beverage itself was responsible for specific epilepsy (although the amount of the essential oil in the beverage was tiny). His second mistake seems to have come from his commitment to “médicine expérimentale” through the false evidence displayed by the convulsive fits he so easily obtained with the oil. The passion he put afterwards in his fight against alcoholism, the progression of which was mainly coming from absinthe consumption, as well as the lack of criticism from his deferential circle, did not allow him to ever correct his mistake. The epileptic absinthism was quickly called into question upon clinical and common sense issues, while the reality of a criminal madness did not resist the pioneered epidemiological investigation asked by Georges Clemenceau. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Focuses on the study of researcher P. Ducournau about the problems raised by the application of the principle of free and enlightened assent within the framework of research into human genome. Bonds of confidence between patients and doctors; Place of experimentation in actual social practices; History of biomedicine.