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Aligning Faith with Medicine: Medical Ethics, Reproduction and Catholic Morality in Francophone and Anglophone Normative Literature, c. 1840–1960 (2022)
Journal Article
Gijbels, J., Lancaster, C., Maehle, A., & Vander Hulst, R. (2022). Aligning Faith with Medicine: Medical Ethics, Reproduction and Catholic Morality in Francophone and Anglophone Normative Literature, c. 1840–1960. Journal of Religious History, 46(3), 439-459. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9809.12871

This paper focuses on intersections of medical ethics and religious commitments by charting conceptions of the Catholic doctor in French and English-language normative texts from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Behavioural norms for... Read More about Aligning Faith with Medicine: Medical Ethics, Reproduction and Catholic Morality in Francophone and Anglophone Normative Literature, c. 1840–1960.

Beyond Professional Self-Interest: Medical Ethics and the Disciplinary Function of the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom, 1858-1914 (2018)
Journal Article
Maehle, A. (2020). Beyond Professional Self-Interest: Medical Ethics and the Disciplinary Function of the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom, 1858-1914. Social History of Medicine, 33(1), 41-56. https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/hky072

Traditional historiography tends to draw a negative picture of British doctors’ ethics during the long nineteenth century. The medical professional ethics of this period have been described as self-serving and as a tool to monopolise the health care... Read More about Beyond Professional Self-Interest: Medical Ethics and the Disciplinary Function of the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom, 1858-1914.

A Dangerous Method? The German Discourse on Hypnotic Suggestion Therapy around 1900 (2017)
Journal Article
Maehle, A. (2017). A Dangerous Method? The German Discourse on Hypnotic Suggestion Therapy around 1900. Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science, 71(2), 197-211. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2017.0006

In the late nineteenth century, German-speaking physicians and psychiatrists intensely debated the benefits and risks of treatment by hypnotic suggestion. While practitioners of the method sought to provide convincing evidence for its therapeutic eff... Read More about A Dangerous Method? The German Discourse on Hypnotic Suggestion Therapy around 1900.

Preserving Confidentiality or Obstructing Justice? Historical Perspectives on a Medical Privilege in Court (2015)
Journal Article
Maehle, A. (2015). Preserving Confidentiality or Obstructing Justice? Historical Perspectives on a Medical Privilege in Court. Journal of medical law and ethics, 3(1-2), 91-108. https://doi.org/10.7590/221354015x14319325750151

An important problem for medical confidentiality in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was the question if doctors could be required to give evidence in court about their patients’ condition. On the one hand, knowledge that personal informa... Read More about Preserving Confidentiality or Obstructing Justice? Historical Perspectives on a Medical Privilege in Court.

The powers of suggestion: Albert Moll and the debate on hypnosis (2014)
Journal Article
Maehle, A. (2014). The powers of suggestion: Albert Moll and the debate on hypnosis. History of Psychiatry, 25(1), 3-19. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957154x13500596

The Berlin physician Albert Moll (1862–1939) was an advocate of hypnotic suggestion therapy and a prolific contributor to the medical, legal and public discussions on hypnotism from the 1880s to the 1920s. While his work in other areas, such as sexol... Read More about The powers of suggestion: Albert Moll and the debate on hypnosis.

Four early clinical studies to assess the effects of Peruvian bark (2013)
Journal Article
Maehle, A. (2013). Four early clinical studies to assess the effects of Peruvian bark. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 106(4), 150-155. https://doi.org/10.1177/0141076813482256

From the late seventeenth century onwards, in vitro and animal experimentation, chemical tests and microscopical observation, and the analysis of single case histories were used to understand the pharmacology and therapeutic properties of the Peruvia... Read More about Four early clinical studies to assess the effects of Peruvian bark.

'Patient trade' in Germany: an ethical issue at the practitioner-clinician interface in 1909 and 2009 (2010)
Journal Article
Maehle, A. (2010). 'Patient trade' in Germany: an ethical issue at the practitioner-clinician interface in 1909 and 2009. Medical Humanities, 36(2), 84-87. https://doi.org/10.1136/jmh.2010.004655

In 2009 the German media featured the so-called ‘patient trade’ scandal. Offending against the rules of the professional code for German doctors, some medical practitioners had accepted bonus payments from specific hospitals for referring patients to... Read More about 'Patient trade' in Germany: an ethical issue at the practitioner-clinician interface in 1909 and 2009.

Medical confidentiality in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: an Anglo-German comparison (2010)
Journal Article
Maehle, A., & Pranghofer, S. (2010). Medical confidentiality in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: an Anglo-German comparison. Medizinhistorisches Journal, 45(2), 189-221

Professional secrecy of doctors became an issue of considerable medico-legal and political debate in the late ineteenth and early twentieth centuries in both Germany and England, although the legal preconditions for this debate were quite different i... Read More about Medical confidentiality in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: an Anglo-German comparison.

A binding question: the evolution of the receptor concept (2009)
Journal Article
Maehle, A. (2009). A binding question: the evolution of the receptor concept. Endeavour, 33(4), 134-139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.endeavour.2009.09.001

In present-day pharmacology and medicine, it is usually taken for granted that cells contain a host of highly specific receptors. These are defined as proteins on or within the cell that bind with specificity to particular drugs, chemical messenger s... Read More about A binding question: the evolution of the receptor concept.

Limits of professional secrecy: medical confidentiality in England and Germany in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (2006)
Journal Article
Pranghofer, S., & Maehle, A. (2006). Limits of professional secrecy: medical confidentiality in England and Germany in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 31(3), 231-244. https://doi.org/10.1179/030801806x113766

Among patients as well as doctors it is commonly held that confidentiality has been the foundation of the therapeutic relationship since the introduction of the Hippocratic oath. Nevertheless, medical confidentiality is a controversial issue, for exa... Read More about Limits of professional secrecy: medical confidentiality in England and Germany in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The Quantification and Differentiation of the Drug Receptor Theory, c. 1910-1960 (2005)
Journal Article
Maehle, A. (2005). The Quantification and Differentiation of the Drug Receptor Theory, c. 1910-1960. Annals of Science, 62(4), 479-500. https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790412331312666

While historians have dealt with the origins of the concept of drug receptors in the work of Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915) and John N. Langley (1852-1925) as well as with some of its applications in modern pharmaceutical research, the history of the recep... Read More about The Quantification and Differentiation of the Drug Receptor Theory, c. 1910-1960.

Historische Grundlagen des Rezeptor-Konzepts in der Pharmakologie * (2004)
Journal Article
Maehle, A. (2004). Historische Grundlagen des Rezeptor-Konzepts in der Pharmakologie *. Gesnerus, 61(1-2), 57-76

In present-day pharmacology, the existence of specific cell receptors, which can combine chemically with drugs, poisons, neurotransmitters and hormones, is often taken for granted. However, until the 1960s receptors were controversial hypothetical en... Read More about Historische Grundlagen des Rezeptor-Konzepts in der Pharmakologie *.

Protecting Patient Privacy or Serving Public Interests? Challenges to Medical Confidentiality in Imperial Germany (2003)
Journal Article
Maehle, A. (2003). Protecting Patient Privacy or Serving Public Interests? Challenges to Medical Confidentiality in Imperial Germany. Social History of Medicine, 16(3), 383-401. https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/16.3.383

With the Penal Code of 1871, confidentiality became a legal requirement for physicians, surgeons, and other health professions throughout Imperial Germany. However, based on an analysis of the relevant legal cases up to the First World War, this arti... Read More about Protecting Patient Privacy or Serving Public Interests? Challenges to Medical Confidentiality in Imperial Germany.

The Emergence of the Drug Receptor Theory (2002)
Journal Article
Maehle, A., Pruell, C., & Halliwell, R. (2002). The Emergence of the Drug Receptor Theory. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 1(8), 637-641. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd875

Today, the concept of specific receptors for drugs and transmitters lies at the very heart of pharmacology. Less than one hundred years ago, this novel idea met with considerable resistance in the scientific community. To mark the 150th anniversary o... Read More about The Emergence of the Drug Receptor Theory.