Charles Singer

Charles Singer

Charles Joseph Singer (born November 2, 1876 in Camberwell ( London ), † June 10, 1960 in Par near St Austell , Cornwall ) was a British physician, science and medicine historian .

biography

Time until World War I (1876 to 1914)

Singer was in 1876 in Camberwell born, a district of London District Southwark . His father Simeon Singer worked there as a rabbi .

Charles Singer attended the City of London School (CLS) and then University College London . From 1893 he studied zoology at Magdalen College and from 1898 medicine in London. The trained physician and zoologist received his license to practice medicine in 1903 . On the day of his license to practice medicine, he was called to work as a doctor on an expedition that the adventurer Sir John Harrington carried out in the border region between Abyssinia and Sudan . On his return to England he accepted a position at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton . In 1907 he went to Singapore , but had to return to England in 1908 after the death of his father. He then worked in various London hospitals.

Charles Singer married Dorothea Waley Cohen (then: Dorothea Waley Singer , 1882–1964) in 1910 , a respected scholar of medieval history and a historian of science. She gave her husband valuable help with his other publications. In the period before World War I , Singer published various monographs for which he was awarded the Doctor of Letters by the University of Oxford . In 1914, Singer went to the University of Oxford to work with the holder of the Royal Chair of Medicine, William Osler , who was the most well-known physician in English-speaking countries at the turn of the century.

1916 to 1960

1916 joined Singer as a medical officer (medical officer) in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) one in which he initially as a pathologist worked and took part in an archaeological expedition later. After the war he returned to the University of Oxford, where he lectured on the history of biology . In 1920 he was appointed lecturer in the history of medicine at University College London .

His scientific reputation soon extended beyond England and in 1929 he accepted an invitation to the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore , USA . The lectureship was limited to two years. Hopkins University was interested in his longer engagement, but hesitated too long, so the University of London preceded her with the offer to a chair , which he accepted. When Johns Hopkins University was ready to make him an official offer, he turned down the call to Baltimore because he was now satisfied with the London job. While in London, Singer spent three months at the University of California, Berkeley as a visiting professor . When the Singer couple came to California on a 16-month circumnavigation of the world, Singer received another invitation from the University of California in 1932. After returning to England, Singer resumed his work at University College London. He stayed here until his retirement in 1942. His last major publication before retiring was A Short History of Scientific Ideas to 1900 .

Singer also used the time after his retirement for research. He published various notable works, including the extensive work A History of Technology , which appeared in five volumes between 1954 and 1958. These also included Galen on Anatomical Procedures (1956) and A History of Biology (1959). Of his numerous articles from this period, some are still among the most important publications in the history of science and medicine.

Singer died on June 10, 1960 in Kilmarth (Cornish: Kilmergh ), a stately home from the 14th century that the Singers had leased since 1934. Kilmarth is near the fishing village of Fowey at Par on the south coast of Cornwall . After the death of Dorothea Waley Singer , the writer Daphne du Maurier rented the house. It formed the background for Maurier's 1969 time travel novella The House on the Strand . Allegedly, Maurier took Singer as a model for the biophysicist Magnus Lane, one of the main characters.

Awards and honors

Singer has received numerous prizes and honors. These include an honorary doctorate (Doctor of Science, (D.Sc.)) from the University of Oxford. In 1956 he was with his wife with the George Sarton Medal Award, the highest prestigious award for the History of Science that of George Sarton and Lawrence Joseph Henderson founded History of Science Society (HSS). In addition, Singer was temporarily president of various societies, including the British Society of the History of Medicine (1946-1948) and the International Union for the History of Science (1947). At Magdalen College he received an honorary fellow in 1953.

In 1928 he was one of the founding members of the Académie internationale d'histoire des sciences and was its president from 1929 to 1931.

Fonts (selection)

• Greek Biology & Greek Medicine, Chapters in the History of Science , Clarendon Press (1922)
• The herbal in antiquity. In: Journal of Hellenic Studies. Volume 47, 1927, pp. 1-52.
• From Magic to Science: Essays on the Scientific Twilight (1928)
• A Short History of Science to the Nineteenth Century (1941)
• as Ed .: A History of Technology (5 vols, between 1954 and 1958), together with Eric John Holmyard and AR Hall.
• Galen on Anatomical Procedures (1956)
• A History of Biology to About the Year 1900 (1959) digitized

literature

• Melvin Kranzberg, Charles Singer and "A History of Technology". Vol. 1, No. 4, Review Issue: A History of Technology (Autumn, 1960), pp. 299-302. doi : 10.2307 / 3101190
• Geoffrey Cantor, 'Presidential Address: Charles Singer and the early years of the British Society for the History of Science', The British Journal for the History of Science 30 (1997), 5-23.
• A. Rupert Hall, 'Eloge: Charles Joseph Singer, 1876-1960', Isis 51: 4 (1960), 486, 558-560.
• Anna-K. Mayer, "When things don't talk: knowledge and belief in the inter-war humanism of Charles Singer (1876-1960)" in: The British Journal for the History of Science - Volume 38 - Issue 03 - September 2005
• Robert T. Gunther and AV Simcock, Robert T. Gunther and the Old Ashmolean Museum of the History of Science, Oxford (1985), p. 68.
• Bettina A. Bryan: Singer, Charles Joseph. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 1337.

Remarks

1. ^ Bryan (2005), p. 1337.
2. ↑ There is a lack of clarity regarding the data here. The information is in the translated source article of the en-WP , but the article about the father names Simeon Singer , also in the en-WP, as 1906, the year of his father's death. However, it cannot be ruled out that he was only two years after the Father's death forced to return to London.
3. ↑ Anna K. Mayer, 'When things don't talk: knowledge and belief in the inter-war humanism of Charles Singer (1876–1960)', British Journal for the History of Science 38.3, pp. 325–347 red orbit  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ D. du Maurier, Enchanted Cornwall: Her Pictorial Memoir (ed. P. Dudgeon), London, 1989, p. 171. 
5. ^ Entry in the membership directory of the Académie; Directory of officiers .