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The Circulation of Penicillin in Spain: Health, Wealth and Authority by María Jesús Santesmases (review)
Technology and Culture ( IF 0.8 ) Pub Date : 2021-06-04
Agata Ignaciuk

Reviewed by:

  • The Circulation of Penicillin in Spain: Health, Wealth and Authority by María Jesús Santesmases
  • Agata Ignaciuk (bio)
The Circulation of Penicillin in Spain: Health, Wealth and Authority By María Jesús Santesmases. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. Pp. 239.

The Circulation of Penicillin in Spain: Health, Wealth and Authority By María Jesús Santesmases. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. Pp. 239.

With The Circulation of Penicillin in Spain, María Jesús Santesmases of the Institute of Philosophy and Spanish National Research Council has written a pioneering social history that links a gender perspective—usually reserved for histories of medications targeting the female body or mind—with a theoretical articulation of "circulation" as a category of historiographic analysis.

Marketed in Spain under Francisco Franco's military and Catholic regime, which rigidly placed women in the reproductive sphere and under the legal surveillance of fathers and husbands, this first antibiotic bore the characteristics attributed to femininity: cleanliness and care. Santesmases explores the experiences of female workers in a penicillin bottling plant, as well as research technicians, such as Sagrario Mochales: a graduate in natural sciences who participated in the antibiotic screening program co-run by Merck and the Compañia Española de Penicilinas y Antibióticos (CEPA) in Madrid from the mid-1950s onward. These stories showcase both obstacles and opportunities for women in scientific and technological spaces in Spain at a time when female labor was not only popular due to a perceived innate capacity for handling delicate products but also for its low cost. An association with female (un/low paid) care work existed. Its symbolism was evident in Spanish antibiotics advertising, projecting the legitimacy of a female presence in the industrial and scientific space, "fitting into the social order while also breaking it" (p. 72). Some women who inhabited this space, such as Sagrario Mochales, avoided the customary dismissal upon marriage by securing a patent (ch. 6).

The author cautions that The Circulation of Penicillin in Spain is not a biography, but "a narration on the multitude of places and times that penicillin lived in, and moved through, as if acquiring a life of its own" (p. 200). Circulation, explicitly defined in the final chapter of the book, threads throughout a narrative driven by the quest to capture the drug in motion, in flow. This flow takes place on multiple levels, in multiple directions, and has multiple protagonists. The journeys of penicillin prompted the travel of methods, materials, skills, and people. Some of these travels were elevated to almost mythical status, such as Alexander Fleming's trip to Spain in spring 1948, entertainingly discussed in as the story of a hero touring poverty-stricken Spain—in sharp contrast with the opulence enveloping the visiting scientist (ch. 2). Santesmases argues that mutual cultures of othering were taking place: Fleming the foreign savior, "symbolic supplier," and diplomat; Spanish elites; and the masses, venerating Fleming to the point of collective hysteria—much to the hero's embarrassment. As [End Page 622] Santesmases argues, these otherings facilitated dispersion of the penicillin dream. Thus, as the author emphasizes, circulation took place alongside necessarily asymmetrical geographic distributions of authority. This mobility entailed the selection, transfer, and transformation of knowledges—and also of identities—and therefore takes place not only in space but also time, shifting and swaying during the lifecycle of the drug, from the magic bullet to potential troublemaker in the era of antimicrobial resistance.

In tracing this lifecycle, Santesmases enters almost uncharted territory in the social history of pharmaceuticals in Spain, adding new perspectives to increasing scholarly interest in health and health policies under the Franco regime. During its early career, penicillin was a scarce commodity, mostly secured through illegal markets. Availability increased after the late 1950s shift in economic and political strategy, a relinquishing of autarchy and consecutive internationalization. Attempts at national production had started a decade earlier in the late 1940s, when the CEPA and another company, Antibióticos SA, received authorization to become the two domestic manufacturers of penicillin. Domestic production did not initially eliminate the black market but did lower prices. This simultaneous legal and illegal circulation, Santesmases argues, epitomized the corruption of...



中文翻译:

西班牙青霉素的流通:健康、财富和权威 María Jesús Santesmases(评论)

审核人:

  • 西班牙青霉素的流通:健康、财富和权威María Jesús Santesmases
  • 阿加塔·伊格纳丘克(生物)
西班牙青霉素的流通:健康、财富和权威María Jesús Santesmases。伦敦:Palgrave Macmillan,2018 年。Pp。239.

西班牙青霉素的流通:健康、财富和权威María Jesús Santesmases。伦敦:Palgrave Macmillan,2018 年。Pp。239.

随着青霉素在西班牙的流通,哲学研究所和西班牙国家研究委员会的 María Jesús Santesmases 撰写了一部开创性的社会史,将性别观点(通常保留用于针对女性身体或心灵的药物历史)与理论阐述联系起来“流通”作为史学分析的一个范畴。

在弗朗西斯科·佛朗哥 (Francisco Franco) 的军队和天主教政权下在西班牙销售,该政权将女性严格置于生育领域并接受父亲和丈夫的法律监督,这种第一种抗生素具有女性气质的特征:清洁和关怀。Santesmases 探讨了青霉素装瓶厂女工以及研究技术人员的经历,例如 Sagrario Mochales:自然科学专业的毕业生,她参加了由默克公司和 Compañia Española de Penicilinas y Antibióticos 共同运营的抗生素筛选项目( CEPA)从 1950 年代中期开始在马德里。这些故事展示了西班牙科技领域女性面临的障碍和机遇,当时女性劳动力不仅因其处理精致产品的天生能力而受到欢迎,而且成本低廉。存在与女性(无/低薪)护理工作的联系。它的象征意义在西班牙抗生素广告中很明显,体现了女性在工业和科学领域存在的合法性,“融入社会秩序的同时也打破了它”(第 72 页)。一些居住在这个空间的女性,例如 Sagrario Mochales,通过获得专利来避免婚后被解雇的习惯(第 6 章)。在工业和科学领域投射女性存在的合法性,“适应社会秩序,同时也打破社会秩序”(第 72 页)。一些居住在这个空间的女性,例如 Sagrario Mochales,通过获得专利来避免婚后被解雇的习惯(第 6 章)。在工业和科学领域投射女性存在的合法性,“适应社会秩序,同时也打破社会秩序”(第 72 页)。一些居住在这个空间的女性,例如 Sagrario Mochales,通过获得专利来避免婚后被解雇的习惯(第 6 章)。

作者告诫说,青霉素在西班牙的流通不是传记,而是“对青霉素生活和穿越的众多地方和时代的叙述,仿佛获得了自己的生命”(第 200 页)。循环,在本书的最后一章中明确定义,贯穿整个叙事,由寻求捕捉运动中的药物驱动,流动中。这种流动发生在多个层面、多个方向,并有多个主角。青霉素的旅行促进了方法、材料、技能和人员的旅行。其中一些旅行被提升到几乎神话般的地位,例如亚历山大·弗莱明 (Alexander Fleming) 于 1948 年春天的西班牙之行,作为英雄游历贫困的西班牙的故事进行了有趣的讨论——与包围着来访科学家的富裕形成了鲜明的对比(第 10 章)。 2)。Santesmases 认为,他者的相互文化正在发生:弗莱明是外国救世主、“象征性供应商”和外交官;西班牙精英;和群众,崇拜弗莱明到集体歇斯底里的地步——这让英雄很尴尬。作为[End Page 622] Santesmases 认为,这些其他因素促进了青霉素梦想的分散。因此,正如作者所强调的,流通伴随着必然不对称的权威地理分布。这种流动性需要知识——以及身份——的选择、转移和转化,因此不仅发生在空间上,而且发生在时间上,在药物的生命周期中发生变化和摇摆,从灵丹妙药到时代的潜在麻烦制造者的抗菌素耐药性。

在追踪这个生命周期的过程中,Santesmases 进入了西班牙医药社会史中几乎未知的领域,为学术界对佛朗哥政权下的健康和健康政策日益增长的兴趣增添了新的视角。在其早期职业生涯中,青霉素是一种稀缺商品,主要通过非法市场获得。在 1950 年代后期经济和政治战略发生转变、放弃专制和连续国际化之后,可用性有所增加。早在 10 年前的 1940 年代后期,CEPA 和另一家公司 Antibióticos SA 获得授权,成为国内的两家青霉素制造商,就开始尝试在国内生产。国内生产最初并未消除黑市,但确实降低了价格。桑特斯马斯认为,这种同时合法和非法的流通,

更新日期:2021-06-04
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