Death - The Uncertain Certainty: Changing definitions of medical death in Britain c. 1750 to 1850

死亡对所有人来说都是必然的。然而，几个世纪以来，死亡的确切时间一直不确定。在英国的乔治王时代，生与死的界限在医学界和科学界引起了很大的争论。当医生包里的设备仅限于跳蚤（用于测试血液循环）、胡椒（用于让病人打喷嚏）或镜子（用于观察呼吸）时，很难确定医疗死亡。在流行文化中，人们常说，在医生确定病人死亡之前，病人还没有死亡。医学理论的发展提供了一个解释的解剖/生理变化，导致身体明显地从围死亡（温暖，但死亡的外观）转移到死后（僵硬）。大约在1800年，医学从业者确定心脏，肺和大脑功能的停止导致一个人“真正死亡”;然而，这种被忽视的话语仍然是今天复苏医学的关键-一个隐藏的历史。在18世纪和19世纪的大部分时间里，普通人害怕被误诊为死亡，担心死后的灵魂，并试图为那些留下来的人提供照顾。这种社会关注通过验尸官的调查，祈祷和使用遗嘱和遗嘱来减轻。这个拟议的博士学位坐落在所有这些医学的不确定性的交叉点之间的死亡的确定性在英国1750年至1850年。主要的研究问题：为什么医学死亡是这样一个不确定的科学，这有什么影响的文化理解的死亡时间为那些生活在1750年至1850年在英国？为了研究这个被忽视的史学主题，在第一年将进行文献综述。在确定了研究差距之后，将在郡档案局和伦敦国家档案馆进行档案工作。定量和定性方法：第1-2年将分析私人日记、家庭信件、医疗报告、医院记录和报纸报道，关于“死-活”、“真正死亡”和“危险死亡”。这将涉及威康信托基金会、兰贝斯宫图书馆和英国国教记录中心对死亡的宗教定义、对来世的关注以及最后遗嘱和遗嘱如何被用来提供死后护理的研究。Prosopography将探讨从业者-詹姆斯咖喱，安东尼Fothergill，亚历山大约翰逊，和查尔斯凯特-所谓的专家的迹象，时间，和医疗死亡的定义。到第三年，将创建一个独特的数据集，对英国被误诊为死亡的人进行统计重新评估。这将基于农村，城市化，半工业化，工业社区的精细案例研究分析，以比较区域，区域内和大都市对验尸官的研讯和巡回法庭如何用于调查不确定的死亡的观点，包括复活主义者偷走的尸体，在英国c。影响：18/19世纪的医生与21世纪的复苏医学顾问有着相同的基本伦理困境。虽然先进的技术可以追踪最微弱的生命迹象-医疗死亡的时间仍然是现代生命伦理学中的“不确定的确定性”。

Death is a certainty for all humans. Yet, for centuries, defining the precise moment of death has been uncertain. The boundary between life and death was much debated in medical and scientific circles during the Georgian period in Britain. Determining medical death was difficult when the equipment in a doctor's bag was limited to a fleam [sic] (to test for blood circulation), pepper (to make the patient sneeze) or a mirror (to see breath). It was often said, in popular culture, that a patient was not dead until a doctor determined so. Medical theories developed to provide an explanation of the anatomical/physiological changes that caused the body to visibly shift from peri-mortem (warm but dead looking) to post-mortem (rigor mortis). Around 1800, medical practitioners identified that the cessation of heart, lung, and brain functions caused a person to be 'truly dead'; yet this neglected discourse continues to be pivotal in resuscitation medicine today - a hidden history. For much of the 18th and 19th centuries, ordinary people feared being misdiagnosed as dead, worried about their soul post-death, and sought to provide care for those left behind. Such societal concerns were mitigated through coroners'inquests, prayer, and the use of last wills & testaments. This proposed PhD sits at the intersection of all this medical uncertainty about the certainty of death in Britain between 1750 - 1850.The main research question: Why was medical death such an uncertain science, and what impact did this have on cultural understandings of the timings of death for those that lived between 1750 and 1850 in Britain? To investigate this neglected historiographical topic, in Year 1 a literature review will be undertaken. Having identified the research gap, archival work will be undertaken in County Record Offices and the National Archives, London.Quantitative and qualitative methods: Years 1-2 will analyze private diaries, family letters, medicalreports, hospital records and newspaper accounts, about the 'dead-alive', 'truly dead' and 'dangerous dead'. This will involve research at the Wellcome Trust, Lambeth Palace Library, and the Church of England Record Centre on religious definitions of death, concerns about the afterlife, and how last wills and testaments were used to provide posthumous care. Prosopography will explore practitioners - James Curry, Anthony Fothergill, Alexander Johnson, and Charles Kite - so-called experts on the signs, timing, and definition of medical death. By Year 3, a unique dataset will be created to produce a statistical reappraisal of people misdiagnosed as dead in Britain. This will be based on refined case- study analysis of rural, urbanized, semi-industrial, industrial communities to compare regional, intra- regional, and metropolitan perspectives on how coroners' inquests and assizes courts were used to investigate uncertain death, including bodies stolen by resurrectionists, in Britain c. 1750 to 1850.Impact: The 18th /19th century doctor shared the same fundamental ethical dilemmas as the 21stconsultant in resuscitation medicine. Although improved technology can trace the faintest signs of life - the timing of medical death has remained the 'uncertain certainty' in modern bioethics.