Antecedents of Concepts in Modern Immunology: Experiential Frameworks in 18th- and Early 19th-Century...

This article proposes autobiography as a productive lens through which to examine concepts of immunology, as the self-oriented conceptual focus of autobiography shares key affinities with theories of immune selfhood that have underpinned much of the work in modern immunology. British and French autobiographies written in the late 18th and early 19th centuries-a period at the crossroads of older humoral theory and new scientific and medical knowledge-describe early symptom-and experience-based conceptualizations of immunity, as well as subjectively defined and value-laden conceptualizations of health. Notably, while the autobiographical accounts precede the late 19th-century work that established the foundations of modern immunology, authors' accounts of health maintenance, disease prevention, and disease elimination resonate with present-day immunological concepts and nonspecialist constructions of immunity. In analyzing how the authors conceptualize and assign meaning to what we now understand as immunity-related processes and practices, the article brings to light theoretical parallels between the autobiographical accounts and concepts in modern immunology.