The "World of the Infinitely Small": An Emotional History of Animalcular Germ Theory, c.1660-1840

My project researches the emotional history of animalcular germ theory before Pasteur. It uses textual and visual sources - ranging from medical and philosophical treatises to graphic satire, poetry, and Gothic tales - to track the representation and imagination of animalcules between c.1660-1840. This research will explore how the

microscope's visualisation of minute living entities drew on diverse cultural registers and show how the figuration of animalcules inspired anxiety, suspicion, and amusement. This research thus illuminates the culturally embedded and contested nature of scientific knowledge and medical authority itself.