Vitalism is an underappreciated and often misunderstood idea. This thesis seeks to explore the historical origins and meanings of vitalism in 19th century France; tracing the transition from medical vitalism in the Montpellier School in the late 18th and early 19th century to a largely philosophical vitalism in the late 19th century, emblemized by Henri Bergson. / I argue that the decline of medical vitalism was brought about by the rise of scientific medicine, the experimentalism of physiologists like Claude Bernard and the growing influence of positivism in late 19th century France. I see the seminal moment of this transition from a metaphysical to a scientific world-view in the materialism-spiritualism controversy of the 1850s, which was sparked by the development of modern biology and the experimental life sciences. / Despite its general disappearance from mainstream medicine and science, vitalism continued to have echoes in a number of fields in the 20th century, and remains a concept relevant to our contemporary circumstances.

On 1 October 1879 the German Imperial Court, the Reichsgericht, was formally opened in a ceremony in Leipzig. Decades of division among the German states, particularly in the years between the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 and the creation of the German Reich in 1871, led to constant demands for national unification on political, economic, social and legal levels. Throughout those years proposals for Rechtseinheit, or legal unity, called for numerous substantive reforms as well as procedural or institutional reforms. Such proposals ultimately led to several important legal reforms, including the adoption of the Imperial Justice Laws of 1877. / This dissertation argues that the successful establishment of the Reichsgericht, as an integral component of the larger movement towards German legal unity, provides an important example of contemporary struggles between centralization and particularism and between liberal political ideals and political realities in the new German Reich. Between 1806 and 1879 several contemporaries recommended the creation of a national supreme court for the German states. The failure of the pre-1867 court proposals contrasted sharply with the successful proposals of the 1867 to 1879 period. Nevertheless, the negotiations and debates which took place between the various German states, between the federal government and the states, and in the legislative organs of the German state itself, were intense and contentious. The creation of the Reichsgericht reflected several important issues, including the comparative abilities of the various states, the federal bureaucracy and the federal legislature to influence the form and substance of national judicial legislation. / The documentary evidence for this dissertation has been gathered from several archival depositories, including relevant holdings in the Bundesarchiv sections in Potsdam and Dahlwitz-Hoppegarten and the Prussian state archives in Berlin-Dahlem, and from published government and contemporary sources. In addition, unpublished and published secondary sources have been utilized.

This thesis examines the pictorial record of the Great Famine Era circa 1842--1854: the engravings, sketches, and paintings found in the English public domain. As part of the historical record, these contemporary visual images document attitudes of prejudice and indifference held about Ireland and the Irish during the calamitous years of the Great Irish Famine. The study probes the broad contextual background, narrative structure, and didactic intent of these works in an effort to assess the prejudicial impact of the visual record as a whole.

Women preached and itinerated in different Methodist traditions in the first half of the nineteenth century in Canada. By the middle of the century, many of them had relinquished the pulpit and they soon disappeared. In the United States of America, women preachers also met with resistance, but well before the twentieth century some Methodist women had been ordained. Although many aspects of the Canadian and American contexts were similar, women preachers experienced a somewhat different reception in each country because of the contrasting political climate. Whereas the American Methodist churches reflected the more liberal atmosphere of their country, the Canadian Methodist Episcopal church intentionally adopted the more reactionary stance of the British Wesleyans in order to gain respectability and political advantage. The other Canadian Methodist churches gradually imbibed this conservative atmosphere, and as a result, Canadian women were eventually discouraged from a preaching role. This dissertation recovers the history of a number of nineteenth century Methodist women preaching in Canada, examines their British heritage and the experiences of their American sisters, and suggests reasons for the Canadian devolution.

Diss. med. Bern.

In Scottish Presbyterianism the period from 1796 to 184 3 was a transitional era of Evangelical ascendancy over Moderatism. Within that period, certain parishes had brief periods of evangelistic activities called 'revivals'. These movements were centered in services of public worship. The purpose of this thesis is to examine public worship during the era as a means of evangelism and to discern the processes by which the revivals took place. Public worship in Scotland during the eighteenth century has been commonly characterized as very ineffective, even barren. In both Moderate and Evangelical kirks, public worship was a preaching service with certain acts of devotion, but without a liturgy. From 1796 to 1843, public worship generally followed the traditions of the past, including the annual sacramental season. Although there were some stirrings toward a future renascence of worship, in such areas as published aids-to-worship, instrumental music, the singing of para-phrases and hymns, and more frequent Communion services, public worship continued to be a preaching service. Yet, in a few parishes, a season of revival did take place primarily within traditional, "weak" worship. The most unusual revival during the period of this study was the preaching tours by lay-preachers. Originated by J. A. Haldane, John Aikman, and Joseph Rate, this movement began as a plan for establishing religious schools in Highland parishes, and became an evangelistic organization called 'The Society for Propagating the Gospel at Home'. This organization not only was instrumental in brief awakenings in some parishes but also fostered certain discord in the state of religion in Scotland which resulted in official acts in Presbyterianism against lay-preaching. The S.P.G.H. ended in dissension from within in 1808. Even so, the evangelistic work of the S.P.G.H. did provide some notable revivals and a portion of the background for the revivals at Arran and Skye. Other revivals during the early nineteenth century were in parishes in the following places: Moulin (1796-1802), Arran (1812-13), Skye (1812-14), and Kilsyth (1839). The Kilsyth revival was the origin of a movement that spread to many other parishes in Scotland through 1841. Revival leaders were local parish ministers, with the exception of the Kilsyth movement which was led by a licentiate preacher, W. C. Burns, along with various local ministers. The revivals were centered in public worship services and prayer meetings. Sacramental seasons had no uniform place in each movement. Extemporaneous preaching within the general context of the traditional order of worship was the chief agent of awakenings. Generally, each brief season of revival also included a period of preparation characterised by expectation, a noticeable element of emotionalism, and results that were observable among certain individual lives more than those effecting parish life. The theology in the revivals was a portion of the Calvinism of the time which was directed at personal salvation. Conviction of total depravity, the covenant of grace which had conditional overtones, and limited atonement were the central doctrines of the theology in the revivals. The many detailed events in each revival parish gave each story an individuality apart from the other seasons of revival. And similarities noted among the various revivals did not uniquely distinguish them from many other contemporary parishes. Thus, in addition to that which can be discerned from the revivals of religion and their relation to public worship, the Church is reminded of her dependence upon the mysteries of God.

No description available.

The Disruption of the Church of Scotland in 1843 was arguably the most important event in Nineteenth Century Scottish religious history. The prime factor in the dispute which precipitated this crisis was the question as to whether the Church should rule itself through its own courts or be controlled by the secular government. This tension had existed in Scotland since shortly after the Reformation, but by the nineteenth century new factors had become involved. These included the political clash between democratic rights and the privilege of the ancien regime, the economic ability of Scots to maintain a church without state aid, the proper interpretation of Scots law, personal prejudice and bias especially on the part of Judges and politicians and, not least important, the transfer of civil government to the parliament in London with the consequent loss of contact with Scottish sensibilities. This study is concerned less with the detail of national events than with the reactions of local churchmen, both clerical and lay, to the events which occurred between 1830 and 1850. It focuses on three adjacent but dissimilar presbytery areas: the industrial area of Dundee where the leaders of public opinion were the entrepreneurial and professional members of the rising middle classes; the largely rural area of St. Andrews where public attitudes were formed by landowners and university professors; and the Cupar Presbytery area where agriculture and industry co-existed and where landowners and the middle classes shared responsibility for the general climate of opinion. This diversity of views is explored in the study as also are the reactions of various groups (e.g. , laity, clergy, students) to the judgements of the civil court concerning the Veto Act and to the campaigns for non-intrusion and spiritual Independence mounted by Church leaders. The contrasting responses of the three presbyteries to the allied issue of the Chapel Act are examined, while local preparations for the Disruption are explored in detail and set in the national context. The final sections of the study are devoted to a careful examination of the local aftermath of the Disruption: the manner in which the three Established presbyteries responded to their loss of ministers and elders and their attempts to recover their earlier social dominance; the ways in which the Free Church developed during the post Disruption years; the differences between the social and economic characteristics of those ministers and elders who adhered to the Established Church and those who joined the Free Church.

The present dissertation offers a critical examination of the place accorded to Latin American states in the English School account of the expansion of international society. It pursues two aims. First, the study contributes to understanding the nature and scope of international order, and its historical transformation over the course of the 'long nineteenth century'. Because of the profound impact that European colonization had on the region, the English School has conventionally treated the entry of Latin American states into international society as an unproblematic historical fact achieved with diplomatic recognition in the 1820s. The crucial cases of Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico, however, indicate that more attention needs to the paid to the hierarchical nature of the international order. The central argument of this historical-comparative study posits that the three Latin American states were recognized diplomatically, but they were not regarded as fully-fledged members of the community of 'civilized' states. Second, the dissertation examines the implications of hierarchy in international politics. Building on a critique of the legal-formalist conception of 'standing' in English School theorizing, three ideal-typical dimensions of international stratification are identified: the distribution of material capabilities (stature), the function states perform in international society (role), and estimations of honour and prestige (status) among states. The interpretative framework sheds light on how agents understand international society, and the way in which they deal with its hierarchical nature. The study analyzes how Latin American elites perceived the standing of their state, and how these perceptions shaped politics through their corresponding 'logics of social action'. The study finds that nineteenth-century elites in Argentina, Mexico, and Brazil conceived of the standing of their states predominantly in terms of status, and demonstrates how these perceptions informed politics.

171, xi p. Two print copies of this title are available through the UO Libraries under the following call numbers: SCA OrColl F884.D3 H55 1934; SCA Archiv Theses H558