16.06.2026, 11:30-13:00h (Erfrischungen/refreshments um/at 11:10h)
Hörsaal 2, Währinger Straße 29, 1090 Wien
Rebecca L. Jackson, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Associate in Medical Humanities
Institute of Medical Humanities, Department of Philosophy, Durham University
Introduction by Hanna L. Worliczek, Faculty Center for Transdisciplinary Historical-Cultural Studies, University of Vienna
An event within the framework of the Colloquium History of Science, organized by Anna Echterhölter, Sebastian Felten, Nils Güttler, and Birgit Nemec.
I present the case of digital cervimetry in the 20th century as an exemplar of a successful non-standard measuring practice, contrasting it with the unsuccessful cervimeter, a standardized instrument intended to measure the cervix during labor. The measurement of cervical dilation (from 0-10 cm) is so central to labor management today that it’s often used as a short-hand for the status of labor progress itself: “You’re 4 centimeters along.” Yet, dilation is measured the same way today as it was a century ago, approximated by the human hand. If you’re wondering how it’s possible to accurately “feel” centimeters—and why we haven’t replaced this with some technology to do it more precisely—prepare yourself for a speedy tour of the different kinds of instruments that have been attempted in the last century (mechanical, electromechanical, and electromagnetic devices, even ultrasonic imaging) and why these techniques failed. I will argue that the main obstacle to progress in labor management and measurement, in light of this history, is not the lack of a more precise instrument, but a mismatch between human sensation and unit terminology (“centimeters”). Understanding how and why “centimeters” were even used in the first place can clarify what former sets of non-standard units (such as fingers, palms, and the size of familiar objects) provided in terms of patient safety and clinical knowledge.
Dr. Rebecca L. Jackson is a philosopher and historian of measurement and methodology. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Institute of Medical Humanities and Department of Philosophy at Durham University, where she is a member of the Measurement Lab and the Affective Experience Lab in the Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities. She received her PhD in History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine from Indiana University–Bloomington (USA) in 2023. Her current research project utilizes historical cases of non-standard clinical measuring practices to develop a clinically-relevant philosophy of measurement which can guide the current and future use of idiographic (patient-individualized) indices. Previously, she held a Bridging Fellowship at Durham, a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, as well as predoctoral fellowships at the Science History Institute and the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.
