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&#160;&#160;Appel à contribution - Alchemy and Medicine from Antiquity to the Enlightenment22-24  September 2011CRASSH and the Department of History and Philosophy of  Science, University of CambridgeAlchemists pursued many goals, from  the transmutation of metals to the preservation of health and life. These  pursuits were continually informed and modified by medical knowledge, while  alchemical debates about nature, generation, and the achievability of  perfection in turn impacted on medicine and natural philosophy. Alchemical  texts circulated in print and manuscript; in courts, in households, and in  the marketplace, both reflecting and contributing to debates about the body  and the natural world. Alchemy was studied by physicians, clerics, natural  philosophers, merchants, artisans and aristocrats; some drawn toward  theoretical speculation, others towards empirical practice.This  three-day international conference, held at Peterhouse, Cambridge, will  investigate these interactions, from alchemy's development in late antiquity  to its decline throughout the eighteenth century. It will ask how alchemical  and medical ideas changed over time, how they reflected the experience of  individual readers and practitioners, and the extent to which they responded  to significant currents in intellectual, political, religious, and social  life.Plenary speakers include:£ Chiara Crisciani (Università  degli Studi di Pavia)£ Andrew Cunningham (University of Cambridge)£ Hiro  Hirai (Radboud University Nijmegen)£ Didier Kahn (CNRS, Paris)£ Bruce T.  Moran (University of Nevada at Reno)£ William R. Newman (Indiana  University)£ Michela Pereira (Università di Siena)£ Lawrence M. Principe  (JohnsHopkins University)£ Nancy Siraisi (City University of New York)£  Emma Spary (University of Cambridge)Proposals for 20 minute papers are  welcomed, and the participation of postgraduate students and junior  researchers is particularly encouraged (with student bursaries available).  Topics might include, but are not limited, to:£ Transmission of  alchemical and medical knowledge£ Elixirs and the prolongation of life£  Impact of alchemical remedies on medical practice£ Paracelsus, Van Helmont  and their followers£ Shared ingredients, methods and apparatus£ Medical  practitioners as alchemists£ Use of medical concepts in alchemy£  Medicine, alchemy and patronage£ Iatrochemistry vs. medical orthodoxy£  Charlatanry and fraud£ Books, recipes, and secretsThe language of  the conference is English. Abstracts of 200-300 words, accompanied by a  one-page CV, should be sent to Jennifer Rampling (jmr82@cam.ac.uk) by 1 May  2011.Organised by Jennifer Rampling, Peter M. Jones and Lauren Kassell  (Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge), and supported  by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences  (CRASSH).    