This presentation will track a series of discoveries of previously unknown atmospheric forces, made in Vienna between the 1770s and 1850s: animal magnetism, Aereon, and Od. I propose that these belonged to a larger category of atmospheric influences on living things whose workings were obscure yet tantalizing, including ozone, moonlight, and “atmospheric electricity” (the last a new designation to distinguish it from that generated by electrical machines).

The controversies that surrounded the discoveries of these forces need to be recognized as episodes in an overlooked history: the history of investigating the interrelations of life and the atmosphere. I show how this strain of research reflected the Habsburgs’ imperial and industrial ambitions. It is a story with telling parallels in present-day attempts to study the determinants of environmental health and to measure what experts refer to as “degrees of vulnerability” to climate change.

Co-sponsored by the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies.