ABSTRACT
The epistemological function of such textual recyclings will be studied in the context of eighteenth-century medical writings, when originality and newness were not the only criteria for the reception of medical works. Such recycling enabled the physicians to contrast their interpretation with that of other doctors, and sometimes with famous doctors in the past. One is indeed tempted to radically oppose the methods of observation inherited from the New Science to more obvious recycling modes of medical writings. Considering recycling as a constitutive part of knowledge in the making might help to relieve the intense anxiety we feel to produce new knowledge from our contemporary academics. Case studies, as they exemplify a particular theory, stand at the intersection of observation-based medicine as the cases were often singled out of the doctor's practice and of more theoretical medicine based on the knowledge of ancient authors.
