Catching Nature in the Act - Raumur and the Practice of Natural History in the Eighteenth Century

Natural history in the eighteenth century was many things to many people - diversion, obsession, medically or economically useful knowledge, spectacle, evidence for God's providence and wisdom, or even the foundation of all natural knowledge. This book reveals how eighteenth-century natural historians incorporated various experimental techniques.

About the author

Mary Terrall is professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the author of The Man Who Flattened the Earth: Maupertuis and the Sciences in the Enlightenment, also published by the University of Chicago Press. She lives in Altadena, CA.

Summary

Natural history in the eighteenth century was many things to many people - diversion, obsession, medically or economically useful knowledge, spectacle, evidence for God's providence and wisdom, or even the foundation of all natural knowledge. This book reveals how eighteenth-century natural historians incorporated various experimental techniques.

Product details

• Authors: Mary Terrall, Terrall Mary
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 16.04.2014
• EAN: 9780226088600
• ISBN: 978-0-226-08860-0
• No. of pages: 264
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); NATURE / General, SCIENCE / History, natural history, 18th century, c 1700 to c 1799, History of Science, Nature and the natural world: general interest, C 1700 To C 1800