Table of Contents

Preface Part I. The End of the Renaissance, 1600-1670: 1. The medical and scientific spirit of the first half of the seventeenth century 2. The battle with shadows 3. In search of clear ideas Conclusion Part II. The Scientists' Philosophy, 1670-1745: 4. The new scientific mentality 5. New discoveries in animal reproduction 6. The pre-existence of germs Conclusion Part III. The Philosophers' Science, 1745-1770: 8. Precursors and mavericks 9. Buffon 10. Resistance to the new science Conclusion Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index.

About the Author

Until his death in 1990, Jacques Roger taught at the Sorbonne. Keith R. Benson is Professor of the History of Medicine at the University of Washington.

Reviews

"It fashions a standard of incredible breadth against which all subsequent histories of the biological sciences must be measured. In fact, it must become one of the seminal works in the interpretation of eighteenth-century science." - Journal of the History of Biology