Roger French

Ancient Natural History surveys the ways in which people in the ancient world thought about nature. The writings of Aristotle, Theophrastus, Strabo, Pliny are examined, as well as the popular beliefs of their contemporaries. Roger French finds that the same natural-historical material was used to serve the purposes of both the Greek philosopher and the Christian allegorist, or of a taxonomist like Theophrastus and a collector of curiosa like Pliny. He argues convincingly that the motives of ancient writers on nature were rarely `scientific' and, indeed, that there was not really any science at all in the ancient world. This book will make fascinating reading for students, academics and anyone who is interested in the history of science, or in the ancient history of ideas.

Histories of Nature

Ancient Natural History

Andrew Wear

British Medicine in an Age of Reform, charts the nature and dynamics of the radical changes which occurred between 1780 and 1850 - a great turning point in British medicine. Medicine was reformed just as politics was being reformed. It became a recognizable profession, and at the same time there was an impetus from within to base the subject upon science. By the end of the 1850's medicine had become perceptibly `modern'. Contributions by acknowledged experts cover subjects from Apothecaries' Act of 1815 to froensic medicine, and the effect of scientific medicine on the doctor-patient relationship. Fascinating and detailed, British Medicine in an Age of Reform provides a rich source of information for students of social history, the history of medicine and science, and for those working in the medical profession.

British Medicine in an Age of Reform

Roger Kenneth French

French Roger

This is the first full study for over twenty-five years of William Harvey's doctrine of the action of the heart and of the circulation of the blood.

William Harvey's Natural Philosophy

This consideration of the underlying forces which helped to produce a revolution in 17th century medicine sets out to show how, in the period between 1630 and 1730, medicine came to represent something more than a marginal activity and was influenced by the current developments of the day.

The Medical Revolution of the Seventeenth Century

An introductory history of university-trained physicians from the middle ages to the eighteenth century.

The Business of Medicine from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment

Medicine Before Science

Hsinjin Edwin Yang

Laura Bruckman

Durability and Reliability of Polymers and Other Materials in Photovoltaic Modules describes the durability and reliability behavior of polymers used in Si-photovoltaic modules and systems, particularly in terms of physical aging and degradation process/mechanisms, characterization methods, accelerated exposure chamber and testing, module level testing, and service life prediction. The book compares polymeric materials to traditional materials used in solar applications, explaining the degradation pathways of the different elements of a photovoltaic module, including encapsulant, front sheet, back sheet, wires and connectors, adhesives, sealants, and more. In addition, users will find sections on the tests needed for the evaluation of polymer degradation and aging, as well as accelerated tests to aid in materials selection. As demand for photovoltaics continues to grow globally, with polymer photovoltaics offering significantly lower production costs compared to earlier approaches, this book will serve as a welcome resource on new avenues. Provides comprehensive coverage of photovoltaic polymers, from fundamental degradation mechanisms, to specific case studies of durability and materials failure Offers practical, actionable information in relation to service life prediction of photovoltaic modules and accelerated testing for materials selection Includes up-to-date information and interpretation of safety regulations and testing of photovoltaic modules and materials

Durability and Reliability of Polymers and Other Materials in Photovoltaic Modules

Miguel de Asúa

Many Early Modern Europeans who during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries travelled to the New World left written or pictorial records of their encounters with a surprising fauna. The story told in this book is woven out of the threads of those texts and pictures. A New World of Animals shows how the initial wonder at the new beasts gave way to a more utilitarian approach, assessing their economic and medical potential. It elucidates how shifts in European perceptions brought the animals from the realm of the fantastic into the mainstream of early modern natural history, while at the same time changing the way in which Europeans saw their own world. Indeed, the chronicles and treatises of those who in the wake of the discovery arrived in the new lands tell as much about the particular interests and mental worlds of the writers as about the 'new animals'. This book traces the amazement of the first explorers and colonizers, the chronicles of soldiers and Indians, the 'natural histories of the New World', the place of animals in the network of economic interests driving the early expansion of Europe, the views of the missionaries and those of natural philosophers and physicians. Taking the reader from the Brazilian forests to the erudite cabinets of the Old World, from Patagonia to the centres of empire, the story of the discovery of the unexpected menagerie of the New World is also an exploration of Early Modern European imagination and learning.

Early Modern Europeans on the Creatures of Iberian America

A New World of Animals

Andrew Cunningham

Luis Garcia-Ballester

Jon Arrizabalaga

From the eleventh century to the Black Death in 1348 Europe was economically vigorous and expanding, especially in Mediterranean societies. In this world of growing wealth new educational institutions were founded, the universities, and it was in these that a new form of medicine came to be taught and which widely influenced medical care throughout Europe. The essays in this collection focus on the practical aspects of medieval medicine, and among other issues they explore how far this new learned medicine percolated through to to the popular level; how the learned medical men understood and coped with plague; the theory and practice of medical astrology, and of bleeding (phlebotomy) for the cure and prevention of illness. Several essays deal with the development and interrelations of the nascent medical profession, and of Christian, Muslim and Jewish practioners one to another. Special emphasis is given to the practice of surgery and, the problems of recovering knowledge of a large proportion of medical care - that given by women - are also explored. This collection forms a companion volume to The Medical Renaissance of the Sixteenth Century (1985, edited by Andrew Wear, Roger French and I. M. Lonie), The Medical Revolution of the Seventeenth Century (1989, edited by Roger French and Andrew Wear), The Medical Enlightenment of the Eighteenth Century (1990, edited by Andrew cunningham and Roger French), and The Laboratory Revolution in Medicine (1992, edited by Andrew Cunningham and Perry Williams).

Practical Medicine from Salerno to the Black Death

A series of essays on the development of medicine in the century of the Enlightenment, illustrating the decline in the role of religion in medical thinking, and the increased use of reason.

The Medical Enlightenment of the Eighteenth Century

Published in 1998, covering the period from the triumphant economic revival of Europe after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, this book offers an examination of the state of contemporary medicine and the subsequent transplantation of European medicine worldwide.

Medicine from the Black Death to the French Disease

The opposition of science and religion is a recent phenomenon; in the middle ages, and indeed until the middle of the nineteenth century, there was almost no conflict. In the Middle Ages the objective study of nature - the activity we now call science - was largely the province of religious men. This book looks at the origins of western science and the central role played by the Dominican and Franciscan friars. It explains why these two groups devoted so much intellectual effort to the study of physical and biological phenomena, and distinguishes 'Natural Philosophy' from 'science' as presently understood. Though the friars were recognisably 'scientific' in their approach their motives were religious - they wished to understand the mind of God and the beauty of God's nature. Even so, as this study makes clear, the roots of western science lie in the monasteries and refuges of the medieval friars - the direct forebears of the anti-scientific Popes of the age of Copernicus and Galileo.

Roger French

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