Bonnie Berry - The power of looks; Social stratification of physical appearance (2008).jpg
 | Bonnie Berry - The power of looks; Social stratification of physical appearance (2008).jpg
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This sparkling study of eighteenth century science challenges modern assumptions that the microscope was usually regarded as little more than a scientific toy. By taking an entirely fresh approach, Marc Ratcliff shows that eighteenth century microscopy in Europe is shockingly underestimated. Path-breaking work was indeed produced by scientific researchers. One innovative aspect is that he brings together many different individuals and different research traditions for the first time, microscopy can be seen as an international enterprise, where correspondence, texts, illustrations, instruments, and specimens regularly crossed national boundaries and helped create a unique body of achievement. Another is to focus on the actual practices of microscopical investigation. Here Ratcliff evocatively describes the difficulties scholars encountered in representing the world of the invisible, and how they struggled to come to a consensus about visual and verbal conventions to indicate phenomena such as scale. Yet another is to critique the way we look back into the past with modern specializations in mind. These microscopical workers were as keen to philosophize about spontaneous generation and the origins of life as they were to investigate pond water or hunt for specks of living matter in detritus. Along the way, we come across a wonderful menagerie of animalcules, cochineal insects, polyps, and fungi. The world of the very small is revealed as problematic and utterly intriguing to the eighteenth century people who attempted to describe it. Comprehensive, provocative, revisionist this highly original book is sure to excite comment and command respect. Janet Browne, Author of Charles Darwin: Voyaging and Charles Darwin: The Power of Place The eighteenth century has often been viewed as a period of relative decline in the field of microscopy, as interest in microscopes seemed to wane after an intense period of discovery in the seventeenth century. As such, developments in the field during the Enlightenment have been largely overlooked. This study therefore fills a considerable gap in the study of this life science, providing a thorough analysis of what the main concerns of the field were and how microscopists learned to communicate with each other in relevant ways in order to compare results and build a new discipline. Employing a substantial body of contemporary literature from across Europe, the author is able to present us with a definitive account of the state of research into microscopy of the period. He brings to light the little known work of Louis Joblot, re-evaluates the achievements of Abraham Trembley and gives new weight to Otto-Friedrich Muller's important contributions.
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