The Salt of the Earth

Natural Philosophy, Medicine, and Chymistry in England, 1650-1750
Erscheinungsjahr 2007
ISBN: 978-90-04-16176-4
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 3, 296 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 709 g

Reihe: History of Science and Medicine Library

Consisting of a series of case studies, this book is devoted to the concept and uses of salt in early modern science, which have played a crucial role in the evolution of matter theory from Aristotelian concepts of the elements to Newtonian chymistry. No reliable study on this subject has been previously available. Its exploration of natural history’s and medicine’s intersection with chemical investigation in early modern England demonstrates the growing importance of the senses and experience as causes of intellectual change from 1650-1750. It demonstrates that an understanding of the changing definitions of “salt” is also crucial to a historical comprehension of the transition between alchemy and chemistry.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Roos, Anna Marie

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wissenschafts- und Universitätsgeschichte
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Human- und Sozialwissenschaften
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements

1. The Context of Salts
2. Paracelsian Concepts of Salts
3. Van Helmont, Salts, and Natural History in Early Modern England
4. From Salts to Saline Spirits—the Rise of Acids
5. Salts and Saline Spirits in the Medical Marketplace and Literature—Patent Medicines and Chymical Satire

Conclusion: From Saline Acids to Acidifying Oxygen

Appendix: Translation from Latin of Martin Lister’s Exercises on the Healing Springs of England (1684)

Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Anna Marie Roos, Ph.D. (1997) in History, University of Colorado, is a research associate at the Wellcome Unit at Oxford University. She has published extensively in the history of science including Luminaries in the Natural World (Peter Lang, 2001).