The quest for the invisible : microscopy in the Enlightenment
This study offers a definitive account of the state of microscopy in the eighteenth century, of the main concerns of those involved in the field and how microscopists learned to communicate their findings to each other. It will be essential reading for all historians of microscopy and for those studying life sciences of the modern period.
History
xii, 315 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
9780754661504, 0754661504
173509372
Production and visibility of microscopes in the first half of the eighteenth century
The study of Animalcules at the turn of the eighteenth century
Insects, hermaphrodites and ambiguity
Towards marketing strategies for the microscope in the second half of the eighteenth century
Abraham Trembley, the polyp and new directions for microscopical research
The disputes over authority and microscopical observations
The quantifying spirit in microscopical research and 'keeping up' with invisible objects
The emergence of the systematics of infusoria
From spontaneous generation to the limits of life: the microscopical experimentalist research from the 1760s to 1800