Doctoral Dissertation Research on Generation and Its Problems in Harvey, Highmore and their Contemporaries

导言：PI们建议研究威廉·哈维和纳撒尼尔·海莫尔在17世纪中叶对生理学的研究，特别是胚胎学，以及他们在代际争论中的作用，生物材料的性质，以及生物体的发展。他们计划在大英图书馆和伦敦的韦尔康研究所进行档案研究，并在牛津的Bodleian图书馆和大学记录中进行研究。这些档案包括17世纪内科医生和生理学家纳撒尼尔·海莫尔的通信和笔记本，以及与他的工作密切相关的实验和讲座的当代笔记。智力价值：海莫尔是威廉·哈维的朋友和合作者：比较他们的作品将澄清一些与当代辩论中出现的代际问题有关的问题。早期现代科学、哲学和医学的中心发展汇聚在海莫尔的杰出工作中，特别是在他对生殖器官、世代和歇斯底里的发现和新颖的解释方面。这项档案研究建立在对海默S发表的两部作品的研究基础上，这两部著作曾在科学史会议上发表。档案访问在几个方面对论文至关重要：大量未出版的著作将阐明海默的医学教育、智力来源、与患者的互动、实验和医学经验在他研究中的作用、他的思想发展以及对他出版文本的接受。对这些重要来源的仔细研究尚未发表。该项目特别侧重于学术医学挪用化学的早期阶段，这一阶段几乎仍未被探索。此外，研究学生笔记本将增强对17世纪早期医学教育的历史理解，特别是学生接触新科学、哲学和实验的程度。广泛影响：拟议的项目调查了至今仍存在的关于生命的主要问题：生命与非生命物质有什么区别？胎儿在什么时候获得人类身份？其目的是提供对这些问题的批判性分析和历史理解，这些问题与伦理和宗教价值观密切相关。这些问题也是考察科学、医学、形而上学、认识论和神学的不同领域在十七世纪中叶是如何相互影响的一个场所。该项目的跨学科和同步性意味着它对早期现代主义者有广泛的影响。即将举行的英国、美国和加拿大科学史学会联席会议的主题是“学科之间的联系”，反映了该领域对跨学科研究价值的认识。部分研究将在2008年期间在国际会议和关于早期现代化学、生理学和医学的会议上公布。这个项目的资金是由BIO和SBE理事会组成的名为“生物学对社会的影响”的合资企业提供的，该合资企业通过STS计划进行管理。

Introduction: The PIs propose to examine William Harvey's and Nathaniel Highmore's mid-seventeenth century studies of physiology, in particular embryology and their role in debates during the period over generation, the nature of living material, and the development of organisms. They plan to do archival research at the British Library and at the Wellcome Institute in London, and in Oxford at the Bodleian Library and in the university records. These archives contain the correspondence and notebooks of the seventeenth-century physician and physiologist Nathaniel Highmore, as well as contemporary notes on experiments and lectures that are closely related to his work.Intellectual merit: Highmore was a friend and collaborator of William Harvey: a comparison between their works will clarify a number of issues related to the problems of generation emerging from contemporary debates. Central developments in early modern science, philosophy, and medicine converged in Highmore's remarkable work, particularly, in his discoveries and novel explanations of reproductive organs, generation, and hysteria. The archival research builds on two studies of Highmore's s published works that have been presented at history of science conferences. There are several respects in which archive visits are crucial to the dissertation: the extensive collections of unpublished writings will shed light on Highmore's medical education, intellectual sources, interactions with patients, the role of experiments and medical experience on his research, the development of his thought, and the reception of his published texts. No close examinations of these important sources have been published. This project focuses in particular on the early stages of the appropriation of chemistry by academic medicine, which remains virtually unexplored. Moreover, studying the student notebooks will enhance historical understanding of early seventeenth-century medical education, particularly the extent to which students were exposed to the new sciences, philosophies, and experimentation.Broader impact: The proposed project examines major questions about life that persist to this day: What distinguishes living from non-living matter? At what point do fetuses acquire human status? The aim is to provide a critical analysis and historical understanding of these questions that are heavily enmeshed with ethical and religious values. These issues also serve as a locus at which to examine how different areas of science, medicine, metaphysics, epistemology, and theology informed each other during the mid-seventeenth century. The interdisciplinary and synchronistic nature of the project means that it has broad ramifications for early modernists. The theme of the upcoming joint meeting of the British, US, and Canadian history of science societies, "Connecting Disciplines," reflects the field's recognition of the value of interdisciplinary studies. Portions of the research will be presented during 2008, both at the international meeting and at a conference on early modern chemistry, physiology and medicine. Funds for this project were provided by a joint venture of the BIO and SBE directorates known as "Impacts of Biology on Society," which is administered via the STS program.