2000 HSS/PSA Program 1 - History of Science Society

HSS Abstracts
experimental data in the “Biochemistry and Morphogenesis” (1942), the
successor to his 1931 three-volume work “Chemical Embryology” in which
he had first introduced the new area of the chemical basis of ontogeny. The
essential difference to Continental experimental embryology was, however,
that the British School identified the inducing agent with a biochemical
attractor, the so-called masked evocator. By contrasting these two different
styles of scientific thought, the talk will address some further questions, e.g.,
why Spemann did not incorporate the gene, or how deeply Waddington’s work
relied on Bateson’s definition of genetics as the science that deals with the
physiology of descent.
Michael␣ T. Bravo University of Cambridge
Enlightened Precision in Geography and Anthropology
Geography was lauded as the queen of enlightenment sciences in the mideighteenth
century cartography was her sceptre. This paper explores the
resonance between the values of precision implicit in cartography and
anthropology. Historians of science have tended to assume that precision is
intrinsic to cartography but only metaphorically imported into the human
sciences. Is this assumption of cartography’s priority justified and if so, how
is it peculiar to enlightened science? I will examine the rhetorical role of
precision in early nineteenth century anthropology of everyday life near home
as well as far-flung places. The language of precision may tell us more about
the perception of cartography than the maps themselves.
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Emily␣ K. Brock Princeton University
Gardeners and Botanists in the Study of Forests in England, 1650-1800
In the late seventeenth century the growth and maintenance of forests to support
England’s growing commercial and naval timber needs became a serious
concern. A response soon came from the Royal Society in the form of John
Evelyn’s Sylva, a book concerned with both the technicalities of planting trees
and the encouragement of private landowners to plant. As the enthusiasm for
planting trees and forests grew, the need for experts in the art of silviculture
became apparent. Gardeners who concerned themselves with every aspect of
large estate gardens were the primary tree planters of this era, and in the years
after the publication of Sylva their writings included ever more discussion of
trees and forests. In these gardeners’ books we see a shift towards mimicry of
the scientific writings of Evelyn, plant physiologist Stephen Hales, and other
mainstream botanical writers. Among the most prominent gardening writers,
their imitation of mainstream academic botanists was skillful enough to gain