Anita Guerrini Libri

Medical doctor George Cheyne, little known today, was among the most quoted men in eighteenth-century Britain. A 450-pound behemoth renowned for his Falstaffian appetites, he nevertheless advocated moderation to his neurotic clientele. Cheyne was an early admirer of Isaac Newton and a writer on mathematics and natural philosophy, yet he also linked science and mysticism in his writings. This inventor of the all-lettuce diet was both an author of learned tomes and, to his patients, a fellow sufferer who struggled with obesity and depression. Scientist and mystic, patient and healer, libertine and scholar, Cheyne embodies the contradictions and obsessions of the Age of Enlightenment. Anita Guerrini reconstructs the ideas, events, and interconnections in Cheyne’s era and shows how Cheyne’s life and work uniquely epitomize the transition between premodern and modern culture.

Focusing on the practice of anatomy in Louis XIV's Paris, this book delves into the vital role of animals in the development of natural history. It examines the contributions of figures like Joseph-Guichard Duverney and Claude Perrault within the context of the Academy and the King's Garden, highlighting their significance in the Scientific Revolution. By intertwining themes of empiricism, human-animal relationships, and the evolution of natural history museums, it offers rich insights for historians of science, medicine, and early modern studies, alongside those interested in animal studies.

"The author discusses key historical episodes in the use of living beings in experiments in science and medicine. This new edition emphasizes a broader understanding of experimentation and has material on prisoners and slaves as experimental subjects, gene therapy, and self-experimentation"-- Provided by publisher