Walter Pagel – författare

Only comparatively recently have historians begun to recognize the importance and influence of Joan Baptista Van Helmont (1579-1644) in the history of medicine and chemistry. Van Helmont's theories on the nature of life, biological time, physiology and disease, the structure of matter, and the processes of chemical change are veiled in his writings by a brand of Renaissance mysticism. His organic conception of the natural world, together with his belief in alchemy and astral forces, has resulted in a predominantly unsympathetic attitude among historians of science, by whom he is generally regarded as purveying an unpalatable and inherently 'un-scientific' amalgam of medicine and philosophy. Dr Pagel now demonstrates that by painstaking analysis it is possible to appreciate the creative insights of a figure like Van Helmont. His book is a model of its kind, and is the culmination of many years of reflection on the topics discussed.

Originally published in 1938, this book contains the text of ten lectures arranged by the History of Science Committee at the University of Cambridge in 1936. Each speaker covered a different aspect of scientific endeavour, focussing mostly on advances made in the period between 1895 and 1935 in fields such as parasitology, radioactivity, astronomy and evolution theory. The lecturers include such scientific notables as Lord Rutherford, Professor George Nuttall and Sir William Dampier, chosen for the fact that they had 'made fundamental contributions to science' in the previous forty years. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in the history of science.