Medical investigation in seventeenth century England

The seventeenth century marked a turning point in medicine, when ancient humoral doctrines began yielding to observation and experiment. This scholarly collection, growing from seminars at UCLA's renowned Clark Library, examines how English physicians and natural philosophers confronted fundamental questions about the human body. The essays explore embryological thought through figures like William Harvey, whose pioneering work on circulation and development shattered centuries of received wisdom, and Sir Thomas Browne, whose encyclopedic curiosity spanned medicine, religion, and natural philosophy. Equally compelling is the examination of Robert Boyle, the celebrated chemist and natural philosopher, as an amateur physician whose medical writings reveal the intimate connections between chemistry, alchemy, and early modern healing. These contributions demonstrate that the scientific revolution was not a sudden rupture but a gradual, contested transformation driven by individual thinkers working across disciplines. For historians of science and anyone curious about the intellectual origins of modern medicine, this volume illuminates a crucial era when healing began its long journey toward empirical rigor.