Natural Philosophy and Public Spectacle in the Eighteenth Century

Priestley Joseph , “Lectures on history and general policy”, in Rutt J. T. (ed.), The theological and miscellaneous works of Joseph Priestley (25 vols, London, 1817–31), xxiv, 27–28; Heilbron J. , “Experimental natural philosophy”, in Rousseau G. and Porter R. (eds), The ferment of knowledge (Cambridge, 1980), 357–87, p. 386.

On audience and performance, see Dolby R. G. , “Sociology of knowledge in natural science”, Science studies, i (1971), 3–21, and the discussions in Shapin S. , “The audience for science in eighteenth century Edinburgh”, History of science, xii (1974), 95–121; Hufbauer K. , “The formation of the German chemical community” (Ph.D. thesis, Berkeley, 1970); McClellan J. , “International organization of science and learned societies in the eighteenth century” (Ph.D. thesis, Princeton, 1975); Dean D. R. , “James Hutton and his public, 1785–1802”, Annals of science , xxx (1973), 89–105; Porter R. , “Science, provincial culture and public opinion in Enlightenment England”, British journal of eighteenth century studies, iii (1980), 20–46.

Cantor G. N. , “The eighteenth century problem”, History of science, xx (1982), 44–63; Home R. , “Out of a Newtonian straightjacket: Alternative approaches to eighteenth century physical science”, in Brissenden R. and Eade J. (eds), Studies in the eighteenth century (Canberra, 1979), iv, 235–49; Kuhn T. S. , The essential tension (Chicago, 1977); Heilbron J. , Electricity in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Berkeley, 1979). On natural history, see Allen D. E. , The naturalist in Britain (Harmondsworth, 1976) as opposed to Foucault M. , The order of things (London, 1970), ch. 5.

Cantor , “The eighteenth century problem”, op. cit. (ref. 3); Inkster I. , “The public lecture as an instrument of science education for adults”, Paedagogica historica, xx (1981), 85–112; Berman M. , Social change and scientific organization: The Royal Institution 1799–1844 (London, 1978), xxii. On the situation in the 1780s, see Mercier L. S. , Tableau de Paris (Amsterdam, 1783), ii, 300; Darnton R. , Mesmerism and the end of the Enlightenment in France (Cambridge, Mass., 1968); Gillispie C. C. , Science and polity in France at the end of the Old Regime (Princeton, 1980), ch. 4; Mornet Daniel , Les origines intellectuelles de la Révolution française (Paris, 1947); Lopez C. A. , Mon cher Papa: Franklin and the ladies of Paris (New Haven, 1966). On ‘pre-revolutionary’ consciousness, see Nagy P. , Libertinage et révolution (Paris, 1975), 149–55; Vovelle M. , “Le tournant des mentalités en France: La sensibilité pré-révolutionnaire”, Social history, v (1977), 605–29; Foucault M. , “Histoire sociale et histoire des mentalités”, La nouvelle critique, xlix (1972). For the transformations of natural philosophy and natural history, see the stimulating account in Lepenies W. , Das Ende der Naturgeschichte (Munich, 1976), “Wandel der Mentalitäten und Wissenschaftsgeschichte”.

Paulet J. , L'antimagnétisme (Paris, 1784), 5; Gillispie , op. cit. (ref. 3), 232; Starobinski J. , 1789: Les emblèmes de la raison (Paris, 1979), 168–9; compare Barbeguière J. B. , La maçonnerie mesmérienne (Amsterdam, 1785), 65–67.

Darnton , op. cit. (ref. 4), 11 n. 3.

Heilbron , op. cit. (ref. 3), 2; Benz E. , Theologie der Elektrizität (Mainz, 1971).

Cambridge University Library MSS Add 3970.9, f.619. See McGuire J. E. , “Newton on place, time and God”, British journal for the history of science, xi (1978), 114–29; Trengrove L. , “Newton's theological views”, Annals of science, xxii (1966), 277–94; Wilde C. B. , “Matter and spirit as natural symbols in eighteenth century Britain”, British journal for the history of science, xv (1982), 99–131; Berman M. , “‘Hegemony’ and the amateur tradition in British science”, Journal of social history, viii (1975), 30–50.

Newton Isaac , Opticks, 4th edn (London, 1730, repr. New York, 1952), 399; Heimann P. and McGuire J. E. , “Newtonian forces and Lockean powers”, Historical studies in physical sciences, iii (1971), 233–306; Heimann P. , “‘Nature is a perpetual worker’: Newtonian aether and eighteenth century natural philosophy”, Ambix, xx (1973), 1–25; Thackray A. , Atoms and powers (Cambridge, Mass., 1970); Bowles G. , “John Harris and the powers of matter”, Ambix, xxii (1975), 21–38; Kubrin D. , “Newton's inside out: Magic, class struggle and the rise of mechanism in the West” in Woolf H. (ed.), The analytic spirit (Ithaca, New York, 1981), 96–121; Knight D. , “The vital flame”, Ambix, xxiii (1976), 5–15; Home R. W. , “Nollet and Boerhaave: A note on eighteenth century ideas about electricity and fire”, Annals of science, xxxvi (1979), 171–6. Compare the revisionist paper of Schofield R. E. , “Joseph Priestley and the physicalist tradition in British chemistry”, in Kieft L. and Willeford B. R. (eds), Joseph Priestley: Scientist, theologian and metaphysician (Lewisburg, 1980), 92–117.

Ditton H. , New law of fluids (London, 1714), 39–42.

van Musschenbroek P. , Elements of natural philosophy, trans. by Colson J. (London, 1744), 199, 216.

Boerhaave H. , New method of chemistry , trans. by Shaw P. , 2nd edn (London, 1741), i, 172–3, 363–4; Boerhaave H. , Correspondence , ed. by Lindeboom G. (Leyden, 1964), ii, 13–15; Kerker M. , “Hermann Boerhaave and the development of pneumatic chemistry”, Isis, xlvi (1955), 36–49; Debus A. , “Fire analysis and the elements in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries”, Annals of science, xxiii (1967), 127–47; Love R. , “Boerhaave's element-instrument concept of fire”, Annals of science, xxxi (1974), 547–59; Gori G. B. , La fondazione dell'esperienza in 'sGravesande (Florence, 1972).

Addison Joseph , The spectator, no. 565 (July, 1714); Tamny M. , “Newton, creation and perception”, Isis, lxx (1979), 48–58.

See the texts cited in Schaffer S. , “Natural philosophy”, in The ferment of knowledge (ref. 1), 58–71.

Axtell J. , Educational writings of John Locke (London, 1968), 177; Dickinson H. T. , Liberty and property: Political ideology in eighteenth century Britain (London, 1977), 121–42.

Desaguliers J. T. , The Newtonian system of the world the best model of government (London, 1728); Jacob M. C. , The radical enlightenment (London, 1981), 101–6 (on Voltaire); Fielding Henry , A proposal for making effectual provision for the poor (London, 1753), 77; Ignatieff M. , A just measure of pain: The penitentiary in the Industrial Revolution (London, 1978), 72; Hay D. , “Property, authority and the criminal law”, in Hay D. Linebaugh P. and Thompson E. P. (eds), Albion's fatal tree (London, 1975), 17–65.

Schofield R. E. , “John Wesley and science in eighteenth century England”, Isis, xliv (1953), 331–40, p. 335.

Pope's grotto is described in Aubin R. , “Grottoes, geology and the Gothic revival”, Studies in philology, xxi (1934), 408–16; Nicolson M. and Rousseau G. S. , This long disease my life: Pope and science (Princeton, 1968), 251–65; Wright Thomas , Arbours and grottoes, ed. by Harris E. (London, 1979).

Klingender F. , Art in the industrial revolution (London, 1972), 85–90; Garrett Clarke , Respectable folly: Millenarians and the French Revolution in France and England (Baltimore, 1975), 155; Harrison J. , The second coming: Popular millenarianism 1780–1850 (London, 1979), 74; Rosenfeld S. , The theatre of the London fairs in the eighteenth century (Cambridge, 1960). On the chromatic harpsichord, see Lalande J. , Principes de la science de l'harmonie (Berlin, 1752; Bibliothèque Nationale MS 12273, ff. 139–44); Schier D. , L. B. Castel: Anti-Newtonian scientist (Cedar Rapids, 1941); Choulliet-Roche A. M. , “Le clavecin oculaire du P Castel”, Dixhuitième siècle, viii (1976), 141–66. On entrepreneurship, see for example Mathias P. , The transformation of England (London, 1979), ch. 12 and Plumb J. H. , The commercialisation of leisure in eighteenth century England (Reading, 1973).

“An historical account of the wonderful discoveries made in Germany concerning electricity”, Gentleman's magazine, xv (1745), 193–7 discussed in Heilbron J. , “Franklin, Haller and Franklinist history”, Isis, lxviii (1977), 539–49.

Lukis W. C. (ed.), “Family memoirs of the Reverend William Stukeley”, ii ( Publications of the Surtees Society , lxxvi (1883)), 378–9: “in order to this purpose of record I offer the ensuing account of electricity”. See also Cohen I. B. , “Neglected sources for the life of Stephen Gray”, Isis, xlv (1954), 41–48 and Granvil Wheler to Benjamin Wilson, 7 September 1748, British Library MSS Add 30094, f. 71. There is a fascinating account of one important source for the early work on electricity discussed here in Freudenthal G. , “Early electricity between chemistry and physics: The simultaneous itineraries of Francis Hauksbee, Samuel Wall and Pierre Polinière”, Historical studies in physical sciences, xi (1981), 203–29, who argues for the importance of the study of phosphor, and the “sense of amazement at such performances”.

Halley Edmond , 20 May 1731, Bodleian Library MSS Rigaud 37, f. 135.

Dufay C. F. , “Sixième mémoire sur l'électricité”, Mémoires de l'Académie Royal des Sciences 1734, 519–20.

Wheler G. , “Some remarks on the late Mr Gray's electrical circular experiment”, Philosophical transactions, xli (1737), 118–25. See also Gray Stephen , “Letter to Granvil Wheler concerning the revolutions which small pendulous bodies will by electricity make round large ones … as the planets do round the Sun”, Philosophical transactions, xxxix (1736), 220; Hauksbee Francis , Physico-mechanical experiments on various subjects (London, 1719), 67–68.

Wheler , op. cit. (ref. 21) and Smeaton John to Wilson Benjamin , 24 September 1746, British Library MSS Add 30094, f. 22.

Hall A. R. and Hall M. B. , Unpublished scientific papers of Isaac Newton (Cambridge, 1963), 350–4; Rackstrow B. , Miscellaneous observations together with a collection of experiments on electricity (London, 1748), 56–57; compare Millburn J. R. , “William Stukeley and the early history of the orrery”, Annals of science, xxxi (1974), 511–28. See also Ryland J. , An easy introduction to mechanics and geometry (London, 1768), xix–xxii. I owe this reference to James Secord. On systems using electricity and fire, see Ritterbush P. C. , Overtures to biology (New Haven, 1964); Lacy John , The universal system (London, 1779); Harrington Robert , New system on fire and planetary life (London, 1796); Symes Richard , Fire analysed (Bristol, 1771), 55–58; for the Behmenists, see Walton Christopher , Notes and materials for an adequate biography of William Law (London, 1854), 413–17; Hutin Serge , Les disciples anglais de Jacob Boehme au 17e et 18e siècles (Paris, 1960).

Rackstrow , op cit. (ref. 26), 25; Symes , op. cit. (ref. 26), 36; P. Collinson to Colden C. , 30 March 1745, Colden papers , iii (New York, 1920), 109–11; Martin Benjamin , Philosophia Britannica (London, 1747), i, preface.

Coste P. , Traité (2nd ed., Amsterdam, 1722); Desaguliers John , Experimental philosophy , i (London, 1734); King's College Cambridge MSS Keynes 130.11; Robinson to Wilson, British Library MSS Add 30094, f. 23. I owe this point to Steven Shapin.

Priestley Joseph , History and present state of electricity (3rd ed., Lond).

Darnton , op. cit. (ref. 4), 60.

On the Leyden Jar, see Heilbron , op. cit. (ref. 3), ch. 13; Hackmann W. , Electricity from glass: The history of the frictional electrical machine (Alphen, 1978); Priestley , op. cit. (ref. 29), i, 103–19. On Richmann's death, see Ritterbush , op. cit. (ref. 26), 25; Gentleman's magazine, xxv (1755), 312; Priestley , History of electricity (London, 1767), 107 and 358–9; Watson William , “Answer to Dr Lining's query relating to the death of Professor Richmann”, Philosophical transactions, xlviii (1754), 765–72. Compare Mazéas to Wilson , British Library MSS Add 30094, f. 78.

Smeaton John to Wilson Benjamin , 24 September 1746, British Library MSS Add 30094, f. 22.

Heilbron , op. cit. (ref. 3), 352 n. 33; Wesley John , The desideratum, or electricity made plain and useful (London, 1760), 12; Penrose Francis , Treatise on electricity (Oxford, 1752), 6; Freke John , Essay to shew the cause of electricity (London, 1746), v; Symes , op. cit. (ref. 26), 49; and see Kuhn A. J. , “Nature spiritualized: Aspects of anti-Newtonianism”, ELH, xli (1974), 400–12.

Ritterbush , op. cit. (ref. 26); Adams G. , Essay on electricity (2nd ed., London, 1785), 316; Home R. W. , “Electricity and the nervous fluid”, Journal of the history of biology, iii (1970), 235–51.

Neale J. , Directions for gentlemen who have electrical machines (London, 1747); Symes , op. cit. (ref. 26), 59–87: “electricity comes the nearest to any panacaea of any medicine yet discovered”; Rackstrow , op. cit. (ref. 26), 53–55; Millburn J. R. , Benjamin Martin: Instrument-maker, author and ‘country showman’ (Leyden, 1976), 40–44; Yeoman Thomas in Musson A. E. and Robinson E. , Science and technology in the industrial revolution (Manchester, 1969), 381; Warltire John in McKie D. , “Mr Warltire, a good chymist”, Endeavour, x (1951), 46–49 and Torrens H. , “Geological communication in the Bath area in the last half of the eighteenth century”, in Jordanova L. and Porter R. (eds), Images of the Earth (Chalfont St Giles, 1979), 215–47, p. 230; Kinnersley Ebenezer , at Newport, R. I., 1752, in Dibner B. , Early electrical machines (Norwalk, 1957), 35: “as the knowledge of Nature tends to enlarge the human mind, and gives us more noble, more grand, and exalted ideas of the AUTHOR of Nature, and if well pursu'd seldom fails producing something useful to Man, 'tis hoped these Lectures may be tho't worthy of Regard and Encouragement.” See Harrison J. , “Blind Henry Moyes”, Annals of science, xiii (1957), 109–25 and Ritterbush , op. cit. (ref. 26), 43–48 for the Royal Humane Society and electrical revival; and Turner A. J. , Science and music in eighteenth century Bath (Bath, 1977), 86 on John Arden.

Millburn , op. cit. (ref. 35); Martin B. , Course of lectures in natural and experimental philosophy (Reading, 1743), preface; Martin , New and compleat course of experimental philosophy (Bath, 1746), preface.

Freke John , Treatise on the nature and property of fire (London, 1752), 28–32; Martin Benjamin , Supplement containing remarks on a rhapsody of adventures of a modern knight-errant (Bath, 1746), 28–29.

Limoges C. (ed.), L'équilibre de la nature (Paris, 1972), 146–8.

Cantor G. , “The theological significance of ethers”, in Cantor G. and Hodge M. (eds), Conceptions of ether (Cambridge, 1981), 135–55; Patterson A. Temple , Radical Leicester (Leicester, 1954), 73; Priestley J. , Experiments and observations on different kinds of air (London, 1774), xiv.

Knox R. , Enthusiasm (Oxford, 1950); Rosen G. , “Enthusiasm”, Bulletin of the history of medicine, xlii (1968), 393–421; Rosen G. , Madness in society (Chicago, 1968). I owe these points to Roy Porter.

Casaubon M. , Treatise concerning enthusiasm (Oxford, 1655); Browne Thomas , Pseudodoxia epidemica (3rd ed., London, 1658); Trenchard John , Natural history of superstition (London, 1709), 13–20.

Schwartz H. , Knaves, fools, madmen and that subtile effluvium (Gainesville, Florida, 1978), 35, 47; Toland John , Adeisidaimon (Dublin, 1709), 68.

Reeves W. , Apologies of Justin Martyr (2nd ed., London, 1716), lxxv–lxxviii; Hecquet P. , Le naturalisme des convulsions dans les maladies de l'épidémie convulsionnaire (2 vols, Paris, 1733); Hecquet P. , La chirurgie et la pharmacie des pauvres (3 vols, Paris, 1740). See Duffy E. , “Primitive Christianity revived: Religious renewal in Augustan England”, Studies in Church history, xiv (1977), 287–300 for these Tory images.

Westrum R. , “Science and social intelligence about anomalies: The case of meteorites”, Social studies of science, viii (1978), 461–93; Schaffer S. , “Authorised prophets: Comets and astronomers in the eighteenth century”, forthcoming.

Heilbron , op. cit. (ref. 3), 16; de Gamaches E. S. , L'hypothèse des petits tourbillons (Paris, 1761), 326.

Torlais J. , L'Abbé Nollet: Un physicien au siècle des lumières (Paris, 1954), 17 and 69; Torlais J. , “La physique expérimentale” in Taton R. (ed.), Enseignement et diffusion des sciences en France au dix-huitième siècle (Paris, 1964), 619–39; Heilbron , op. cit. (ref. 3), 159; Hanna B. T. , “Polinière and the teaching of experimental physics at Paris, 1700–1730”, in Gay P. (ed.), Eighteenth century studies presented to Arthur Wilson ( Hanover N.H. , 1972), 15–39.

Torlais , Nollet (ref. 46), 74, 226; Nollet J. A. , Programme ou idée générale d'un cours de physique expérimentale (Paris, 1738), xviii.

Torlais , Nollet (ref. 46), 81.

Nollet J. A. , “Examen de deux questions concernant l'électricité”, Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences 1753, 481–2. See Home R. W. , The effluvial theory of electricity (New York, 1981), 240.

Torlais , Nollet (ref. 46), 19.

Nollet J. A. , “An examination of certain phenomena in electricity”, Philosophical transactions abridged, x (1809), 20–27, p. 23. See also Nollet , “Expériences et observations faites en différens endroits d'Italie”, Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences 1749, 444–88; idem, op. cit. (ref. 49).

Nollet , “An examination”, 25; Heilbron , op. cit. (ref. 3), 354.

d'Azyr Vicq , Oeuvres complètes (Paris, 1805), iii, 117; de Saint-Just S.P. Mérard , Éloge historique de J. S. Bailly (Paris, 1794), 65–66; Bailly J. S. , Discours et mémoires (Paris, 1790), ii, 108; van Marum Martin , Life and work (Haarlem, 1971), v, 33; Rather L. J. , Mind and body in eighteenth century medicine (New York, 1965).

Jussieu A. L. , Rapport par l'un des commissaires chargés par le Roy de l'examen du magnétisme animal (Paris, 1784); Servan A. , Doutes d'un provincial (Lyons, 1784), 82–83; Darnton , op. cit. (ref. 4), 113.

Watson W. , “A letter”, Philosophical transactions, xlvi (1750), 348–56; “An account of Mr Benjamin Franklin's Treatise”, Philosophical transactions, xlvii (1751), 202–11; “An account of Professor Winkler's experiments relating to odours passing through electrized Globes and Tubes”, Philosophical transactions, xlvii (1751), 231–41; “An account of Dr Bohadsch's treatise”, Philosophical transactions, xlvii (1751), 345–51; Henry Miles to Wilson, British Library MSS Add 30094, f. 76.

Torlais J. , “Un grand controverse scientifique du dix-huitième siècle: L'Abbé Nollet et Benjamin Franklin”, Revue d'histoire des sciences, ix (1956), 339–49; Heilbron , op. cit. (ref. 20); Home R. W. , Aepinus's essay on the theory of electricity and magnetism (Princeton, 1979), 107–36.

Yamazaki E. , “L'Abbé Nollet et Benjamin Franklin”, Japanese studies in history of science, xv (1976), 37–64; Nollet J. A. , Lettres sur l'électricité (Paris, 1753), 28–29.

Limoges , op. cit. (ref. 38), 122, 133; Goldsmith Oliver , An history of the Earth and animated nature (London, 1774), i, 400–1; Porter Roy , “Creation and credence: The career of theories of the Earth in Britain”, in Barnes B. and Shapin S. (eds), Natural order (London, 1979), 106; Hamilton W. R. (ed.), Works of Thomas Reid (Edinburgh, 1846), 187, 527. I owe this reference to Michael Barfoot.

Martin B. , Philosophia Britannica (London, 1747), i, preface.

Walpole Horace , Correspondence, ed. by Lewis W. S. (New Haven, 1960), xx, 130 and xxv, 427. See Taylor J. , “Eighteenth century earthquake theories” (Ph.D. thesis, Oklahoma, 1975).

Walpole Horace , Letters, ed. by Cunningham P. (London, 1857), ii, 198, 207.

On climatology and the millenium, see Vuillaud P. , La fin du monde (Paris, 1952), 168; Garrett , op. cit. (ref. 19), ch. 7; Desaive J. P. , Médecins, climats, et épidémies à la fin du dix-huitième siècle (Paris, 1972); Davies N. Z. , Society and culture in early modern France (New York, 1975); Rosen G. , From medical police to social medicine (New York, 1974); Grmek M. , “Géographie médicale et histoire des civilisations”, Annales ESC, xviii (1963), 1071–97. On the earthquakes, see Rousseau G. S. , “The London earthquakes of 1750”, Cashiers d'histoire mondiale, xi (1968), 436–51; Kendrick T. D. , The Lisbon earthquake (London, 1956); Curnock N. (ed.), Journal of John Wesley (London, 1938), vi, 456.

Frank Robert , Harvey and the Oxford physiologists (Berkeley, 1980), ch. 5; John Flamsteed to Isaac Newton, 10 April 1693, Cambridge University Library MSS Add 3979, f. 11; Guerlac H. , “The poets' niter”, Isis, xlv (1954), 243–55.

Hales Stephen , Vegetable staticks (London, 1727), 220, 313; Allan D. C. and Schofield R. E. , Stephen Hales (London, 1980).

Hales Stephen , “Considerations on the cause of earthquakes”, Philosophical transactions, xlvi (1750), 669–81; Papin Denis , “A demonstration of the velocity wherewith the air rushes into an exhausted receiver”, Philosophical transactions, xvi (1686), 193–5.

Hales , Vegetable staticks, 280 and Hales, “Considerations on the cause of earthquakes”. See Guerlac H. , “The continental reputation of Stephen Hales”, Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences, iv (1951), 393–404.

Jordanova L. in Images of the Earth (ref. 35), 117–46; Heilbron , op. cit. (ref. 3), 373; Singer D. , “Sir John Pringle and his circle”, Annals of science, vi (1949), 127–80; Crane V.W. , “The Club of Honest Whigs”, William and Mary Quarterly, xxiii (1966), 210–33.

Schofield R. , “Electrical researches of Joseph Priestley”, Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences, lxiv (1963), 277–86; Schofield R. (ed.), Scientific autobiography of Joseph Priestley (Cambridge, Mass., 1966), 65–67.

Harmer Thomas to Canton John , 11 December 1753, Royal Society Canton Papers, ii, 28.

Bertholon P. , Journal de physique, x (1777), 179–96; de la Fond J. Sigaud , Dictionnaire de physique, iv (Paris, 1781), 453.

Gamble D. to Wilson , March 1782, British Library MSS ADD 30094, f. 219 (for diagrams of lightning protection); Wilson Benjamin , “New experiments on the nature and use of conductors”, Philosophical transactions, lxviii (1778), 245–313; Heilbron , op. cit. (ref. 3), 380–2; Cohen I. B. , “Prejudice against the introduction of lightning rods”, Journal of the Franklin Institute, ccliii (1952), 393–440; Tunbridge P. A. , “Franklin's pointed lightning conductors”, Notes and records of the Royal Society, xxviii (1974), 207–19.

Taylor , op. cit. (ref. 60), 91–153.

Hume in Kendrick, op. cit. (ref. 62); Sherlock Thomas , Letter on occasion of the late Earthquakes (London, 1750); Stukeley , op. cit. (ref. 21), lxxvi (1883), 370; Walpole , op. cit. (ref. 60), xx, 154.

Piggott Stuart , William Stukeley (Oxford, 1950); Lukis , op. cit. (ref. 21), i (Publications of the Surtees Society, lxxiii (1882)), 217–19.

Piggott Stuart , The Druids (Harmondsworth, 1974), 131–5; Lukis , op. cit. (ref. 21), i (Publications of the Surtees Society, lxxiii (1882)), 98–100.

Stukeley William , “On the causes of earthquakes”, Philosophical transactions, xlvi (1750), 641–6; “Concerning the causes of earthquakes”, Philosophical transactions, xlvi (1750), 657–9; “Philosophy of earthquakes”, ibid ., 731–50; Franklin Benjamin , Papers and Letters, ed. by Larabee L. (New Haven, 1961), iii, 365–76 and iv, 278–81.

Stukeley , “Philosophy of earthquakes”, 740–50.

Taylor , op. cit. (ref. 60), 17–19.

Tilton E. M. , “Lightning rods and the earthquakes of 1755”, New England quarterly, xiii (1940), 85–97.

Beccaria G. , Dell'elettricismo artificiale e naturale (Torino, 1753), 227–31; Beccaria , Elettricismo atmosferico (2nd ed., 1758), 361–2n.; de la Fond J. Sigaud , op. cit. (ref. 70); Brisson M. J. , Dictionnaire raisonné de physique (Paris, 1781), ii, 663–70; Cavallo T. , Complete treatise of electricity (London, 1777), 247–8; Barletti C. , Nuove sperienze elettriche (Milan, 1771), 38–41; Tytler J. , Encyclopaedia Britannica (2nd ed., Edinburgh, 1779), iv, 2589–603. These texts are analysed in Taylor , op. cit. (ref. 60).

Priestley Joseph , op. cit. (ref. 29), i, 443–58 and ii, 295–307.

ibid., i, 457–8 and ii, 75.

McEvoy J. E. , “Joseph Priestley: Philosopher, scientist and divine” (Ph.D. thesis, Pittsburgh, 1976).

Priestley Joseph , op. cit. (ref. 31), preface, xxiii; Hartley David , Observations on man (London, 1749); McEvoy J. , “Electricity, knowledge and the nature of progress in Priestley's thought”, British journal for the history of science, xii (1979), 1–30; Marsh R. , “The second part of Hartley's system”, Journal of the history of ideas, xx (1959), 264–73; D'Elia D. , “Benjamin Rush, Hartley and the revolutionary uses of psychology”, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, cxiv (1970), 109–18.

McEvoy , op. cit. (ref. 84); Priestley , op. cit. (ref. 31), iv.

Torlais , Nollet (ref. 46), 226; Nollet J. A. , “Comparaison raisonnée des plus célebres phénomènes de l'électricité”, Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences 1743, 429–46, p. 430.

Gerstner P. , “Hutton's theory of the Earth and his theory of matter”, Isis, lix (1968), 26–31; Grant R. , “Hutton's theory of the Earth”, in Images of the Earth (ref. 35), 23–38; compare Reinhardt O. and Oldroyd D. , “Kant's thoughts on the ageing of the Earth”, Annals of science, xxxix (1982), 349–69; Garrison F. , “Franklin's dissertations relating to geological phenomena”, Journal of the Franklin Institute, ccxxiii (1937), 635–42.

Larson J. L. , Reason and experience: The representation of order in the work of C. von Linné (New York, 1971); Limoges C. (ed.), L'équilibre de la nature (Paris, 1972), 108; Lepenies W. , “Linnaeus' Nemesis divina and the concept of divine retaliation”, Isis, lxxiii (1982), 11–27.

Pulteney R. , General view of the writings of Linnaeus (Bath, 1781); Berdoe M. , Enquiry into the influence of the electric fluid (London, 1771); Maclurg J. , Experiments upon human bile (London, 1772), lxii; see Ritterbush , op. cit. (ref. 26), 28–35.

Brown T. M. , “From mechanism to vitalism in eighteenth century English physiology”, Journal of the history of biology, vii (1974), 179–216; Walker W. , “Animal electricity before Galvani”, Annals of science, ii (1937), 84–113, with reproductions of Cavendish's torpedo models; Vartanian A. , “Trembley's polyp, La Mettrie and eighteenth century French materialism”, in Weiner P. and Noland A. (eds), Roots of scientific thought (New York, 1957), 497–516; Miller D. P. , “Sir Joseph Banks: An historiographical perspective”, History of science, xix (1981), 284–92.

Diderot D. , Oeuvres philosophiques, ed. by Vernière P. (Paris, 1964), 185.

Quesnay F. , Essai physique sur l'économie animale (2nd ed., Paris, 1747); F. Quesnay et la physiocratie (Paris, 1958), i, 886–92; Fox-Genovese E. , Origins of physiocracy (New York, 1976); French R. K. , “Ether and physiology”, in Cantor and Hodge , op. cit. (ref. 39), 125.

On the aerial philosophy, see Donovan A. L. , Philosophical chemistry in the Scottish Enlightenment (Edinburgh, 1975) and, on therapy and the air, Eklund J. , “Of a spirit in the water: Some early ideas on the aerial dimension”, Isis, lxvii (1976), 527–50. On air and health in Smollett, see Rousseau G. S. , “Matt Bramble and the sulphur controversy in the eighteenth century”, Journal of the history of ideas, xxviii (1967), 577–89 and compare Morel M. F. , “City and country in eighteenth century medical discussions”, in Forster R. and Ranum O. (eds), Medicine and society in France (Baltimore, 1980), 48–65.

Pringle John , Observations on the nature and cure of hospital and jayl fevers (London, 1750), 8–33; Singer , op. cit. (ref. 67), 229–47; texts cited in ref. 62; Bynum W. F. , “Health, disease and medical care”, in Rousseau and Porter , op. cit. (ref. 1), ch. 5; Pasquino Pasquale , “Theatrum politicum: The genealogy of capital”, Ideology and consciousness, iv (1978), 41–54; Knemeyer F. L. , “Polizei”, Economy and society, ix (1980), 168–96, for texts from Frank, Beccaria and others, writing on systems of police. For Macbride, see Macbride David , Experimental essays (Dublin, 1764), viii and 30–31; Scott E. , “The Macbridean doctrine of air”, Ambix, xvii (1970), 43–57; Lloyd C. and Coulter J. , Medicine and the navy (London, 1961), iii.

McKie D. , “Joseph Priestley and the Copley medal”, Ambix, ix (1961), 1–22; Priestley , “Observations on different kinds of air”, Philosophical transactions, lxii (1772), 147–264, p. 162.

Priestley to De Luc , 11 December 1782, in Scientific autobiography , 217; compare Priestley to Young Arthur , 12 December 1782, ibid., 218; de Luc J. A. , Idées sur la météorologie (Paris, 1787); Lalande to De Luc , 14 April 1788, Académie des Sciences dossier Lalande.

Mathias P. , The transformation of England (London, 1979), 265–85; Cooter R. , “Anticontagionism and history's medical record”, in Wright P. and Treacher A. (eds), The problem of medical knowledge (Edinburgh, 1982), 87–108.

Priestley Joseph , Institutes of natural and revealed religion (London, 1772), ii, 19–20; on Clayton see Winnett A. R. , “An Irish heretic bishop: Robert Clayton of Clogher”, Studies in Church history, ix (1972), 311–21 and Wilde , op. cit. (ref. 8).

Priestley Joseph , Experiments and observations on different kinds of air (London, 1775), ii, 146 and Disquisitions relating to matter and spirit (London, 1777), 170–3. For studies of the small group structure of the Enlightenment, see Porter R. and Teich M. (eds), The Enlightenment in national context (Cambridge, 1979); Emerson R. L. , “The social composition of enlightened Scotland”, Studies on Voltaire and the eighteenth century, cxiv (1973), 291–329; Schofield R. F. , The Lunar Society of Birmingham (London, 1963); Roche D. , “Milieux académiques provinciaux et société des lumières”, Livre et société dans la France du dix-huitième siècle (Paris, 1965), 93–184: “the importance of the sciences for public utility is far from clearly recognised by the great, and is completely misunderstood by the people”; Cochrane E. , Florence in the forgotten centuries (London, 1973), 429 (for the Georgofili); Haskell F. , Patrons and painters (Cambridge, 1963), 278 (for the Venetian Newtonians); Koselleck R. , La règne de la critique (Paris, 1979), for a brilliant essay on the links between the clubs, masons and Enlightenment which complements Jacob M. C. , Radical Enlightenment (ref. 16).

On Beddoes and the need “to humanize the people” (1792), see Stock J. E. , Memoirs of the life of Thomas Beddoes (London, 1811); Levere T. H. , “Thomas Beddoes at Oxford”, Ambix, xxviii (1981), 61–69; Cartwright F. , “Association of Thomas Beddoes with James Watt, Jr.”, Notes and records of the Royal Society, xxii (1967), 131–43; Neve M. , “The young Humphry Davy or John Tonkin's lament”, in Forgan S. (ed.), Science and the sons of genius (London, 1980), 1–32, who writes of Beddoes's programme.

Darwin Erasmus , The Temple of Nature (London, 1803), 21n., on affinity and power, Additional Notes 14 and 15 on earthquakes and fire; Robinson E. , “The Derby Philosophical Society”, Annals of science, ix (1953), 359–67; Garfinkle N. , “Science and religion in England 1790–1800: Critical response to the work of Erasmus Darwin”, Journal of the history of ideas, xvi (1955), 376–88. On Phillips, see Patterson , op. cit. (ref. 39), 68ff. and I. Prothero, Artisans and politics in early nineteenth century London (London, 1979), 263.

Thackray , Atoms and powers, 248–52; Scott W. L. , “Impact of the French Revolution on English science”, Mélanges Alexandre Koyré (2 vols, Paris, 1964), ii, 475–95; Priestley Joseph , Letter to Edmund Burke (Birmingham, 1791), 239; Priestley to Burke , 11 December 1782, in Scientific autobiography, 216; Rose R. , “The Priestley riots”, Past and present, xvii (1960), 68–88.

Blake William , Complete writings, ed. by Keynes G. (Oxford, 1969), 58–59; Erdman D. V. , Blake: Prophet against empire (3rd edn, Princeton, 1977), 93 n. 13 and 529; Ault D. , Visionary physics: Blake's response to Newton (New York, 1974), 50–52; Pinetti G. , The conjurer's repository (London, 1795) (for Katterfelto).

Sibley E. , Complete illustration of the celestial science of astrology (London, 1784), 42; Debus A. , “A further note on palingenesis: The account of Ebenezer Sibley”, Isis, lxiv (1973), 226–30; Reid W. Hamilton , Rise and dissolution of the infidel societies of this metropolis (London, 1800); Hans N. , New trends in education in the eighteenth century (London, 1951), 150; Harrison , op. cit. (ref. 19), 46–49.

Berman , Social change and scientific organisation (ref. 4), 25.

Thackray , Atoms and powers, 234–8; Walker A. , Analysis of a course of lectures on natural and experimental philosophy (Manchester, 1787), 20–28; idem, A system of familiar philosophy (London, 1799), vii; Taylor E. G. R. , Mathematical practitioners in Hanoverian England (Cambridge, 1966), 248–9.

Scott W. R. , Adam Smith as student and professor (Glasgow, 1937), 345; on charlatans, see Goubert J. R. , “The art of healing: Learned medicine and popular medicine in the France of 1790”, in Medicine and society in France (ref. 93), 1–23.

On the Revolutionary cults and inspection, see Tiersot J. , Les fêtes et les chants de la Révolution (Paris, 1908); Baltrusiatis J. , La quête d'Isis (Paris, 1967); Aulard F. , Le Culte de la raison et le culte de l'Être Suprême (Paris, 1892); Ozouf M. , La fête rêvolutionnaire (Paris, 1976); Botting D. , Humboldt and the cosmos (London, 1973), 19–20; Salaville J. B. , Annales patriotiques (November 1793), 1467; Foucault Michel , Discipline and punish (Harmondsworth, 1977), part 3, ch. 3; Bailly J. S. , Essai sur les fables (Paris, 1799), ii, 164ff.; Melvin P. H. , “Burke on theatricality and revolution”, Journal of the history of ideas, xxxvi (1975), 447–68, citing Burke's statement that the Jacobins “institute impious, blasphemous, indecent theatric rites in honour of their vitiated, perverted reason”.

Lalande J. , “Testament morale”, in Amiable L. , Le franc-maçon Lalande (Paris, 1889), 16, 49–54; de Bussy Martin , L'Éther (Paris, 1796), p. xvi.

Starobinski , op. cit. (ref. 5), 37.

Jordanova , op. cit. (ref. 67); Gillispie , op. cit. (ref. 4), 194–203; see Hannaway C. , “The Société Royale de Médecine and epidemics in the Ancien Régime”, Bulletin of the history of medicine, xlvi (1972), 257–73; Peter J. , “Disease and the sick at the end of the eighteenth century”, in Forster R. and Ranum O. (eds), Biology of man in history (Baltimore, 1975); Roche D. , “Talent, reason and sacrifice: The physician during the Enlightenment”, in Medicine and society in France (ref. 93), 66–88 (on Vicq d'Azyr), compare also Favre R. , La mort au siècle des lumières (Lyon, 1978), 244–72; Coleman W. , “Health and hygiene in the Encyclopédie”, Journal for the history of medicine, vii (1974), 399–421.

Greenbaum L. S. , “Tempest in the Academy”, Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences, xxiv (1974), 122–42.

Duval C. , “Pilâtre de Rozier”, Chymia, xii (1967), 99–117.

Bergasse N. , Lettre d'un médecin (Paris, 1781), 51 and 65 in Darnton , op. cit. (ref. 4), 84, 121.

Sutton G. , “Electric medicine and mesmerism”, Isis, lxxii (1981), 375–92, p. 390; Darnton R. , “High enlightenment and the low life of literature in pre-revolutionary France”, Past and present, li (1971), 85–115, n. 103; Darnton , op. cit. (ref. 4), 95 n. 8; Cotte Louis , Traité de météorologie (Paris, 1774); d'Azyr Vicq , Histoire de la Société Royale de Médecine, iii (1779), 61–83; Campardon E. , Les spectacles de la foire (Paris, 1877), i, 214–15.

Gillispie , op. cit. (ref. 4), 230; de la Varenne P. J. G. Mauduyt , “Mémoire sur le traitement électrique”, Mémoires de la Société Royale de Médecine, ii (1778), 61–83; Cabanés A. , Marat inconnu (Paris, 1891), 160; Torlais , Nollet (ref. 46), 221, on Robespierre and Marat.

Ledru N. , “Nouvelles expériences électriques”, Journal de physique (January 1778), 49–52; de la Fond J. Sigaud , Précis historique et expérimentale des phénomènes électriques (Paris, 1785); Marat J. P. , Mémoire sur l'électricité médicale (Paris, 1784); see Gillispie , op. cit. (ref. 3), 257–331; Torlais J. , “Un préstidigitateur célèbre: Chef de service d'électrothérapie au dix-huitième siècle: Ledru dit Comus”, Histoire de la médecine, v (1955), 13–25; Sutton , op. cit. (ref. 115).

Carra J. L. , Examen physique du magnétisme animal (Paris, 1785), 3, in Darnton, op. cit. (ref. 4), 110.

Garrett , op. cit. (ref. 19), 131; Valenze D. , “Prophecy and popular literature in eighteenth century England”, Journal of ecclesiastical history, xxix (1978), 75–92; Thompson E. P. , Making of the English working class (Harmondsworth, 1968), 127; Rudé G. , Ideology and popular protest (London, 1980), 133–44; Ward W. R. , “Swedenborgianism: Heresy, schism or religious protest?”, Studies in church history, ix (1972), 303–9; Hindmarsh R. , Rise and progress of the New Jerusalem Church in England (London, 1861), 23n.; Pratt M. , List of a few cures performed by Mr and Mrs de Loutherbourg (London, 1789); Wilson M. , Life of William Blake (London, 1971), 56, 337; and see British Library MSS Add 33498, f. 22 for Loutherbourg's clinic, 7 July 1789. For Blake's report on his wife's treatment by medical electricity in 1804, “the wonderful cause”, see Complete writings, 851 (to William Hayley, 23 October 1804: Letter 50).

On “psychosomatic effects”, see Bailly J. S. , “Lettre sur la question si les animaux sont entiérement privés d'imagination”, (1784) in Discours et mémoires (Paris, 1790), ii, 109–35; Franklin to La Condamine , 19 March 1784, in Smith E. B. , “Jean-Sylvain Bailly: Astronomer, mystic, revolutionary”, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, xliv (1954), 427–538, p. 489: “That delusion may however in some cases be of use while it lasts, if these people can be persuaded to forbear their drugs in expectation of being cured only by the physician's finger, or an iron rod pointing at them, they may possibly find good effects.” On the rise in medical electricity, see Heilbron , op. cit. (ref. 3), 491. For an examination of the contrast between Mesmerist arguments for the reality of their active powers in nature, and the commission's interest in the ‘moral’ cause, see Azouvi F. , “Sens et fonction épistémologique de la critique du magnétisme animal par les Académies”, Revue d'histoire des sciences, xxix (1976), 123–42.

Sherburn G. , “Pope and the great shew of nature”, Seventeenth century studies presented to R. F. Jones (Stanford, 1951), 306–15; Nicolson M. and Rousseau G. , op. cit. (ref. 18), 191–3; Nicolson M. , Mountain gloom and mountain glory (New York, 1959); Jones W. P. , The rhetoric of science (London, 1966); Gombrich E. H. , Symbolic images (London, 1978), 180–91.

Bailly J. S. , Histoire de l'astronomie moderne , i (Paris, 1779), v; de Gébelin Antoine Court , Histoire naturelle de la parole (Paris, 1776); Smith Adam , Essays on philosophical sùbjects (Edinburgh, 1795), Essay I. ; Joshua Reynolds, Sixth Discourse (10 December 1774) in Discourses on art , ed. by Wark R. (New York, 1959). For philosophical history, see Bryson G. T. , Man and society: The Scottish inquiry of the eighteenth century (Princeton, 1945); Davie G. E. , The Democratic intellect (Edinburgh, 1961); Turco L. , Dal sistema al senso commune (Bologna, 1974), ch. 6.

Kant I. , Critique of Judgment (1790), para. 28.

Smith , Essays, 23–26; MacFie A. , “The invisible hand of Jupiter”, Journal of the history of ideas, xxxii (1971), 595–9.

Kant , Critique of Judgment, paras. 28–29.

For Kant and Naturgeschichte, see Sloan P. , “Buffon, German biology and the historical interpretation of biological species”, British journal for the history of science, xii (1979), 109–53 and Lenoir T. , “Kant and Blumenbach”, Isis, lxxi (1980), 77–108. For analogy and sensibility, see Gregory John , Comparative view of the state and faculties of man (Edinburgh, 1765), 143–4; Akenside Mark , The pleasures of the imagination (London, 1744), and the comments in Lawrence C. , “Nervous system and society in the Scottish Enlightenment”, in Barnes and Shapin (eds), Natural order, 19–40.

de Quincy A. C. Quatremère , in Starobinski, 1789 (ref. 5), 52. This is analysed by Ozouf , op. cit. (ref. 108), 244–52. For Coleridge's reading in natural philosophy, see Levere T. H. , Poetry realized in nature: Samuel Taylor Coleridge and early nineteenth century science (Cambridge, 1981), 71ff, 171ff.