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03276aam a2200433Ii 4500 001 CFA9F8786B5311E69AFE1DDBDAD10320 003 SILO 005 20160826010517 008 150702t20152015enka e b 001 0 eng 010 $a 2014958938 020 $a 0198705131 (hardback) 020 $a 9780198705130 (hardback) 035 $a (OCoLC)915514145 040 $a AU@ $b eng $e rda $c AU@ $d OCLCO $d HBI $d BTCTA $d BDX $d YDXCP $d CDX $d EUW $d OCLCO $e rda $d MNJ $d OCLCO $d YAM $d ZCU $d OCLCO $d DLC $d OCLCO $d IWA $d SILO 043 $a e------ 050 4 $a QH83 G53x 2015 100 1 $a Gibson, Susannah, $e author. 245 10 $a Animal, vegetable, mineral? : $b how eighteenth-century science disrupted the natural order / $c Susannah Gibson. 250 $a First edition. 264 1 $a Oxford ; $b Oxford University Press, $c 2015. 300 $a xv, 215 pages : $b illustrations ; $c 23 cm 504 $a Includes bibliographic references (pages 201-205) and index. 505 0 $a Animal, vegetable, mineral? -- Animal : the problem of the zoophyte -- Vegetable : the creation of new life -- Mineral : living rocks -- The fourth kingdom : perceptive plants -- Epilogue. 520 $a Since the time of Aristotle, there had been a clear divide between the three kingdoms of animal, vegetable, and mineral. But by the eighteenth century, biological experiments, and the wide range of new creatures coming to Europe from across the world, challenged these neat divisions. Abraham Trembley found that freshwater polyps grew into complete individuals when cut. This shocking discovery raised deep questions: was it a plant or an animal? And this was not the only conundrum. What of coral? Was it a rock or a living form? Did plants have sexes, like animals? The boundaries appeared to blur. And what did all this say about the nature of life itself? Were animals and plants soul-less, mechanical forms, as Descartes suggested? The debates raging across science played into some of the biggest and most controversial issues of Enlightenment Europe. This book explains how a study of pond slime could cause people to question the existence of the soul; observation of eggs could make a man doubt that God had created the world; how the discovery of the Venus fly-trap was linked to the French Revolution and how interpretations of fossils could change our understanding of the Earth's history. Using rigorous historical research, and a lively and readable style, this book vividly captures the big concerns of eighteenth-century science. And the debates concerning the divisions of life did not end there; they continue to have resonances in modern biology. 650 0 $a Biology $x History $x History $v Popular works. 650 0 $a Natural history $x History. $x History. 650 0 $a Biology $x History $y 18th century. 650 0 $a Science $x History $x History $y 18th century. 650 0 $a Science $x History $y 18th century. 600 00 $a Aristotle $x Influence. 650 0 $a Botany $x History. 650 0 $a Zoology $x History. 650 0 $a Mineralogy $x History. 650 0 $a Biology $v Popular works. $v Popular works. 941 $a 2 952 $l PLAX964 $d 20230718092449.0 952 $l USUX851 $d 20160826035337.0 956 $a http://locator.silo.lib.ia.us/search.cgi?index_0=id&term_0=CFA9F8786B5311E69AFE1DDBDAD10320 994 $a C0 $b IWAInitiate Another SILO Locator Search