The Great Instauration. Science, medicine and reform, 1626–1660

Different historical approaches to science and medicine may be related to the author's primary training. Those whose first training has been in science have tended to publish biographies of distinguished scientists, histories of various specialities or well-known institutions: they have edited original texts and studied the priorities or significance of important discoveries. With some exceptions, their historical range has been "restricted" in the sense that their aims have been limited, and their historical perspective narrowed to certain specialized fields. On the other hand, those with basic historical training have tended to discuss medicine and science in broader terms and in relation to other historical trends: they have rarely become involved in what they would dismiss as the "mere technicalities" ofthe subject. There has, therefore, long been the need for a study covering the interrelationship between the more specialized spheres of science and medicine together with other historical fields, usually treated by general historians, such as those of theology, philosophy and educational reform. This approach is most urgently needed in the seventeenth century which saw the founding of the Royal Society, and the emergence of the empirical attitude to medicine and science. This omission has now been amply rectified by Charles Webster's study ofthe rise ofscience, medicine and reform between 1626 and 1660 in which his historical canvas is as broad as his scholarship is profound. Powered by the driving force of Millenarianism and Utopianism and harnessed to the application of Baconian philosophy, the Puritans created a suitable climate for accelerating the progress of science, medicine, agriculture, technology, statistical analysis, economics and educational reform. In this well-planned and lucidly argued book the interaction between these different disciplines is studied under the following five main headings: the Great Instauration, the Spiritual Brotherhood, the Advancement of Learning, the Prolongation of Life and the Dominion over Nature. Webster begins by showing how the powerful motivation of Millenarianism with its guarantee of an imminent Utopia intensified the Puritans' search for knowledge, provided an impetus to their reforming zeal and spurred them on to high endeavour for His purpose. Beale, Hartlib, Culpeper, and Worsley were among those who believed that the Millennium was just around the corner, and attainable in their own lifetime. The intellectual climate of the Puritan Revolution was essentially anti-authoritarian, anti-scholastic and enthusiastic for both enlightenment and material progress. Having removed the King of England, the Puritans set about exploiting the health and …