Monthly Archives: December, 2010
The Tale of Monsieur Gout
“Gout,” wrote the eminent 17th century physician Thomas Sydenham, “destroys more rich than poor persons, and more wise men than fools, which seems to demonstrate the justice and strict impartiality of Providence, who abundantly supplies those that want some of the conveniences of life with other advantages, and tempers its profusion to others with equal […]
Gravity: Manifest or Mechanical? Revisiting the Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence
[Note: In my seminar on “The Scientific Revolution” this semester, I assigned graduate students to write a blog post that, once revised by the class during a workshop, I would publish on my “Labyrinth of Nature” blog. This is the third piece from that seminar, by Master’s history student J.D. Wolflick.] In 1687, Isaac Newton published […]
Water for Renaissance Madrid: Rediscovering the Iberian Qanāts
[Note: In my seminar on “The Scientific Revolution” this semester, I assigned graduate students to write a blog post that, once revised by the class during a workshop, I would publish on my “Labyrinth of Nature” blog. This is the second piece from that seminar, by Master’s anthropology student Enrique Reyes.] When King Philip II of Spain […]
