Scientific Institutions and Practice in France and Britain, c... - 9781138375109

Taylor & Francis

This second collection of studies by Maurice Crosland focuses on the differences in the style and organisation of scientific activity in Britain and France in the 18th and early 19th centuries. There is a particular focus on chemistry and the work of Lavoisier and his colleagues and the great mathematician Laplace. This is complemented by a comparative exploration of the practice of early 'physics' and chemistry and their different reliance on laboratories, raising the question of whether chemistry provided a model for other sciences, both through the construction of pioneering laboratories and in establishing early schools of research. > This second collection of studies by Maurice Crosland has as a first theme the differences in the style and organisation of scientific activity in Britain and France in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Science was more closely controlled in France, notably by the Paris Academy of Sciences, and the work of provincial amateurs much less prominent.