M&D Deep Duck Read. On science.

[Dave Monroe]

The English term "natural history" is a translation of the Latin
historia naturalis. Its meaning has narrowed progressively with time,
while the meaning of the related term "nature" has widened (see also
Historybelow). In antiquity, it covered essentially anything connected
with nature or which used materials drawn from nature. For example,
Pliny the Elder's encyclopedia of this title, published circa 77 to 79
AD, covers astronomy, geography, man and his technology, medicine and
superstition as well as animals and plants.

Until well into the nineteenth century, knowledge was considered by
Europeans to have two main divisions: the humanities (including
theology), and studies of nature. Studies of nature could in turn be
divided, with natural history being the descriptive counterpart to
natural philosophy, the analytical study of nature. In modern terms,
natural philosophy roughly corresponded to modern physics and
chemistry, while natural history included the biological and
geological sciences. The two were strongly associated. During the
heyday of the gentleman scientists, many people contributed to both
fields, and early papers in both were commonly read at professional
science society meetings such as the Royal Society and the French
Academy of Sciences – both founded during the seventeenth century.

Natural history had been encouraged by practical motives, such as
Linnaeus' aspiration to improve the economic condition of Sweden.
Similarly, the Industrial Revolution prompted the development of
geology to help find useful mineral deposits.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_history#Historical

On Mon, Jan 5, 2015 at 5:27 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> Ongoing baseline concept--hat tip to a longtime Plister--Mason & Dixon
> are 'scientists' within their time, right? Or at least technologists?
> What was status of such?
>
> The pages from this book show how mathematics was taught to many young
> Englishmen so they could navigate at sea but how surveying became
> steadily popular to measure estates. Mathematics and astronomy
> skillls. Accuracy, that necessary condition of science. The not-magic.
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=urKT4s0qP88C&pg=PA162&dq=surveying+%2B+18th+Century&hl=en&sa=X&ei=zrKWVJHGE-6LsQSKtYCIAg&ved=0CDEQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=surveying%20%2B%2018th%20Century&f=false
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l