Medical Investigation in Seventeenth Century England Charles W. Bodemer Lester S. King William Andrews Clark Memorial Library Medical Investigation in Seventeenth Century England Embryological Thought in Seventeenth Century England _by Charles W. Bodemer_ Robert Boyle as an Amateur Physician _by Lester S. King_ Papers Read at a Clark Library Seminar, October 14, 1967 William Andrews Clark Memorial Library _University of California, Los Angeles/1968_ _Foreword_ Although the collection of scientific literature in the Clark Library has already served as the background for a number of seminars, in the most recent of them the literature of embryology and the medical aspects of Robert Boyle's thought were subjected to a first and expert examination. Charles W. Bodemer, of the Division of Biomedical History, School of Medicine, University of Washington, evaluated the embryological ideas of that remarkable group of inquiring Englishmen, Sir Kenelm Digby, Nathaniel Highmore, William Harvey, and Sir Thomas Browne. Lester S. King, Senior Editor of the _Journal of the American Medical Association_, dealt with the medical side of Robert Boyle's writings, the collection of which constitutes one of the chief glories of the Clark Library. It was a happy marriage of subject matter and library's wealth, the former a noteworthy oral presentation, the latter a spectacular exhibit. As usual, and of necessity, the audience was restricted in size, far smaller in numbers than all those who are now able to enjoy the presentations in their present, printed form. C. D. O'MALLEY _Professor of Medical History, UCLA_ I _Embryological Thought in Seventeenth Century England_ CHARLES W. BODEMER To discuss embryological thought in seventeenth-century England is to discuss the main currents in embryological thought at a time when those currents were both numerous and shifting. Like every other period, the seventeenth century was one of transition. It was an era of explosive growth in scientific ideas and techniques, suffused with a creative urge engendered by new philosophical insights and the excitement of discovery. During the seventeenth century, the ideas relating to the generation and development of organisms were quite diverse, and there were seldom criteria other than enthusiasm or philosophical predilection to distinguish the fanciful from the feasible. Applying a well-known phrase from another time to seventeenth-century embryological theory, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness."[1]