CHAPTER VIII 



COOPERATION IN SCIENCE THE ROYAL 



SOCIETY 



THE period from 1637 to 1687 affords a good 

 illustration of the value for the progress of science 

 of the cooperation in the pursuit of truth of men of 

 different creeds, nationalities, vocations, and social 

 ranks. At, or even before, the beginning of that 

 period the need of cooperation was indicated by the 

 activities of two men of pronouncedly social tempera- 

 ment and interests, namely, the French Minim father, 

 Mersenne, and the Protestant Prussian merchant, 

 Samuel Hartlib. 



Mersenne was a stimulating and indefatigable 

 correspondent. His letters to Galileo, Jean Rey, 

 Hobbes, Descartes, Gassendi, not to mention other 

 scientists and philosophers, constitute an encyclo- 

 pedia of the learning of the time. A mathematician 

 and experimenter himself, he had a genius for elicit- 

 ing discussion and research by means of adroit ques- 

 tions. Through him Descartes was drawn into debate 

 with Hobbes, and with Gassendi, a champion of the 

 experimental method. Through him the discoveries 

 of Harvey, Galileo, and Torricelli, as well as of many 

 others, became widely known. His letters, in the 

 dearth of scientific associations and the absence of 

 scientific periodicals, served as a general news agency 

 among the learned of his time. It is not surprising 

 that a coterie gathered about him at Paris. Hobbes 



