time; the refreshing river 



the "Aufklarung" period, and so on. The political absolutism of the 

 Baroque period mirrored itself in the extreme rationalism of seven- 

 teenth century biology. The Rococo period then brought in new 

 movements towards freedom in the political sphere, and this took 

 the form in science of a return to empiricism, so that the biological 

 observations of Redi^ and Wolffs were as much connected with the 

 romantic movement as were the philosophical speculations of 

 Rousseau. In the Encyclopaedists, the connection between empiricism 

 in science and political freedom is particularly well seen. Men of 

 learning examined the traditions of the technical arts and trades 

 with new interests. The new eminence of the female sex in the 

 Rococo period, unimaginable to previous ages, was perhaps connected 

 with the temporary triumph of ovism.^ 



The social and political ruling ideas of an epoch thus play a large 

 part in the scientific thought of the time, and may act as limiting 

 factors to further advance. 



Another point of view which may be taken regarding the environ- 

 ment of the scientific worker as a limiting factor is that which empha- 

 sises his existence as an economic unit and seeks to shovv^ how his 

 position in a society with such and such a class-structure influences 

 the development of his thought. It seems to offer considerable chances 

 for new discoveries in the history of science, for it directs its attention 

 precisely upon those aspects of human society (technical achievement, 

 labour conditions, the everyday life of the mine, the factory, the 

 barber-surgeon's shop) which, precisely because of their assumed 

 inferiority, have not been incorporated in the majority of books, 

 written inevitably by members of the governing classes or by those 

 who aspired to imitate gentility. Thus the rather sharp cleavage 

 between the philosophic biologist of the Hellenistic age, and the 

 contemporary medical man, who might often be a slave, contributed 

 to the sterility of ancient Mediterranean medicine, including obstetrics 

 and gynaecology. In the later christian West there was not much 



^ Esperlenie . . . alia generaiione degl'Insetti, 1668. 



^ Theoria Generationis, 1759. 



^ T. Bilikiewicz, Die Embryologie im Zeitalter d. Barock u. Rokoko (1-eipzig, 1932), 

 "Die Frau habe heute nicht nur das Recht, dass ihre Schonheit und Weiblichkeit in 

 Dithyramben besungen werde; wenn sie den Platz auf dem Throne einnehmen oder 

 iiber Throne verfugen konne, oder wenn sie im allgemeingesellschaftlichen Leben mit 

 der wachsenden Gleichberechtigung immer verantwortlichere Rollen iibernehmen 

 konne, so habe sie auch das Recht, auf dem Gebiete der Embryologie dem mannlichen 

 Geschlechte in die Augen zu schauen als ein Wesen, das dieselben Rechte auf Freiheit 

 habe. Der Ovismus liess diese Standarte wehen." 



142 



