THE NEW SCIENCE 17 



Great credit is given by writers to this period for scientific 

 achievement. "There is no period in the history of mankind so 

 distinguished by great and important discoveries or so remarkable 

 for the development of the human intellect as the seventeenth cen 

 tury ", 65 "The age was emphatically an age of Discovery and 

 Invention ", 66 "The human intellect had reached the bounds of 

 the 'Wonderland' of Modern Science ". 6T It is now our task to 

 refute or justify these assertions. As stated above, there was no de 

 finite specialization at this time. The various fields of science 

 were being surveyed and the boundaries were being defined. It is 

 difficult, therefore, to classify the achievements. For the sake of 

 convenience the following headings have been made: 1. Anti- 

 quarianism. 2. Astronomy. 3. Botany. 4. Chemistry. 5. 

 Geography. 6. Mathematics. 7. Physics. 8. Physiology. 9. 

 Mechanical Inventions. The progress made during the period will 

 be traced as briefly as possible. 



Interest in Antiquarianism was not a new thing in 1660. As 

 early as 1572 there was a Society of Antiquarians in London. 68 A 

 "collector of rarities " was the hero of a comedy for the English 

 stage in 1641. 69 The first great collection of note was begun by 

 John Tradescant, a traveller, who arrived in England about 1600. 

 Under Charles I he was Keeper of the King's Garden. In 1650 

 he died and left to his son the great collection he had made. The 

 son continued the work of the father and at his death gave the col 

 lection to Elias Ashmole, himself an antiquarian and an eminent 

 virtuoso. He in turn gave it to Oxford at his death in 1682, 

 "twelve waggon loads". 70 



The Royal Society also found an interest in collecting rarities. 

 It was voted to pay * ' fifty pounds to buy a collection of rarities by 

 Mr. Hubbard". 71 Then, in the last years of the seventeenth cen 

 tury and the early years of the eighteenth, there was aroused a 

 keen interest in the ancient Roman remains in certain parts of 



65 Ency. Brit., Astronomy, vol. 21, p. 220. 15th Edition. 



66 Owen, J., Glanvil's Scepsis Scientifica, Introd. p. XXXIX. 



67 Ibid. p. XL. 



68 Ency. Brit., Zoology, vol. XXIV, p. 800. 15th Ed. Cf. Leland's New fear's Gift 

 and Bale's Index, and cf. Camden, Selden and others. 



69 Shackerly, Marmion, The Antiquary, 1641. 



70 Weld, C. R., History of the Royal Society, pp. 187-8, 64. 



71 Birch, Thomas, History of the Royal Society, vol. II, p. 64. 



