Richter, Adam, MA, HIST, August 2011
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Priority and Nationalism: The Royal Societyʼs International Priority Disputes, 1660-1700 by Adam Richter Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia August 2011 © Copyright by Adam Richter, 2011 DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY The undersigned hereby certify that they have read and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate Studies for acceptance a thesis entitled “Priority and Nationalism: The Royal Societyʼs International Priority Disputes, 1660-1700” by Adam Richter in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Dated: August 24, 2011 Supervisor: _________________________________ Readers: _________________________________ _________________________________ ii DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY DATE: 24/08/11 AUTHOR: Adam Richter TITLE: Priority and Nationalism: The Royal Societyʼs International Priority Disputes, 1660-1700 DEPARTMENT OR SCHOOL: Department of History DEGREE: MA CONVOCATION: October YEAR: 2011 Permission is herewith granted to Dalhousie University to circulate and to have copied for non-commercial purposes, at its discretion, the above title upon the request of individuals or institutions. I understand that my thesis will be electronically available to the public. The author reserves other publication rights, and neither the thesis nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author’s written permission. The author attests that permission has been obtained for the use of any copyrighted material appearing in the thesis (other than the brief excerpts requiring only proper acknowledgement in scholarly writing), and that all such use is clearly acknowledged. _______________________________ Signature of Author iii Table of Contents List of Figures.....................................................................................................................v Abstract..............................................................................................................................vi List of Abbreviations Used..............................................................................................vii Acknowledgements.........................................................................................................viii Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................1 A Note about Dating Conventions and Orthography.............................................21 Chapter 2: Definition and Redefinition: Henry Oldenburg Defends English Priority 2.1: Oldenburgʼs Tools: The Republic of Letters and the Philosophical Transactions ......................................................................22 2.2: Oldenburg and Boyle on Priority....................................................................35 2.3: The Clarke-De Graaf Dispute.........................................................................42 Chapter 3: The Blood Transfusion Dispute: A Case Study in the Defence of English Priority 3.1: Blood Transfusion Experiments at Oxford and the Royal Society.................60 3.2: The French Claim to Priority for Blood Transfusion......................................66 3.3: The Resolution of the Blood Transfusion Dispute..........................................86 3.4: The Question of Nationalism..........................................................................93 Chapter 4: The Merchant of Glory: John Wallis and the Limits of English Nationalism in Priority Disputes 4.1: Wallis and English Priority before the Royal Society...................................100 4.2: The Wallis-Dulaurens Dispute......................................................................107 4.3: Wallisʼs Ongoing Work as a Defender of English Inventions and Discoveries.....................................................................121 4.4: Priority in Wallisʼs Grammar and De loquela 4.4.1: Mathematical Language and Its Real-World Applications............133 4.4.2: The Priority Dispute with William Holder.....................................140 Chapter 5: Conclusion: .................................................................................................156 Bibliography Primary Sources...................................................................................................171 Secondary Sources...............................................................................................173 iv List of Figures Figure 2.1: Diagram of a Testis from Testis examinatus....................................................50 Figure 3.1: Tubes Used During the First Successful Blood Transfusion...........................92 Figure 4.1: The Solution to Huygensʼ Anagram Concerning the Rings of Saturn..........103 v Abstract The Royal Society of London, the English scientific society founded in 1660, was involved in a number of disputes in the seventeenth century concerning who was the first person to make an invention or discovery. These priority disputes had a significant effect on the careers of most of the prominent figures in the early Royal Society, including Newton, Boyle and Hooke. Inventions and discoveries were the foundation of the Royal Societyʼs reputation, and thus needed to be claimed and protected in priority disputes. The subjects of these disputes ranged from solutions to mathematical problems to high- profile experiments. Such disputes frequently pitted Fellows of the Royal Society against intellectuals from the Continent. They were occasions for polemics framed in nationalistic terms, despite the collaborative spirit with which the transnational Republic of Letters purported to operate. This thesis examines how the Royal Societyʼs priority disputes began, how they functioned once underway, and how they concluded. It focuses on disputes between the Royal Society and its continental rivals, seeking to determine the extent to which nationalism was a factor. It argues that Society members, who were always guided by multiple loyalties, valued their loyalties to themselves, to the Society and to the English nation more than their loyalty to the Republic of Letters. Other social factors that motivated the disputants are also explored, including honour, credibility, and the Societyʼs ideal of aversion to conflict. This thesis highlights patterns in the behaviour of the participants of seventeenth- century priority disputes. It draws on methodology used in the sociology of science to analyze these patterns, examining the social construction involved in invention and discovery. Case studies are used to illustrate how the participants in priority disputes redefined several entities in ways that suited their own claims to priority: the invention or discovery being disputed, the etiquette of the Republic of Letters, the distinction between invention and innovation, and priority itself. Particular attention is paid to the activities of Henry Oldenburg, Secretary of the Royal Society, who communicated on behalf of the Royal Society through his correspondence network and the journal he edited, the Philosophical Transactions. This thesis argues that the Royal Society valued Oldenburg in part for his role in instigating priority disputes with non-English intellectuals, a role to which he was well-suited on account of his many contacts in England and on the Continent, his rhetorical skills, and his experience as a diplomat. It also analyzes the roles of experts like John Wallis and Timothy Clarke in priority disputes, arguing that Oldenburg could call upon them to defend English priority. However, it is noted that these figures (especially Wallis) sometimes abandoned the façade of English unity in favour of causes that affected them more personally, including their own priority claims. Accordingly, they employed the same polemical style in domestic priority disputes that they did in international ones. This study concludes with the suggestion that the polemics of figures like Oldenburg, Clarke and Wallis were crucial to the program of the seventeenth-century Royal Society because conflict, the idea of aversion to conflict notwithstanding, was an acknowledged and valued part of early Royal Society culture. vi List of Abbreviations Used CSM Rigaud, Stephen Peter, ed. Correspondence of Scientific Men of the Seventeenth Century, Including Letters of Barrow, Flamsteed, Wallis, and Newton, Printed from the Originals in the Collection of the Right Honourable Earl of Macclesfield, 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965. Originally published in 1841. HRS Birch, Thomas. The History of the Royal Society of London for Improving of Natural Knowledge, 4 vols. London: A. Millar, 1756-1757. Reprint, Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 1968. NC Newton, Isaac. The Correspondence of Isaac Newton, 7 vols. Edited by H. W. Turnbull., J. F. Scott, A. Rupert Hall and Laura Tilling. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959-1977. OC Oldenburg, Henry. The Correspondence of Henry Oldenburg, 10 vols. Edited by A. Rupert Hall, Marie Boas Hall and Eberhard Reichmann. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1965-1975. ODNB Matthew, H. C. G and Brian Howard Harrison, eds. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Available from http://www.oxforddnb.com.ezproxy.library.dal.ca. OED Simpson, John and Edmund Weiner. Oxford English Dictionary, online ed. Available from http://www.oed.com.ezproxy.library.dal.ca. Phil. Trans. Oldenburg, Henry, ed. Philosophical Transactions