1. Neither the strict dualism that pitted mechanistic against biological explanation (Kiernan, Science and the Enlightenment) nor the dispute between chemical and triturationist mechanism (Brockliss, French Higher Education, 400-408) emerged in the seventeenth-century Academy. For the scope of chemical research in England, see George, "Chemical Papers." [BACK]

2. Mendelsohn, "Philosophical vs. Experimental Biology," and discussions by Roger and Plantefol; Gasking, Investigations, 37-69; Guyénot, Évolution, 214-15; Roger, Sciences de la vie, 325-54, 363, 391, 442. [BACK]

3. AdS, Reg., 1: 33. Perrault cited Theophrastus on the Causes of Plants, chap. 4. Compare Dodart, Mémoires des plantes, 138, who revived the question in 1678: AdS, Reg., 8: 189v. On growing plants from their ashes, see Le Febvre, Compleat Body, 156, Marx, "Alchimie et palingénésie," and Debus, "Further Note on Palingenesis." The view that plants grew from their salts was defended by Pinault in his Traité du jardinage, dedicated to the Academy and reviewed by Duclos in AdS, Reg., 6: 48r-57v; see 54v. [BACK]

4. AdS, Reg., 8: 135v, 151v (4 Aug. 1677, 23 Mar. 1678, Dodart); 7: 234r (14 Jan. 1679, Perrault); 11: 116v, 124r, 125v (20 Jan., 11 Apr., 25 Apr. 1685, Marchant), 133r-v (14 July 1685, La Chapelle). For descriptions see Marchant, Descriptions de quelques plantes nouvelles; BMHN MSS. 449-51. For Bourdelin's chemical analyses, see: AdS, Reg., 8: 198r-v, 200r-v, 201v-2r (15, 22 Mar., 26 Apr., 10 May 1679). See also AdS, Cartons 1666-1793, 2, 7: 119v-26r, 129r-32v, 135v-37r (1679); 2, 8: 116r-19r, 131v-32r, 146v-47r (1681, 1682); 1, 9: 104-6, 109-10, 127-32, 139-40, 381 (1684, 1686). See also Homberg's analyses in AdS, Reg., 14: 122r-25r, 200r (1 June, 23 Nov. 1695). [BACK]

5. AdS, Reg., 1: 34 (Perrault); Mémoires, 10: 120-22, 123; Historia, 309-10 (Tournefort). [BACK]

6. Mémoires, 10: 122, 124, 125. Grew had found seeds in the capsules of a hart's-tongue. Tournefort planted a hart's-tongue in a well, hoping for a natural and isolated environment to test Grew's hypothesis; a year later he observed several young plants growing on the opposite side of the well. Doubting at first that this was the same plant, because the seedlings had only a single leaf (the gametophyte) that was rounder than the leaves of the original plant, Tournefort continued to observe and eventually saw the characteristic leaves. Morison had made a similar experiment; he identified the prothallium as cotyledons of young ferns and believed he had proved that ferns were reproduced by seeds: Gunther, Early Science in Oxford, 3: 209; Arber, "Nehemiah Grew," 63. [BACK]

7. Mémoires, 10: 102, 125. In the 1670s Marchant studied mushrooms, bringing to a meeting "les premiers commencements de la formation des champignons qui sont dans les crottes de cheval, mises en une couche depuis un an, dans lesquelles il a fait remarquer de la moisissure, puis des fillets....": AdS, Reg., 8: 155r. No mention was made of seeds. See also Plantefol's remarks following Mendelsohn, "Philosophical vs. Experimental Biology," 228-29. [BACK]

8. Mémoires, 10: 124, 411-12, 414, and plate 17; Mariotte, Végétation, 136, 137. Tournefort cited observations in England by Ray and in Provence, Poitou, and elsewhere by other naturalists. [BACK]

9. Gasking, Investigations, 63; Berthier, "Le mécanisme cartésien," 2: 88n. 2. In his synthesis of contemporary research on plants, Régis summarized the arguments for preformation and against spontaneous generation: Système, 465-66 (livre 6). [BACK]

11. Mariotte, Végétation, 138. [BACK]

12. Gasking, Investigations, chaps. 2-5, esp. 41-42, 57-59; Guyénot, Évolution, 273-76, 331. [BACK]

13. Roger, Sciences de la vie, 352-53. [BACK]

14. AdS, Reg., 8: 141r, 156r-v, 189v, 192r, 215v (17 Nov. 1677, June 1677-Apr. 1678, 23 Nov., 7 Dec. 1678, Apr. 1678-June 1679); 7: 158r (14 May 1678); Historia, 157-58, 170. [BACK]

15. Mariotte, Végétation, 137, 139. Guyénot, Évolution, 289-93, and Gasking, Investigations, 66-67, discuss how preformationists explained hereditary variations. See Huygens, Oeuvres, 9: 361 (7 Feb. 1690), for the problem of explaining grafts along preformationist lines. [BACK]

16. Mariotte, Végétation, 137; Gasking, Investigations, 42; Bugler, "Précurseur," 247-48. Fontenelle accepted epigenesis: Marsak, Fontenelle, 26. Citing variation, Daniel Tauvry later objected to emboîtement: Guyénot, Évolution, 291. [BACK]

17. Mariotte, Végétation, 138. [BACK]

18. Mendelsohn, "Philosophical vs. Experimental Biology," 225. [BACK]

19. AdS, Reg., 1: 33. Dodart, Mémoires des plantes, 137, referred to the germination of plants in a vacuum and the extraction and analysis of lixivial salts from soil, work that bore no resemblance to Harvey's or Malpighi's studies. [BACK]

20. Hoppen, The Common Scientist, 141-42, 260n. 200. [BACK]

21. Mariotte, Végétation, 128-29; AdS, Reg., 7: 158r-v (14 May 1678, Mariotte); 8: 151v (23 Mar. 1678, Dodart). Cf. Historia, 170. [BACK]

22. Mariotte, Végétation, 139. [BACK]

23. Ibid., 137; Perrault, Circulation, 106-8, 118-19, 123-24. [BACK]

24. Mariotte, Végétation, 135, and De la nature des couleurs, in Oeuvres, 310-11. [BACK]

25. Mariotte, Végétation, 138; Mémoires, 10: 120, 124, 125, 126. For Tournefort, the exceptional number of mushrooms after the London fire showed that an alteration in the earth's juices could induce a dormant seed to grow. He conjectured that "the juice that dissolved the debris of calcinated houses" must be an especially good medium for causing seeds "that had been in the earth perhaps for a long time" to germinate. [BACK]

26. AdS, Reg., 17: 44r-49r (4 Dec. 1697): "...il y a dans la terre un sel que l'on peut appeler comme naturel, lequel est un mélange de sel marin, de nitre, de sel fixe, de sel ammoniac. On y peut ajouter l'alun et le vitriol. En examinant tous ces sels sans employer le feu, l'on trouve qu'ils donnent des indices d'acide et d'alcali" (49r). Ibid., 18: 4v-5v (12 Nov. 1698): "la terre qui se trouve dans les champs et dans les jardins contient considerablement du soufre" (4v). Cf. Historia, 445-56. See also the preface to Tournefort's Histoire des plantes, and the review of that book in Phil. Trans., no. 245 (1698): 385. [BACK]

27. Dodart, Mémoires des plantes, 137-38; AdS, Reg., 8: 3v, 92v-95r, especially 94v (23 Jan. 1675, 26 Aug. 1676). Other academicians proposed tests to learn whether earth increased in weight due to cooking and whether it was saltier in the spring: AdS, Reg., 8: 190r (23 Nov. 1678); 10: 12r (13 Mar. 1680). Earths associated with mineral waters were tested with a solution of turnsole in 1680: ibid., 10: 46v (28 Aug. 1680). Perrault and Duclos discussed chalk in 1683: ibid., 11: 6v (1 Sept. 1683). Borelly wanted to compare the acids of plants with those in minerals: ibid., 10: 96r (15 Apr. 1682). La Chapelle revived Dodart's earlier plan of comparing the salts in plants and soils: ibid., 11: 157v (30 Jan. 1686). [BACK]

28. AdS, Reg., 8: 63r-v (6, 13 Nov. 1675), cf. Borelly, 73v-74r (22 Jan. 1676); 75r, 78r-v, 81v, 85r, 88v, 89r (12 Feb., 11, 18 Mar., 6 May, 10 June, 1, 8 July 1676). Cf. AdS, Cartons 1666-1793, 1, 4: as numbered from front of vol., 101r-7v (1675); as numbered from back of vol., 12r-13v, 15r-v, 19v-20r (1675); 1, 5: 28r-30v, 40v-42r, 55r-60v, 75r-78v, 85r-v, 87v-88v, 108r-20v, 124v-26v, 137r-39r, 157r-58v, 168r-69r (1676-77); 2, 6: 73. In 1675 Bourdelin had identified only one earth that yielded an acid liquid and another that produced a very sour (acre) spirit similar to spirit of salt; marl effervesced with spirit of salt: Histoire, 1: 198. [BACK]

29. AdS, Reg., 8: 94v-95r (26 Aug. 1676). Borelly suggested using common salt, salt of tartar, "ou autre alcali sel armoniac, ou autre de Nature pareille sublimé, et derechef depuré & c." [BACK]

30. Ibid., 8: 93r: "pour en tirer tout le sel, et touttes les diverses substances ensemble dans leur Cahos." [BACK]

31. Ibid., 8: 93v-94v. [BACK]

32. AdS, Reg., 12: 21r-v (4 Dec. 1686); 18: 13v (19 Nov. 1698). [BACK]

33. Since a large volume of water contained only a small quantity of mineral salts, plants had to imbibe great quantities. Mariotte calculated how much water evaporated daily from plants: Végétation, 135-36, 140-41. [BACK]

34. AdS, Reg., 4: 79v-80r; Mémoires, 10: 195-97, 406-15. Cf. Perrault, Circulation, 77-80; for other mechanistic explanations of growth, see Grew, Anatomy of Plants, 48-49; Dedu, De l'âme des plantes, 297-98; Bugler, "Précurseur," 247. [BACK]

35. AdS, Reg., 14: 122v (1 June 1695): "...les organes des jeunes graines ne contiennent qu'une Séve aqueuse et fort fluide, qui n'est pas encore bien digerée, dont les parties salines, terrestres et aqueuses se mêlant avec le temps plus parfaitement s'epaississent, et forment en partic cette huile, qui se forme peu à pen,..." [BACK]

36. Ibid., 14: 123v: "...dans les jeunes graines le phlegme avec son sel et une partie de sa matiere terrestre composent avec le temps la quantité d'huile qui se trouve dans les graines meures...." [BACK]

37. Ibid., 14: 123r. Duclos held similar views on how oil is formed in plants: ibid., 4: 48r-54v. [BACK]

38. Howe, "Root"; Webster, "Water as the Ultimate Principle of Nature," 97, 100-107; JdS (1671): 612-13, review of Du Hamel's De corporum affectionibus. [BACK]

39. Histoire, 2: 133 (1692); Historia, 1: 321-22. [BACK]

40. Dodart, Mémoires des plantes, 205-6. Boyle pointed out that Helmont could not prove that minerals were produced by the water: Sceptical Chymist, in Works, 1: 496-98. His own experiments gave ambiguous evidence: Considerations and Experiments Touching the Qualities and Forms, in Works, 3: 102-9. Earlier English scientists, stimulated by Palissy and influenced by a Paracelsian tradition that emphasized "nutritive water and a life giving salt," had already studied the issue: Debus, "Palissy, Plat, and English Agricultural Chemistry," quotation from p. 88. Their interests resembled those of seventeenth-century academicians: Phil. Trans. 1 (1665): 91-92, and 10 (1675): 293-96. [BACK]

41. Mariotte, Végétation, 124, 125, 127; Perrault, Circulation, 72-73. [BACK]

42. Perrault, Circulation, 105, 110, 122. [BACK]

43. AdS, Reg., 17: 40r-v (27 Nov. 1697); cf. Hoffmann, Fundamenta Medicinae, 2: 66-67. [BACK]

44. Mémoires, 10: 120, 124, 126. This position could be Aristotelian or Paracelsian: Pagel, Paracelsus, 97, on "growing water." [BACK]

45. Guyénot, Évolution, 115-18; AdS, Reg., 6: 122r (13 July 1669); Perrault, Circulation, 89; for Homberg, see n. 43, above. [BACK]

46. On eclecticism in the sciences, see Roger, Sciences de la vie, 164; Debus, The English Paracelsians, 149; Brockliss, French Higher Education, chaps. 7 and 8. [BACK]