This masterwork of intellectual history has been widely acclaimed since its publication in 1963. Though its main focus is on the question of animal generation, it is broadly conceived and situates the life sciences within the larger context of French Enlightenment thought and the history of institutions. Comments on the French Edition "It fashions a standard of incredible breadth against which all subsequent histories of the biological sciences must be measured. In fact, it must become one of the seminal works in the interpretation of eighteenth-century science." --Journal of the...