The Microscope and the Eye: A History of Reflections, 1740-1870

摘要

Wishing to understand how the microscope gained universal trustworthiness and reliability and became "a widely accepted and commonly used tool of biomedical research" (p. 2), Jutta Schickore argues in this ambitious and often difficult book that we must look beyond traditional histories of technology and culture and pay serious attention to what she terms "second order concerns." To this end she analyzes the arguments concerning the structure and function of the eye, and the means and methods of scientific research, advanced by physicians and natural historians who struggled with microscopical observations that were difficult to interpret and who came to realize that similar instruments could produce quite dissimilar results.