1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910455277003321

Autore

Correia Clara Pinto

Titolo

The ovary of Eve [[electronic resource] ] : egg and sperm and preformation / / Clara Pinto-Correia

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, c1997

ISBN

9786611223915

1-281-22391-3

0-226-66950-5

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (424 p.)

Classificazione

XB 3400

Disciplina

509.4/09/032

Soggetti

Embryology - History

Reproduction - Research - History

Science - Europe - History - 17th century

Science - Europe - History - 18th century

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 361-376) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- CONTENTS -- ILLUSTRATI0NS -- FOREWORD -- PREFACE -- PROLOGUE -- 1. All About Eve -- 2. All About A dam -- 3. "One Does Not See the Wind" -- 4. Hopeful Monsters -- 5. Frogs with Boxer Shorts -- 6. The H Word -- 7. The Music of the Spheres -- 8. Magical Numbers -- Epilogue. The Fat Lady Will Not Sing -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

The Ovary of Eve is a rich and often hilarious account of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century efforts to understand conception. In these early years of the Scientific Revolution, the most intelligent men and women of the day struggled to come to terms with the origins of new life, and one theory-preformation-sparked an intensely heated debate that continued for over a hundred years. Clara Pinto-Correia traces the history of this much maligned theory through the cultural capitals of Europe. "The most wonderfully eye-opening, or imagination-opening book, as amusing as it is instructive."-Mary Warnock, London Observer "[A] fascinating and often humorous study of a reproductive theory that flourished from the mid-17th century to the mid-18th century."-Nina



C. Ayoub, Chronicle of Higher Education "More than just a good story, The Ovary of Eve is an object lesson about the history of science: Don't trust it. . . . Pinto-Correia says she wants to tell the story of history's losers. In doing so, she makes defeat sound more appealing than victory."-Emily Eakin, Nation. "A sparkling history of preformation as it once affected every facet of European culture."-Robert Taylor, Boston Globe