Popular Science
Pseudodoxia Epidemica was a valuable source of information which found itself upon the shelves of many homes in seventeenth century England. Being in the vanguard of the scientific writing, it paved the way for much subsequent popular scientific journalism. Its science includes many examples of Browne's 'at-first-hand' empiricism as well as early examples of the formulation of scientific hypothesis.
The second of Pseudodoxia Epidemica's seven books entitled Tenets concerning Mineral and Vegetable Bodies includes Browne's experiments with static electricity and magnetism — the word electricity being one of many neologisms including medical, pathology, hallucination, literary, and computer, which Browne's vigorous inventiveness coined into the vocabulary of the early scientific revolution.
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Famous quotes containing the words popular and/or science:
“O, popular applause! what heart of man
Is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?”
—William Cowper (1731–1800)
“There is more religion in men’s science than there is science in their religion.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)