This paper was originally read at a seminar at the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, (University of Oxford) May 1988.1 wish to thank the President and Fellows of the Royal Society, London, for permission to use and cite materials from the Boyle Papers. I am also grateful to the following who provided valuable comments and criticisms in earlier drafts of the paper: Charles Webster, John Harwood, Keith Thomas, Andrew Linzey and Michael Shortland.

¹ Thomas, Keith, Man and the Natural World. Changing Attitudes in England 1500–1800, London, 1983.Google Scholar

² Ibid., p. 153.

³ Ibid., p. 154.

⁴ Detailed documentation of Boyle's physiological activity can be found in Frank, Robert G., Harvey and the Oxford Physiologists, Berkeley, 1980, Chapter 6.Google Scholar

⁵ Some useful comments on Boyle's ethical attitudes during experiments are made by Shugg, Wallace, ‘Humanitarian Attitudes in the Early Animal Experiments of the Royal Society’, Annals of Science (1968), 24, pp. 227–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁶ Descartes' correspondence with the Cambridge Platonist, Henry More, in 1648/1649 focused on this issue. More complained in a letter sent December 1648, ‘But I perceive clearly what drives you to hold that beasts are machines. It is simply a way of demonstrating the immortality of our souls, which reasoning, since it assumes that the body is in no wise able to cogitate, concludes that wherever there is cogitation there must needs be substance quite distinct from body, and hence immortal. From whence it follows that brutes, if they cogitate, have annexed to themselves immortal substances’. Descartes responded in February 1649 by reiterating the primacy of language: ‘For language is the one certain indication of latent cogitation in a body, and all men use it, even the most stupid and mentally deranged,… whereas on the other hand not a single brute speaks, and consequently this we may take for the true difference between man and beast’. Cited in Cohen, L.D., ‘Descartes and Henry More on the Beast Machine-A Translation of their Correspondence pertaining to Animal Automatism’, Annals of Science, (1936), 1, pp 51, 53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷ For the concepts of ‘animal automata’ and ‘animal soul’ see Young, R.M., ‘Animal Soul’, The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (ed. Edwards, P.) (8 vols), New York, 1967, 1, pp. 122–127Google Scholar; Rosenfield, Leonora C., From Beast-Machine to Man-Machine, 2nd edn, New York, 1968Google Scholar. The standard formulation of Cartesian dualism is in the ‘Discourse on Method’, in The Philosophical Works of Descartes, trans. Haldane, E.S. and Ross, G.R.T. (2 vols), Cambridge, 1969, 1, pp. 79–130Google Scholar. For a contrasting perspective see Cottingham, J., ‘A Brute to the Brutes? Descartes' Treatment of Animals’, Philosophy, (1978), 53, pp. 551–559.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁸ Thomas, (1). Natural World, p. 125.Google Scholar

⁹ The Boyle Papers, Royal Society Library, London. Vol. XXXVII. fols 186–193. The MS has been reproduced in Appendix 1. MS transcription scheme: [ ] deletion; 〈 〉 interlinear; {} marginal insertion;, // Robert Boyle, unless otherwise indicated. The folio references are inserted. Everything has been retained in the body of the text, as it enables the reader to follow Boyle's flow of thought and does not hinder, except on rare occasions, the cogency of his argument. The dating and background to the MS will be considered later in the paper.

¹⁰ For the dating of ‘Philaretus’, see Maddison, R.E.W., The Life of the Honourable Robert Boyle, F.R.S., London, 1969, p. 1Google Scholar. The reference in ‘Usefulness’ can be found in The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle, 2nd edn (ed. Birch, T.) (6 vols) London, 1772. II, p. 74.Google Scholar

¹¹ Maddison, (10), Life, p. 57.Google Scholar

¹² Boyle, (10). Works, Vol. 1, p. xxviiGoogle Scholar; Maddison, (10), Life, p. 61.Google Scholar

¹³ Frank, (4). Oxford Physiologists, p. 26.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Ibid., pp. 28–29.

¹⁵ Boyle, (10), Works, 1, p. 262Google Scholar. Highmore, who was also a kinsman of the young statistician and anatomist, William Petty, dedicated his The History of Generation, London, 1651Google Scholar, to Boyle, the earliest dedication to him in print.

¹⁶ Boyle, (10). Works, VI, p. 28Google Scholar; Maddison, (10). Life, pp. 72–73.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Boyle drew up a list of his existing writings dated 25 January 1650 which are in B.P.XXXVI. It should be noted that Boyle attached a great significance to his birthdate, which he mentions in ‘Philaretus’ as being ‘upon St. Paul's Conversion day, being the 25th of January;’, See Maddison, , Life, p. 3Google Scholar. The Essay is in B.P.XXVI, fols 162–175. A portion of it was published by Westfall, R.S. in ‘Unpublished Boyle papers relating to scientific method’. Annals of Science (1956), 12, pp. 63–73; 103–117CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Note also Frank, (4), Oxford Physiologists, p. 94.Google Scholar

¹⁸ B.P.XXVI, fols 162–163.

¹⁹ Ibid., fol.169r. The reference to Aristotle in the Historia animalium, is 5.2.539b17–540a26.

²⁰ Bynum, William F., ‘The Anatomical Method, Natural Theology, and the Functions of the Brain’, Isis, 64, (1973), p. 445.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²¹ Some considerations touching the usefulness of Experimental Natural Philosophy, (1663) c. 1649–1651Google Scholar in Boyle, (10), Workes, II, p. 7.Google Scholar

²² Boyle, (10), Works, VI, p. 76Google Scholar; Maddison, (10), Life, p. 71.Google Scholar

²³ Boyle, (10), WorksGoogle Scholar, Ibid.

²⁴ Frank, (4), Oxford Physiologists, p. 25.Google Scholar

²⁵ Though meeting to dissect Greene, a young woman hanged for infanticide, they discovered her corpse was still alive, and with the help of others, nursed her back to health, Ibid. p. 50. While autopsies provided valuable experience in anatomy, they also posed ethical problems. Boyle's recognition of this is discussed further on in the paper.

²⁶ Boyle, (10), Works, VI, p. 54.Google Scholar

²⁷ Ibid.

²⁸ Detail on Boyle's early scientific links with the Anglo-Irish group of intellectuals he meets when he returns to England, and their desire to apply utilitarian projects in Ireland, can only be alluded to here. See Webster, Charles, The Great Instauration. Science, Medicine and Reform 1626–1660, London, 1975, pp. 57–67Google Scholar; Barnard, T.C., Cromwellian Ireland, English Government and Reform in Ireland 1649–1660, Oxford, 1975, especially Chapter 8.Google Scholar

²⁹ Boyle, (10), Works, VI, p. 633.Google Scholar

³⁰ Full details on the scientific, political and philosophical composition of the ‘Club’ can be found in Webster, (28), Great Instauration, pp. 153–178.Google Scholar

³¹ Frank, (4), Oxford Physiologists, p. 53.Google Scholar

³² Usefulness of Experimental Natural Philosophy, Pt.II.(1663) c. 1656–1657Google Scholar, in Boyle, (10), Works, II, p. 67.Google Scholar

³³ Boyle, (10), Works, II, p. 68.Google Scholar

³⁴ Ibid.

³⁵ Ibid., p. 88.

³⁶ Ibid. Boyle provides no dates for these injection trials, but Wren wrote to Robert Wood (1622–1685), physician and mathematician, of their success in June 1656, and the previous March was the final time Boyle, Wilkins and Wren were in Oxford together. See Frank, (4), Oxford Physiologists, p. 332.Google Scholar

³⁷ Boyle, (10), Works, II, p. 89.Google Scholar

³⁸ Ibid., p. 67.

³⁹ Ibid. pp. 67–68.

⁴⁰ New Experiments Physico-Mechanical in Boyle, (10), Works, IGoogle Scholar, Hooke's difficulty with the cruelty of many experiments he was involved with is described in Shugg, (5), ‘Humanitarian Attitudes’, pp. 231–232.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Boyle, (10), Works, I, p. 97.Google Scholar

⁴² Ibid., p.99.

⁴³ Sprat, Thomas, History of the Royal Society, London, 1667, p. 195Google Scholar. See Hunter, M., Science and Society in Restoration England, Cambridge, 1981, pp. 29–31Google Scholar for useful comment on Sprat's History.

⁴⁴ Boyle, (10), Works, I, pp. 106–107.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Ibid., pp. 109–110.

⁴⁶ Philosophical Transactions, 1670, V, pp. 2017–2019.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Ibid., p. 2018.

⁴⁸ Royal Society Commonplace Bock MS 195 of which MS 192 appears a draft. The Aretology or Ethical Elements of Robert Boyle. Begun at Stalbridge, The of [Blank] 1645Google Scholar. That's the tru Good that makes the owner so. For the dating of MS 195 note the title page and Boyle, (10), Works, I, pp. 17, 20.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Aretology, (48), fol. 78v.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Ibid., fols 67–67v.

⁵¹ Ibid., fol. 20.

⁵² Maddison, (10), Life, p. 41.Google Scholar

⁵³ Boyle, (10), Works, I, p. 302Google Scholar. Noted in Rogers, G.A.J.. ‘Descartes and the Method of English Science’, Annals of Science, (1972), 29, pp. 248–249CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed. Boyle may have been acquainted with Descartes's Principles of Philosophy, 1644Google Scholar, by 1647–1648, and more particularly the Cartesian mechanism of Sir Kenelm Digby, a rare English advocate of the beast-machine doctrine. However, no direct evidence is forthcoming.

⁵⁴ B.P.XXXVII. (9) Appendix 1, lines 1, 15–19.

⁵⁵ The first mention of Boyle's link with Mallet is in November 1651 when Boyle writes to him of a sudden sickness. See B.L.Harl. MSS. 7003. fol.179. However, Mallet's family had lived in Boyle's neighbourhood for many years and Mallet's father had been an occasional legal advisor for Boyle. Correspondence between Samuel Hartlib and John Mallet was maintained in the early 1650s and Boyle informed Hartlib that Mallet was willing to help in improving Hartlib's work on husbandry. See B.L. Add. MSS.32093, fol.293. In a letter of Boyle to Mallet, sent from Ireland in 1653, Birch, in his edited works of Boyle, inserts a short introduction to Boyle's ‘highly honoured friend John Mallet, Esq; at Poynington, near Sherbourne’. See Boyle, (10), Works, I, iGoogle Scholar. In the letter Boyle shows high regard for Mallet's knowledge of nature and is therefore delighted that he has prompted him to begin ‘a friendship for the Eastern tongues’, despite being ‘a person so used to the study, and replenished with the nature of things…’ Boyle, (10), Works, I, i.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ It is unnecessary to detail here Dury's pivotal role in Boyle's early association with scientific circles in the mid-1640s, and his own contribution to projects for Protestant union, the advancement of learning and the refashioning of knowledge on Baconian lines. Extensive information on Dury can be found in Batten, J.M., John Dury: Advocate of Christian Reunion, Chicago, 1944Google Scholar; Turnbull, G.H., Hartlib, Dury and Comenius, Liver-pool, 1947Google Scholar; Webster, (28), Great Instauration.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ B.P.XXXVII (9) Appendix 1, lines 19–41; Thomas, (1), Natural World, p. 139.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Burns, Norman, Christian Mortalism from Tyndale to Milton, Camb, 1972, pp. 11, 28, 29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵⁹ SirDigby, Kenelm, Two Treatises: in the One of Which the Nature of Bodies; in the Other, the Nature of Man's Soule is Looked into, Paris, 1644.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Boyle, (10), Works, IV, pp. 12, 13.Google Scholar

⁶¹ B.P.XXXVI1. (9) Appendix 1, lines 62–69.

⁶² The classic treatment of the doctrine remains, Lovejoy, A.O., The Great Chain of Being, New York, 1936. 2nd edn, 1960.Google Scholar

⁶³ Locke's solution to the dilemma Descartes had raised was to employ sensationalist psychology which did not reject dualism, but did fragment Cartesian indivisible substance, thereby allowing continuous degrees of intelligence on the scale of being. By distinguishing ideas of sensation and reflection, Locke was able to declare that animals had particular sensory ideas and a degree of reason but no general ideas or powers of abstraction and consequently no language for their expression. This was uncomfortably close to how children were generally perceived. His sensory picture was via the analogy of atoms and corpuscles. For Boyle's strong influence on Locke see Rogers, G.A.J., ‘Boyle, Locke and Reason’, Journal of the History of Ideas, (1966), 27, pp. 205–216CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Alexander, Peter, Ideas, Qualities and Corpuscles: Locke and Boyle on the External World, Cambridge, 1985.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ SirBrowne, Thomas, Religio Medici, London, 1643Google Scholar. Pt.1. Para. 36. Cited in Thomas, (1), Natural World, p. 129.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Bynum, (20), ‘Anatomical Method’, pp. 449–450.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ B.P.XXXVII, (9), Appendix 1, lines 25–32.

⁶⁷ B.P.XXXVII, fols 196–203. ‘The Duty of a Mother's being a Nurse asserted’.

⁶⁸ Ibid., fol.196v.

⁶⁹ While at Christ College, Cambridge, Power embarked on extensive investigation of plants, animals, minerals and pharmacology. Sir Thomas Browne's letter of advice to him, in 1646, spurred him on, and he became an able disciple of Harvey, extending work on blood circulation, and corresponding with Browne on plant morphogenesis and embryology. See The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, (ed. Keynes, G.) 4 vols, London, 1968, IV, pp. 255–266Google Scholar; 259–260. Power was elected first member of the Royal Society with Isham, 1 July, 1663.

⁷⁰ B.L. MS. 1326, fols 48v–49.

⁷¹ Ibid., fol.48v.

⁷² Ibid.

⁷³ Ibid., fol.49.

⁷⁴ Ibid., fol.49v.

⁷⁵ Power, Henry, Experimental Philosophy in Three Books, Microscopical, Mercurial, Magnetical, London, 1664Google Scholar. BK.III has the subtitle That the World was not made Primarily nor Solely for the use of Man, nor in subserviency unto Him and his Faculties.

⁷⁶ B.P.XXXVII, (9), Appendix 1, lines 50–56. Cf. Notes 6,51.

⁷⁷ Moore, John, A Map of Man's Mortalitie, London, 1617, p. 43.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Thomas, (1), Natural World, pp. 137–138.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Ibid., p.99.

⁸⁰ B.P.XXXVII. (9) Appendix 1, lines 73–85.

⁸¹ Boyle, (10), Works, II, p. 350Google Scholar. In a further ‘Reflection’, Boyle recalls sending his spaniel for a glove, which gave the dog so much satisfaction ‘that the very use of speech would not enable him to express it better…’ Ibid., p. 388.

⁸² The impetus behind a new philosophical language is detailed in Salmon, Vivian, The Works of Francis Lodwick. A Study of his Writings in the Intellectual Context of the Seventeenth Century, London, 1972, especially Chapter 1Google Scholar; also Knowlson, James, Universal Language Schemes in England and France 7600–7800, Toronto, 1975.Google Scholar

⁸³ Boyle, (10) Works, 1, xxxvii.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Knowlson observes, ‘it was felt by Puritan reformers that children learn best through the senses and the imagination. They believed, therefore, that it was wise to appeal to this natural capacity by introducing the young as often as possible to natural objects either directly or by means of illustrations’, Knowlson, (82), Language Schemes, p. 35.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ B.P.XXXVII (9), Appendix 1, lines 86–119.

⁸⁶ B.P.XXXVII (9), Appendix 1, lines 119–210.

⁸⁷ Cf. Note 45.

⁸⁸ B.P.XXXVII (9), Appendix 1, lines 223–239.

⁸⁹ Thomas, (1), Natural World, p. 295Google Scholar. He comments, ‘There seems to have been no legal authority for this notion, but it was held throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by scores of commentators who should have known better.’ The general unease about meat eating, despite its being a national symbol, is discussed on pp. 287–300. Boyle follows orthodox teaching in the sanction given for meat eating in Genesis 9:23. See Boyle, (10), Works, V, p. 396.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ Boyle, (10), Works, 1, p. 316.Google Scholar

⁹¹ B.P.XIV, fols 15–26. c. 1650.

⁹² Ibid., fol.16.

⁹³ Thomas, (1), Natural World, p. 177.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ B.P.XXXVII (9), Appendix 1, lines 239–311.

⁹⁵ This memory of the stables in Florence dates from his stay there in the winter of 1641. See Maddison, (10), Life, p. 41.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ See the Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edn, 5 vols. Leiden & London, 1913–1934Google Scholar; reprinted 1960, III, pp. 306–308; 314–315. Apart from the similarity ian Moslem teaching in refraining from consuming the spilt blood of animals, in general Muslims were counselled to treat animals well. There were in Turkey a great number of aetiological legends concerning animals, many of which were original creations of Turkish folklore. The veneration of the horse seems to have conferred on it, in certain circumstances, an aura of saintliness. The tomb of the horse of Sultan Othman II at Uskudar became a place of pilgrimage where sick horses were brought. Dr Tom Patterson (Wellcome Unit, Oxford) has pointed out to me in conversation that the reports Boyle has heard of are far more likely to have been Hindu practice, particularly around Goa.

⁹⁷ Luther's Works, (ed. Pelikan, J. and Lehman, H.) 56 vols. Philadelphia and St. Louis, 1955, 26, 4–5Google Scholar. Cited in Gary Deason, B., ‘Reformation Theology and the Mechanistic Conception of Nature’, in God & Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter between Christianity and Science, ed. Lindberg, D. and Numbers, R., Berkeley, 1986, p. 174.Google Scholar

⁹⁸ Aretology, (48), fol. 188v.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ Ibid., fol. 190r.

¹⁰⁰ Ibid., fol. 190v.

¹⁰¹ Thomas, (1), Natural World, p. 156Google Scholar. A highly negative view of the Christian perception of nature is evident in Passmore, J., Man's Responsibility for Nature, London, 1974Google Scholar and ‘The Treatment of Animals’, in Journal of the History of Ideas, (1975), 36, pp. 195–218Google Scholar. For a critique and balanced corrective of Passmore see Attfield, R., ‘Christian Attitudes to Nature’, Journal of the History of Ideas, (1983), 44, pp. 369–386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁰² Crane, R.S., ‘Suggestions towards a Genealogy of the “Man of Feeling,” E.L.H. A Journal of English Literary History, (1934), 1, pp. 205–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁰³ Ibid, pp. 208–209. Cited from Glanville, Essay 7, pp. 21–22.

¹⁰⁴ Ibid., p. 209.

¹⁰⁵ Ibid., p. 210. Glanville, p. 31.

¹⁰⁶ This is the approach taken by J. Jacob in his analysis of the Aretology in ‘The Ideological Origins of Robert Boyle's Philosophy’ in Journal of European Studies, (1972), 2, pp. 1–8Google Scholar, and Robert Boyle and the English Revolution, New York, 1977, Chapter 2Google Scholar. Jacob's representation of Boyle's early development and his motives in writing the Aretology is arguably flawed. I hope to show this in further work.

¹⁰⁷ The detailed treatment of this question is found in Kendall, R.T., Calvin and English Calvinism to 1649, Oxford, 1979Google Scholar. Ames, 's Marrow of Sacred Divinity, London, 1642Google Scholar, was catalogued as being present in that edition in Boyle's library. A listing of the library, which may be incomplete, is in MS 23. Royal Society. I am grateful to Dr J. Harwood for providing me with a copy of the list he discovered.

¹⁰⁸ The impact of humanist influence on Protestant thinking can be found in Todd, Margo, Christian Humanism and the Puritan Social Order, Cambridge, 1987.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁹ Ibid., p. 178.

¹¹⁰ The poem is in The Gentleman's Magazine, 1740, 10, p. 194Google Scholar. It is reproduced in Maddison, (10), Life, pp. 231–232Google Scholar, i B.P.XXXVII (9) Appendix 1, lines 231–233.

¹¹¹ Burner, Gilbert, A Sermon preached at. the Funeral of the Hon. Robert Boyle, London, 1692Google Scholar. Cited in Boyle, (10), Workes, I, p. cxliv.Google Scholar