Allen G. Debus

Allen George Debus ( born August 16, 1926 in Chicago, Illinois, † March 6, 2009 in Deerfield, Illinois) was an American historian of science, which dealt in particular with history of chemistry and alchemy.

Life and work

Debus went to Evanston to school and studied chemistry ( and chemical engineering) as well as history at Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1947. Afterwards, he continued his studies at Indiana University, where he in 1949 his master's degree in history at John J. Murray with a thesis on the history of chemistry received (Robert Boyle and Chemistry in England from 1660 to 1700 ). He also attended chemistry courses. After graduating in 1951 he worked until 1956 as a chemist at Abbott Laboratories, but dealt with in passing on the history of science. In 1956, he began his doctoral studies with I. Bernard Cohen at Harvard University. An essay on the Paracelsus successor in England gave him the 1957 Bowdoin Prize ( a second he received in 1958 ) and he went in 1959 on a Fulbright scholarship to England to intensive studies of the sources. Here he met, among others, Walter Pagel and worked at Douglas McKie at University College London. After completing his PhD in 1961 at Harvard ( The English Paracelsians: a study of Iatochemistry in England 60 1640) In 1961 he was Assistant Professor of the History of Science ( Faculty of History ) at the University of Chicago with William McNiell (by the way he was there also physics lessons ). After publication of his book on the English Paracelsus- trailer he was Associate Professor in 1965. He was co-founder and first director ( 1971-1978 ) of the Morris Fishbein Center, founded in 1970 at the University of Chicago and in 1978 was Morris Fishbein Professor of the History of Science and Medicine. In 1996 he retired.

1966/67, he was a visiting scientist at the University of Cambridge (Churchill College, where he was a Fellow ) as a Guggenheim Fellow and he was 1972/73 at the Institute for Advanced Study. He was also a visiting professor at Arizona State University and the University of São Paulo.

Debus focused in particular on the history of chemistry, alchemy and pharmacy in the Renaissance and Baroque. He became known in 1965 for his book The English Paracelsians. He published texts by Elias Ashmole, John Dee and Robert Fludd.

In 1994 he received the George Sarton Medal in 1978 and the Pfizer Award of the History of Science Society. In 1987 he received the Dexter Award from the American Chemical Society, and he received the 1978 Edward Kremers Award from the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy. He was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In 1985 he was made an honorary Doctor of the Catholic University of Leuven. He was married to Brunilda Lopez Rodriguez since 1951 and had three children. He also published as a disco graph.

Writings

Books:

  • The English Paracelsians, Oldbourne Press: History of science library, London 1965
  • The chemical philosophy: Paracelsian science and medicine in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, 2 vols, New York, Science History Publications, 1977, 2nd edition 2002
  • Man and nature in the Renaissance. Cambridge University Press, 1978
  • Chemistry, Alchemy and the New Philosophy, 1550-1770: Studies in the History of Science and Medicine, Variorum Reprints, London 1987
  • The French Paracelsians, The Chemical Challenge to Medical and Scientific Tradition in Early Modern France, Cambridge University Press 1991
  • Chemistry and Medical Debate: van Helmout to Boerhaave, Science History Publications, 2001
  • The Chemical Promise: Experiment And Mysticism in the Chemical Philosophy, 1550-1800: Selected Essays of Allen G. Debus, Science History Publications, Sagamore Beach, Massachusetts 2006

Some essays:

  • The chemical philosophers: chemical medicine from Paracelsus to Van Helmont, History of Science, Volume 12, 1974, p 235-259
  • The chemical debates of the seventeenth century: the reaction to Robert Fludd and Jean Baptiste van Helmont, in ML Righini Bonelli, WR Shea (Editor) Reason, Experiment and Mysticism in the Scientific Revolution, New York, Science History Publications 1975

As the editor:

  • The chemical dream of the Renaissance, Heffer, Cambridge 1968, Reprint in Bobbs- Merrill, 1968
  • Medicine in Seventeenth Century England, University of California Press, 1974
  • Michael Thomson Walton, Reading the Book of Nature: The Other Side of the Scientific Revolution ( Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies ), Thomas Jefferson University Press, 1998
  • Alchemy and Early Modern Chemistry: Papers from Ambix, Jeremy Mills, 2004
  • Science, Medicine and Society in the Renaissance, 2 vols, New York, Science History Publ 1972
  • Science and education in the seventeenth century: The Webster -Ward debate, Macdonald, History of science library, primary sources, London 1970
  • Ingrid Merkel Hermeticism and the Renaissance: Intellectual History and the Occult in Early Modern Europe. Folger Books, Washington, D.C. 1988 ( Folger Institute of Renaissance and Eighteenth Century Studies)

Other books:

  • Brian Rust, The Complete Entertainment Discography: From 1897-1942 ( Roots of Jazz), Arlington House, 1982; 2nd edition. , Da Capo, 1989
  • As Publisher: World Who's Who in Science, AN Marquis, 1968
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