| Acknowledgments | vi |
| PROLOGUE: The Story So Far: The Copernican System And The Scientific Revolution | vii |
| INTRODUCTION: The Eighteenth Century--A Time Of Reason And Revolution | xi |
| PART ONE: The Physical Sciences In The Eighteenth Century 1 | |
| 1. Exploring the New Solar System: The Earth's Shape and the Sun's Distance | 3 |
| 2. Observing Deep Space: Stars, Galaxies and Nebulas | 15 |
| 3. Rediscovery of the Earth: Rocks and Ages and the Birth of a New Geology | 33 |
| 4. What Happens When Things Burn? The Death of Phlogiston and the Birth of Chemistry | 47 |
| 5. Exploring the Characteristics of Heat and the Mysteries of Electricity | 65 |
| PART TWO: The Life Sciences In The Eighteenth Century | 79 |
| 6. Linnaeus: The Great Name Giver | 81 |
| 7. Buffon and Diversity in Nature | 91 |
| 8. The Animal Machine: Physiology, Reproduction and Embryology | 99 |
| 9. Precursors to Modern Evolutionary Theory: Lamarck and Cuvier | 115 |
| Epilogue | 129 |
| Appendix: The Scientific Method | 131 |
| Chronology | 135 |
| Glossary | 141 |
| Further Reading | 143 |
| Index | 149 |