The Seashell on the Mountaintop: A Story of Science, Sainthood, and the Humble Genius Who Discovered a New History of the Earth (review)

Abstract

Nicolaus Steno studied medicine in his native Denmark, spent time in the Netherlands, where he befriended Baruch Spinoza, traveled to France, and then to Italy, and became Court Physician to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. In Italy, he converted to Catholicism, was ordained, and subsequently made a bishop; he spent the last years of his life in Germany, where he met G. W. Leibniz. Steno's skills in dissection were legendary. He made significant anatomical discoveries, including the excretory duct of the parotid gland and the tear glands. He investigated the musculature of the heart and brain anatomy, both inquiries yielding conclusions at odds with those proposed by René Descartes, a powerful influence on Steno from early on. Steno also explained muscle action in mechanistic terms in a treatise written in more geometrico. The dissection of a great shark led him to examine its teeth and to hypothesize that glossopetrae or tongue stones were indeed shark teeth. This brought him to consider the problem of solids within solids, that is, of fossils, which resulted in the publication of his greatest work, the Prodromus, regarded as a foundational text in geology. Alan Cutler writes a biography of Steno for the general reader, concentrating on his scientific career: "A full-blown scholarly biography of Steno in English has yet to be written. This book is no more than a start. Because I was mainly interested in his contribution to science as a geologist, I had to leave out many details of his [End Page 785] career as an anatomist and a priest" (p. 207). And he succeeds beautifully in this. Cutler's work is generally well informed and written in a simple, robust, and brisk style that befits its intended audience. I am sure that it meets or exceeds the customary standards for popular scientific biography.

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