Catching Nature in the Act: Réaumur and the Practice of Natural History in the Eighteenth Century

Natural history in the eighteenth century was many things to many people-diversion, obsession, medically or economically useful knowledge, spectacle, evidence for God's providence and wisdom, or even the foundation of all natural knowledge. Because natural history was pursued by such a variety of people around the globe, with practitioners sharing neither methods nor training, it has been characterized as a science of straightforward description, devoted to amassing observations as the raw material for classification and thus fundamentally distinct from experimental physical science. In *Catching Nature in the Act*, Mary Terrall revises this picture, revealing how eighteenth-century natural historians incorporated various experimental techniques and strategies into their practice. At the center of Terrall's study is René-Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (1683-1757)-the definitive authority on natural history in the middle decades of the eighteenth century-and his many correspondents, assistants, and collaborators. Through a close examination of Réaumur's publications, papers, and letters, Terrall reconstructs the working relationships among these naturalists and shows how observing, collecting, *and* experimenting fit into their daily lives. Essential reading for historians of science and early modern Europe, *Catching Nature in the Act* defines and excavates a dynamic field of francophone natural history that has been inadequately mined and understood to date.