Lynn Thorndike was a medieval researcher who eruditely raised the appreciation of alchemists as proto-scientists. His influential book A Short History of Civilization (1926, rev. 1948) raised the question: "how far is individual liberty compatible with advance in civilization?"
Professor Lynn Thorndike (July 24, 1882—December 28, 1965) was born in Lynn, Mass. and received his B.A. from Wesleyan in 1902 and his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1905. He taught at Western Reserve until 1924, when he transferred to Columbia, where the bulk of his research focused on medieval alchemy and experimentation. An avid golfer, he was also known to be reserved in large audiences and to favor loud neckties.
Lynn Thorndike appears in the following:
Galenicals and Galenism in the History of Medicine / The Continued Prevalence of the Conception of Macrocosm and Microcosm in the Seventeenth Century
Thursday, June 02, 1955
From rotting wood to the modern antibiotic.
