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Categories & Codes - Richard S. Westfall DSB Catalogue Robert A. Hatch - University of Florida |
| Field 1: Status:
character, 1 space. To indicate by a simple code the status of each record--c
(complete), i (incomplete), blank (not yet done). In fact all are now marked
c; if I get around to it, I will delete this field.
Field 2: Name: character, 26 spaces. I will never need to sort by first name. This field will include both names. I have counted the longest names; 26 spaces will allow all last names plus at least initials for given names, and are enough for the great majority of names to be included completely. Field 3: Date Code: character, 2 spaces. To indicate by a simple code when dates of birth and/or death are uncertain or unknown. Field 4: Year of Birth: character, 4 spaces. Precisely what the name says. Field 5: Year of Death: character, 4 spaces. Precisely what the name says. Field 6: Life Span: numeric, 3 spaces. Precisely what it says. It was my intention to leave this blank when the life span is not known. dBase appears to refuse the blank and inserts a zero. Hence zero here means that the life span is unknown. Life span is simply the year of death minus the year of birth without regard for day and month of birth and death. 3 spaces because Fontenelle hit 100 (according to my method of computation). Field 7: Father: 7 spaces. The father's occupation/status. I leave space for two categories because fathers can belong in more than one and because there are cases of scientists reared successively by two fathers, or virtual fathers. Field 8: Financial Status. 1 space. The father's financial status. In a very large number of cases there is no solid evidence about this, and I am trying to avoid guessing. I do take all physicians to have been affluent or prosperous by assumption. The evidence for this field tends to be more hearsay than substantial. I am collecting what I can find, but I am extremely suspicious of it. Field 9: Natality of Birth: character, 2 spaces. Nationality of birth, indicated by 2 character abbreviation. In this heading, as in the following two, I take a colonial society to be part of the national community of the mother country--thus Spaniards in Mexico are listed as Spanish, etc. I use Eu (European) to indicate those, such as the Jesuit missionaries to China, who seem to me to remain essentially in a European or Western culture despite their location. Eu appears very seldom. I also have non-European and Middle Eastern, both also used very seldom. Field 10: Natality of Career: character, 11 spaces. Nationality of career--that is, national location where major works of career were accomplished, indicated by 2 character abbreviation. There is room for as many as four countries for career, and there are a number who require four. Field 11: National Location of Death: character, 2 spaces. National location of death, indicated by 2 character abbreviation. When someone died in the French army in the Netherlands, to use a concrete example, I list the nationality of death as French. Field 12: University: character, 23 spaces. Room to indicate up to six universities attended (not including degrees by incorporation or honorary degrees--Jean Bauhin did hit six), each indicated by an abbreviation of 3 characters, separated by commas. Field 13: BA Degree: logical, 1 space. To indicate whether scientist earned BA degree. I do not attempt to distinguish the B.A. from other Bachelor degrees. All Bachelor degrees, or their equivalent, fulfill the requirement to make this 'true.' Field 14: Advanced Degree: character, 8 spaces. Space to indicate three advanced degrees, by two character abbreviations separated by comma. Again I do not attempt to distinguish degrees except by field, and for medicine and law degrees need not be advanced. All Masters degrees are MA. All medical degrees are MD. All law degrees are LD. Anything like a Ph.D. is PD. A theology degree is DD. That is, I assume that all of these 'advanced' degrees involved study beyond the B.A. or its equivalent. Field 15: Religion: character, 7 spaces. Space to indicate two religions (there are those who convert), indicated by 3 character abbreviations, separated by commas. As I have realized that some converted Jews are present in my sample, and as this has come to seem important to me, I have entered the information here. 'Jew' means, here, not necessarily a practicing Jew (indeed almost certainly not, given the realities of the 16th and 17th centuries), but one of Jewish descent. Field 16: Prime Discipline: character, 11 spaces. To indicate up to three primary scientific disciplines in which a scientist worked, by means of 3 character abbreviations. Field 17: Subordinate Disciplines: character, 11 spaces. To indicate up to three subordinate disciplines with the same set of abbreviations. Field 18: Primary Means of Support: character, 11 spaces. To indicate primary means of support. I allow for three equal primary means of support, indicated by 3 character abbreviations. To avoid confusion with abbreviations I will use identical ones in different fields to indicate closely analogous categories--thus 'Med' for the discipline of medicine, for medical practice as a means of support, for a physician as patron (and earlier as a father), and for Medicine as a technological application of science. Field 19: Secondary Means of Support: character, 11 spaces. To indicate up to three secondary means of support, by means of the same abbreviations. Field 20: Patronage: character, 15 spaces. To indicate up to four different sources of patronage by means of a set of 3 character abbreviations. This field will indicate only the source of patronage and not its level of importance or intensity. There will be more abbreviations identical, in this case, to sources of support. (Note that Crt, used here to mean Court, is also, by oversight, used under Discipline and under Technology to mean Cartography. If this generates problems, I will need to change one or the other. So far I have not perceived any trouble.) Field 21: Technological Involvement: character, 39 spaces. To indicate up to ten different fields of technological involvement by three character abbreviations--not talk about useful knowledge, but actual involvement in some enterprise of utilitarian value. I originally had space for four, and expanded by steps to five, six, and seven fields as individuals needing that many appeared, and then (with Christopher Wren) to ten. Medical practice and pharmacology are taken as technological applications of scientific knowledge. More abbreviations identical to scientific disciplines. Field 22: Scientific Societies: character, 14 spaces. Space to indicate as many as five scientific societies (two character abbreviations) to which the man belonged. (Jean Bernoulli belonged to five.) |
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Date Code ca = both dates uncertain
Father's Occupation/Status Acd = Academic
Father's Financial Status P = Poor
University Abr = Aberdeen
Nationalities Be = Belgian area
Religion Ang = Anglican
Scientific Discipline Alc = Alchemy
Scientific Discipline Grouped by General Categories Astronomy
Physics
Mathematics
Chemistry
Natural Philosophy
Natural History
Geography
Meteorology
Engineering
Scientific Orgn.
Means of Support Agr = Agriculture
Patronage Acd = Academic
Technology Agr = Agriculture
Scientific Societies AR = Academie Royale
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rah.dec.98
RSWestfall
With Permission,
G. Westfall (Dec.98)
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