Francis Bacon’s Body and His Experiments on the Prolongation of Life

Abstract

This chapter pursues the thrust of the volume with specific regard to the life and work of the natural philosopher Francis Bacon (1561–1626). Firstly, it puts Bacon’s episodes of ill-health front and centre in an account of his political career; secondly, it places his philosophical work on life and death in this obvious, but under-regarded context; and thirdly, it sets his advocacy of experimentation against the backdrop of his life-long practice of self-medication, again an obvious but under-regarded context. The joining of the dots going on in this piece results in a small but important step in the ongoing efforts of historians of science to reconnect the history of medical empiricism with the history of experimental science.