La réorganisation économique et régionale de la gestion des eaux en France

En 1964, la France a introduit des changements majeurs dans la gestion de ses ressources en eau. Ceux-ci peuvent intéresser des pays, provinces ou régions qui voudraient mettre en oeuvre des approches similaires. La gestion classique est présentée dans cet article et suivie par une discussion de la loi de 1964. Deux thèmes sont choisis parmi plusieurs possibles : a) la considération de l'eau en tant que bien économique et le système de redevances qui en résulte, et b) la régionalisation du système de gestion par l'intermédiaire des agences financières de bassin. La section finale présente quelques critiques de cette réorganisation ainsi que des pronostics de l'évolution future des institutions.In 1964 France introduced a series of major changes in its management of water resources which can be of interest to other countries, provinces, or regions which are contemplating a similar reorganization. Traditional institutional arrangements in French water management are presented in this article and are followed by a discussion of the landmark "Water Law" of 1964. Two themes are chosen out of the many possible : (a) the consideration of water as an economic good and the resulting System of "payments" and (b) the regionalisation of the management System under the auspices of "Agences Financières de Bassin". The final section of the article presents several criticisms of the reorganization which has taken place and proposes a series of prognostications concerning future institutional evolution

Anglo-Dutch translations of medical and scientific texts

In the seventeenth century the use of vernacular languages became more and more accepted in scientific publications and communications, and began to supplement the traditional language in this field, namely: Latin. The increase in the number of languages used in science and medicine was accompanied by a heightened need for translators. The close relationship between England and the Low Countries in the seventeenth century has led to a focus in the existing research on political and religious issues, and this has been reflected in the study of translations between English and Dutch. Yet one also finds in the fields of medicine and science an exchange of ideas through translation. The language skills of both Dutch and English men and women were often not sufficient to understand each other's language, which means that translations were vital. By considering the examples of how Thomas Browne's Religio medici was translated into Dutch, and how letters by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek and a publication by Jan Baptista van Helmont were translated into English, this essay examines the exchange of scientific and medical ideas across the Channel.Part of this article was written during a visiting fellowship in the Summer of 2016 at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, and I would like to thank the MPIWG and the Global Knowledge Society Project for hosting me, as well as the Making Visible Project (Arts and Humanities Research Council, grant number AH/M001928/1) for providing me with support and the time to write

A Turke turn'd Quaker: conversion from Islam to radical dissent in early modern England

The study of the relationship between the anglophone and Islamic worlds in the seventeenth century has been the subject of increas- ing interest in recent years, and much attention has been given to the cultural anxiety surrounding “Turning Turke”, conversion from Christianity to Islam, especially by English captives on the Barbary coast. Conversion in the other direction has attracted far less scrutiny, not least because it appears to have been far less com- mon. Conversion from Islam to any form of radical dissent has attracted no scholarship whatsoever, probably because it has been assumed to be non-existent. However, the case of Bartholomew Cole provides evidence that such conversions did take place, and examining the life of this “Turke turn’d Quaker” provides an insight into the dynamics of cross-cultural conversion of an exceptional kind