This essay examines Darwin's positiva (or positive) use of theology in the first edition of the Origin of Species in three steps. First, the essay analyses the Origin's theological language about God's accessibility, honesty, methods of creating, relationship to natural laws and lack of responsibility for natural suffering; the essay contends that Darwin utilized positiva theology in order to help justify (and inform) descent with modification and to attack special creation. Second, the essay offers critical analysis of this theology, drawing in part on Darwin's mature ruminations to suggest that, from an epistemic point of view, the Origin's positiva theology manifests several internal tensions. Finally, the essay reflects on the relative epistemic importance of positiva theology in the Origin's overall case for evolution. The essay concludes that this theology served as a handmaiden and accomplice to Darwin's science.

This paper focuses on the relationships between Spanish and Portuguese geologists during the second half of the nineteenth century, and their cooperation in Iberian and European scientific projects, with particular emphasis on the geological map of Europe, whose publication, in 1896, was a symbolic demonstration of Prussia's capacity to dominate the whole continent. We argue that the period from 1857 to 1896 defined a cycle in the relationships between Spanish and Portuguese geologists marked by common generational aspirations, converging intellectual pursuits and political and ideological affinities associated with the intellectual and political movements which stirred the cultural and political life of both Iberian countries. At a time when the unification of Iberia was being discussed on both sides of the Spanish–Portuguese border, this background favoured and shaped cooperation between the Spanish and Portuguese Geological Surveys, in particular their participation in the geological map of Europe, which, nevertheless, coincided with the end of this cycle in Iberian geology.

In his 1551 Travagliata invenzione, the Italian mathematician Niccolò Tartaglia described a device for raising sunken ships. Despite his claim of originality, his contemporary Girolamo Cardano had described a similar method in his famous work De subtilitate, which was published a year before. A comparison between these methods reveals the uniqueness of Tartaglia's approach, for he combines an explicit defence of the horror vacui principle with an implicit negation of rarefaction. In this article I show the complexities of this conception and stress the importance of keeping the personal argument between both authors in mind when interpreting their descriptions of wreck-salvage operations.

Having coined the word ‘eugenics’ and inspired leading biologists and statisticians of the early twentieth century, Francis Galton is often studied for his contributions to modern statistical biology. However, whilst documenting this part of his work, historians have frequently neglected crucial aspects of what motivated Galton to establish his eugenics research programme. Arguing that his work was shaped more by social than by biological science, this paper addresses these oversights by tracing the development of Galton's programme, from its roots in a debate about political economy to his appeals for it to be taken up by sociologists. In so doing, the paper not only returns Galton's ideas to their original context but also provides a reason to reflect on the place of the social sciences in history-of-science scholarship.