ABSTRACT
By investigating the role of science within complex structure of the periodical the authors can begin to appreciate how intertextuality functions and how readers understood science within a wider cultural framework. This chapter principally addresses the early scientific content of one such journal, the Friend, but will also briefly refer to the Glasgow-based and less evangelical British Friend. In 1843, most Quakers maintained a positive attitude to science and some were highly knowledgeable of the observational sciences, particularly botany and astronomy. Records of borrowings from Quaker libraries likewise show that although religious topics predominated, science was well represented. Thomas Hodgkin was the main mover behind the Ethnological Society which encouraged the pursuit of ethnology as science. Although natural history and meteorology featured prominently in early volumes of Friend, astronomy dominated the other sciences. The value of science had also traditionally been discussed within context of Quaker education and the find this reflected in early numbers of Friend.
