In 1665, Thomas Sprat's efforts to defend the hospitality bestowed on Samuel Sorbière, when the French savant visited London, were published in his Letter containing some observations on Monsieur de Sorbier's voyage into England. This book, for which Sprat stopped work on his now more famous History of the Royal-Society, challenged Sorbière's account of how he had been ‘entertained’, insisting he ‘be grateful for a good potage’ and ‘sound up his meat’. Experiments were, it seems, not to be depicted growing from nothing. This article thus situates Sprat's Letter amid convictions that the table was an apparently indispensable piece of experimental furniture. From the lavish banquets over which experiments were discussed, to feasts that were themselves experiments, it explores a learning seemingly nourished in rich settings of appetite and gratification. The offence caused by Sorbière's failure to acknowledge this commensality is placed in a context where, for better or worse, the character of experiment was on the table.

1665 年，托马斯·斯普拉特（Thomas Sprat）为保护塞缪尔·索比尔（Samuel Sorbière）在法国学者访问伦敦时给予的款待所做的努力发表在他的信中，其中包含对德·索比尔先生前往英格兰的一些观察。这本书，斯普拉特停止了他现在更著名的《皇家社会史》的工作，挑战了索比埃关于他是如何被“娱乐”的说法，坚称他“感谢一杯好汤”和“让他的肉健全起来”。实验似乎不能被描绘成从无到有。因此这篇文章将斯普拉特的信置于在确信桌子显然是必不可少的实验家具的情况下。从讨论实验的豪华宴会，到本身就是实验的宴会，它探索了一种看似在丰富的食欲和满足感中滋养的学习。Sorbière 未能承认这种共生性所造成的冒犯被置于这样一种背景下，无论好坏，实验的性质都摆在桌面上。