It can be inferred from the passage that "the clamor of seventeenth–century scientific rhetoric" (lines 39–40) refers to

Emil-Kunkin on August 19 at 04:12PM

The line in question tells us that despite the clamor, many scientists actually farmed off some of their work to paid technicians. This indicates that the clamor in question was contrary to the reality of farming off work to servants. This is further supported in the first paragraph, where we are told that the self-image of a scientist of that era was that they performed their experiments themselves.