constructed in the 1890s. Here visitors can Book Review view the steam engines (currently under restoration) that propelled Melbourne's muck Section along the main sewer to Werribee. Interpretative signs tell not just of the technological achievements involved, but of Compiled by John Jenkin* the disease and sanitation problems of 'Marvellous Smellbourne' and the Scienceworks, the Museum of Victoria's experiences of workers at the pumping Centre for Science and Technology-an exhibition review. station-including those who had to keep the pumps clear of debris! Sydney may have its As a suburban teenager, one of the highlights Powerhouse but Melbourne has of my school holidays was a trip into 'town'. its . . . umm . . . Pumphouse? This expedition into the wilds of central The new Scienceworks building has both Melbourne always included a wander around permanent and temporary exhibition spaces. the Science Museum, then housed snugly The four permanent exhibitions are with the National Museum and the State Inuentions, Energy, Travel and Materials. Library behind the imposing columns of 328 Each of these draws on the museum's Swanston Street. extensive collections to demonstrate not just Naturally I pressed all the buttons I could, scientific principles, but the role of science making all the engines start and the models and technology in our everyday lives. Of come to life. I played noughts and crosses course, this latter phrase is one that slips against a 'computer' that regularly cheated. readily from the tongues of science But most of all I just stood in front of the communicators, but how do you encourage glass-fronted cases and marvelled at the people to make this connection? collections-the rows and rows of swords, the One way is by using familiar, local wax apples, the radioactive sample with its examples. The Materials exhibition includes chattering Geiger counter. Between visits I sections on the Bionic Ear and the Plastic embroidered complex daydreams, where the Banknote. A cable tram and the obligatory deserted building was mine and all its Holden feature in Travel. The Atomic treasures lay waiting. Absorption Spectrophotometer, which for The Science Museum is now a division of some time sat forlornly in a corner of the the Museum of Victoria, with a new site, a entrance hall at Swanston Street, now new building and a new name- occupies a more appropriate position in Scienceworks. The long queues awaiting Inuentions, together with the Black Box entry each weekend are evidence that Flight Recorder and a periscopic rifle, Scienceworks, opened in March 1992, is a invented in the trenches during World War great success. It's fun, it's informative, and One. Another old favourite from the former everyone should go, ok? site is Carl Nordstrom's detailed models of Spotswood, one of Melbourne's inner- the Victorian goldfields, built in the late western industrial suburbs, provides an ideal 1850s, which are used in the mining section location for Scienceworks. The factories of Materials. In some cases the stories behind surround the museum like an industrial the objects could be developed more; theme park, an authentic landscape where nonetheless, they do provide reference points people and technology jostle for space and where visitors can make connections with power. Walking from the station you pass a their own experience. glass factory where red-glowing bottles can The recognition factor is also cleverly be glimpsed as they are propelled along the exploited in another section of Inuentions. production line. Look up and the massive Here levers, pulleys and inclined planes are Westgate Bridge looms oppressively near. illustrated not just by hands-on exhibits, but The new Scienceworks building is itself by archival photographs called up on touch styled along industrial lines, but the site has screens-what we see are the abstract its own measure of Victorian grandeur-a principles at work on farms, in factories or disused sewerage pumping station homes. Visitors can begin to recognise pulleys or levers in their own life's history: 'Grandma had one just like that!' In a similar * Dr J.G. Jenkin is a Reader in the History way, the Energy exhibition challenges you Department at La Trobe University, Bundoora, to provide the energy for some 'old-fashioned' Victoria 3083. technologies, such as a manually-powered- - Historical Records of Australian Science, 9/41 (December 1993) washing-machine and a hand-saw. ~istoricalRecords of Australian Science, Volume 9, Number 4

Other more critical connections can be encourage us to understand science and made by focussing on issues related to technology in a meaningful way. We might technological development. This is most not be able to explain the science in detail, successfully achieved in the Travel exhibition, but we will have made some deep-seated which asks visitors to consider, amongst other connection with it. things, the impact of 'Fordism' and the nature History has an important role to play here, of life on the assembly-line. Likewise, and it is significant that Scienceworks has environmental issues are raised in both appointed a Curator of History of Materials and Energy. Technology, Richard Gillespie. By What is lacking is a window on to the populating the scientific and technological scientific workplace. There is little attempt landscape with people, issues, events, to allow visitors to gain a feeling for the questions and problems, history opens up an actual practice of science. 'Performance intellectual and emotional space around the science' is presented in the Scienceworks facts and theories. Is this a different sort of theatre, but this is altogether different from history, or history for a different audience? life in the lab. The Museum of Victoria is itself As the debate over the meaning of 'public' a working scientific institution, though one history continues, perhaps it is time for would hardly know it from the displays at historians of Australian science to join the Scienceworks. Presumably this is because of fray and to begin to consider what public the separation of the Science and Technology history means in the context of science and and Natural History divisions within the technology. If we are serious in wanting to museum structure, but surely there are ways help people understand the role of science and in which the scientific work of the museum technology in Australian society and culture, can be displayed within the Scienceworks it seems to me that we must allow them space setting. Having been fortunate enough to to tell their own stories, to mount their have toured some of the natural history personal exhibitions, to build their own collections while they were still at the daydreams. This is the space I wandered (and Swanston Street site, I can attest to the wondered) in as a boy, and I was pleased to fascination of 'raw science'-science find pockets of it still at Scienceworks. observed and experienced rather than interpreted. Tim Sherratt This sense of fascination relates to what Australian Science Archives Project the Senior Curator of Scienceworks, Martin Canberra Hallett, has described as the 'evocative' as opposed to 'evidential' function of museum Alice Cawte, Atomic Australia, 1944-1990. objects. This 'evocative' role is, I believe, Sydney: New South Wales University Press, important in allowing people to perceive the 1992. xiii + 213 pp., illus., $19.95 pb. significance of science and technology within the context of their own lives. This becomes In September 1992, the Federal government clearer when Scienceworks is contrasted with commissioned a public inquiry into a the growing band of interactive science proposal by the Australian Nuclear Science centres that supposedly allow you to 'explore' and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) to science. The types of exploration that can replace its aging HIFAR, Australia's only actually take place are constrained by the research reactor, located at Lucas Heights, programmed nature of the exhibits. The southwest of Sydney. In July 1993, following expectation is that you will learn, not feel. four days of open sessions and over 500 Objects, however, can embody a wide range submissions, the review presented an interim of messages, which need not be articulated report. ANSTO's task, represented in for them to be effective. One Scienceworks documents exceeding 1500 pages, was exhibit that sticks in my mind is simply a apparently straightforward: to persuade an display case in Energy full of electrical indevendent tribunal of three that Australia appliances: heaters, irons, tea-makers. Freed needs a new research reactor, at a capital cost from any evidential function, these estimated to lie between $150 and $300 appliances trigger personal responses-as million-a very expensive piece of hardware, with the wax apples and swords I remember at a time when the science budget does not so clearly. It is not so much the scientific exceed $1.5 billion and when total spending content as the contact that is important. We on federal scientific agencies is under $400 can't expect that science museums will million. The interim report put the matter on suddenly make everything clear-'Oh yeah, hold, recommending that a decision whether science, I understand that'-but they can to replace the reactor be postponed for five Book Review Section years, and that in the meantime, ANSTO give to ensure that Australia became and first priority to finding a suitable storage site remained an associate member of the for nuclear waste. Four years of preparation international 'nuclear club', its presence have not brought ANSTO victory. Indeed, ensured by a programme of research of high larger policy debates in Canberra may standard in relevant fields of science and threaten its very future. What has happened? engineering. In avoiding what is ostensibly the principal An Australian programme of uranium choice, the recommendations of the review mining and nuclear research thus emerged have, predictably, satisfied no one-least of under men profoundly influenced by their all the Sutherland residents who are most experience of war, whose vision of the future deeply concerned. They join a long list of was shaped by a perception of Australia's inconclusive, but not totally unexpected, isolation, vulnerability and economic needs. stages in a controversy that has persisted Over its first twenty-five years, the since Australia entered the 'atomic age'. In Commission's budget grew by a factor of the subtext of the reactor review, historians thirty. By 1972, it had cost $170 million, find deeply entangled attitudes shaped by almost twice the price of Sydney's Opera fifty years of public engagement with nuclear House. By 1986, its annual operating optimism and official secrecy, with revenues exceeded $50 million (today, it is in Aboriginal land rights and uranium mining, the region of $7OM). At its peak, its operations with British weapons testing and American employed over 1200 staff, working in six satellite-tracking facilities, with nuclear ship divisions, with 310 scientists in research and visits and environmental risks. Alice Cawte development alone. While it was neither the provides a useful introduction to the way in nation's largest nor richest scientific which Australia embraced the atom, and organisation (CSIRO was larger and Defence reflects on some of the implications of what, Science was more expensive), it represented in other countries, has sometimes proved a an enormous investment and won a broad fatal attraction. The Australian public, it base of support from many Australians would seem, has forgotten nothing; but has (particularly energy-poor South Australians it learned something as well? It is not, it and mineral-rich West Australians) for whom seems, a matter merely of technological a nuclear future offered relief from drought choice. and profits for industry. At the end of the Second World War, Much of the most articulate nuclear Australians were alive to the challenges and advocacy can be traced to British-born former possibilities of the atomic age. Australians ICI research manager and chemical engineer, were in the forefront of international Philip Baxter, chairman of the AAEC, full- attempts to contain nuclear weapons, and time and part-time, between 1953 and 1972, keen to participate in nuclear science and and Vice-chancellor of the University of New technology. The promise of nuclear power, South Wales between 1955 and 1969. Baxter's combined with hydroelectric power and coal, position was iterated through AAEC formed an inspiring trinity at the heart of headquarters-until 1982 overlooking the Australia's plans for postwar national beach at Coogee, near his office in reconstruction. The presence of uranium ore Kensington-and manifested behind the in large quantities implied a key role for barbed wire of Lucas Heights. But it is wise Australia in the nuclear fuel cycle and in to remember how general and widely shared international affairs. The temptation to were the views he expressed. Indeed, it was embrace the atom was enormous, and few in this spirit of hope that Commonwealth and resisted. Notably not the 'nuclear knights'- State governments willingly collaborated in including Sir Mark Oliphant, Sir Philip the gargantuan visions of Lawrence Baxter and Sir Ernest Titterton-united by Livermore, Glen Seaborg and Edward Teller, wartime experience in the Manhattan project culminating in Plowshare proposals to blast and confident that unlimited government port facilities at Cape Keraudren in 1968-9 support for nuclear research would achieve and to mine iron ore in the Hamersley Range Australia's objectives. Among Australia's of Western Australia in 1969. It was a chosen instruments was the Australian combination of Australian economic and Atomic Energy Commission, the precursor of defence interests that lent their ears to ANSTO, established in 1953, and charged advocates of enrichment facilities, costing with helping the atom to bring, in Oliphant's millions, and that, at a time of uncertain optimistic words, 'prosperity and fruitfulness relations with our northern neighbours, such as few nations have known'. Politically would not rule out the prospect of producing the Commission had an even wider function: a nuclear weapon. Historical Records of Australian Science, Volume 9, Number 4

Australia's nuclear history can perhaps It is against this background that Cawte best be grasped in three periods-1953-65, traces Australia's nuclear history, reaching 1965-72 and 1972-86-periods poignantly from the war to 1990. She takes as her starting recalled as ages of faith, hope and charity. point the Allies' wartime demand for Australia began the era of 'faith' in a colonial uranium, and carries us through the postwar pattern, by sending chemists and Menzies period, the important if ill-starred metallurgists to Harwell, where they were efforts of Evatt at the United Nations, and trained at Australian expense against the the circumstances that led to the British tests day the country had a nuclear industry in at Monte Bello and Maralinga. She dwells which to employ them. From 1957, they on the faustian promises offered by the returned to find a research programme whose advocates of industrial nuclear power in the terms were well-established but whose south and the 'midas mineral' in the north. industrial outcome was ill-defined. Their She devotes one chapter to the history of the prospects worsened following the successive AAEC, and ends with a critique of both abandonment of four major nuclear research Liberal and Labor governments in the field and development projects in the 1960s, and of uranium mining and export. Her analysis were dealt a devastating blow when the is at its strongest, perhaps, in dealing with McMahon and Whitlam governments the uranium question, weakest in discussing decided, first to postpone, then not to proceed the internal policies and research with a proposed nuclear power station at programmes of the AAEC. She has not Jervis Bay. After 1972, the Commission canvassed the history of CSIRO's early attempted to regroup and work on other interest in nuclear science, which offered a energy projects, but the price of uranium fell number of alternative pathways; and her and the research enterprise drifted. During account of Australia's contribution to the and after the Ranger enquiry, the risks of history of the 'international atom' would environmental danger were made have benefitted from a more detailed reading incontestably clear and criticism mounted. of Australia's role at the IAEA in Vienna. Repeated inquiries spelled an eventual end In her history, personalities are inevitably to the AAEC in 1987, and to the compromise dominant, and Cawte does not neglect the 'three mines policy' current today. significance of Oliphant, Baxter and others This story is, at one level, briefly told and, familiar to those who follow nuclear affairs. in broad outline, will be generally familiar. But a more sensitive account might have been But, at a deeper level, much remains to be given of Oliphant's conversion from nuclear said. Throughout its history, the AAEC found emissary to nuclear critic, and to the fluid itself unable to ecape from a culture of deep alliances that ebbed and flowed between secrecy, derived in part from postwar British Baxter and his entrepreneurial university fears that security leaks 'might prejudice contemporaries, including Titterton, Messel American perceptions of Australia's and Martin. By the mid-1960s, Australian trustworthiness' (p. 42). The Atomic Energy nuclear policy became a tissue of conflicting Act of 1953 contained security provisions by views, in which the interests of mining, which persons 'reasonably suspected' of defence, scientific research and diplomacy conveying restricted information were liable were easily conflated. In fact, tensions among to twenty years' imprisonment. The Act, as them make the story far more complex than Cawte reminds us, also made applicable the Cawte suggests. Australians did, indeed, Approved Defence Projects Protection Act of pursue the elusive uranium dream, but in 1947, which Attlee had suggested to Menzies passing, much valuable research was done as a device to protect the rocket range at and important skills were gained. More Woomera from communist influence. This significant, perhaps, was the fact that, induced a state of apprehension, both among because of the uranium issue, previously those working for the Commission and those silent voices in Australian society found an who wished to assess its activities. These attentive audience. Today's public scepticism provisions, and this apprehension, remained towards the untested assertions of experts, a feature of its operations until the Commis- in almost any field, together with an sion was superseded by ANSTO in 1987. increasingly shared sense of collective Since then, the new organization has moved responsibility towards the Australian boldly where its predecessor feared to go, in environment, are hardly accidental products the direction of industrial applications and in of our time; we may find they owe something its openness with the public. Nevertheless, to the importunity and selective argument the memory of the Commission and the associated with incautious nuclear advocacy. Baxter era lives to haunt its public relations. Today, as the reactor inquiry reveals, Book Review Section nuclear science and technology must answer, Australia. In 1921, the government in public, to a community in the midst of a established a Commonwealth Department of recession and in a mood to ask questions. Health to assume the government's public What are the real costs? What are the real health and quarantine functions, and CSL benefits? These questions will not go away. became the headquarters of the department's And just as the nuclear inquiry has Laboratories Division and co-ordinated the reawakened interest in Australia's nuclear activities of public health laboratories history, so a new generation of scholars, with established in most states. Staff for the new access to previously closed files, can help labs were trained at CSL, and the labs in turn show how that history has been shaped and sent back bacteriological samples and used how it continues to inform government and distributed CSL products. policy. Alice Cawte's book is a most useful Penfold and the Director-General of Health, step in this promising direction. J.H.L. Cumpston, promoted CSL as a government agency that worked tirelessly for Roy MacLeod the national good, and indeed, CSL built up Department of History an impressive record of rapid response to new University of Sydney threats to the nation's health. During the influenza pandemic of 1918-19, CSL A.H. Brogan, Committed to Saving Lives: A manufactured vaccine against bacterial History of the Commonwealth Serum organisms isolated overseas, before the Laboratories. Melbourne: Hyland House, disease reached Australia. CSL acquired a 1990. xv + 336 pp., 32 plates, $29.95. licence to manufacture insulin in Australia and was making it available to some patients Nestling in Royal Park only two kilometres by July 1923, just over a year after its first from central Melbourne, the Commonwealth use in Canada. Given Australia's reliance on Serum Laboratories would scarcely receive a meat and wool exports, veterinary drugs also glance from the majority of people who visit became an important part of CSL's product the adjacent zoo, psychiatric hospital or lines. sporting venues. Yet, as Alfred Brogan's book The development of Australian production shows, CSL has played a significant part in of penicillin was one of CSL's greatest Australia's public health for over 70 years, achievements, exemplifying its ability to whether in its very public triumphs and respond rapidly to national needs. In 1943, failures or in its quiet achievements. And at Val Bazeley was recalled from the Army to a time when government is trying to run the project and was immediately sent to encourage the growth of science-based the United States to study American industries, the history of CSL highlights penicillin manufacturing techniques. Short some of the strengths and weaknesses of of staff on his return, Bazeley persuaded government intervention. soldiers awaiting discharge to work at CSL Australia's isolation from traditional at night until they received their papers. supplies of manufactured goods during Within ten weeks of Bazeley's return from the wartime has resulted in the development of United States, penicillin was being sent to several local industries, including CSL. A the front. Using fermentation bottles to grow shortage of diphtheria antitoxin during the the penicillin, the production team was able First World War led to the establishment of to produce 750 bottles per day; by 1948, this CSL by the Commonwealth government, and had grown to 44,000 bottles per day. in 1916 W.J. Penfold was appointed its first Production had reached sufficiently high director. A bacteriologist from the Lister levels by April 1944 that Australia was the Institute, Penfold visited public health first country to release penicillin for civilian laboratories in England, France and the use. United States on his way to Australia, and AIDS provided a similar challenge. Only set up the CSL's first laboratories at the five months after the virus was isolated in Walter & Eliza Hall Institute. In 1918, CSL May 1984, CSL staff were testing for the took over the buildings of the old vaccination HTLV-I11 antibody in the plasma used in depot in Royal Park, and by 1920 CSL was Factor VIII products used to treat making five therapeutic sera, 24 vaccines, haemophiliacs. A high security laboratory four tuberculins, diagnostic agents and was established in December, and it rapidly bacteriological media for sale and developed a confirmatory test for AIDS distribution throughout Australia. antibodies that was used throughout In the 1920s, CSL came to occupy a central Australia until commercial overseas products role in public health activities throughout were available. Histuncal Records of Australian Science, Volume 9, Number 4

One of the strengths of Brogan's book is and public service bureaucracy that was not his description of the human side of the always sympathetic to its academic and development and production processes. Prior industrial functions. Yet CSL's very existence to the introduction of the deep fermentation was firmly tied up with government policy. tanks, the penicillin workers rugged up to As a local pharmaceutical manufacturer, protect themselves from the cold of the CSL was protected by government tariff refrigerated rooms, and they were constantly policies; fir example, duty was quickly exposed to dangerous chemicals. While this introduced on imported insulin and penicillin work was being carried out at one part of the to ensure the viability of CSL's bentures. site, other workers were laboriously Overseas competitors were constantly trying inoculating and harvesting 20,000 fertile eggs to get the government to lower import duties per day as part of the process of making or prohibit CSL from producing some drugs. influenza vaccine. By the 1950s, CSL's staff The government was particularly susceptible had expanded to over 1,000. Significant to arguments that it was protecting an numbers of animals were required for inefficient and expensive local manufacturer, research and production of both human and because after the Second World War the veterinary products, including sheep, horses, government began to bear a major share of monkeys and poultry, and field stations were the cost of pharmaceuticals in the health care acquired on the outskirts of Melbourne. system. Much of the repetitive manual work was Gradually, and through several debates done by women, many of whom spent their over three decades, the government came to working lives at CSL. Well educated but see CSL as a production company that should generally without professional qualifi- be expected to make a profit. CSL protested cations, these women were a skilled and that it was also a public health and research cheap workforce. Their lack of status was institution and should receive direct exacerbated by Public Service regulations government funding for these activities. In which stated that married women could not 1961, CSL was established as a statutory remain in government employment. Many commission and funded separately for its were forced to conceal their marriages from research activities, while in 1990 it was their employer, and only when CSL was established as a government-owned limited placed outside the Public Service in 1961 were company and permitted to seek alliances with these women able to wear their wedding rings multinational drug companies so as to gain and use their married names. access to new technology, products and Women were not the only ones to suffer markets. In the face of increasing exposure under government regulations. When to international drug prices, CSL ceased Bazeley went to work with Jonas Salk at production of penicillin in 1980 and of insulin Pittsburgh on the polio vaccine, he was forced in 1990, while moving into more sophisticated to take leave from CSL and was informed drugs that promised better rates of return. that his time in Pittsburgh would not count Australia has had a strong tradition of as government service for the purpose of his government ownership of manufacturing pension; yet at the end of his leave he was and service industries, including airlines, required to return to CSL for at least five public transport, aircraft manufacture, years, so that the government could get the shipbuilding, munitions and telecom- full benefit of his American research. munications. In this context, the history of The tension and outright conflict between CSL is part of a larger story of government CSL directors and government ministers and attempts to nurture local industry, in a bureaucrats occupies more pages in this book country that does not enjoy the economies than any other topic. The first director, of scale of its competitors. It is a story, too, Penfold, resigned in 1927 after disagreements of the complex relationship between scientific with Cumpston. Val Bazeley, director from research, development and production, and 1956 to 1961, was sacked by the government of the role of government in facilitating after conflict over proposals to remove CSL industrial growth without protecting and from the Public Service and to require it to encouraging inefficient industries. raise its own revenue. All these issues are apparent in Brogan's There were many reasons for book, although he does not deal with them misunderstandings and conflict between the directly or at length. As a long-serving staff two parties. CSL was both a research and member at CSL, Brogan naturally tends to development organization and a see CSL's history from the inside looking out. manufacturing and marketing enterprise, There is therefore a tendency to side with the operating within a government department directors, to see government bureaucrats as Book Review Section interfering and politicians as dishonest and more the twin themes of the interaction capricious. This is sometimes a function of between art and science and of European the documents he uses; for example, in awareness of and reaction to the South recounting the political crises between CSL Pacific that he first adumbrated in 1945 in and Canberra, Brogan relies on CSL and Place, Taste and Tradition: A Study of Health Department records without seeking Australian Art Since 1788 and subsequently out the relevant documents from Treasury or developed into his classic study, European the Public Service Board. Vision and the South Pacific, published in It is perhaps more appropriate to look at 1960. In the main a collection of previously how CSL has managed to survive and adapt published essays, revised and unified around in a changing environment. Indeed, it is these central themes, the book makes possible to assess the effectiveness of the available in a convenient and attractive form directors by their ability to foresee and a number of widely dispersed studies. control this change. In this regard Neville The first chapter, the only essay written McCarthy, director of CSL from 1974 to 1990, specifically for the book, outlines the origin recruited from a private pharmaceutical of scientific illustration in late medieval manufacturer and the first director not to depictions of exotic or game animals, voyages have had prior CSL service, proved to be of discovery, and the medicinal drawings of particularly adept at steering the plants. Noting that the discovery of the organization through the worlds of Americas 'gave new impetus to art in the government and industry. service of science and travel', Smith examines There is also a tendency in the book to deal the 'exotic' processing for European only with CSL's viewpoint when telling the consumption of the information gained, a history of the scientific and medical processing that further transformed the first- controversies in which the organization has hand field studies already coloured by at times become embroiled. These include preconceptions based on ideas of classical arguments about the effectiveness of its origin. By the eighteenth century, new influenza vaccine in the early 1920s, and the standards of scientific accuracy in recording tragic death of 12 children in Bundaberg contributed to a shift towards increasing resulting from a contaminated diphtheria naturalism in the fine arts and challenged toxin-antitoxin mixture. This is not to say the traditional conception of drawing in art that CSL's actions might not have been theory. The impact of naturalism on the reasonable on each occasion, but rather that traditional categories of history painting, Brogan never quite gives readers sufficient portraiture and landscape is discussed, and information to make up their own minds. the development of landscape is set in the Brogan and CSL are to be congratulated context of the new conceptual framework of on their commitment to documenting the the Enlightenment. This chapter provides a history of the organization. It should be noted background for issues taken up later in the that CSL's commitment also extends to the book and introduces those 'interactive maintenance of a small museum on the Royal relationships between perception and Park grounds, an institutional archive, and conceptualising' which are among its central a pictorial historical publication for schools. concerns. It is to be hoped that institutional and The second chapter surveys the history of company histories such as this, which rightly scientific exploration from Cook's first address a predominantly in-house audience, voyage (1768-71) to that of Flinders (1801-4), will encourage researchers to undertake more exploration which resulted in major advances synthetic histories of medical research and in the sciences of astronomy and the pharmaceutical industry in Australia. meteorology, botany and ethnography. A large part of the unprecedented influx of Richard Gillespie information contained in journal accounts Museum of Victoria and a huge corpus of drawings were Melbourne subsequently published. Much of this account of Cook's voyages is drawn from European Bernard Smith, Imagining the Pacific: In the Vision and the South Pacific as Smith again Wake of the Cook Voyages. Melbourne: MUP takes up the theme of the noble savage so Miegunyah Press, 1992. xiii + 262 pp., illus., extensively discussed in his earlier book. $89.95. Chapter 3, 'Art as Information', discusses the influence of the documentary art of Cook's In this beautifully presented and lavishly voyages on the 'triumph of empirical illustrated book, Bernard Smith takes up once naturalism over classical naturalism' in Historical Records of Australian Science, Volume 9, Number 4

European art of the nineteenth century. The painting, and we may add that Wilson's work three voyages represented a progressive of the 'sixties and 'seventies anticipates programme of empirical naturalism, Picturesque theory. Moreover, in the 1770s beginning with the botanical and biological William Gilpin's first statements of the studies of the Endeavour, extending to theory were circulating in manuscript form. weather and light in the second voyage, and All this is not to deny the influence of his to a concentration on ethnography in the scientific companions of the voyage on third voyage. Smith argues that the artists Hodges' increasing naturalism, but rather to concerned, and especially William Hodges set his work in a broader context of change, and John Webber, developed new, alternative of which Hodges is a product rather than the compositional structures more suited to the catalyst. empirical intention of their work. Hodges In his description of Hodges as 'before his particularly is praised for the increased time', Smith appears to subscribe to the naturalism of his depictions of light and outworn 'genius' theory current in the weather, and is claimed as a forerunner to eighteenth century but replaced long since by the optical painting of Constable and the a contextual approach which, in its French Impressionists. examination of the cultural matrix of the Smith suggests an important role for the work of art, shows the artist to be very firmly work of these artists, and especially Hodges, embedded in his period. The scientific in the development of progressive European voyages may indeed have given impetus to painting. Yet his argument is not supported a tradition of increasing naturalism already by evidence showing the influence of underway, but to suggest, as Smith does at scientific drawing on mainstream artistic the end of this chapter, that Hodges and practice. These artists in their exhibited Webber were on the threshold of works, and their engravers, invariably show impressionism is to claim far more than can the more factual or informative drawings be substantiated historically. transformed by aesthetic considerations. The In Chapter 4, Smith identifies allegorical public face of Cook's voyaging therefore and ethnographic conventions in the reinforces established pictorial, and portrayal of native peoples and discusses the especially Picturesque, conventions. If development of the 'typical' landscapes of tenuous parallels may be drawn between Hodges and Webber 'in which people are Hodges and Constable, it is because both depicted as the natural productions of natural share in the scientific attitudes underlying environments'. Their sympathetic portraits, the establishment of the voyages and both seizing the character and expression of each owe much to developing Picturesque theory individual, replaced earlier portraiture and its visual conventions and sources. depicting natives as type specimens. Smith uses the word 'picturesque' loosely Obtaining such portraits necessitated a to describe paintings based on the pictorial friendly, mutually trusting approach. This tradition, yet the Picturesque came to be quite improvement in social relations was double- closely defined in the period under discussion edged, for portraiture weakened the as a set of specific subjects and visual effects, traditional way of life by loosening the bonds among them an emphasis on light and of indigenous community life and altering its weather, strong contrasts of light and shade, power structures. The artist thereby and the looser application of paint, all aspects participated in the ultimate destruction of of Hodges' work on board the Resolution. The native societies. The converse impact of concept of the Picturesque grew out of the native artifacts on European culture is also confluence of the Italianate and Dutch explored. The inference that the history of landscape traditions and English European taste for the primitive is topographical landscape painting, and substantially unwritten is allowed to stand embraced the interest in optics and the in the text, even though an endnote reference physics of light initiated by the publication acknowledges the extensive recent of Newton's Opticks in 1704. The advances scholarship that makes such a claim towards naturalism occurring in Hodges' unfounded. painting done on the voyage were also Chapter 5 takes up again the discussion occurring in England, for example in the of William Hodges' depictions of light and work of the scientifically minded Joseph atmosphere. Hodges painted directly in oils Wright of Derby, whom Hodges had probably from the great cabin of the Resolution, a kind met before his departure for the South Seas. of plein air painting. The practice of As Smith notes, Hodges' master, Richard sketching in oils in the open air derived from Wilson, had already practiced plein air his master, Richard Wilson. Although Smith Book Review Section notes that Hodges 'clung to traditional in the poetic transformations of theRime, and methods whenever these were the most that the plan of the poem follows the sequence convenient', he argues that he was beginning and events of the Resolution's voyage to the to realise the immediacy and freshness made South Seas. Less convincing is his possible by plein air painting. This chapter association of the theme of the killing of the depends a great deal upon how one defines albatross, the central moral issue of the poem, 'plein-air' painting and how it differs from with similar taking of these birds on the the out-of-doors sketch later reworked in the voyage. An important aspect of the studio into the 'finished' painting. Plein air evidence-the comparisons with Wales' painting is for Smith the 'freshness of touch' journal-depends on the unresolveable issue expected from direct, on-the-spot of whether Coleridge ever had access to this observations, and he claims for Hodges that personal account. 'fusion of the landscape sketch and the This is the earliest essay in the book, and finished work, where . . . the pure sensation was included, as the Preface tells us, as a of the first response to nature could be carried result of its virtual neglect by Coleridge over into a grander scale', which is usually scholars in the years sinceits first publication reserved for the generation of Constable and in 1956. In Imagining the Pacific, Smith is Corot. Yet the New Zealand and Tahitian at last able to give this intriguing insight into paintings are large-scale sketches, to which the genesis and poetic process of a great poem the unusual circumstance of a mobile studio the wider audience it deserves. allowed a greater degree of finish. These Chapters 7 and 8 deal with European paintings do not seem to have been exhibited perceptions of the peoples of the Pacific and in their own right, but rather used for more the reworking of an apparently documentary elaborate and conventionally composed art to serve poetic truth or to promote the view exhibition pieces, or reworked for engraving. of a peaceful exploration by suppressing the The 'finished' versions of the voyage representation of conflict. Ultimately two paintings have lost the brilliance and sparkle polarized views emerged, presenting Pacific of the plein air sketches. It is difficult to peoples as classical Arcadians or reconcile the harder, smoother technique and alternatively as pagan savages, each conventional Picturesque composition of his viewpoint providing motivation for the post-voyage painting with a conscious thousands of Europeans who would migrate intention on Hodges' part to supplant the to and eventually come to dominate the traditional aesthetic. Pacific region. In Chapter 6, Smith turns to the influence Chapter 9 explores the source of European of scientific exploration and recording on imaginings of the Pacific in its own literary rather than visual art, and skilfully 'primitive' source, the civilisation of ancient argues a germinal role for William Wales in Greece and the enduring cultural model the genesis of Coleridge's famous poem, The which that civilisation produced. Smith Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Wales was presents interesting parallels between Greek astronomer and meteorologist on the colonization of the ancient world and Resolution during Cook's second voyage, and European colonization of the Pacific, and subsequently mathematics master at Christ's notes that the explorers themselves had seen Hospital during Coleridge's school days the Pacific in terms of Greek analogy. The there. Smith believes that the origin of the establishment of market economies in the poem lies in Coleridge's early contact with Pacific region had a destabilising effect and the account of Wales and others of Cook's led to a rearrangement in the balance of second voyage. He argues convincingly, if power. At the same time, the effects of from circumstantial evidence, for Coleridge's scientific exploration on European culture led exposure to Wales during his school days. to the dissolution of classical standards and Applying the comparative methodology of art systems of classification in both science and history, he seeks to establish not 'close verbal art. parallels between Wales' writing and The book ends with a fascinating account Coleridge's poems, but rather the creation of of the ways in which Cook's posthumous a substantial repertoire of imagery, as in reputation was shaped by contemporaries dream formation, from tales of the and historians for ideological ends. Resolution's voyage told in the school, either Despite its wealth of material, insights and by Wales himself or in garbled form by the graceful learning, this book lacks the boys'. Smith demonstrates that the visual coherence of design and purpose of European imagery contained in descriptions of Vision and the South Pacific and the phenomena observed on the voyage reappear pioneering presentation of new research that Historical Records of Australian Science, Volume 9, Number 4 made the earlier work the classic it has developments and concerns, both certainly deservedly become. Many of the essays in deserve their status. Imagining the Pacific present a new For those requiring a birds'-eye view of this perspective, but there is still much of the book complicated arrangement, Lewis provides an that is a re-presentation of old material, albeit admirable summarizing chapter on the with many modifications, additions or lessons of history. There is an excellent revisions; and the philosophical bibliography and index. The author deserves underpinnings and methodology of the special commendation for putting many of earlier work do not seem to have much his references in summary form in the text. changed in the decades since. But for readers The source, and especially the date, are unfamiliar with the earlier publications, immediately available without the need to Imagining the Pacific presents in a highly read minute superscript numerals and search readable form a wealth of information, for the reference somewhere in the back observation and insight. For those already pages; page footnotes are a luxury that familiar with the concerns of Bernard today's authors must surely learn to forego. Smith's earlier scholarship, it provides a rich Thorough use is made of official reports and embroidery upon familiar themes. government papers, which have often tended to be overlooked by historians. Lucy Grace Ellem While there is logic in the form of Art History Department presentation, it cannot be said that it makes La Trobe University for easy reading; whether the repetition is real or merely apparent, there is overlap among Milton Lewis, A Rum State: Alcohol and several of the chapters, and it is not easy to State Policy in Australia, 1788-1988. retain the data of the first two chapters in Canberra: AGPS, 1992. vi + 231 pp., $24.95. reading the later ones, especially as all are heavily factual in terms of statistics and This reviewer's indication that he was no sources. The book reflects immense diligence authority on modern concepts of alcoholism in research and documentation, but strictly and also a devoted consumer of the substance within the scope of the book's subtitle. The in its most sophisticated form produced from latter leaves room for only limited the editor only the book in response. This consideration of consumer patterns, limitation and vested interest must therefore especially as between the various types of be accepted! alcoholic liquor, and no room for Lewis brings to his subject considerable consideration of what forms of alcohol historical experience of socially important contribute to the problems posed by alcohol disorders, including madness and sexually- consumption, if indeed the relevant data transmitted diseases, as well as of Australian exist. Even granting that increased taxation medical history generally. He has produced or reduction of personal income reduces a detailed and meticulous work, within his 'average' consumption (Lewis adduces frame of reference, which will be of long- evidence on these points), how much does standing value to workers in the field. It is either influence the 'alcohol problem'? Or not light reading, largely because of the does it just reduce the quality of alcohol rather complex approach to the subject consumed? (I have seen blindness from wood matter, although this is set out clearly in the alcohol in a community to whom legitimate introduction. alcohol was unavailable.) The first two chapters deal respectively What indeed does the average annual per with historical trends in consumption and capita consumption of alcohol mean? Lewis related social problems, and with unavoidably has to use this international Government revenue, each covering two 'gold standard', but an average is meaningful centuries. The next deals with the evolution only if consumption is normally distributed of liquor laws and the influence of the in the community, which it certainly is not, temperance movement (and very effective it and nor does it take into account the manner is) to around 1930, followed by a chapter on and form in which the alcohol is consumed. developments to the 1980s. Chapter 5 takes Correlations do not imply cause and effect, us back to the nineteenth century in its at least without other evidence; the decline consideration of the management of of cirrhosis of the liver (which takes years inebriety, both administrative and medical, to develop) in the Depression, and its more and this theme is continued to the 1980s in recent rise, are not necessarily evidence for the following chapter. Chapters on alcohol or against alcohol as a cause. One may and Aborigines, and on recent national similarly question the validity of arrests for Book Review Section drunkenness as an index of the social At the publication level, some illustrations, problems posed specifically by alcohol at so evocative of the past to elderly reviewers, different places and in varying periods; would have lightened the solid text of Milton except for asylum admissions, there may be Lewis's volume. The book is essential for no other index to use, but its limitations need libraries to which it has any relevance, and to be appreciated. These comments, of course, necessary reading for the professional in extend far beyond Lewis's survey, which drug-related problems. relates these indices to policy. Many readers of this important book will 'Medicalization' of a disease in the see a link with the problems of the State in nineteenth century is a popular view for relation to tobacco. Robin Walker's survey of modern social historians seeking to assert the this less complicated subject (Under Fire: A doctors' desire for power. Lewis rightly History of Tobacco Smoking in Australia, identifies this trend in relation to alcoholism, MUP, 1984) allows the author to range a little but also indicates that, to some extent, the more widely, but the similarities, and to a responsibility was thrust upon medicine by lesser degree the contrasts, are thought- the failure of other conceptual approaches, provoking. and by the often unwilling involvement of psychiatrists who had to suffer the admission Bryan Gandevia of alcoholics into their lunatic asylums. Here Randwick, NSW I do have a criticism of Lewis's simplistic approach, in that he fails to attempt any Tom Griffiths, Secrets of the Forest: definition of the 'disease/diseases' related to Discovering History in Melbourne's Ash alcohol, although he is aware of the problem. Range. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1992. viii + What disorders were the psychiatrists in the 224 pp., illus., $24.95 pb. nineteenth century really talking about (I admit to uncertainty myselfl? To what extent Secrets of the Forest is an appealing but are the problems seen by the psychiatrists unusually structured volume. In the first half, relevant to the general problems of alcohol Tom Griffiths-who teaches in Monash in the community, either in the nineteenth University's Public History programme-has century or today? The problem of defining written an environmental history of the a disease has been controversial for centuries mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans) forests and is still not clarified, but there would be of Central Victoria. In the second half, a few today who, rightly or wrongly, would not variety of other authors-most associated want to include in the definition some social with the Historic Places Section of Victoria's maladaptation in addition to a florid physical Department of Conservation and or mental disorder. In future historical Environment or the Public History considerations of alcohol and the community, programme-have described twenty-six effective definition of the problems associated historic sites in the region. The volume is with alcohol must be an essential prerequisite saved from this disjunct structure by to any attempt to deal with them; to a degree Griffiths' polished style, the diversity of Lewis's historical background fails to provide pieces in the second half, and above all by a clear medico-historical basis. the excellent presentation and illustrations. On the other hand, I do not underestimate Even if its coherence is more stylistic than the difficulties, which lie largely in the lack thematic, it is done so well that it succeeds. of adequate data, both in the past and for Tom Griffiths takes us through the recent times. Lewis has defined his scope environmental history of the region in a accurately in his subtitle, and it is therefore series of short chapters introducing the inappropriate to criticize the lack of data on ecology of the forest, clearing and settlement, detailed patterns of consumption, their mining, early sawmilling, the disastrous distribution in the community, and their bushfires in 1939, silvicultural research, relation to 'disease', however that may be hydrological research, tourism, and finally defined. A simple illustration of the problems the heritage values of the region. Like Eric is the beneficial influence of a modest table Rolls' account of the Pilliga Scrub in A wine intake on coronary vascular disease, for Million Wild Acres (Nelson, Melbourne, 1981), which there is now convincing data. Lewis Griffiths writes an environmental history in has provided the essential groundwork in a which the forests are not merely scenery comprehensive review of policy, but much behind the human drama, but are agents in remains to be done before there is a fully themselves. He seeks a history which is adequate socio-medical history of alcohol and 'intensely local in its concerns and that also alcoholism in our society. embraces the non-human world'. The Historical Records of Australian Science, Volume 9, Number 4

shores of the Russian Empire. Bering proved Cook. The initial accounts, by the English that Asia and North America are separated and French, showed Tahiti to be a pagan by what came to be known as the Bering Sea. paradise, so much so that the London The most extensive Russian exploration of Missionary Society had determined to bring the Pacific Ocean was, however, carried out the Christian religion to the island. The in the first quarter of the 19th century; the senior missionary was the Reverend Henry first Russian expedition to circumnavigate Nott, who quickly established himself as an the world did not sail from Kronstadt, in extremely powerful figure in relation to the the Baltic, until 1803. In the years that Tahitian royal family and to the ordinary followed, there was an almost constant people. As Glynn Barratt comments: stream of Russian ships passing through the When Vostok and Mirnyi called at Pacific. Indeed, as Glynn Barratt has written: Matavai Bay in July 1820, English 'The Russian hydrographic record in Central missionaries had been toiling there for Polynesia in the post-Napoleonic era twenty years with conspicuous success. (1816-1826) is a proud one, equal to that of Bellingshausen and his people were the British and superior to that of the United obliged to gain the missionaries' favour, States and France.' or at least their understanding, before The first section of the present volume is dealing with the islanders around the bay. devoted to an account of Russian The Russians liked neither this fact nor observations of the islands to the east and the rule imposed on the Tahitians in the north-east of Tahiti-referred to as the name of God the Father by the Reverend Tuamotu Archipelago or sometimes as the Henry Nott and his companions. 'half-drowned' islands of the Dangerous There is a wealth of information and Archipelago. They are relatively small and comment included in this volume on aspects low-lying, and are therefore a substantial of the practical ethnography, zoology, danger to shipping even today. A few of these botany, hydrography, geology and had been seen by Spanish, Dutch, English meteorology that Russian expeditions and French explorers, and some landings had undertook. Some details are also given of the been made; but few positions had been navigational methods; for example, it seems accurately determined until the Russians that the sextants and chronometers used by remedied this situation. The Russians also the Russians were of English make, and their recorded information about the botany, admiration for Captain Cook is illustrated by zoology and many of the artefacts they the fact that they were able to calculate the observed: ornaments, weapons and canoes, errors of their chronometers by comparing for example. Translations of substantial the longitude of Point Venus, as determined parts of the original Russian accounts are by Cook, with that obtained by their included in the present book. chronometers. Of course, Cook and his The second (and larger) part of the volume astronomers had determined the longitude of is concerned with Russian observations of the Point Venus by numerous observations on all social situation in Tahiti. It will be recalled three voyages. that Tahiti was first 'discovered' by The book is illustrated with drawings by Europeans in June 1767 when Captain Russian artists (Ludovik Choris, P.N. Samuel Wallis in the Dolphin observed this Mikhailov) and by photographs of several beautiful mountainous island, landed there artefacts; the dust-cover reproduces and established friendly relations with the Mikhailov's portrait of King Pomare. Polynesian inhabitants. The French explorer Professor Barratt deserves our thanks for this Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, with the account of Russian exploration in the Pacific. Boudeuse and Etoile, independently 'discovered' Tahiti in April 1768. The account G.M. Badger of Tahiti provided by Samuel Wallis was West Lakes sufficient to persuade the British Admiralty South Australia and the Royal Society that the observation of the transit of Venus should be made at Gregory Haines, Pharmacy in Australia: Tahiti, and in due course this was done by The National Experience. Sydney: Captain James Cook and astronomer Charles Australian Pharmaceutical Publishing Co. Green (in June 1769). for the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, The Russian expeditions to Tahiti were in 1988. x + 433 pp., illus., $35.00. the first quarter of the 19th century, and their accounts showed that many changes had Pharmacy in Australia challenges. Haines occurred since the days of Bougainville and takes on a tremendous task to review a broad Book Review Section professional field in a large, diverse country. Haines certainly does not hold back his He accomplishes much in a chronological views, many of which appear coloured by approach: 'Beginnings', 'A National Sense', today's vaIues and standards. In one place, 'Depressions', 'National Beginnings', 'War', commenting on the period around the 1920s, 'Commercial Union' and 'A New World, but he says (p. 239): Brave?' Additionally, Kaines' introduction While new drugs and products and includes reference to early developments techniques were calling for changes in outside Australia as well as to Aboriginal practice and education, pharmacy practices. persisted in concentrating most of its Developments in the Australian colonies, efforts and attention on the easier world prior to Federation in 1901, are outlined, with of commerce. appropriate reference to societal concerns Not so medicine. Its status covered its over poisons and poisoning (as was also the slow and imperfect adaptation to the range case in Britain at the time). Regional rivalries of new techniques and preparations, and are highlighted: 'Criticisms, their mode and its areas of backwardness. One example manner, deepened the colour of jealousy in of the latter was the polypharmacy of the which pharmacy organisations in Victoria 1930s. and New South Wales cherished each other'. Not only is there a lack of examples to The protracted period-beset by countless support the interpretation, but also the personality clashes-of creating national resulting discussion on polypharmacy- unity is considered; while this is viewed which was perhaps not so widespread as primarily as an internal story of pharmacy, implied-does not consider the context of such external factors are noted as 'the war therapy at the time, nor does Haines wonder of 1914-1918 [that] shocked and changed the if modern treatments are any more effective, new Australia'. The war raised, for instance, especially in the area of self-care which has such issues as inadequately trained army been increasingly the responsibility of compounders, new opportunities for women, pharmacists. and the emergence of 'Buy Australian' Pharmacists will probably have no campaigns. Haines also gives the reader a problem with the smorgasbord of topics feel for the prolonged and complex build-up covered, but non-pharmacists may have some to the formation of the Pharmaceutical difficulty in comprehending fully the Society of Australia during the 1970s. parameters of pharmacy. How significant, Such broad sweeps offer many challenges for instance, was the issue of narcotic abuse? to keep the general reader, if not the Indeed, although there is much on the central specialist, committed to the text. Many will dilemma of pharmacy-namely, enjoy Haines' more vigorous passages. For commercialism versus professionalism- instance, writing about the 1920s and the questions about what defines the profession 'teens, he comments (p. 247): and its practices are given little analytical A type of sexism was to develop in attention. When topics such as the pharmacy-the real men were the introduction of sulphonamides are businessmen, leadership stock. The mentioned, the precise impact is assumed champions of professional standards were rather than explored. feminine, effete or academic. They lived Among an inevitable number of misprints in a fairy land of ideas and were out of and the like, the spelling minum rather than touch with the world where the real men minim-a unit of measurement once lived. commonplace in pharmacy practice but no Maybe, but no documentation is given for longer in general use-seems especially such assertions. Indeed, many readers, symbolic. Haines glides over detail to give historians especially, will be frustrated that a sense of change in the big picture, but all the book is not documented. It is always those interested in the history and the future unfair for a reviewer to ask for material of a complex profession must look at much deliberately excluded, but judgements-of of the minutiae, especially in terms of publisher as well as of the author-must be pharmacy's relations with society. Haines questioned when the first national history, notes links between trends in pharmacy and presumably intended to become the concerns over poisoning in the nineteenth 'standard', appears without offering ready century, yet he does not address the question means-and the bibliography is also of whether pharmacy's success in utilizing cursory-for students of pharmacy and a 'coat-tail' effect was self-servingrather than others to assess and to follow up many of in the best interests of society. In the last Haines' interpretations. chapter, Haines looks to the future and Historical Records of Australian Science, Volume 9, Number 4

recognizes that this will not be altogether of suggests his pivotal role and under-rates the pharmacy's own devising. However, societal force of his effort. trends and concerns, past and present, need Much information is presented as lists: the detailed consideration if history is to help appeal committee, the building committee, with the analysis of current and future trends. graduates, post-graduates, staff, successful Scholars of Australian pharmacy and of theses, textbooks, academic associates; all pharmacy in general have Haines' book as are enshrined, but some explanations are a springboard. needed. I was astonished by the variation in the proportions of students who graduated J.K. Crellin with honours; until about 1972 there were Faculty of Medicine approximately 20%, while later this rose to Memorial University of Newfoundland be as high as 69%. Canada Chapter seven demonstrates why training of veterinarians for skilled practice is expensive. At least 85% enter practice and D.C. Blood, The University of Melbourne must confront owners of production and School of Veterinary Science: A Recent companion animals. A school has to have History, 1962-1992. Melbourne: Veterinary well equipped clinics in several locations. It School, University of Melbourne, 1992. viii must cultivate good relationships with + 306 pp., illus., $50.00. producers of animals at all levels. It must accommodate students. In 1962, the Melbourne Veterinary School Blood has run very successful clinical was re-established after a lapse of 34 years. departments in at least three veterinary Douglas Blood describes this re-emergence schools. Writing with insight, he describes and subsequent growth over 30 years. It is modification of facilities that the Melbourne a book full of meticulously recorded detail. School had to make following changes in land It describes the fund-raising, the building, the use. He illuminates clinical research on enrolment of students, and the recruitment innovative services to livestock owners of staff, both academic and ancillary. It through herd health programs. outlines the research effort and post-graduate The School ignored recommendations from training, the establishment and functions of the Murray Committee that large research the clinic and hospital, and the Faculty's organizations-CSIRO, ANU, AEC-could public relations. contribute training, particularly to post- The move to re-establish the School began graduates. The Veterinary Preclinical Centre in 1957. The Committee on Australian shared a campus with the CSIRO Animal Universities (the Murray Committee) in that Health Research Laboratory, and in the early year recommended that future needs for 1980s an agreement between Melbourne veterinary graduates could be satisfied by the University and Animal Health permitted existing schools in Sydney and Brisbane, PhD students to undertake their candidature with upgrading of the latter. Veterinarians at the Laboratory. There is no explanation were not in short supply, neither was there for the delay of thirty-one years in the first an urgent demand for student places. of such conferrals. Increased livestock numbers in Victoria There is a chapter on external relations but matched a transitory rise in sheep numbers no account of the stance of the Veterinary at the 1950/51 wool boom, but cattle numbers, School in such public veterinary issues as far more important for veterinary practice, animal welfare, intensive animal production, declined. or facilities for study and control of exotic It was difficult to argue a case for a new diseases. There is nothing about a policy school in Melbourne, and funding was concerning food from genetically engineered elusive. Straitened circumstances still show animals, nor concerning the meat in noisy laboratories with low ceilings and substitution scandal. poor ventilation. The author comments with A work like this, which chronicles events emotion on the failure of Australian without much discussion, is not a great read. governments to complete veterinary schools It is more nearly a source book, to which one with internationally acceptable facilities. can turn for data; it doesn't provide much Doug Blood was appointed Dean in 1962. enlightenment about why things were done. He worked desperately to organize finance, As a source it has some disadvantages. It has buildings and staff. The first year of the a table of contents with no page numbers, course was taught in 1963, and completion and though there are chapter numbers, these of the plan by 1967 was urgent. Blood only are not repeated on the chapter headings; Book Review Section

while in the text, reference to chapters is made disease and the physiological and by numbers. biochemical mechanisms that underlie it. Putting the difficulties aside, this history But, like several other biomedical research is of considerable value, for it accurately institutes in Australia, its origins were very reports in detail the process that enabled this much in the setting of a hospital. Indeed, it institution to form and develop the maturity can be said that the Baker Institute was the it now displays. Given the initial handicaps, research arm of the Alfred Hospital until the its initiation and success are testimony to establishment there of Monash University farsighted planning and a deep resolve to academic departments in the 1960s. It is not succeed. surprising, therefore, that the research undertaken within the Institute up until the Len C. Lloyd late 1970s was eclectic and heavily biased Hampton, Victoria towards clinical research. The collected essays published in this book are personal recollections of the time spent Rod Andrew and Alf Barnett (eds),In Their by the authors at the Baker Institute, of the Day: Memoirs of Alumni, The Baker Medical people with whom they worked, and of events Research Institute. Melbourne: Hyland that occurred; testimonies to the benign House Publishing, 1992. xii + 188 pp., illus., influence that the Baker Institute had on $24.95. their subsequent careers; and, in some cases, accounts of the authors' personal careers. This is a collection of essays by alumni and They are, in a sense, written-down oral current staff members of the Baker Medical history and autobiography. Research Institute in Melbourne. They were The editors have assembled this collection originally published in the 'in-house' of essays very professionally. The book magazine of the Institute, Baker Institute should be of great interest to the 'in' group News, and are reprinted in the book with the of Baker alumni (among whom I number addition of a brief biography of each author, myself, with pride and pleasure), though the and illustrations. The editors are themselves reminiscences may not be compelling reading alumni and contribute their own for the outsider or compulsory reading for the recollections. scientific historian. The Baker Medical Research Institute was founded in 1926. Since Dr T.E. Lowe became John Ludbrook Director, and especially during Professor Melbourne University Department of Paul Korner's directorship, its research work Surgery has been concentrated on cardiovascular Royal Melbourne Hospital