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The Politics and Economics of Animal Health in Australia

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The Politics and Economics of Animal Health in Australia Pacific Science (1998), vol. 52, no. 4: 319-321 © 1998 by University of Hawai'i Press. All rights reserved ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS1 Presented at the XXth International Congress of the History of Science, Liege, Belgium, July 1997 Science in the Back Paddock: The Politics and Economics of Animal Health in Australia WILLIAM BUTCHER B ARRy2 For many years it was claimed that "Austra­ Board (E.M.B.), based in London, and local lia rides upon the sheep's back," a recogni­ organizations such as the industry-funded tion of the importance of wool in the eco­ Australian Dairy Cattle Research Associa­ nomic development of Australia. This truism tion and the Australian Pastoral Research can be extended to include agricultural pro­ Fund in shaping both the research priorities duction more generally. Although there are and the form of research undertaken. Aus­ now a number ofsolid studies ofthe successes tralia's strong imperial links often brought of scientific and technological researches in about tensions within C.S.I.R.O., where ani­ Australian agriculture, to date little work has mal research was in part funded through the been done to uncover the political and eco­ E.M.B. with the clear recognition that such nomic aspects of this major feature of Aus­ research was to benefit the British Empire tralian science. A notable exception to this is generally rather than Australia in particular. Boris Schedvin's study of the Council for Sci­ Although the research upon which this paper entific and Industrial Research (C.S.I.R.O.). is based is at an early stage, some tentative In this paper I seek to extend the process of conclusions can already be suggested, the historical investigation into the role of ani­ chief of which being that in the period under mal health research within C.S.I.R.O. in the discussion, research in animal health was not period 1920-1937, concentrating on the always to the advantage of Australia itself. political and economic situations in which Of more general interest, I seek to situate the particular decisions were taken to increase study of scientific endeavor as it relates to or modify research. I examine the role of animal health research in Australia within such organizations as the Empire Marketing the growing literature of "colonial science." Missionaries and the Natural History of the Hawaiian Islands E. ALISON KAy3 Charles Darwin's comment to Joseph Dalton I would like to see a good flora of the Sand­ Hooker in 1850, " ... ofall places in the world wich islands," suggests that neither Darwin nor other naturalists realized that the mis- sionaries of the American Board of Com­ 1 Manuscripts accepted 15 January 1998. missioners of Foreign Missions, who had ar­ 2 Lecturer, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia. 3 Department of Zoology, University of Hawai'i at rived in Hawai'i in 1820, might offer a source Manoa, 2538 The Mall, Honolulu, Hawai'i 96822. of information on the natural history of the 319 320 PACIFIC SCIENCE, Volume 52, October 1998 Islands. Darwin's challenge was unnecessary: catching "the land shell fever," and collecting the missionaries were themselves "collectors." thousands of tree snails. Mainland college Thirty of the pioneer missionaries recorded records indicate that the Hawaiian education observations under 94 published titles; 170 exceeded all expectation: the missionary chil­ articles were penned by 24 of their sons. dren graduated with honors as salutatorians The publications on volcanoes, botany, land and valedictorians of their classes, and be­ snails, birds, climate, and geology are in sci­ came chemists, meteorologists, surveyors, and entific journals and national and local media. teachers. Darwin's collectors and the mis­ Of 700 annotated bibliographic records on sionaries were all strangers in a strange land. Hawaiian volcanoes, 1826-1916, 25% are The missionaries had the advantage of being those of missionaries. Reverend Titus Coan in the Islands for long periods of time, seeing "observed nearly every eruption of Mauna the volcano on a daily basis, and studying Loa and Kilauea between 1835 and 1882"; "our ferns in their localities and seasons." Sarah Joiner Lyman's Earthquake Diary, The 50-year records of volcanic activity by 1833-1885, recorded earthquakes felt in Hilo. Titus Coan and Sarah Lyman serve modem The 80 pioneer missionaries were well edu­ volcanologists well today. Other observations cated. Thirty percent of the mission fathers are yardsticks, providing measures of change were educated at institutions recognized for in landscape and biota. The missionary ob­ science. Both men and women had an inher­ servers described things as they saw them: ent love of nature associated with the natural Titus Coan of the first generation saw liquid theology embraced by Congregationalists. lava simply as flowing downhill; a geologist Their New England heritage was sustained had to propose an internal force and fissures by letters to family and former teachers; and opening to the fires below. The missionary specimens of corals, shells, and lava were evolutionist J. T. Gulick of the second gen­ sent "home" for identification. Professor eration, recognizing a hundred species of Silliman at Yale printed the letters in the landshells, each in its own valley on O'ahu, American Journal of Science. Visiting natu­ proposed isolation as a major factor in the ralists were welcomed in the homes of the origin of species and met with Darwin at mission families. The children were sent back Down House to discuss his ideas. Together, to New England for their education until the two generations provide a remarkable 1841, when a mission school, Punahou, was compilation of nearly 100 years of observa­ founded. Natural history was a major inter­ tion and theory of the natural history of the est for the children, the boys especially most isolated islands in the world. Two Kyoto Chemists Divided in Two Koreas SANG-YONG SONG4 Ree Tae Kyue and Li Sung Ki were the first Kyoto Imperial University before 1945. They Korean chemists who became professors at returned home after the liberation of Korea from Japan. In the course of the division of Korea, they chose different sides. Their lives and works are compared in the political 4Professor, Hallym University, Chunchon, Korea. background of Korea. Abstracts of Papers 321 German Scientists in Russian America W. CONNER SORENSEN5 Beginning with Georg Wilhelm Steller, who stem recruited Baltic Germans as naturalists reported the scientific findings of Vitus on Russian voyages (e.g., Georg Heirich von Bering's discovery of Alaska (1741), German Langsdorff, Louis Addelbert von Chamisso, scientists played a dominant role in the sci­ Johann Homer, and Johann Eschscholz) and entific exploration of Russian America. This as sea commanders and administrators who tradition reached its zenith with the work of combined scientific investigation with their Adam Johann Krusenstem, a Baltic German administrative duties (e.g., Otto von Kotze­ who commanded the first Russian circum­ bue, Feodor Lutke, Ferdinand Petrovitch navigation (1803-1806) and who organized Wrangell, Liontii Hagemeister, and F. V. over 30 Russian voyages to Alaska. Krusen- Bellinghausen). Much of the scientific infor­ mation about Alaska in the Russian period 5 Doctor, Independent Scholar, Missions Str. 37, came from those associated directly with 42285 Wuppertal2, Germany. Krusenstem and his students..
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