stirrer of public consciousness on a number Book Review of issues - a man with opinions on every- thing from uranium mining to eugenics, from Section smoking to medical education - with an inclination to put his arguments forcibly and with an authority that guaranteed that his Compiled by John Jenkin* views could not be ignored. Many of Australia's immunologists and microbiologists knew Burnet. These scien- Christopher Sexton, The Seeds of Time: tists will read the book out of interest rather The Life of Sir Macfarlane Burnet. Mel- than to find out more about him; they may bourne: Oxford University Press, 1991. x + hope that the book will do nothing to dimin- 301 pp., illus., $39.95. ish the image of a man they held in admi- ration. From people who knew Burnet, I have Sir (Frank) Macfarlane Burnet was a great heard generally favourable comments. biological scientist. He was responsible for The second group of readers comprises several major technical developments and Australian scientists who did not know Bur- conceptual insights in his first field of net, and that is my own perspective. To an research, virology, and for two conceptual immunologist who came to Australia after breakthroughs in his second, immunology. Burnet had retired, a life of Burnet holds His work was seminal - many of the impor- particular interest. The question has arisen tant steps leading to the development of viral amongst younger and emigre immunologists vaccines can be traced back to techniques whether the continuing focus on Burnet is worked up by Burnet, and much of the excit- unhealthy; but the evidence is that Austra- ing cellular and molecular immunology of the lian immunology is healthy in its diversity, last twenty years consists of answers to ques- that it has plenty of leadership, and that the tions that make sense only in the context of tribute to Burnet results from a mixture of Burnet's theories. He received the Nobel respect and courtesy rather than any unheal- Prize, jointly with Sir Peter Medawar, for one thy personality-cult. Indeed, Burnet in his of these, the concept that the immune system later years believed that immunology had distinguishes self from non-self, and the con- more or less run its course; his disciples have sequent concept of immunological tolerance. spectacularly proved him wrong but have had He and many other immunologists regarded the discretion not to point this out. the tolerance work as second in importance To Australian immunologists and micro- to his other major contribution to immunol- biologists who did not know Burnet, Sexton's ogy, the clonal selection theory for antibody book is full of interest. A comparison with formation. Virologists felt he might well have Fenner's biographical memoir of Burnet sug- earned a Nobel Prize for his virology studies, gests that Sexton's book is accurate, but of and he was indeed nominated for one. What- course it contains much more in the way of ever the limitations of prizes as indicators of personal detail, while Fenner's memoir con- merit, it would be hard to shrug off one Nobel centrates on the science.l Prize and two near-misses. The largest potential readership com- I have not yet used the word 'Australian' prises people further removed from detailed - Burnet was a great scientist on the world knowledge of the subject - people who nei- stage. His importance to Australian biologi- ther knew Burnet personally nor are active cal science eclipses that of others like Howard in his fields of research in Australia. This is Florey, because Burnet did most of his work a diverse group, and Burnet's later years as in Australia, built up an Institute that is a commentator on controversial issues will still possibly Australia's premier research interest a wider group than is usual for a centre, and inspired a generation of scientists biography of a great scientist. For the general who still dominate Australian biological reader, the book is well written and readable. science. Christopher Sexton has not shirked the task Burnet retired from experimental biology of explaining the scientific aspects in general at the age of 65 and started a second career, terms, and I believe the non-scientist would which spanned another 20 years. He wrote at least get a general grasp of the relevance extensively on biology during this later of Burnet's work. period, but was also a philosopher, elder and What does this book offer to the reader interested in how science and scientists * Dr J.G. Jenkin is a Reader in Physics at La Trobe work? In discussing this, it is appropriate to University, Bundoora, Victoria 3083. compare Burnet with Medawar. The two men Historical Records of Australian Science, 9(1) (June 19921 were very different. Medawar was consciously Historical Records of Australian Science, Volume 9, Number 1

(and delightfully) an aristocrat amongst Burnet's experimental skill was most rele- intellectuals, a renowned wit, and at ease vant to his virus work. He adapted a tech- with everybody. Burnet considered himself to nique for growing virus in eggs and continued be at a 'low place in the peck-order', in spite to adapt it until it became in his hands a of recognition bestowed on him.2 He wrote in powerful set of techniques, for assaying virus a straightforward, undecorated style, and (by injecting low numbers and counting was something of a social recluse. Medawar's 'pocks'), for assaying antibody against virus, essays, collected together in books such as and for the production of virus in sufficient The Art of the Soluble (Penguin, 1967) and quantity for vaccination. The appearance of Pluto's Republic (OUP, 19841, have influenced the pocks gave him clues on relationships the way we perceive how science works, not between viruses. His skill came partly from least because they were written by a success- his observation of detail (which he ascribed ful scientist who happened also to be a phi- to his hobby as a naturalist) and partly from losopher. Burnet didn't try to analyse, at least his tendency (again ascribed to his beetle- not for public consumption, how science collecting) to 'collect' information; having got works. And yet, if we understand the thought the technique working, he applied it to every processes of a man who made not one but virus that came to hand. His skill as an two major conceptual advances in immunol- experimentalist, and his continuation of lab- ogy, the working habits of a man who made oratory work with his own hands up until he several seminal discoveries in virology, and retired, is an important lesson for today, the interpersonal skills of a man who so when scientists, and medical researchers in dominated Australian biological science, then particular, tend to conduct their research we may obtain some insight into how science from their desk, with students and techni- and scientists work. Sexton's book is helpful cians doing the experiments. Burnet's pas- in this regard, although I found that I under- sion for 'collecting' information would be less stood Burnet as a scientist better when I had acceptable today, and would probably be also read Fenner's memoir and Burnet's labelled by any peer-review process as a autobiography. 'fishing expedition'. Burnet, as portrayed by Sexton, was not Burnet's most important immunological driven to medical research by a burning insight, the clonal selection theory of anti- desire to help humanity. Indeed, he seems to body formation, was not fully vindicated until have been somewhat indifferent to the suffer- many years after its formulation. Burnet ing of patients in his early days, developing used the term 'intrinsic unlikelihood' to only later a mission to overcome scourges describe what worried him about one of the such as influenza, over-population and the rival theories, which held that antigen was effects of smoking. This is probably not un- used as template for the design of antibody to fit the antigen. But clonal selection, or usual. The public image of the 'dedicated' earlier selective (as opposed to instructive) medical researcher is pleasant but inaccur- theories, implied that the immune system ate; scientists work long hours because of had a pre-existing repertoir, enabling it to their fascination with their work rather than react to an unbelievably large variety of anti- their dedication to helping mankind. gens, equally intrinsically unlikely. Burnet Sexton discusses the features of Burnet's postulated a mechanism of 'randomization' of work that seem to have had most bearing on the immunoglobulin genes by somatic muta- his success - his ecological approach to tion, such that a wide variety of different infectious agents, his wide reading, his abil- antibodies could be made. He was right in ity to integrate information from disparate essence, but it was a conceptual leap well fields, his capacity far lateral thinking. The beyond the experimental techniques of the discussion is interesting and informative. day to test. Clonal selection did not 'feel right' The same characteristics can be discerned until years later, when the genetic mecha- more precisely from the memoir and partic- nisms for generating diversity were discov- ularly from the autobiography, where they ered. An important knack required of a are more vivid because of t.he author's infec- scientist is the ability to decide which areas tious enthusiasm. Sexton's book provides an of uncertainty make a hypothesis untenable introduction to Burnet; anyone seriously and which will sort themselves out later. interested should also read Fenner and Bur- Regarding Burnet's second career - as net. There is space here to discuss only two elder, philosopher, stirrer of the public con- of the important characteristics of Burnet sciousness - Sexton brings out Burnet's sin- the scientist - his skill as an experimenter, cerity and honesty in these endeavours, and and his ability to see in a mass of data a indicates that they provoked a wide response, plausible model. much of it adverse. What the book does not Book Review Section show clearly is how effective Burnet actually Publishers, 1991 (Australasian Studies in was in this role. Many of the causes taken History and Philosophy of Science, Vol. 9). ix up by Burnet - such as uranium mining, + 318 pp., illus., Dfl.165.00. nuclear and solar energy, and cigarette advertising - are still important issues in 'Is Science Australian? asked Donald Horne Australia. Did Burnet place them on the at a recent 'Ideas for Australia' summit in agenda, or was he a follower; how much Melbourne. Amidst the predictable confusion notice did the public and the politicians take of replies came three definite answers: yes, of him:? Did they humour the distinguished no, and maybe. For scientists, whether sci- elder statesman of biology; were they irri- ence is national or international, metropoli- tated by this man, speaking outside his field tan or peripheral, seemed of little practical of expertise; were they swayed by the conclu- interest. Models, theories and observations sions of a great mind; or did they use him to - not political theories - are the business further their own objectives? It is difficult to of science, and disciplines, networks and per- answer these questions from Sexton's book. haps even Cooperative Research Centres are This period of Burnet's life also raises the its social manifestation. There is nothing in question: should retired scientists speak out science resembling the strident nationalism on public issues of this kind? Burnet's ability evident in the arts. Does it matter to science to think in evolutionary terms qualified him if Australia becomes a republic? Science may to speak as an expert on issues such as have something to do with style, certainly population size, and many of the other issues with resources, but little to do with the were in some degree biological. On the other vagaries (and vagueness) of national identity. hand, Medawar, who had a formal training What, then, they might ask (and in Mel- in philosophy, was critical of some of Burnet's bourne did) is the question? philosophical writings: 'This kind of thing The question is easy to parody and to may be all right for psychotherapy, but . . I polarize. That the activity of science incor- (Sexton, p. 210). Anyone familiar with Meda- porates a host of social factors, of which war's opinions of psychotherapy will appre- nationality may be one, is hardly a debatable ciate the severity of the reprimand. If Burnet proposition. But to define national, as dis- was not as skilled a philosopher as he was a tinct from ethnic or language-group identi- scientist, his writings showed a profound ties, and to ask if they apply interestingly to concern for mankind, illustrated in a diary the conduct of international culture, whether entry dealing not with philosophy but with in opera or optics, remains a worry more for the practicalities of his continued existence historians than scientists. Yet the sense that after the death of his wife: 'Now I am there is an identity remains. It surfaces responsible for no one but myself - and visibly whenever the 'cultural cringe', a con- perhaps my species' (Sexton, p. 224). venient phrase to disguise a nationalist Burnet was an extraordinarily seminal reflex, is called into play. The question of scientist. Anyone with an interest in the national identity - certainly in sport - is history of science needs to understand some- clearly important to most Australians. And thing about Burnet, and Sexton's book is a it is of intense urgency to science. At a time good place to start. when nationalisms are resurfacing through- out Europe - the Soviet Academy of Science References has disappeared, replaced by a Russian Academy - will we have a Ukrainian sci- 1. Frank Fenner, 'Frank Macfarlane Burnet, ence, not to mention a Croatian science? As 1899-1985', Historical Records of Austra- with the control of nuclear arsenals, we can- lian Science, 7 (19871, 39-77; also published not afford to dismiss such questions lightly. in Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 33 (1987),99-162. For this reason, among others, it is a pleasure to welcome the essays from Rod 2. F.M. Burnet, Changing Patterns: An Atypical Home's bicentennial conference - long over- Autobiography (Melbourne, 1968). due, but with a timely relevance. With other H. Zola key publications appearing in and since 1988, Department of Clinical Immunology it marks a stage of maturity in the history Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide of Australian science. In this case, it traces Australia's elliptical trajectory as seen from the foci of our two 'great and powerful R.W. Home and Sally Gregory Kohlstedt friends', the United States and Britain. The (Eds), International Science and National editors pose a problem both simple and seem- Scientific Identity: Australia between Britain ingly eternal: if it is meaningful to speak of and America. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic a 'dependent science', can we also speak of Historical Records of Australian Science, Volume 9, Number I an 'independent science'? If so, is there a policies of the Colonial Office, understood the 'natural' transition from one to the other importance of tradition and symbol. The which Australia's history exemplifies? Royal Society was not alone. From the British Eleven authors in search of an answer Empire University Congress of 1903 illuminate a set of unifying issues from con- onwards, the political establishment saw the trasting standpoints. Wade Chambers use- importance of keeping its hand on a fissipa- fully distinguishes between the geography of rous empire - particularly if, of course, it distance and the psychology of isolation; the could be done inexpensively. first does not necessarily imply the second, Eventually, as everyone knows, our brown while the second flourishes in Bloomsbury as and pleasant British suburbs became, in the in Botany Bay. What historians have done, New Year's coinage, 'Bush country'. Ameri- Chambers argues, is to make a shibboleth of cans, with their vast resources,. -professional distance, when in fact prejudice (and per- training, corporate values and competition, haps, dare we say, envy?) is at issue. The became Australia's role models. Historians transmission time for new ideas was rarely, will protest that reaching towards America if ever, a limiting condition on the advance- was inevitable long before the Pacific War ment of knowledge in Australia. It was, all made it necessary. Some would find its begin- too frequently, a question of personalities. nings in the Victorian gold rushes; others, Indeed, we could go on to say, such were the with the appointment of America's first Con- differences between military headquarters sul at Sydney in 1836; still others might and the front line. Whatever one's view of the choose the arrival of American technology at metropolis, visibility depended on the partic- international exhibitions in Sydney and Mel- ular scientific garden one chose to cultivate. bourne in the 1880s. Those looking still Australians, Chambers says, were 'not deeper would no doubt begin the story with tyrannized by geography but made'. In their 1792 and the miraculous appearance in Syd- 'making', there were social conventions to be ney's harbour of the brig Philadelphia, with observed. As Beth Newland and David its cargo of beef and rum for the starving Knight easily demonstrate, Australian scien- settlement. The image of America as provi- tific culture was, in the first instance, and der, patron, arbiter of pop-culture and now for some time afterwards, British. The 'long principal investor seems to overawe Austra- arm of London', a happy phrase Robert Staf- lia's 'independence' in most spheres. But in ford has used elsewhere, reaches out to sur- science, the editors argue, that relationship vey, list, catalogue and, of course, control. has grown stable. The National Science Foun- The effect lends an aura of manifest destiny. dation, the British Council and the Austra- The United States had its Far West, France lian government - a troika, we are assured (Michael Osborne reminds us) had North - made this book possible. Australia may Africa and Indochina. Australia (along, one have once been a colony, and is now a client, might argue, with Africa, Canada and India) but it has made its own mark. The question became the frontier Britain had to have. now before it is one not of parentage, nor of The implication was both simple and pro- patronage, but of parity - achievable in found. British practices, customs, traditions esteem if never in aggregate wealth. and people created a form of 'provincial' sci- The essays trace some of the tendrils that ence we have chosen to call 'colonial'. Scots, have linked Australia to our English-speak- East Enders, Cambridge men all had a part ing cousins, reaching through the history of to play, and brought their different provin- our respective museums (Kohlstedt), our cialisms to intitutions half-formed. Strong interests in radio physics (Gillmor), and in personalities left their mark in stone and geophysical theory (Le Grand). A highly orig- street signs. But, as in Manchester or Liv- inal piece by Jan Sapp illuminates one of the erpool, as Rod Home demonstrates, little ways by which conservative Australia, which wonder that, whatever their local civic pride, sent to America its imperial Griffith Taylor, Australians looked to London as the fount of could still give career and comfort to a genet- honour and reward. icist, Michael White, for whom McCarthyite He might have added that, in the light of America was the foreign land. In this case, contemporary politics, it was even less and in many others, isolation was overcome remarkable that Britain went out of its way by institution-building, using 'local' creatures to keep the delicate 'crimson thread of kin- (in this case grasshoppers) to create a wholly ship' intact. The ambitions of liberal imperi- new focus for his discipline of population alism, personified in Michael Foster, cytology. Uniqueness the world must recog- Biological Secretary of the Royal Society, nise, especially where environment so domi- included the maintenance of an efficient nates life. With this as his cue, Stephen Pyne, empire and, whatever the fashionable myopic possibly the world's foremost 'fire' historian, Book Review Section reminds us that different ways of seeing models and assimilated far more readily. In nature will produce different theories and the future, 'transferred development', in Ian different practices. In their European igno- Inkster's phrase - implying a modality of rance of Aboriginal ways, it took 'New Aus- sidewise, even parallel progression - is likely tralians' long to recognise that the 'frontier' to attract increasing attention, and with it a and the 'bush' were not the same. Now that more global, spherical sense of interdepend- distinction is the hallmark of fire manage- ence. As Wade Chambers nicely puts it, 'a ment, a discourse in which, Pyne says, globe has no centre and no periphery'. because of their different systems, Americans Taking this as the last book of the Bicen- and Australians talk past one another. It is, tennial and the first of the future, it is he suggests, a parable of Australian-Ameri- presumptous to suggest where the history of can relations. ogression - is likely to attract increasing Well might we ask whether Australia, its attention, and with it a more global, spherical patron and its parent are indeed divided by sense of interdependence. As Wade Chambers their common language. The problem lies nicely puts it, 'a globe has no centre and no implicit in this book, as in much comparative periphery'. scholarship. The problem deepens if Austra- Taking this as the last book of the Bicen- lia, having lost its ageing parent, and not tennial and the first of the future, it is quite sure of its patron, has yet to find a presumptous to suggest where the history of peerage of its own. A 'middle power' in stra- Australian science is tending. But issues tegic terms, producing a respectable 3% of crowd the agenda. No doubt the association the world's science, it has still to cover the of science and nationalism, rhetorically and world's research front, and make something in fact, will be with us forever. We have much uniquely its own besides. The implications to learn about women in Australian science; are considerable and reach well beyond sci- and coming centenaries of university chairs ence. And so do the implications of this book. and major institutions established in the In a sense hardly intended by the editors, 1890s (including Sydney's Museum of Applied and certainly not their fault, one wonders if Arts and Sciences) wiil encourage scholars to this volume will be among the last, and best, look at the process by which non-British of its kind. While these essays give much, models were assimilated into Australian life. they omit much, and in the two years that The 'march to Federation' should engage us have elapsed since their presentation, a new in reviewing the relations of federalism and research field has opened, spurred by grow- science. There remains enormous scope for ing interest in the larger phenomenon of scientific biography. Science first came to 'science and empire', and in the constituen- Australia as an imperial agency but, as Sapp cies represented in once-despised regions of reminds us, many who stayed to do science 'colonial science'. India, Latin America and had come for negative reasons, which only southern Africa are becoming part of a became positive with the passage of time. refreshing new research enterprise, in which Whether refugees, expatriates or migrants, Australasia has a leading advantage. While their stories are complex and not easily sum- Australia is reviewing its regional commit- marized. Much work is needed, along the ments and engagements, it may be that lines canvassed by Donald Fleming and future comparisons in science, as in strategy, Carla Borden, to register the impact of Euro- should leave America and Britain and look pean (and now Asian) 'muses' as they traded instead at other 'middle-rank' countries expe- their old worlds for new. riencing similar 'tyrannies' of environment, An agenda for the sociology of science is distance and isolation, where ideas and inno- not obvious in this collection, but there is vations flourish and where the traces of much to be said for the sociology of Australia's Europe remain as distinct. scientific culture. There emerge at least three Since the Bicentennial, scholars inter- strategies for scientific success in Australia, ested in the history of Australian science many of current interest and all worthy of have had time to regroup, rethink and per- study. Each is founded upon Australia's com- haps reorient their efforts. Diffusionist petitive position in either place or time. The models are not quite dead, but no longer do first strategy concentrates on that which is we assume a linear process of irradiation or unique to austral nature - including the transplantation, nor do we assume transfer flora, fauna and peoples of this land, and its is always for the best. Assimilation is at least location in the southern hemisphere. The as important a factor, and far less studied, second makes a virtue of distance from the while we are persuaded by our Latin Amen- epicentres of Europe, a space that allows can colleagues that models of 'underdevelop- room for critical perspective. As George Sed- ment' were exported as easily as development don once observed, science might be retarded Historical Records of Australian Science, Volume 9, Number 1

in Australia not because Europe was so far must be a commitment to scholarship that but because it was so near. Distance, the old insists upon Australia as a subject in its own enemy, has been banished, and Australians right, and one worthy of international notice. can play it to their advantage. Third, there Roy MacLeod is the factor of time, an ally of isolation, but University of Sydney sometimes working, ironically, on Australia's side. While the rest of the world scrambles to be first, Australians learn from others' Joan Freeman, A Passion for Physics: The mistakes. 'Never be first' is not a slogan that Story of A Woman Physicist. Bristol: Adam wins Nobel Prizes, but it appeals to science- Hilger, 1991. x + 299 pp., illus., $49.50. based industries on which Australia's future may depend. In 1964, I completed my Ph.D. in nuclear Inadvertently perhaps in its focus on physics at the ANU and took up a Research national identity, this book touches a tender Fellowship at the Atomic Energy Research point of professional specialism. Readers will Establishment at Harwell in England. I find it implicitly distinguishes between the chose to join Dr Joan Freeman on her un- culture of science, which it examines min- usual beta-decay experiments. Working with utely, and the culture of technology, which it her was a delight, and her experiments takes largely for granted. In the future, this proved to be of considerable significance to is bound to change. It frequently surprises the emerging electroweak theory of the com- overseas visitors that a Western culture so bined electromagnetic and weak interactions. dependent upon and fascinated with the lat- I have read her autobiography with great est high-tech, has scarcely begun to study its interest. special historical relationship with technol- Born in Perth in 1918, her recollections ogy. Institutionally, we have only begun to begin four years later when the family moved bring the conservationists and torchbearers to Sydney. Her mother, Ada, had been sent of Engineering Heritage, with their copious to a boarding school and was a talented listings of great engines and honoured pianist, but her ambitions of university stud- bridges, to meet students of those social ies had been thwarted by the collapse of her changes that engineering brought about. The father's business; she trained briefly as a symbolism with which our respective Acade- teacher and then married. Ada and Albert mies of Science and of Technology celebrated Freeman were, however, 'quite unsuited to the Bicentennial separately, and with their each other'; they ultimately separated, and own separate histories, is too deep to be Ada devoted herself to giving her daughter quickly forgotten; but perhaps a third force the opportunities that she herself had been may be created by a new Society for the denied. The mother-daughter relationship History of Technology, with an appeal to both was always deep and pivotal. historians and technologists, and by new Joan was sent to Sydney Church of Eng- courses in the history of technology in our land Girls Grammar School (SCEGGS), university engineering departments. where study was enjoyable and successful; Finally, we may hope that Home and but in 1929, in the Great Depression, Albert Kohlstedt are the harbingers of new direc- Freeman lost his job. Ada took over a private tions in the history of science in this country. kindergarten, which grew in numbers and It has become increasingly evident that the slowly expanded its offerings, but still the history of Australian science can no longer family income was inadequate to pay school sustain itself separately from teaching and fees. The SCEGGS Headmistress offered to writing about Australian history more gen- waive them because of Joan's academic abili- erally. The same is true in Britain and the ties. This redoubled the expectations upon United States, where enormous changes are her and increased her motivation to do happening in the way we see our discipline. especially well. In 1932, she obtained out- Of the eleven scholars in this volume, only standing results in the Intermediate Public five hold formal positions in the history of Examinations. She also vividly remembers a science, and this is almost certainly to be the small newspaper item announcing that Cock- way in the future. If we are to speak to a roft and Walton had split the atom at the larger audience of educated people, historians Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. of Australian science must make common SCEGGS had no Chemistry or Physics cause with their counterparts in social and classes at the matriculation level, but Ada's cultural history. This is all the more impor- persistence and Joan's eagerness persuaded tant where, as in matters of national identity, the Head of the Physics Department at the the history of science and culture invite con- Sydney Technical College to allow her to trasting perspectives. The only requirement attend his evening classes, although he had Book Review Section

'never had a schoolgirl in the class before'. women could not be admitted to full mem- Despite her success - she topped the class bership of the university; this happened, at - further schoolgirls were barred from Syd- last, in 1948. ney Tech. classes, the environment of the Pawsey encouraged her to pursue her first College being considered unsuitable. Joan love, nuclear physics, but the golden era of obtained equally outstanding grades at the nuclear physics at Cambridge was over. Ruth- Leaving (Matric.) Examinations; she earned erford was dead, the war had dispersed his the highest marks overall in the State and team, and the department was leaderless and won a scholarship to the University of Syd- disorganised. In addition, Devons gave a ney. The euphoria mother and daughter daunting introduction to the laboratory: shared at that moment 'was, I think, the nuclear physics was tough, and there were greatest in all our joint experience'. far too many research students for the While still an undergraduate, Freeman meagre staff and facilities. Freeman was was encouraged by V.A. Bailey and G.H. without a supervisor, and the winter was the Briggs to major in Physics. In fact, she grad- severest of the century: 'In a surge of self- uated with a double first - first-class hon- pity and homesickness, I wept bitterly'. ours in both Physics and Mathematics - and Spring, however, brought renewal. Free- in 1940 began an M.Sc. with Bailey as man insinuated herself into Dr Burcham's supervisor. group, and slowly her studies of alpha-parti- As her MSc. neared completion, she felt cles released by proton bombardment bore a desire to be involved more closely in war fruit. A secretive 'Nuclear Nit-Wits Club', work at the new Radiophysics Laboratory. made up of students from 'the colonies', pro- Bailey baulked at the prospect of one of his vided camaraderie and helpful discussions of best students working under D.F. Martyn, difficulties. As her career exemplifies and and an acrimonious and high-level corre- affirms, 'a successful woman physicist does spondence apparently ensued. The problem not have to be a blue-stocking, or to have an was solved by Martyn's departure, and Free- aggressive personality . . .; enthusiasm, per- man happily became part of Pawsey's team, severance, and an independent spirit seem to working on radar. be more important qualities for a woman The account of her early years is honest working in the male-dominated world of without being sentimental, easy to read, per- physics'. sonalised and non-technical. The reader is Her research in 1948 included some neu- swept along in an adventure, identifying tron-induced, alpha-particle spectroscopy closely with the author. It is the story of a using a Harwell nuclear reactor, and when woman who sees the best in everyone. Anger her thesis had been completed and examined, and unhappiness, one suspects, have been she successfully applied for a job there. Paw- largely suppressed in her life as well as in sey, visiting Cambridge, encouraged her to its telling. Thus, for example, we find on follow this preference rather than return to page 49 the following isolated sentence, refer- Australia simply on the basis of a perceived ring to her first year at Sydney University: obligation. For a long time she was the only 'My beloved Grandpa died as a result of a woman physicist at Harwell: 'I rather enjoyed street accident; then Grandma, becoming my unique status . . .' senile, had to be brought, unwillingly, to live Joan and John Jelley married early in with us; my father, put off by this situation, 1958 and left for a sabbatical year in the left home; and my mother still struggled with U.S.A., where two events shaped her remain- her school'. Just what anguish is hidden here ing career: she met Roger Blin-Stoyle, on we shall probably never know. Instead, we leave from Oxford, who was to collaborate are buoyed up by her outstanding academic with her on 'the most successful research achievements. visual descri~tions.auiet com- project of my career', and she learnt that she mitment and'delightful pieces of hAmour. was 'to be given responsibility for Harwell's Events moved rapidly at war's end: Free- newest, very expensive acquisition [a tandem man turned down a permanent lectureship Van de Graaff accelerator] and for all the at Sydney University in order to concentrate staff involved: on research, and then E.G. Bowen showed There were some technical and adminis- her an advertisement for CSIR Senior Stu- trative teething problems with the tandem, dentships, allowing study in the U.K. and Freeman had to use all her tact and towards a Ph.D. degree. She applied success- hidden toughness to bring the machine into fully, and in August 1946 sailed for England operation. A small list of collaborators, and Cambridge University - without her including a succession of Australian gradu- mother but with her ever-present encourage- ates, joined her to add their own contribu- ment. She was amazed to discover that tions to the new experiments. All were Historical Records of Australian Science, Volume 9, Number 1 intrigued to note her soft Australian accent be misled by Freeman's success; she clearly - she is 'still an Aussie at heart'. had very special qualities, and there were Here my only major disappointment with very few women who could emulate her exam- the book arises. In the Preface we are told 'I ple. One hopes schools, universities, insti- have kept scientific details to a minimum, tutes and professions no longer regard it as hoping that my account will appeal to the acceptable for women to face such disincen- general reader as well as to scientists', and tives. In addition, this is a story of a time in this I believe she has been very successful. when the desire for knowledge was an But in a mere four pages, her important accepted and respected motive for research, experiments on certain superallowed beta- which was not only intellectually challenging decays, on their relevance to the long-sought and rewarding but also a delight. The trag- and emerging unification of the basic forces edy is that this book is now a piece of history of nature into one coherent theory, and on - of an era fast disappearing or already the exemplary collaboration of experimental- past. It deserves to be widely read. ist (Freeman) and theorist (Blin-Stoyle), are John Jenkin dismissed with little more than a glance. The Physics Department topic is an esoteric one, and it may have La Trobe University proved difficult to explain it in laymen's lan- guage, but its severely restricted treatment is to be regretted. For this work, Freeman Libby Robin, Building a Forest Conscience: and Blin-Stoyle were jointly awarded the An Historical Portrait of the Natural 1976 Rutherford Medal of the British Insti- Resources Conservation League of Victoria tute of Physics: 'I abandoned myself to my (NRCL). Melbourne: NRCL of Victoria, 1991. sense of exhilaration, wishing only that my iv + 155 pp., illus., $15.00. mother, who had died three years previously, could have witnesses this highlight of my A.P. Winzenried, Green Grows our Garden: career'. A Centenary History of Horticultural Educa- In 1977, the beta-decay studies ceased; tion at Burnley. Melbourne: Hyland House, they had run their course and a new atmos- 1991. xiii + 186 pp. illus., $30.00. phere pervaded Harwell. 'We must be mer- cenary, not missionary', the Deputy Director It is timely that two historical works con- said. In addition, with age 60 approaching, cerned with such important issues as arbor- she faced retirement, while her male col- iculture, horticulture, conservation and leagues were allowed five more years. For education should appear during yet more the first time in this account we find her conflicts in the so-called 'environmental 'seething with indignation'. Harwell refused debate'. These studies have some interesting to budge and won her reluctant compliance links, and although centred on the Victorian with a five-year consultancy. Her husband experience, have wider implications. Both took early retirement in 1979 and accepted books are profusely illustrated, well-indexed a part-time consultancy at the Royal Green- and carefully documented. wich Observatory. Together they took up Building A Forest Conscience is a factual ocean sailing. history of a movement with a vigorous sense The second half of the book lacks the of purpose, motivated not only by personal sparkle of the first but is most interesting interest and the ever-increasing demands of nonetheless. I wonder about the title; 'pas- industry and 'development', but also by ter- sion' is not the appropriate word. Instead, rible disasters. The disasters themselves the book is full of personal courage and were rendered all the more terrible by Judge persistence, excitement and achievement, and Stretton's finding that certain tragic 'fires a deep love of physics. Here is old-fashioned were lit by the hand of man' in January 1939 respect for colleagues and gracious acknowl- and February 1944, resulting in the loss of edgement of their contributions to a career 120 lives and an almost incalculable amount and success. Those who had little impact or of personal property, native forests and were positively unpleasant are silently wildlife. ignored. The development of the Natural Resources We are left with an enchanting account of Conservation League of Victoria is traced a unique career, of important aspects of phys- from its origins in the 'Save the Forests ics teaching and research in Australia earlier Campaign' of 1944 to 1951, to the present this century, of nuclear physics in the U.K. organization, which fulfils part of its aims thereafter, and of the success of a woman and keeps itself economically viable by dis- against the odds - all told with a refreshing tributing nearly 1,200,000 trees a year from lightness of touch. But it is also possible to its nurseries at Springvale South, Cran- Book Review Section

bourne and Echuca. Unfortunately, success among the College's Commonwealth Recon- brought its own problems, for by 1988 Gov- struction Training Scheme students after the ernment assistance had fallen to a miserable Second World War was Alexander Wilkie, who one percent of the League's revenue. By this became the NRCL's first nursery manager time, the League and its predecessor had (1947) and later Manager of the League itself raised and distributed over 20 million trees. (until 1958). The College also has special The League's other aims are pursued through links with Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gar- energetic programmes in the fields of conser- dens through the translation of three of its vation and education. Principals to become directors; John Cronin, Predictably, many bright ideas met dull Frederick Rae and Alexander Jessep. Another responses, and the League soon appreciated director, R.T.M. (Dick) Pescott, the Gardens' that the protection of forests and the planting historian, taught entomology at Burnley dur- of trees fell short of wider goals; thus the ing the 1930s. 'Inseparable Trinity' of forests, soil and water With telling detail and whimsical touches, was enthusiastically promoted to encourage the story of an important educational estab- political and public awareness of what was lishment, set in magnificent gardens adja- being lost so rapidly. cent to Richmond Park on the Yarra River, The book is very much a memorial to the has been carefully recorded - notwithstand- efforts of such enthusiasts as the schoolmas- ing the suspicion that the first Principal, ter-nurseryman Cyril Everett Isaac, M.L.C. Charles Luffman, destroyed crucial early rec- for the South-east Province of Victoria from ords. Apart from such eminent students as 1940 to 1952. Born at Brunswick of English Emily Gibson (nee Grassick), Olive Mellor parents, Isaac taught in State schools from (nee Holttum) and Edna Walling, pioneers in 1900 to 1922, becoming a founder of the Australian landscape design, other promi- Victorian State Schools' Horticultural Society nent names associated with the institution (1910) and Supervisor of School Gardening include Baron von Mueller, Joseph Bosisto, (1913). He founded the first Victorian State Alfred Deakin, Charles French (senior and Schools' Nurseries at Coburg and Hughes- junior), and the authors Evelyn Mordaunt dale, and after returning from World War I, and Lauretta Luffman, wife of the first decided to establish his own nursery at Noble Principal. Park. By the time of the Depression, he Having established experimental and employed about 20 people and supplied seed- acclimatization gardens at Burnley, the Royal lings for the first time in plywood punnets. Horticultural Society of Victoria endeavoured Later, Isaac devised the wood-veneer tube to boost Victoria's fruit industry. By 1863, (instead of metal) for tree seedlings. As a the Society had catalogued some 1,400 vari- founder, organizer, broadcaster and director eties of orchard trees as well as ornamentals. of the League, Cyril Isaac is here remem- Garden curators were appointed, including bered as a politician who was interested in the celebrated George Neilson, who was in much more than mere politics. office when the Society declared itself bank- In both the main text and the informative rupt in 1891. His services were retained by appended chronology, memories are stirred the Department of Agriculture which, to its of disastrous bushfires between Black Friday credit, assumed control of the enterprise, 1939 and Ash Wednesday 1983, of Arbour developed it, established a school and Days and community tree-planting schemes, retained authority for 92 years. of Junior Tree Lovers, of battles for national During its first century, this singular parks and the Little Desert controversy in institution has changed its name, its courses, the 1960s, and of the 'Save Our Bushlands' its administration and its status, while it campaign; the themes may be old but the moved from offering certificate courses to issues remain current. bachelor's degrees. In many ways it remained The movement which was born in the all the while somewhat conservative, persist- desolation of forest fires, now sees itself beset ing with gardening in the English tradition by additional, even more insidious enemies and using horse-drawn (and presumably such as salinity, ozone depletion and the human-drawn) equipment until the 1950s. 'greenhouse effect', while even yet, logs in Although the more recent changes (such the diminishing forests and disputes in dif- as reclassification and amalgamation) are fident parliaments continue to smoulder. reflected in differing degrees of despair all Green Grows our Garden is an institu- over the country, the earlier stages in the tional history marking the centenary of development of Burnley are both unusual and Burnley College of Horticulture (since 1983 interesting. The early courses were intensely the Burnley Campus of the Victorian College practical, and intended for boys as young as of Agriculture and Horticulture). Notable fourteen; lectures were 'free to all interested H~storicalRecords of Australian Science, Volume 9, Number 1

in Horticultural Pursuits, Ladies included'; Until recent times, the topic of tropical casual attenders were welcome, and in 1899 health was depicted almost invariably in female students were formally enrolled if terms of military and heroic metaphors; in they were at least sixteen years of age. It set battle-pieces, pith-helmeted European was soon appreciated that there were clear doctors armed with test tubes and syringes differences between the sexes, not only in were ranged against a legion of evil-inten- age but also in social status, intellectual tioned, exotic microbes bent on the total ability and academic achievement. Expect- eradication of the white race and the end of ations, too, were different, with the boys civilization as we know it. The founding of hoping to qualify for employment and many the London and Liverpool Schools of Tropical of the girls believing that they were at a Medicine in the late nineteenth century saw finishing school. the emergence of 'missionary medicine', taken While the curriculum was still predomi- to the tropical regions by idealistic but ambi- nantly practical, there was, under Edward tious young doctors equally bent on tracking Edgar Pescott, a stronger agricultural down the offending microbes, finding a 'cure', emphasis, thereby broadening the original and making a name for themselves in the horticultural base. Since the late 1970s, the process. Previously seen as a progressive, courses have become more scholarly, less heroic and empire-extending process, this practical, and consciously directed towards approach nowadays tends to be looked at satisfying criteria for wider and higher aca- rather more critically, exposing tropical med- demic acceptance. Here, as elsewhere, some icine as a means of promoting white health staff members, feeling bruised or unwanted, in tropical regions rather than improving the left as the changes intensified, yet the tra- health of both the indigenous and settler dition of a friendly, familial atmosphere, nur- populations. tured by long-serving, caring staff, has In his introduction to this volume, Roy apparently been largely retained, despite MacLeod acknowledges that recent studies increased enrolments. in this area have tried to come to grips with There are constant and dramatic the new approach; indeed, in a recent book reminders that 'times have changed', yet the edited by MacLeod and Milton Lewis, many founders may wonder if the changes have of the problems have been addressed.1 In the been made in the name of educational prog- current volume, these issues are taken one ress or of administrative convenience. When stage further by showing that health prob- considering the training and qualifications lems in tropical areas, particularly those of necessary for an efficient and energetic the indigenous populations, were problems of greenkeeper or nurseryman, parks manager public health rather than those of clinical or gardens superintendent, one Principal was medicine. Microbe hunting might be a glam- apt to say, 'ask the fellows who cut the hay: orous and self-promoting pastime (or at least The author himself asks, 'What would Edna it was depicted as such), but some basic Walling have to say about designing garden attention to water supply, sanitation and diet plantings by computer? What indeed? I am could be far more effective. Tropical diseases, composing this review on a faithful Olivetti far from being exemplified by middle-class typewriter bought second-hand from my local colonials suffering and sweating in settings university thirty years ago; which perhaps of Somerset Maugham-type ambience, were explains my disgust at learning that the old far more likely to be problems of poverty, Principal's house, the very 'hub of the gardens filth and malnutrition. After all, diseases and the college', was razed in July 1980 to such as leprosy and malaria had been prev- be replaced by a trendy sunken garden. Hap- alent in temperate climates in earlier times, pily, this well-written history sets a much before public health in western countries had higher level of taste, with some courageous become an issue of both social and political prognostications of what the next decade may concern. Such an approach to the problems have in store for this venerable and unique of tropical health is not new, of course; it was institution. advanced, albeit with qualifications, by Emeritus Professor Douglas Gordon in his Lionel Gilbert Bancroft Oration of 1969, in which he noted Armidale, N.S.W. that . . . most tropical diseases cease to be a R. MacLeod and D. Denoon (Eds),Health major problem if there are the motives and Healing in Tropical Australia and Papua and means to improve diet, to get rid of New Guinea. Townsville: James Cook Univer- filth, establish sound sanitation, to pro- sity, 1991. viii + 213 pp., $16.00. vide safe water, to promote personal clean- Book Review Section

liness and to do something effective about relations, a situation which all of these mosquito breeding and mosquito contacts. papers go a long way towards elucidating. Roy MacLeod has provided his usual, thor- All of these aspects are covered by Mac- ough introductory remarks, pulling together Leod and Denoon and their fellow contribu- the topics and weaving together the themes tors in this volume, with the addition of to produce a coherent p,Lure, although these discussions about alcoholism, maternal papers do not require this treatment as much health and welfare, and housing, together as do some publications from conferences; with the less tangible effects of the alienation while Donald Denoon's paper, 'The Idea of of indigenous populations. As MacLeod Tropical Medicine and its Influence on Papua states, there is a need for a work which New Guinea', includes many of the themes brings together the causes of ill-health and which are becoming common to the 'revision- disease in the tropics as examined by ist' approach to health in tropical regions. researchers from the various disciplines of There is little about which to complain in health administration, social history and the this volume, but neither should it be damned historical relationship of race and class. Sin- with faint praise. It is an excellent book, gle case studies cannot provide the wide from which readers will be able either to pick scope which this volume offers, looking as it a particular paper in their area of interest does at differing tropical environments. or to read it in its totality, thus gaining a The papers therein are a selection of those critical and comprehensive view of aspects of given at the section on medical history at the the historical relationship of health, medicine 1987 ANZAAS Congress on 'Science in the and the colonial experience. Tropics', held in Townsville, Queensland. They cover the geographical areas of north- References ern Australia and the neighbouring Melane- 1. R. MacLeod and M. Lewis, Disease, Med- sian islands, an area which for many years icine and Empire (London and New York: shared political and medical institutions. The Routledge, 1988). book is divided into two parts: in the first, 2. Recently re-published as Douglas Gordon, the papers examine particular individuals in Mad Dogs and Englishmen Went Out in tropical health - administrators and doctors the Queensland Sun (Brisbane: Amphion - looking at their attitudes to the work in Press, 19901, p. 12. which they were engaged. Particularly Susan Hardy revealing is A.T. Yarwood's portrait of Sir Science and Technology Studies Raphael Cilento as pioneer, husband of the University of New South Wales redoubtable Phyllis, and practitioner of racial intolerance; although one is irresistibly drawn also by Donald Denoon's evocative Ragbir Bhathal and Graeme White, description of officials and administrations Under the Southern Cross: A Brief History of in the tropics as veering 'between feverish Astronomy in Australia. Sydney: Kangaroo depression and alcoholic elation'. In the sec- Press, 1991. 96 pp., illus., $26.95. ond part of the book, particular situations In this book, by means of a concise account and conditions in different communities are and the use of ample illustrations, Bhathal studied; and here, problems such as alcohol- and White outline a history of astronomy in ism among the Aboriginal population, lep- Australia - from Aboriginal legends through rosy, the health of miners, and the problems to present-day activities. The authors warn of pregnancy and childbirth on remote sta- in a preface that their treatment of the sub- tions are examined. For example, in Lyn ject is a discerning rather than a full one Riddett's study, 'Sisters, Wives and Mothers: and that it is aimed at a general readership. Women as Healers and Preservers of Health The book presents the subject matter in in the Northern Territory during the 1930s', nine chapters. The first half of the book she not only examines the circumstances of addresses Aboriginal astronomy, astronomy white women giving birth in alien surround- in the early years of European settlement, ings, but asks why, when there were experi- the advent and decline of the State observa- enced Aboriginal women available, there was tories, and the rise and continuation of ama- still a barrier to aid being extended or teur astronomy. The second half covers the accepted. This is an excellent example of the significant developments of the last half cen- 'new' type of question being asked of the tury, including radio astronomy, astronomy evidence; for, as MacLeod points out, the in the universities, international links in the history of medical ideas is inseparable from science, and the establishment of major the evolution of social ideas concerning racial observing facilities around Australia. Four Historical Records of Australian Science, Volume 9, Number 1 appendices, a glossary of terms, a select The third chapter considers the Parra- bibliography and an index make up the matta Observatory, the second observatory to remainder of the book. be established in New South Wales. Set up Bhathal and White start with a brief and paid for privately by Sir Thomas Bris- chapter on the social, moral and practical bane shortly after he arrived to become the significance of astronomy in Aboriginal com- sixth governor, it was operated with the aid munity life. Aboriginal myths, paintings and of his assistants Carl Rumker and James naked-eye observing techniques are Dunlop. The reader learns of the initial suc- described to bring out the difference between cesses, such as the recovery by Rumker of Aboriginal astronomy and the modern scien- Encke's Comet in 1822 and the prodigious tific study. number of observations made of the southern The intrusion of European astronomy into stars in the first years of operation. The Australia, with the progressive discovery of account mentions that the observatory was the continent by 17th and 18th-century managed by Riimker and then Dunlop follow- European trading powers, is exemplified in ing the purchase of the observatory by the the next chapter. A description is given of colonial government after Brisbane's return Captain James Cook's first voyage to the to England in December 1825. It is not made Pacific to observe the 1769 transit of Venus clear, however, that both Riimker and Dunlop at Tahiti and his subsequent discovery and left and rejoined the observatory at different exploration of the east coast of Australia in times. The closure of the observatory in 1847, 1770 using practical astronomical methods following an official inquiry, was an unfortun- for latitude and longitude determination. ate end to an institution whose workers, A description of the establishment in 1788 through their vigorous efforts in the first few of Australia's first observatory under the years of operation, made astronomers in charge of Lieutenant William Dawes at Syd- Europe aware of Australian astronomy. ney Cove follows. Dawes' tasks were to deter- The authors next provide a generally fair mine an accurate longitude, provide a time treatment of the rise and decline of the State service for the settlement and attend to the observatories. The positive achievements of needs of shipping. The reader learns that the principal personalities - Ellery, Russell, Dawes combined astronomical, meteorologi- Todd and Baracchi - are identified. The cal, survey and military activities and pro- major observing programmes, telescopes and vided an intellectual focus in the settlement. routine functions are neatly described; He made an attempt in the last half of 1788 although Ellery and Russell did not receive to view a comet of 126-years period, whose knighthoods. The 1874 transit-of-Venus observing expeditions and 1922 total-solar- return had been predicted by Edmond Halley, eclipse expeditions are briefly mentioned; but none was seen. A disagreement with although equally deserving of mention but Governor Phillip resulted in Dawes' return not included are the 1871, 1910 and 1911 to England in 1792 with the observatory total-solar-eclipse expeditions. The 1871 instruments. The observatory fell into disre- expedition to Cape Sidmouth, Queensland, pair and the fledgling colony was left without although clouded out, was a major undertak- an observatory for 31 years. The practical ing for its day. A number of reasons for the emphasis of the astronomical and meteoro- decline of the State observatories are cor- logical work conducted by Dawes was to be rectly identified by the authors, but there are emulated in the observatories which were to others. In the case of Sydney Observatory, appear in Australia during the nineteenth Russell's mismanagement of the observatory centurv. during his later years, his preoccupation with A significant event of this period not men- meteorology, and his refusal to make way for tioned by the authors is the total solar eclipse new blood accelerated its decline. In addition, observed in September 1791 by Captain Russell did not have to report to a Board of George Vancouver at King George Sound, Visitors on an annual basis as the directors Western Australia. From the demise of the of the more efficiently run Melbourne Observ- Dawes Point observatory until the opening of atory were required to do. The absence of a the next, the astronomical record is largely chair in astronomy at an Australian univer- the province of a number of important naut- sity during the early 1900s, and the meagre ical and inland explorers, who used consid- employment prospects for young astrono- erable astronomical observations to establish mers, mitigated against new thinking finding latitudes and longitudes. Chief amont these its way into the State observatories. The were Matthew Flinders and Phillip Parker appointment of Baldwin, a graduate in phys- King. Unfortunately, nor is this important ics from Melbourne University, as Director of survey work mentioned by the authors. the Melbourne Observatory was an attempt Book Review Section

to infuse this new thinking, but he found his of South Australia was formed in 1892 and time consumed by astrographic work. An is therefore Australia's oldest active amateur individual not mentioned is Charles Merfield, society is relegated to an appendix. who worked at the Sydney and Melbourne The emergence of new branches of astron- observatories and who developed an interna- omy and their associated major facilities tional reputation in gravitational astronomy (principally in New South Wales) after the and the computing of accurate comet and Second World War is outlined succinctly in asteroidal orbit elements. the remaining four chapters. The principal The role and contribution of the amateur players and the major successes in radio astronomer in Australia is discussed in the astronomy, solar physics, astrophysics and next chapter. John Tebbutt, the hundred- optical astronomy are identified, leaving the dollar-note astronomer and a key figure in reader with a sense of the great amount that promoting astronomy in Australia during the has been achieved, and that Australian last half of the 19th century, attracts the astronomy is alive and well and continuing most attention for his outstanding observa- to move forward, with further exciting tech- tional work. The symbiosis between the ama- nical developments on the horizon. The teur and State observatory astronomers importance of university and international during that period, and the eventual sepa- links in keeping it so is amply identified by ration that took place during the first half of the authors, who also perceive a need to the 20th century, is then outlined. An exam- strengthen research in theoretical astronomy ple is R. Innes, of double star fame, who was and astrophysics. one of the leading amateur astronomers of In conclusion, some remarks should be the 1890s in Sydney and who made the made about the book's layout. The dual col- transition from amateur to professional sta- umn format allows most illustrations to be tus when he left Australia in 1897 to pursue related more directly to the text, but this a successful career as an astronomer in arrangement is not entirely successful: the Johannesburg. Before Innes' departure in reader often has to search for the main text 1897, Charles Merfield worked with him on amongst long figure captions of similar type. predicting comet orbits and was brought to The inconsistent numbering of pages is also the attention of Tebbutt by Innes. Tebbutt a distraction. Some minor errors of fact occur and Merfield then went on to develop a in the text and figure captions, one of the mutually beneficial, complementary and har- most glaring being that Australia's popula- monious working relationship in the obser- tion in 1984 was 1.5 per cent of the world's vation of comets. Tebbutt, the astute and population! These quibbles aside, the authors well-practised observer, was supported by the have produced a book which emphasizes the energetic, accurate and enthusiastic com- positive aspects of the development of astron- puter Merfield. Both men were concerned omy in Australia, has a good balance in its about the sorry state of affairs that had content, and enough information to satisfy developed at Sydney Observatory under Rus- the general reader. The appearance of such sell, and Tebbutt saw in Merfield someone a book on this subject is long overdue, and it capable of arresting the decline. Tebbutt can be regarded as a veritable nugget, albeit attempted to use his influence in furthering a small one. Mefield's career, but Merfield's long battle to R.D. Brown become a State observatory director was Melbourne eventually frustrated. Mention is then made of some of the more prominent amateurs who have been involved in comet and supernova K.J. Frawley and N.M. Semple (Eds),Aus- hunting. One programme of work which tralia's Ever Changing Forests: Proceedings involved professional and amateur observers of the First National Conference on Austra- (from 1957 until 1962) and is not mentioned lian Forest History, 1988. Canberra: Depart- by the authors is the Moonwatch programme. ment of Geography and Oceanography, As part of a world-wide programme spon- Australian Defence Force Academy, 1989. ix sored by the Smithsonian Institution, teams + 529 pp., illus., $15.00. in a number of states observed and timed the meridian passage of the then new Rus- Rod Ritchie, Seeing the Rainforest in 19th- sian and American satellites. The important century Australia. Sydney: Rainforest Pub- and enduring role of the amateur astronom- lishing, 1989. 1'71 pp., illus., $39.95. ical societies in the popularization of astron- omy is also touched upon. Some of the well Ian Watson, Fighting over the Forests. Syd- known societies are identified, although cur- ney: Allen and Unwin, 1990. 173 pp., illus., iously, the fact that the Astronomical Society $17.95. Historical Records of Australian Science, Volume 9, Number 1

A burgeoning interest in forest history has four well-written papers on the subject, all developed in Australia recently. It has been of which are open to newcomers to the field. fuelled by environmentalists concerned about However, the primary aim of the volume the management of diminishing 'wilderness', is to share research and research techniques. foresters defensively keen to 'set the record This is particularly important in forest his- straight', and bureaucrats charged with the tory because of the diversity of sources and responsibility of managing public forests 'in the difficulty of accessing reliable, continuous the public interest', Historians of science material across time. The one common ele- should welcome the development of this new ment shared by all the writers is their pas- field, as it offers scope for examining closely sion for 'sleuthing'. Forest history requires the work of a science which has been largely patience and an ability to assemble a story dominated by its bureaucratic and corporate from a multi-media collage of sources: niche. Forestry is an interesting science, This study was hindered by the paucity of being both interdisciplinary in content and records and was pieced together from insular in practice, and history is very impor- seemingly unrelated fragments, including tant to its practice, because the time frames old photos, cadastral [survey] maps, air of most forests and plantations are much photos, interviews, tree measurements, longer than the memory of their managers. and contemporary forest records and wild- Sound forestry practices must rely on histor- life studies [Lunney and Moon on the ical information, because the results of its ecological history of the Mumbulla State 'experiments' may be forty to eighty years in Forest, NSW]. coming. In Australia's Ever Changing Forests, Historical information can come in many Frawley and Semple have collected together forms. There are often particular diff~culties 28 papers from different disciplinary areas, in identifying precise forest locations in his- which deal with Australian forest history at torical literature, which is a problem for fire local, regional, national, international and historians (e.g. Podger et al., pp. 134-7) and theoretical levels. All but one of these papers for experimental forestry offlcers (e.g. Car- was presented at a conference in Canberra ron, p. 220). Almost every writer indicates in May 1988, where it was resolved that an that an indirect route has been taken to piece Australian Forest History Society should be together historical evidence. Fahey's sugges- established, with the aim 'to advance histor- tion that 'bureaucratic secrecy' has been ical understanding of human interactions responsible for the paucity of sources in some with Australian forest and woodland environ- cases, must be taken seriously. It is signifi- cant that one of the major sections of the ments' (Appendix 1). book is devoted to 'Sources'. In addition, each The collection is exciting in its breadth, of the other six sections is introduced by a especially as forest history has tended to be review of the literature, the two by Frawley 'internalist' in style - by foresters, for for- himself - on 'Regional Histories' and 'Con- esters - and therefore lacking outside con- servation and National Parks' - being out- text and perspective. The book itself has been standing examples of this genre. inexpensively produced at the Australian Whatever your motive for studying forest Defence Force Academy, and at $15 for history - and Legg suggests a range, includ- 529 pages (including some photographs) is ing the environmental challenge, the story of very good value. the forestry profession, the role of corpora- Australia's Ever Changing Forests is pri- tions in shaping forests, the history of the marily a book for researchers in the field. It landscape, or radical political economics - lacks an editorial introduction to assist the this book has elements to suit you. It provides uninitiated, which is a pity because there is an important forum where researchers from material within it which could be of value to different disciplinary backgrounds share themes taught in courses on environmental ideas. science, history and politics. For example, It is a serious problem, however, that some Dargavel's piece reviewing the links between researchers are less able to explain the 'jar- the Australian forest industry and labour gon' than others. One of the most technical history, Legg's historiographical analysis of and off-putting articles in the book is unfor- the area, Lennon's timely warning about the tunately the first, where the unexplained use limitations of the 'wilderness' concept, and of technical terms like 'vagile' (which I dis- Smith and Waterhouse's analysis of the ecol- covered after some research means 'capable ogy of weeds, would all be accessible to of being widely dispersed in at least one undergraduate students. The section entitled phase of the life cycle') seems misplaced in 'The Forests and Aboriginal Society' contains an interdisciplinary collection. Some editorial Book Review Section

intrusion here would have greatly assisted 'real wilderness' - than present forests. Cer- the reader. The book would also have been tainly the few contemporary images he chose improved by an introduction which drew out to accompany his 'Postscript' are selected for the major themes and perhaps highlighted maximum effect, showing eroded gullies and the need to ensure the preservation of forest clear felling, and bearing captions about the records and archives of all sorts, especially 'rapacious demand for woodchips'. Yet if one in the areas noted by Carron as 'neglected' examines some of the nineteenth-century - ecology, sociology and economics. 'Growth images carefully, they are not the 'romantic and yield' statistics are not on their own sylvan scenes' he suggests, but rather show sufficient to construct rounded histories of evidence of damage by fire, disturbance, and our forests. rainforests that have lost their canopy. Twen- Pictorial sources are very important to all tieth-century conservation concerns are forest historians, and particularly those important motivators for some to undertake working in the nineteenth century. Seeing forest history research, but they must not the Rainforests is a lavishly illustrated and overwhelm the evidence. Legg quotes Tosh in beautifully designed book which shows off his paper on the historiography of forests in some of the lovelier pictorial resources avail- the Frawley and Semple collection: 'our prior- able to the researcher interested in the social ities in the present should determine the and environmental history of rainforests. questions we ask of the past, but not the Watercolours, oils, engravings, photographs answers . . .' Muddle-headed good intentions and picture-postcard images adorn every are no substitute for style and organization; page, delighting the eye of the casual reader. but by all means look at the pictures - they Unfortunately, for the more serious reader, are outstanding and could be used as pri- the text fails to achieve the aims set out in mary sources in themselves. its preface: 'As an environmental history this Another important source for forest his- book delves into the disciplines of anthropol- torians is oral testimony, which is the basis ogy, geography, science, literature, art and of an exciting analysis by Ian Watson. Fight- popular culture.' ing over the Forests is a well-presented paper- Perhaps this is too much to expect of any back, attractively written and useful to a book, and the resulting thin spread across range of readers. It closely documents the multiple subject areas - without the disci- 'two worlds' of Terania Creek in northern pline of any of them - leaves the text heavily New South Wales, the battleground of one of dependent on uncritical use of secondary Australia's most bitterly-fought environ- sources. This is paradoxical, given the won- mental struggles. The text uses oral sources derful primary sources which surround the cleverly, and with sufficient context to make words on every page. Despite the author's sympathetic understanding of different formal training in Fine Arts, the pictorial points of view. The 'two worlds' are repre- images are blandly captioned and often sented by the voices of conservationists and uninterpreted. of timber-industry workers, interviewed by The chapters of the book look at themes Ian Watson in the mid-1980s following the in nineteenth-century rainforest history - decision of the NSW government to end rain- Aborigines, scientific investigation, aesthet- forest logging. ics, literature (armchair travel), clearinglset- The 'two worlds' are also closely linked tling, and recreation (especially the use of with the old divisions between city and coun- forests close to cities). No attempt is made to try, and between the practical and the explain why we are looking at nineteenth- theoretical: century rainforests as a subject, and material within these themes is poorly organized, Well what you read from them [conserva- jumping about both chronologically and geo- tionists] is more or less something they're graphically. The major underlying organiza- read themselves because their experience tional structure is probably revealed on the comes out of a book in an office desk in back-cover flap, where the author describes Sydney. Not experience. Not practical himself as 'a conservationist' who 'became experience [timber worker 'Fred Cooper']. interested in rainforests whilst living on the There is also a good deal of sympathy for far north coast of New South Wales'. Conser- the individuals of the 'other' world, but no vation 'messages' are scattered through the real grounds for compromise: text, often in incongruous places and gener- ally unlinked by evidence. I remember when the announcement [to Perhaps the author was interested in end rainforest logging] was made. I just nineteenth-century forests because he felt fantastic but I immediately thought of believed them to be 'closer to pristine' - to all those blokes that were going to lose Historical Records of Australian Science, Volume 9, Number 1

their jobs and felt really sad and respons- expanded research groups of the Queensland ible that I had been part of that . . . But I Institute of Medical Research. This building, just felt this other stuff so strongly and 'in the hub of the largest medical complex in it's so hard to express that to guys like the southern hemisphere', was named the that. It just comes out that you care about Bancroft Centre. The book is divided into this little fern and he's got five kids to nine chapters; the first, 'The Bancrofts', feed [conservationist 'Sally Field']. appropriately has as authors Josephine Ban- croft, a great-grand-daughter of Joseph, and The material presented by Watson - from Elizabeth Marks. his tapes and his analysis of the aftermath Joseph Bancroft (1836-96) and his son of a major environment conflict - makes Thomas Lane Bancroft (1860-1933) had dif- compelling reading. The book could be used ferent personalities, but both were set in the in a range of undergraduate courses, or sim- mould of the doctor-naturalists of the nine- ply as a fine exemplar of how to incorporate teenth century. Joseph was an extrovert, oral transcriptions into a written discourse. whose research interests were most often The book is perhaps somewhat limited in its dominated by a practical outcome; he can be total analysis of the conservation dispute by looked on as a founder of agricultural ento- the 'two worlds' concept. The 'other worlds' mology and plant pathology. In medicine, he - of the corporate decision makers who buy is remembered for his contribution to filar- the products of the local sawmills and of the iases; his name is recorded in the taxonomy bureaucrats in the NSW Forestry Depart- of the adult worm Wuchereria bancrofti. ment in Sydney - could have been added to Ted Ford's Bancroft Oration of 1959, give the analysis a richer texture. It is worth quoted by Frank Fenner in Chapter 3, gives noting that this is not a history - it does a succinct account of this discovery. Joseph not narrate the circumstances of the original knew the disease clinically, but probed more dispute, and nor are the actors named (pseu- deeply and was greatly helped by others. Dr donyms are used throughout); it is rather an Thomas Rowlands of Ipswich showed Joseph exploration of the nature of an environmental the microfilariae he had found in the urine dispute through a particular case study. of a chylurous patient. Joseph examined some Watson's decision to separate out (in an of his own patients and sent the larvae he appendix on 'Culture and Ideology') the tech- found to a former teacher in Manchester, who nical tools of his analysis, assists in making referred them to T.S. Cobbold, the foremost the book accessible to a wide range of read- helminthologist of his time. In 1876, Cobbold ers. The complexity of the analysis was, for published an account of Bancroft's specimens me, more exciting and useful than the appen- and drew Joseph's attention to the fact that dix, though this may have interested those these were immature forms and that the with a formal political-science background. parent worms should be sought. For six However, as we have seen from the books months Joseph sought the adult worms in included here, forest history is practised by his patients, and there found the hair-like researchers from a range of disciplines. The structures in an abscess on the arm of a challenge for texts in this field is to present butcher boy and in the hydrocele fluid from research and evidence in a form accessible to another patient. The urge for precedence was any intelligent general reader. Watson's tech- present even then. Joseph sent an account of nique of separating the particular case study his findings to Cobbold, who, before the from the analytical tools of his discipline is actual specimens arrived, published an one neat way to encourage a wider account in The Lancet (1877) and later readership. named the species Filaria bancrofti. Libby Robin Bancroft thought that mosquitoes might Department of History and Philosophy of transmit the larvae, and he found larvae in Science the imbibed blood from an Aedes vigilax fed University of Melbourne on an infected person. This finding was over- shadowed, however, by Patrick Morrison's John Pearn and Lawrie Powell (Eds), demonstration that the microfilariae under- The Bancroft Tradition. Brisbane: Amphion went development in the mosquito, which Press, 1991. xviii + 268 pp. illus., $25.00. could serve as intermediary hosts. Morri- sons's discovery prompted Manson to encour- This book, a tribute to Joseph Bancroft, age Ronald Ross to investigate the Thomas Lane Bancroft and Mabel Josephine transmissions of malaria by mosquitoes. Mackerras n6e Bancroft - father, son and Joseph and others believed that the mos- grand-daughter, was prompted by the open- quito released microfilariae into water, which ing of a new research centre to house the then infected humans. Thomas had helped Book Review Section

intrusion here would have greatly assisted 'real wilderness' - than present forests. Cer- the reader. The book would also have been tainly the few contemporary images he chose improved by an introduction which drew out to accompany his 'Postscript' are selected for the major themes and perhaps highlighted maximum effect, showing eroded gullies and the need to ensure the preservation of forest clear felling, and bearing captions about the records and archives of all sorts, especially 'rapacious demand for woodchips'. Yet if one in the areas noted by Carron as 'neglected' examines some of the nineteenth-century - ecology, sociology and economics. 'Growth images carefully, they are not the 'romantic and yield' statistics are not on their own sylvan scenes' he suggests, but rather show sufficient to construct rounded histories of evidence of damage by fire, disturbance, and our forests. rainforests that have lost their canopy. Twen- Pictorial sources are very important to all tieth-century conservation concerns are forest historians, and particularly those important motivators for some to undertake working in the nineteenth century. Seeing forest history research, but they must not the Rainforests is a lavishly illustrated and overwhelm the evidence. Legg quotes Tosh in beautifully designed book which shows off his paper on the historiography of forests in some of the lovelier pictorial resources avail- the Frawley and Semple collection: 'our prior- able to the researcher interested in the social ities in the present should determine the and environmental history of rainforests. questions we ask of the past, but not the Watercolours, oils, engravings, photographs answers . . I Muddle-headed good intentions and picture-postcard images adorn every are no substitute for style and organization; page, delighting the eye of the casual reader. but by all means look at the pictures - they Unfortunately, for the more serious reader, are outstanding and could be used as pri- the text fails to achieve the aims set out in mary sources in themselves. its preface: As an environmental history this Another important source for forest his- book delves into the disciplines of anthropol- torians is oral testimony, which is the basis ogy, geography, science, literature, art and of an exciting analysis by Ian Watson. Fight- popular culture.' ing over the Forests is a well-presented paper- Perhaps this is too much to expect of any back, attractively written and useful to a book, and the resulting thin spread across range of readers. It closely documents the multiple subject areas - without the disci- 'two worlds' of Terania Creek in northern pline of any of them - leaves the text heavily New South Wales, the battleground of one of dependent on uncritical use of secondary Australia's most bitterly-fought environ- sources. This is paradoxical, given the won- mental struggles. The text uses oral sources derful primary sources which surround the cleverly, and with sufficient context to make words on every page. Despite the author's sympathetic understanding of different formal training in Fine Arts, the pictorial points of view. The 'two worlds' are repre- images are blandly captioned and often sented by the voices of conservationists and uninterpreted. of timber-industry workers, interviewed by The chapters of the book look at themes Ian Watson in the mid-1980s following the in nineteenth-century rainforest history - decision of the NSW government to end rain- Aborigines, scientific investigation, aesthet- forest logging. ics, literature (armchair travel), clearinglset- The 'two worlds' are also closely linked tling, and recreation (especially the use of with the old divisions between city and coun- forests close to cities). No attempt is made to try, and between the practical and the explain why we are looking at nineteenth- theoretical: century rainforests as a subject, and material within these themes is poorly organized, Well what you read from them [conserva- jumping about both chronologically and geo- tionists] is more or less something they're graphically. The major underlying organiza- read themselves because their experience tional structure is probably revealed on the comes out of a book in an office desk in back-cover flap, where the author describes Sydney. Not experience. Not practical himself as 'a conservationist' who 'became experience [timber worker 'Fred Cooper']. interested in rainforests whilst living on the There is also a good deal of sympathy for far north coast of New South Wales'. Conser- the individuals of the 'other' world, but no vation 'messages' are scattered through the real grounds for compromise: text, often in incongruous places and gener- ally unlinked by evidence. I remember when the announcement [to Perhaps the author was interested in end rainforest logging] was made. I just nineteenth-century forests because he felt fantastic but I immediately thought of believed them to be 'closer to pristine' - to all those blokes that were going to lose Historical Records of Australian Science, Volume 9, Number 1

their jobs and felt really sad and respons- expanded research groups of the Queensland ible that I had been part of that . . . But I Institute of Medical Research. This building, just felt this other stuff so strongly and 'in the hub of the largest medical complex in it's so hard to express that to guys like the southern hemisphere', was named the that. It just comes out that you care about Bancroft Centre. The book is divided into this little fern and he's got five kids to nine chapters; the first, 'The Bancrofts', feed [conservationist 'Sally Field']. appropriately has as authors Josephine Ban- croft, a great-grand-daughter of Joseph, and The material presented by Watson - from Elizabeth Marks. his tapes and his analysis of the aftermath Joseph Bancroft (1836-96) and his son of a major environment conflict - makes Thomas Lane Bancroft (1860-1933) had dif- compelling reading. The book could be used ferent personalities, but both were set in the in a range of undergraduate courses, or sim- mould of the doctor-naturalists of the nine- ply as a fine exemplar of how to incorporate teenth century. Joseph was an extrovert, oral transcriptions into a written discourse. whose research interests were most often The book is perhaps somewhat limited in its dominated by a practical outcome; he can be total analysis of the conservation dispute by looked on as a founder of agricultural ento- the 'two worlds' concept. The 'other worlds' mology and plant pathology. In medicine, he - of the corporate decision makers who buy is remembered for his contribution to filar- the products of the local sawmills and of the iases; his name is recorded in the taxonomy bureaucrats in the NSW Forestry Depart- of the adult worm Wuchereria bancrofti. ment in Sydney - could have been added to Ted Ford's Bancroft Oration of 1959, give the analysis a richer texture. It is worth quoted by Frank Fenner in Chapter 3, gives noting that this is not a history - it does a succinct account of this discovery. Joseph not narrate the circumstances of the original knew the disease clinically, but probed more dispute, and nor are the actors named (pseu- deeply and was greatly helped by others. Dr donyms are used throughout); it is rather an Thomas Rowlands of Ipswich showed Joseph exploration of the nature of an environmental the microfilariae he had found in the urine dispute through a particular case study. of a chylurous patient. Joseph examined some Watson's decision to separate out (in an of his own patients and sent the larvae he appendix on 'Culture and Ideology') the tech- found to a former teacher in Manchester, who nical tools of his analysis, assists in making referred them to T.S. Cobbold, the foremost the book accessible to a wide range of read- helminthologist of his time. In 1876, Cobbold ers. The complexity of the analysis was, for published an account of Bancroft's specimens me, more exciting and useful than the appen- and drew Joseph's attention to the fact that dix, though this may have interested those these were immature forms and that the with a formal political-science background. parent worms should be sought. For six However, as we have seen from the books months Joseph sought the adult worms in included here, forest history is practised by his patients, and there found the hair-like researchers from a range of disciplines. The structures in an abscess on the arm of a challenge for texts in this field is to present butcher boy and in the hydrocele fluid from research and evidence in a form accessible to another patient. The urge for precedence was any intelligent general reader. Watson's tech- present even then. Joseph sent an account of nique of separating the particular case study his findings to Cobbold, who, before the from the analytical tools of his discipline is actual specimens arrived, published an one neat way to encourage a wider account in The Lancet (1877) and later readership. named the species Filaria bancrofti. Libby Robin Bancroft thought that mosquitoes might Department of History and Philosophy of transmit the larvae, and he found larvae in Science the imbibed blood from an Aedes vigilax fed University of Melbourne on an infected person. This finding was over- shadowed, however, by Patrick Morrison's John Pearn and Lawrie Powell (Eds), demonstration that the microfilariae under- The Bancroft Tradition. Brisbane: Amphion went development in the mosquito, which Press, 1991. xviii + 268 pp. illus., $25.00. could serve as intermediary hosts. Morri- sons's discovery prompted Manson to encour- This book, a tribute to Joseph Bancroft, age Ronald Ross to investigate the Thomas Lane Bancroft and Mabel Josephine transmissions of malaria by mosquitoes. Mackerras n6e Bancroft - father, son and Joseph and others believed that the mos- grand-daughter, was prompted by the open- quito released microfilariae into water, which ing of a new research centre to house the then infected humans. Thomas had helped Book Review Section

cine, scholarship and civic life; country of medical profession, professional botanists residence and civic and scientific contribu- and those inquisitive people - the so-called tion; scientific names. The list ranges, in 'amateur botanists' - who are generally alphabetical order, from Achilles, whose interested in plants and, increasingly, Aus- qualifications are taken to be 'warrior, first- tralian history. I would strongly recommend aider', to Zorn, an 'apothecary, botanist and the book to such people. But a word of warn- senator', who never left Germany but whose ing: this is not a book that one 'can't put name was given to Zornia, a genus of basi- down', rather it is one that, when placed on cally tropical legumes. Inevitably, the first a coffee table or at the bedside, one can't help impression is of a dictionary or a census picking up. Fancy that - the Macadamia statement. nut, Australia's only native crop species, was I would also question other aspects of the named after a doctor from Glasgow, John book: does the author mean Harrogate, not Macadam! Harrowgate, as the domicile of Dr Augustus Robert L. Burt Greeves?; when he states in the index that Graduate School of Tropical Veterinary Sci- the common name for Baloghia spp is 'Blood- ence & Agriculture woods', a name usually applied to some spe- James Cook University of North Queensland cies of Eucalyptus, is he correct?; how do I know that the genus Brunoniella is named after the surgeon Robert Brown - why not, Gavan McCarthy (Ed.), Guide to the more logically, after some unknown 'Bruno'? Archives of Science in Australia: Records of Such problems tend to arise, however, simply Individuals. Melbourne: D.W. Thorpe, in because I do not have access to the relevant association with Australian Science Archives information: the common name 'Bloodwoods' Project and National Centre for Australian might well be applied to the genus in ques- Studies, Monash University, n.d. [1991]. xi tion, either locally or in some other country, + 291 pp., illus., $75.00. and there may well be a Harrowgate in As is now more widely known, the Australian England. The reader must take the material Science Archives Project was founded in 1985 presented on trust: but, as is evident from under the direction of Professor Rod Home the acknowledgements and the index, the at the University of Melbourne, in order to author has gone to extraordinary lengths to 'safeguard, for the use of future generations provide such validation as is reasonably pos- of Australians, important collections of per- sible. He may have bent the botanical rules sonal and institutional records documenting of nomenclature somewhat, but only to pro- the history of science in Australia, and at the vide the reader with interesting titbits of same time to render these records accessible information. And the same is true of the to present-day users.' As part of this impor- illustrations, which are scattered throughout tant work, the Project has developed a com- the text and do much to relieve what could puter-based Register of the Archives of otherwise be a boring layout; the botanical Science in Australia. illustrations would be inadequate for strictly The Introduction to the present volume botanical purposes, but this is not the inten- describes its background and contents in the tion of the book. The pictures or photographs following way: of the various human entrants, together with appended comments, must be viewed simi- The archives of science, in which we larly; where else would I discover that the include the records of technological and 'Singapore daisy' (Wedelia trilobata) was medical research, comprise materials in named after a German professor, Wedel, and many different formats and information that a species of the same genus contains a recorded on many different media. This potent toxin? And where did the author find guide locates and briefly describes the the drawing of Cephaelis ipecacuanha, taken records created by individuals who have originally from the notebook of William Piso worked in Australia, from the earliest when he visited Brazil; how did he ascertain explorers and navigators . . . to the com- that surgeon James Patrick - of Ireland, puter software developers of the 1980s . . . England, Australia, New Zealand and the Some collections are treasure troves, con- South Pacific - was equally diverse in his taining personal and professional mate- professions - 'surgeon, botanist, writer, mil- rials that document not only the processes itary surgeon, murderer'? This book is as of science but also its humanity. They much about people as the plants which bear document the networks created by scien- their name. tists, their battles with authority and with I now find that I have frequent recourse each other, and their co-operation to to this volume. So too do my friends in the achieve longer term objectives; and they Historical Records of Australian Science, Volume 9, Number 1

provide lasting evidence of the progress for serious scholars, and not for 'amateur' and processes of science in Australia. historians, schoolteachers looking for student projects, etc. That said, it should equally be The guide is intended to lead readers to emphasized that, for its chosen audience, it most sources of archival information relating is a major new asset. At a time when to Australian science, although the depths of research time itself has become valuable to the Australian Archives, the archival bodies an unprecedented degree, this guide makes of state and territory governments, and the impossible projects possible, and gives inva- extensive CSIRO Archive have not yet been luable assistance to many, many others. tapped. The entries are arranged in alpha- The compiler and editor, Gavan McCarthy, betical order by surname. In briefly reviewing who is also Senior Archivist of the Australian the guide, I have turned to the entries for Science Archives Project, has worked hard those scientists with whose careers I am at and long under difficult conditions, not least least a little familiar. of marginal and uncertain funding (so tragi- While the content is indeed largely cally common in Australian scholarship restricted to scientists 'who have worked in today). He deserves much credit and our Australia', a few others are included because heartfelt gratitude. of archival material preserved here. Their entries often tickle one's curiosity. Thus, for John Jenkin the English physicist C.V. Boys, we find that Physics Department the Basser Library has 'handwritten instruc- La Trobe University tions for making quartz fibres, sent by Boys to Professor Poynting in Birmingham in F. Molyneux, A Refugee from Misc. 20B. 1894'; and for Ernest Rutherford, that the Melbourne: School of Mechanical and Produc- Basser has 'handwritten letter from J.J. tion Engineering, Swinburne Institute of Thomson to Rutherford 1907; personal bank Technology, 1990, 153 pp., illus., $20.00. book (England) 1922-23; annotated copy by Rutherford of J.T. Bottomley's Four Figure This slim volume contains the autobiography Mathematical Tables . . I of 'Prof.' Fred Molyneux. An expatriate Eng- In the cases I know, the descriptions of lish engineer, he came to Australia in 1965 the archival records for each scientist are to establish chemical engineering as a full accurate. They are, perforce, rather brief, and independent course of study within the perhaps unnecessarily so in a few places. School of Engineering at Swinburne Institute Thus, for W.H. Bragg, the only entry is 'a of Technology, rather than as an add-on sub- collection of 6 letters from Bragg to J.P.V. ject to the Diploma of Applied Chemistry. Madson 1909 . . . Basser Library'; an addi- In spite of suffering from a terminal ill- tional entry, such as that appearing for J.C. ness, Molyneux was encouraged to leave some Verco ('information in the official records of tangible record of his life and work, and he the University of Adelaide') would have showed great courage and persistence in alerted users to the wealth of information on assembling fragments of a rich, varied and Bragg's Adelaide career to be found in the vigorous life dedicated to the practice and same repository (but perhaps this is obvious). teaching of chemical engineering. But despite The biographical notes for each entry pose great efforts on the part of the book's editor, a potentially greater problem. Places of birth George Ross, this largely anecdotal tale and of education and training are generally remains scrappy. Isolated incidents and epi- omitted, a significant loss, whose relevance sodes are recalled, but an absence of specific is highlighted by their appearance in a few dates and places makes the reader's task a cases (e.g. Duffield and Sanders). Destina- difficult one. Thus, when reading about his tions on departure from Australia are also early, formative years in Merseyside and generally (but not always) omitted. The brev- south-west Cornwall, I had to refer con- ity of the biographical notes is very severe in stantly to my AA Road Atlas of Britain. most cases. On the other hand, such criti- Fred Molyneux was born in a working- cisms may be unfair; the notes are adequate class district of Merseyside during the 1914- to allow identification of the individuals con- 18 war, eldest of a family of five and son of cerned. Users will, however, need to look a small property owner. Higher education elsewhere for more extensive biographical must have had a high priority in the Moly- information. Useful appendices and an index neux family, since Fred's two uncles had complete the volume. graduated in medicine and the classics from The principal value of this guide, then, is Manchester University, where later his in identifying the personal papers of individ- brother was to obtain an electrical engineer- ual Australian scientists. It is largely a guide ing degree. Between 1933 and 1938, Fred Book Review Sectlon completed a BSc. and an honours degree in sultancy group within the Gippsland Insti- mechanical engineering at the Wigan Mining tute of Advanced Education, to assist local and Technical College. Following three years industry on a contract basis. of apprenticeship and with the 1939-45 war Who, then, was 'Prof.' Fred Molyneux? in full swing, he was drafted under a war- From this autobiography it is difficult to see time regulation, 'Misc. 20B' - a register of where he stood on a range of political and all qualified engineers and scientists, with social issues. For example, his inability to their place and mode of occupation. This come to terms with the socialist system in entailed a move from the heavily-bombed Cuba contrasts with his strong criticism of Liverpool to the equally heavily-bombed Lon- the 'old boy' network, wherein technically don to work on rocket motors and fuels. In trained officers for the British Army were, in the decade after the war, Molyneux worked his opinion, selected according to family first in the chemical industry and later with background and social status. This dichotomy the Atomic Energy Authority on the design might well be set against the irony of his and construction of disposal plant for radio- having to take out Australian citizenship for active liquid effluents, and then on the pro- passportlvisa reasons in order to make a trip duction of uranium hexafluoride for the (after retirement) to the People's Republic of isotopic separation process. China. At the age of forty, Fred Molyneux We do learn that he had strong opinions changed course and took a senior lecturer's on student evaluation, favouring the Austra- position in the newly-created Department of lian approach whereby students could be Chemical Engineering at the Birkenhead Col- lege of Technology. Since 1946 he had been passed subject by subject, in contrast to the publishing papers on his industrial experi- British system of passing or failing a whole ences in plant design and operation; in 1963, year's work. We also know that he had strong Buttenvorths published his Chemical Plant feelings in regard to the lack of opportunity Design I, and in 1967 his Laboratory Exer- for chemical engineering students in Austra- cises in Chemical Engineering was published lia to gain experience in - and credit for - by Leonard Hill, London. the design of chemical processes and plant. Early in 1964, Molyneux took up a United A silver medal has been instituted in Moly- Nations two-year contract in Venezuela, at neux's name at the Swinburne Institute of the Universidad Central, Caracas, to work on Technology for excellence in chemical engi- the design and equipping of new chemical neering design. engineering laboratories. Some fifteen This book is worth the read. Although months later, with no job to return to in irritating at times, it does give a strong Britain, he accepted an offer to 'build up a flavour of the social conditions facing a young Department of Chemical Engineering at man growing up in the Midlands of England Swinburne College of Technology in Mel- in the 1920s, and of the difficulties facing bourne, Australia: Within a few years he had someone determined to become a chemical established a three-year diploma course in engineer despite the few suitable tertiary chemical engineering, which soon gained courses then available. On the other hand, accreditation from the Institution of Engi- this volume presents a sobering warning neers, Australia. against 'incomplete' autobiographies. Fred In the lat 1960s, Molyneux was invited to Molyneux, with rich and wide-ranging life become a chemical engineering advisor to a experiences in chemical engineering, had so United Nations team going to Cuba to form much more to tell than appears in A Refugee the Faculty of Technology at the University from Misc. 20B.One can only hope that those of Havana. Here things did not go well. Fred's with an equally-involved and wide-ranging impatience with the socialist experiment in life in the technical professions will consider Cuba led him to express views contrary to documenting their lives more fully. the Cuban authorities, and then to his res- ignation from the post after one year of a John Spink two-year appointment. Back in Australia, he History and Philosophy of Science continued enthusiastically as head of his Department department until his retirement at age 60. University of Melbourne Determined to remain pedagogically active, he had completed a Diploma of Education at the age of 59. Following retirement, he did Harold Love, James Edward Neild: Vic- relief teaching in a number of secondary torian Virtuoso. Melbourne: Melbourne Uni- schools in the Gippsland area of Victoria. He versity Press, 1989. xi + 372 pp., illus., was also instrumental in establishing a con- $39.95. Historical Records of Australian Science, Volume 9, Number I

They don't make them like J.E. Neild any- Neild wrote for several Melbourne news- more, which may be a good thing. Neild was papers and was editor for many years of the an apprentice-trained doctor who became lec- Australian Medical Journal. Love observes turer in forensic medicine at Melbourne Uni- that the various vehicles gave him versity. He was a combative engineer of enormous influence over both his own moves to unify the medical profession in profession and public perceptions of med- Victoria, or to achieve a monopoly over health ical issues. It was a power that he was to work, On one's point view. He ' use effectively but idiosyncratically, and was, finally, an equally-combative journalist at times irresponsibly. and theatre critic. Harold Love's publishers describe Neild as The habit of passing editorial opinion off a Renaissance virtuoso, but that is rather an as science, which continues in Australian over-statement. Neild was evidently a more medical journals to this day, may be seen as or less adequate doctor, a bulldozer rather a legacy of Neild's work. Similary, his aggres- than a diplomat in medical politicking, and sive assertion of medical professional inter- an opinionated - as often as influential - ests against other workers in the health commentator on the turbulent theatrical life domain, and his vindictive pursuit of 0~~0s- of Melbourne for more than a generation. ing cliques within that profession, are not Love himself is clearly a man of more than without present parallels. one skill. He knows a lot about the history of Harold Love may have taken Neild a little the theatre in Victoria and England, has a too much at Neild's own assessment of his good overview of the history of the Australian significance in medicine. If SO, the reason press, and has read himself into the history probably lies in Love's occasionally anachron- of medicine in Australia. istic account of developments in medical A review for this journal will attend prin- knowledge and professional organization. He cipally in Neild as a scientist and doctor, and takes at face value a reference to '~h~siolog~', to Love's treatment of the history of science where the context S'Jggests that Neild meant and medicine. ~~ildwas trained - or only 'anatomy' (as his peers in 1863 would crammed - for the ~i~~~ti~t~of the society have done); it would have been unusual for of ~~~~h~~~~i~~which, when he received it an 'M.D.' to have added much to a doctor's in 1848, was the most common qualification standing in the 1860s; and it is an overstate- for medical practitioners in England. The few ment report the profession as months of study involved was propositional, 'adopting its modern two-tier 'tructure of rather than inquisitive, in character. Neild and generalist' as as the also spent some time at University College 1870s. medical school but, in the 1840s, it had yet Love appears as a more sympathetic, to reach the peak of its influence on the new thoughtful character than his subject. His analysis of the aesthetics and economics of science Of P~Y~~~~~~Y'In any case> did Melbourne theatrical life in the second half not complete his degree there. Similarly, of the nineteenth century, and of made part his living in contribution to each, is fascinating. Whether as a pharmacist, he had Neild was a 'virtuoso' is more debatable. Even sure in the if that judgement were held in suspension, P~Y~~~~~~Yinto P~~~~~~~~~~Ywhich better however, the account of scientific and educated scientists, such as Anderson Stuart, medical career would be worth having for its brought to Australia in the last quarter of capacity to provoke the questions: can the nineteenth century. cal education or medical politics still produce Neild was a fairly acute observer of the people like Neild today, and would we like world around him, but his skills in that either if it did? regard were informed as much by his work in journalism as by his empirical experience Hicks in post-mortem examination. It is not evident Department Medicine that his judgements owed much to episte- University of mological subtlety or theoretical sophistica- tion. Love is charitable in his assessment of Muriel Utting, Cooke's Perth Observatory. Neild as a pathologist and practitioner of Perth: W.A. Government Printer, 1989. forensic medicine. A less charitable view 23 pp., illus., $6.00. would be that Neild's forensic work was some- times formed as much by the passion of his Muriel Utting, Windows to the Southern conflicts with other doctors as by his scien- Skies. Perth: Murdoch University & Perth tific understanding. Observatory, 1991. 44 pp., illus., $6.00. 86 Book Review Section

In the nineteenth century, the several colon- nections to events elsewhere (in Australia ial government observatories in Australia and overseas), the references poor, and the were very important institutions. In some, captions and the relationship to the text of astronomy was, in fact, a less important the many excellent photographs inadequate. activity; meteorology, weather forecasting, A strong editorial hand could have improved telegraph development, standard time keep- the result substantially. ing, surveying (of colonial borders, coastlines The second booklet, containing a broader etc.), tidal measurements, seismology, geo- picture of the beginnings of the Perth magnetism - even responsibility for postal Observatory, is more balanced and better and telephone services and the promotion of presented (although cost-cutting has appar- science - all could fall within the orbit of ently forced a reduction in the quality of the these observatories. Not surprisingly, there- paper, to the detriment of the figures). fore, the colonial government astronomers Despite community interest in astronomy were some of the most important early sci- and the public need for better meteorological entists in Australia; for example, Robert information, Premier Forrest had great diffi- Ellery in Melbourne, H.C. Russell in Sydney, culty in persuading the W.A. parliament to Charles Todd in Adelaide and W.E. Cooke in make an initial allocation of funds, which Perth. even then (in 1894) were severely limited. As the twentieth century developed, how- The author comments: 'The dissatisfaction ever, the importance of the State observato- arising from the establishment of an Observ- ries declined. In 1908, meteorology was atory in Perth was a shaky start to that centralised in a Federal bureau; and in time, institution, and one which has never been posts and telegraph, surveying, seismology remedied by any subsequent W.A. govern- and other functions also passed to alternative ment.' Some things never change! authorities. Left with little more than routine The plans for the new observatory were astronomical observations and the advent of developed by Forrest in extensive consulta- increasing national facilities even there, most tions with Todd in Adelaide. Indeed, it was of the State observatories ultimately were Todd who had trained Cooke and who now closed. provided his valued assistant for the new Not so the Perth Observatory, now at Bick- position. Cooke 'wasted no time in setting to ley outside Perth; still small and doubtful of work, [and] from the outset he showed his its future, it is energetic and productive none- ingenuity, particularly when he had a puz- theless. Like the other State observatories, it zling or difficult situation which required deserves a written history, and Muriel instant action. . . . Cooke was able "to make Utting, an amateur astronomical enthusiast do" in one way or another. In fact [he] was to and recent Murdoch B.A. graduate, is pre- leave a permanent memorial of himself in all paring one in the form of a series of booklets, the programmes which still exist, in artefacts the first two of which are the subject of the . . ., letterbooks and other documents which present review. remain still in the new Perth Observatory at The initial booklet focuses on Western Bickley.' Australia's first government astronomer This is not the definitive history of a State (from 1896 to 1912), William Ernest Cooke. observatory, but it is a strong reminder of an It is the story of a valiant and sometimes important chapter in our early scientific his- successful struggle against substantial odds: tory and heritage. poor funding, high expectations, heavy work load, inadequate staffing and sometime dis- John Jenkin heartening public criticism. Strongly sup- Physics Department ported initially by the W.A. Premier, John La Trobe University Forrest, and by his South Australian men- tors, Charles Todd and William Bragg, he H. Attwood, R. Gillespie and M. Lewis found the isolation of Perth difficult. Cooke's (Eds), New Perspectives on the History of achievements were significant, however, not Medicine: First National Conference of the least in the establishment of the observatory Australian Society of the History of Medicine, and in his important role as Secretary of the 1989. Melbourne: Australian Society of the local Adelaide University Committee, which History of Medicine and the University of paved the way for the foundation of the Uni- Melbourne, 1990. xi + 303 pp., illus., $20.00. versity of Western Australia. It is disappointing that this booklet does This modest book is at once satisfying and not adequately capture the essence and tantalizing. It is significant as a record of drama of its subject. I found the text dis- the first official conference of the Australian joined and sometimes obscure, lacking con- Society of the History of Medicine. The edi- Historical Records of Australian Science, Volume 9, Number I tors' brief Foreword provides a thumbnail sketch of the previous initiatives which led to the formation of the Society, and it is good to know that the second National Conference is in progress, on schedule, as I write. New Perspectives also serves as a review of current interest and thought in the history of medicine in this country. Broadly speak- ing, the 39 papers fall into two groups. One explores the impact of disease on society, while the other records the lives of individu- als and institutions. The emphasis is on the nineteenth century, although the Ancients (Galen) and Moderns (Bea Miles) are not excluded. The reader is invited to sample from a smorgasbord of brief papers. Some are merely abstracts compressed into a few paragraphs, and none is longer than twenty pages of text. The juxtaposition of so many contributions with widely different fields and intellectual approaches makes con- secutive reading a recipe for mental indigestion. This is probably inevitable in any record of a conference, although here it is accen- tuated because the original programme was deliberately all-inclusive in scope. In retro- spect, the holding of the conference in the bicentennial year did have some effect in bringing forward a large number of accounts of the lives of pioneer practitioners and the foundations of Australian institutions. How- ever, the book's most enduring influence may well stem from its identification of individu- als from widely different backgrounds with specific historical interests and knowledge. This should stimulate collaboration beyond the limited circle of people lucky enough to attend the conference itself. Cost considera- tions have dictated a spartan production, so this is no coffee-table book. A more serious defect is the unexplained selectivity of the editors in providing reasonably comprehen- sive texts for some of the papers but abstracts only of others; but perhaps this simply reflects the inevitable difficulty of extracting manuscripts from authors after the meeting itself is over. If the conference proceedings are to become a regular feature of the Society's life, some prospective plan- ning could be required. Despite these criticisms, it is a pleasure to welcome the appearance of Perspectives, both for itself and as a harbinger of better things to come. Professor Attwood and his partners deserve our warm thanks for their persistence in seeing the venture through. Yvonne Cossart Department of Infectious Diseases University of Sydney