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An Historical Framework for International Scientific Collaborations: The Case of Kitasato Shibasaburo by Joanna Kriese BSc, University of Victoria, 2008 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of Pacific and Asian Studies Joanna Kriese, 2012 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This thesis may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. ii Supervisory Committee An Historical Framework for International Scientific Collaborations: The Case of Kitasato Shibasaburo by Joanna Kriese BSc, University of Victoria, 2008 Supervisory Committee Dr. M. Cody Poulton, Department of Pacific and Asian Studies Supervisor Dr. Katsuhiko Endo, Department of Pacific and Asian Studies Departmental Member Dr. Leslie Butt, Department of Pacific and Asian Studies Departmental Member iii Abstract Supervisory Committee Dr. M. Cody Poulton, Department of Pacific and Asian Studies Supervisor Dr. Katsuhiko Endo, Department of Pacific and Asian Studies Departmental Member Dr. Leslie Butt, Department of Pacific and Asian Studies Departmental Member The Japanese scientist Kitasato Shibasaburo (1853-1931) was one of the founders of microbiology. A devoted student of Robert Koch, his successful collaborations with European scientists resulted in anti-serums for tetanus and diphtheria, the discovery of the causative agent of the bubonic plague, and a number of other major contributions to both science and public health. He achieved this in spite of condescending attitudes on the part of many of his peers and even resistance from within his own government. Yet there remains a paucity of academic writing on Kitasato in the English language, particularly when compared to his eminent contemporaries. What does exist constructs a narrative of an historically weak Japanese scientific establishment. This work challenges that perspective, and will examine Kitasato’s interactions with his fellow collaborators in the context of the considerable social, political, cultural, and linguistic pressures acting upon them in order to elucidate what made them so extraordinarily successful in surmounting these barriers. In so doing it aims to provide insight for the scientists of today – for whom international collaboration is the ever-increasing norm – as to how they have succeeded historically and can now successfully interact with both each other and the powers that organize them. iv Table of Contents Supervisory Committee ....................................................................................................... ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ....................................................................................................................... v List of Figures .................................................................................................................... vi Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................. vii Chapter 1 – Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2 – Literature Review .......................................................................................... 25 Chapter 3 – Hong Kong, 1894 .......................................................................................... 70 Chapter 4 – Berlin, 1890 ................................................................................................... 92 Chapter 5 – Tokyo, 1895-1914 ....................................................................................... 115 Conclusions ..................................................................................................................... 131 Bibliography .................................................................................................................... 137 v List of Tables Table 1. Timeline of the Plague Controversy. .................................................................. 38 vi List of Figures Figure 1. Exhange Schema for Scientific Collaboration. .................................................. 13 Figure 2. Reciprocal Relationships of the Plague Discoverers. ........................................ 76 Figure 3. Reciprocity Between Kitasato and Behring. ...................................................... 97 vii Acknowledgments I would like to thank the members of my committee, particularly my supervisor Cody Poulton, for their indispensable advice; the staff of the Department of Pacific and Asian Studies for their helpful assistance; Dr. Takayuki Mori and the staff of the Kitasato Memorial Museum for kindly granting me access to their materials; the generous financial support of the SSRHC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships Program, the Hugh Campbell and Marion Alice Small Fund for Scottish Studies, and the Province of British Columbia through the Ministry of Advanced Education; Marcel-André Wuttig of the Department of American Studies, Humboldt- University Berlin, for his translations from German; finally, my peers, for their tireless encouragement and support. Chapter 1 – Introduction I: Introduction It may seem unlikely that a samurai of relatively humble birth, born in a remote mountain village in southwestern Japan in the years immediately before the end of the feudal era and the emergence of Japan as a modern nation-state, would rise to prominence as one of the most influential minds – and personalities – of his day. But to students of Japanese history, Kitasato Shibasaburo (1853-1931) can be seen as part of a rising tide of Japanese intellectuals constrained by the limits placed on their studies by the Tokugawa shogunate, only to burst forth and flood the national scene when that government was overthrown by modernization-minded rebels. Yet very little is written in English on Kitasato compared to the other Meiji elite, even though his ideas would have influence far beyond the borders of Japan – even though every living person today is still directly and profoundly affected by them. Kitasato, in collaboration with his more famous German contemporary Emil von Behring (1854-1917), were the founders of science of immunology. Together they discovered that higher organisms produce anti-toxins – what we now know as “antibodies” – to resist foreign invaders, that these anti-toxins are found in the blood serum, and that this serum can be extracted and injected into another organism to confer immunity to the invader upon it. It had been known for some time before this, of 2 course, that higher organisms somehow resisted disease, but both the mechanisms – not to mention any practical or curative applications those mechanisms might have – were unknown, and theories ranged from cells dedicated to hunting and destroying the invaders (this would turn out to be correct as well, though concrete evidence and medical applications for it would half a century in the future) to rest and simple hygienic improvements. In Kitasato’s time, even the germ theory of disease itself was still highly controversial; hygienists, as opposed to germ theorists – germ theory having been first espoused by Kitasato’s own mentor Robert Koch (1843-1910) – believed that disease was a result of cellular and chemical imbalances in the body caused by poor sanitation practices. They had as their evidence the observation that improved cleanliness lead to improved overall health, and ample ammunition with which to criticize the germ theorists: the tiny organisms they claimed were the pathogens of disease were found everywhere in nature, even on healthy persons. Discoveries by in Berlin by Koch and his pupils like Kitasato, as well as those of their fellow germ theorist rivals in the Pasteur Institute of France, would change the course of medical history forever. Kitasato’s own discovery would result in the creation of antisera: the first effective curative (as opposed to preventative) therapy for the treatment of infectious disease produced by modern medicine. Kitasato and Behring had discovered that the blood serum of an animal exposed to a toxin contained “antitoxins” to neutralize its effects; this “antiserum” could be produced in mass quantities to treat human patients suffering from the effects of a bacterial toxin. Kitasato himself would also go on to participate in and preside over some of the most successful collaborations of the era, including the discovery of the 3 causative agent of the Black Plague and the first treatment for syphilis, to found and direct an influential research institute, and to shape the future of Japan’s medical modernization and views on public health. Why then is the material to be found on Kitasato so scarce, compared to that on the politicians, economists, translators, and even poets of the Restoration? A study of what materials do exist (Chapter 2) written in English, in comparison to German and Japanese, is illuminating: the influence of language, of nationalism, and of the divide between historians and scientist-historians was profound. More importantly, Kitasato’s life history and accomplishments, his influence in politics, his numerous and productive international collaborations and those