Book Review Section Path, from the Local to the Global, That Cannot Be Compiled by John Jenkin* Mon Sense Define Their Ties with the Global

'method' indicates, the sciences lay down a certain Book Review Section path, from the local to the global, that cannot be Compiled by John Jenkin* mon sense define their ties with the global. Even if John A. Schuster and Richard R. Yeo (Eds.), we recognise the local character of the rails, we The Politics and Rhetoric of ScientiJic Method: understand that they are laid down in a particular Historical Studies - Australasian Studies in way that allows trains to speed along them; they are History and Philosophy of Science, Vol. 4. not laid down to interrupt, side-track or slow down Dordrecht: Reidel, 1986. 305 pp., $106 the trains. Even if we recognise science as an archi- approx. pelago, how is it that each of the islands has dis- coverers who wave their flag and say that the whole I have always wondered how ancient navigators world is theirs? could, in the name of their Sovereign, occupy terri- Since, for an edited volume, this book has a tories dozens of times greater than their own simply remarkable unity of intent, it seems reasonable to by planting a flag and saying a prayer. This interest- comment on it as if there was but one author. The ing book is about the ways tiny groups of scientists book is divided into two main parts. The introduc- are able to plant a flag and claim ownership of vast tion and the first two chapters are the most domains they will never be able to fully colonize. ambitious, and try to uproot what has been taken Is science universal? Of course it is, or such is, at for granted as the scientific method of the great least, what used to be its most essential trait. heroes - Newton, Galileo, Descartes. The second Beliefs, religions, customs, laws, even ethics are part is less ambitious but nicely documented: what hopelessly local and peculiar, but the results of sci- is the use of 'method talk' in scientific contro- ence escape these contingencies and are universally versies; when others fail, tell your colleague that valid. Indeed, this is a tautological definition: there they are not 'really' doing science. are valid scientific results only in so far as they are Feyerabend's work on Galileo rendered a great universal. disservice to the study of science by using polemi- Then things began to deteriorate. Studies by his- cally the bizzare notion of propaganda. Galileo was torians, sociologists and even anthropologists accused, 'not only' to discipline rigorously 'but also' tended to break down the universality of science to indulge in propaganda. This is a most damaging and replace it by local, technical, crafted, idiosyn- definition of rhetoric, since, inevitably, defenders cratic achievements. Writers as different as of science point out that 'in addition' to a flourish Duhem, Koyre, Kuhn, Collins and Shapin made of rhetoric, Galileo did demonstrate some of his many diffident about the universality of scientific laws. Then we are back where we started; that is, principles. A new, much more fragmented picture with a dichotomy between rhetoric and the rest, the of science started to emerge. Universality is a real science. The author of the first chapter, pleasant myth of science as it is taught, but it is not Chalmers, rightly debunks Feyerabend's pretention. a property of science as it is made. Sciences are no After all, if Galileo wished to propagate his results, more universal than the freeways or the railways. to extend them, to generalise them, then propa- To be sure they extend in many directions, but not ganda is just one way among very many; the inven- everywhere, and certainly not for free. Instead of tion of mathematical physics is another, that allows being a continuous land, blotted here and there by one to go on from one result to another. Equations a few pockets of disorder, the sciences are now often themselves trace a fascinating path from the local seen as an archipelago of tiny islands, disseminated (the variables) to the global (the structure of the over a vast sea. equation itself). Why call rhetoric the first, if no This new picture, however, also has its short- study of the second is made? comings, and this is where the book under review Unfortunately, Feyerabend's dualist position con- enters the discussion and makes a valuable contri- taminates even Chalmers, who cannot find a com- bution. Although the sciences are practised in local, mon ground for all operations of propagation and is isolated and contingent settings, they do claim to be forced (p. 23) to reintroduce the dichotomy he universal, and this claim is to be taken seriously. wished to attack: 'as far as the creation of social No-one has ever heard a scientist boast at once that space for the new science is concerned, it is cer- his or her results are local, temporary, tainly the case that there was much more involved irreproducible, impossible to expand, and not tied than rational argument, given the variety of to any other fact or theory. Even the social interests at stake'. Ah, this little 'more than': how constructionists who insist on local studies of scien- many crimes have been committed in your name, tific practice pride themselves on the universal val- whether on the side of the old Whiggish positivism idity of their method; they do not suggest that is is or, as is now the case, on the side of social a local, isolated achievement that leads nowhere. historians. Even Feyerabend turns his own destructive method Methods play in science the same role as consti- into another '-ism'; he favours anarchism. Thus tutions do in politics. Although sociologists can there is something essential, if not in method, at argue that no-one ever follows exactly their rules, least in claims to method. As the very name nevertheless, the constitution plays much more than a cosmetic role. It organises assent and dissent, *Dr. J.G. Jenkin is a Reader in Physics at La Trobe University, loyalties and procedures. The methods of Galileo or Bundoora, Victoria, 3083. Descartes cannot be dismissed as window-dressing, Historrcal Records ofAustralian Science, 7 (3) (December 1988) because they are as important as Hobbes' social Historical Records ofAustralian Science, Volume 7, Number 3 it is local, but it is our way; we love it or leave it and contract or the Declaration of Independence. do our own thing'. This sort of talk does indeed Galileo's decision to believe mathematical physics occur, as nicely illustrated by the folk-sociology of instead of common sense in experimental matters is as important as Descartes' reshuMing of who science collated by Sapp. But it is never officially should be trusted. articulated as an acceptable way of talking. Is this The first one is taken seriously by Chalmers, but reworking an ideology or a legitimisation of what the second is treated as a mere literary resource - really happens, as some remarks of the authors too in the old sense of the expression - by Schuster. often suggest? Or is the notion of paradigm simply Schuster's chapter is an interesting case of self- wrong? Of course, in many instances an appeal is contradiction. He does not hesitate to offer a uni- made to method when everything else has failed; it versal definition of methodology, from the Greek to is the last straw to break the camel's back. But this the present day - deleting the constant dispute does not solve the problem. Although there is no between scholastic rhetoric, Renaissance Platonism unique definition of science, and although groups and Cartesian rhetoric - in a book dedicated to the disagree on what is and is not good science, few can local achievements of scientists; and he criticises resist the temptation to talk of a universal method. the whole literature on Descartes for its failure to If there is no common method, then something see his rules of method as a literary trick, without essential to science is threatened. If the local realising that this is indeed the success of Descartes idiosyncrasies of paradigms are accepted as such, - to have provided the resources, the vocabulary, science ceases to exist. the tricks, the formats, for everyone else thereafter, The book as a whole takes this problem less including Cartesian scholars and Schuster himself seriously than one might expect from the Introduc- in his formalised presentation. If this equipment tion. Generally, it is suggested that there is bad faith had been seen as a literary trick, it would have lost involved in the scientists' flag waving. It seems that strength immediately. Why? Because Descartes, they could or should do without method talk, if they like Boyle, invented the very distinction between were honest and not self-serving and self-righteous. literature (or rhetoric) and demonstrated (or exper- But it might very well be the case that methods play imental) science. The definition of rhetoric and the same role in science as standards do in industry. literature used by Schuster to explain Descartes has Each industry, each country, imposes its own stan- been made unfit for this sort of usage by Descartes dards in order to build its own markets. It cannot himself do without standardisation, for it is an essential Bacon, Boyle and Descartes may never have lived part of that which makes an industrial product up to their rules of method, but they invented a way industrial rather than (say) craft. The fierce fights of proceeding from the local to the global. for computer compatibility offer a parallel with the Descartes, like Leibniz, was fascinated, as Schuster ruthless debates among scientists to define what a rightly points out, by the model offered by algebra good, respectable science should look like. Never- and linear functions. Either you call literature all theless, no-one would say that fights over communi- these resources (including algebra) - which I am cation standards among computer firms are mere happy to do, but then it is necessary to uplift liter- legitimisation tactics or window-dressing. They ary theory quite a bit - or you find a word that define in part what a computer does; that is, how it specifies more clearly the innovative character of can tie its fate to others. Method plays an essential this new political constitution of faith and knowl- role in the very definition of scientific fact: it pro- edge. No: Descartes' distribution of witnesses and vides an interface, where one science may connect trials, his system of checks and balances, his politi- with another. cal philosophy, to use Shapin and Schaffer's In summary, this book is a valuable one, that expression, is not that of Aristotle, not that of starts to turn the tide away from the repetitious Galileo, not that of Bacon, not that of Boyle. claim that science is a hopelessly idiosyncrastic and What is the most important lesson to be drawn locally negotiated endeavour and back towards con- from the second part of this volume, where scien- sideration of method. From now on, I am sure, it tists are shown to use resource-talk in order to will be much more profitable to go back to the study escape from difficult situations? Poor Weneger is of method claims, provided it is strongly tied to the beaten down by dear colleagues for his lack of study of theories and freed from the sort of dualism method (Le Grand), Sasisekharan, an Indian bio- that still lingers in this book. chemist with an alternative model of the double- helix, is dismissed for not doing real science Bruno Latour, (Stokes), and the proponents of cytoplasmic her- Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines, edity are defeated by molecular biologists because Paris. their work does not follow the changing pattern of C. A. Fleming, Science, Settlers and Scholars: good science (Sapp). The Centennial History of the Royal Society of These chapters offer an interesting addition to Kuhn, since Kuhn cannot explain why a paradigm New Zealand. Wellington: RSNZ Bulletin 25, should never appear as a Kuhnian paradigm. Why 1987. 353 pp., 80 figs., NZ$55. is hegemony, network building, the quest for univer- A recent review in Nature of the bicentenary history sality so much part-and-parcel of science? Why of the Linnean Society of London had this to say: can't a scientist say 'this is how we do things here - 'Though clogged with too much loving detail, and Bwk Review Section not very enthrallingly written, Gage's history was from those disciplines. Twenty original fellows, too substantial to be disregarded lightly'. Charles including Ernest Rutherford, were elected in 19 19, Fleming's centennial history of the Royal Society of and more followed, but they had no corporate role New Zealand also fits that description, as do the in the affairs of the Institute. That changed to a histories of several other academies of science. small extent in 1933, along with the name of the In his preface to Ronald Clark's biography of Society, but R.S. Allan's plea for a Council of Fel- J.B.S. Haldane, Peter Medawar wrote: 'The lives of lows was not realised until 1965 when the consti- scientists, considered as Lives, almost always make tution was amended yet again, with the various dull reading . . . Academics can only seldom lead national societies being admitted as member bodies lives that are spacious or exciting in a worldly within the new federal structure. sense.' Academies likewise may have rather dull The last chapter of Part I1 of the book portrays lives, making their histories a difficult genre unless the 34 men who served as president up to the time enlivened by the promise of things to come as in of the centenary, but the account of activities is not Thomas Sprat's History of the Royal Society, or by a built around them as it is in Cochrane's centennial major theme as in Marie Boas Hall's All Scientists history of the US. National Academy of Sciences. Now, or by the clash of strong personalities. None of There were quite a few amateurs in the early years, these elements enlivens Science, Settlers and but mostly professional scientists later. Some presi- Scholars, which might more aptly be called a chron- dents were polymaths, others specialists. There icle rather than a history. So conscientiously has were school teachers, headmasters, a botanising Fleming been through the council minutes and vicar who advocated missionary work in science, other records of the Society that he becomes and even a bishop. They ranged from silver- trapped by the details, with the result that his book tongued orators to one president with a reputation lacks a sense of perspective. for silence. One, G.M. Thomson, was even elected Two other features compound the problem; the to Parliament while President of the Institute. structure of the book and the long period over In relation to national responsibilities, one con- which it was written. There are four parts; the first tinuing role of the Society has been to sustain is a narrative history, while the other three deal with research that leads to understanding, when several the Society's domestic affairs (11), its national governments have wanted science 'with as practical responsibilities (111) and its international responsi- an objective as possible'. Relations with the bilities (IV), each of these parts revisiting subjects D.S.I.R., established in 1926, seem to have been introduced in the opening narrative, several times generally constructive. There was initially some for some of them. Too much repetition remains, rivalry as to whether the Institute or the D.S.I.R. despite the author's prefatory disavowal. Begun in should be the adhering body for I.C.S.U. and the 1967, the book has grown by accretion until times International Unions, but this amounted to no ranging from 1972 to 1987. The years since the cen- more than 'polite bickering', with none of the fire- tennial in 1967 are partly covered by an epilogue, works that bring histories alive. Fleming admits but the accretionary character of the text can be that the Society has had little impact on science illustrated by reference to pages 253 and 254: on the education, unlike its Australian counterpart. On the first we read 'At the time of writing (1980). . .', other hand, in its early years it was the main, if not while on the very next page we are told 'On 1 April the only, body with an interest in the conservation 1987 the Government established . . . '. So much of nature and natural resources, and it can claim for the faults, not to mention the occasionally errant quite a few successes over the years. The format of English and Latin. its meetings with Members of Parliament, in which The book's strength is its comprehensiveness. the topics for discussion are chosen for their rel- Charles Fleming was President of the Society from evance to the legislative program, has succeeded in 1962 to 1966, playing a major role in reshaping it attracting up to six Ministers on occasion. into its present form and in finding it a home of its Funding for international activities has nearly own, and assimilated its past as thoroughly as he always been tight, even when New Zealand's sub- mastered the geological history of New Zealand. scription to the International Research Council was The first hundred years divide naturally into only £2-0-4. Fleming makes clear the very great three periods. From its establishment in 1867 until stimulus derived in earlier years by New Zealand 1903, when its Act was amended, the New Zealand scientists, especially the young, from the occasional Institute, as it was initially called, was ruled by the visiting scientist, such as Rutherford on his per- increasingly autocratic James Hector as manager, iodic visits to his mother, or Skottsberg in 1938 editor, bureaucrat and patron. Fleming aptly calls inspiring Fleming himself Even greater stimulus this the Hector hegemony, reminiscent in some came from the holding of the seventh Pacific Sci- respects of Sir Joseph Banks' long presidency of the ence Congress in 1949. This was New Zealand's Royal Society of London. Then from 1903 until first inernational scientific congress, held partly in 1933, when it became the Royal Society of New Auckland and partly in Christchurch, and, for the Zealand under a new Act, there was a more demo- vulcanologists at least, the country's reputation as a cratic period, under a succession of presidents, and conference host was made when Mt Ngauruhoe with representation of the various provincial and erupted with its first lava flow in historic times local institutes. Geologists still predominated, along while the delegates transferred from one venue to with biologists, the first nine presidents coming the other. H~slorrcalRecords ofAustralran Scrence, Volume 7, Number 3

This chronicle is rich in such glimpses, if not in fish. The second artist, Nicholas Petit, had trained broader themes. It ends with the thought that the under David in Paris, but his career was cut short Society's unique structure as a federation of scien- when he died of a gangrenous injury some months tific societies is New Zealand's special contribution after his return from southern waters. The majority to the organisation of national scientific endeavour. of the anthropological artwork is by Petit. This is an experiment which other countries, The quality of the reproduction of artwork in this including Australia, will no doubt watch with inter- volume is excellent. Of a particularly high standard est, and it is a pity that its architect has not given us are Lesueur's vellum oils, where the translucency a more probing assessment of it in this, his last and delicacy of the originals are apparent. Even the book. very faint, rough pencil sketches are reproduced with impressive clarity. L.T. Evans, The artwork is organised by subject matter: land- CSIRO Division of Plant Industry, scapes and inhabitants of New Holland and Van Canberra. Diemen's Land, sponges, ctenophora, medusae, molluscs, arthropods, echinoderms, tunicates, fish, batrachians, reptiles, birds and mammals. In total, there are over three hundred reproductions from J. Bonnemains, E. Forsyth & B. Smith (Eds.), the archives of Le Havre's Mustum &Histoire Baudin in Australian Waters: The Artwork of Naturelle. In addition, thirty-five plates present other aspects of the voyage, including maps, por- the French Voyage ofDiscovery to the Southern traits and some of the final published engravings. Lands, 1800-1804. Melbourne: Oxford Uni- The portrayal of the Tasmanian aborigines is versity Press, 1988, 347 pp., illus. $250. imbued with Eurocentric attitudes, not only to 'sav- Baudin in Australian Waters is a lavish book that age' societies but also to the norms of artistic rep- would grace any library. It is part of the Australian resentation. Though not as neoclassicist as many Academy of Humanities' series of publications that other contemporary portraits - absent are the reproduces major scientific artwork from European Grecian urns and togas - there was clearly a prob- expeditions to Australia. This volume presents a lem in getting the figures into proportion. Many rich collection of zoological and anthropological look decidedly unbalanced. Although one could sketches and paintings that until now have been excuse such 'faults' as due to the illustrations being available only to scholars researching in Le Havre. done in haste - the more leisurely Sydney portrait Supporting these reproductions is a series of essays. series shows a more natural, 'human' people - For many decades, Baudin's voyage to Australia there appears to be an inherent cultural bias in the has been a little known and often misrepresented representation. The lack of proportion in the body expedition. Claims of the voyage's ulterior political and the ever-present maniacal grin match Peron's motives have most often overshadowed appraisal of description of the Tasmanians as 'all extremities the impressive scientific results it achieved. With thin and feeble. . . and the belly a little too over 100,000 zoological specimens collected and large. . . their look always had something sinister over 10,000 new species identified, it could be said and savage in it: that Baudin's voyage is to zoology as Cook's is to Seven introductory essays, mostly brief, place the botany. Moreover, in contrast to previous artwork within the frame of Baudin's expedition. expeditions - and to many after - Baudin's voy- An excellent overview of the voyage is provided by age provided insightful anthropological details of Frank Homer's essay. Some brief biographical Australia's indigenous populations. It becomes expositions are given of Peron and the artists, as apparent from Baudin in Australian Waters that the well as a history of the 'Lesueur collection' at Le artwork is much more refined than in many con- Havre, which houses not only the illustrations but temporary renditions. In all, this volume will help also many manuscripts and is the biggest repository to instate the voyage of Baudin to the Southern of archives for the Baudin expedition. Hemisphere among the crucial expeditions of Rhys Jones' essay, 'Images of Natural Man', is the discovery. most substantial, comprising almost half of the The captain, Nicolas Baudin, although not for- sixty-five pages of introductory essays. Jones, an mally trained, had interest and experience in the anthropologist by training, presents what will cer- acquisition of scientific collections. Fran~oisPBron, tainly become the definitive identification and who would chronicle the voyage, was the most interpretation of the artefacts in use at the time of important scientist. The artists whose work is rep- Baudin's expedition. He offers a clear and thorough resented in this volume were originally hired as gun- description of the social systems and the methods of ners, although it seems clear that Baudin was aware production of the artefacts depicted in the illus- of their artistic capacities. Charles Lesueur was trations. From a theoretical point of view, more largely responsible for the zoological artwork, and could have been made of links between the his realistic portrayal of specimens has rarely been 'fieldwork' and the contemporary intellectual set- equalled. Lesueur, whose delicate skills are mani- ting. For example, the depictions of the Aborigines fest in this book, eventually migrated to America could have been tied back to contemporary theories and gained recognition for his artistic rendition of of physiognomy, or Peron's use of the dynamometer Book Review Section to measure native strength could have been ana- establishment of a viable cropping industry on the lysed in terms of the rise of an objective scientific one hand and the facilitation of productivity growth methodology. in already established pastoral industries on the What I found most disappointing about Baudin other. In the final analysis, the performance of the in Australian Waters was the absence of an essay Division must be assessed in terms of those that did justice to the art in the way that Jones' essay objectives. pays tribute to the anthropological depictions. An In a sense, the book on crop research could be essay that placed the method of representation of seen as something of a last hurrah for the ethos that, the landscapes, fauna and Aborigines into the con- if money was thrown at science in sufficient quan- text of the late eighteenth century French school tities and for long enough, economically viable sol- would surely have been appropriate. The volume utions to obstinate problems could be found. In the would also have been improved by a closer inte- world of the 1980s, where so much reliance is being gration of the essays to the artwork. However, the placed on institutional and structural change in volume is certainly worth owning for the illus- order to pursue the objectives of society, these trations alone. books provide an interesting post mortem on an exercise which appears to reflect a then widespread Miranda Hughes, faith in the ability of science and technology to National Wool Museum, solve problems. Geelong. In the crop research book, the editors comment on the timeliness of their efforts, not just because of the anniversary marked by the books, but also because they were produced when many of those J.J. Basinski. I.M. Wood and J.B. Hacker closely involved with the early days of CSIRO (Eds.), The Northern Challenge: A history of research in northern Australia, while close to retire- CSIRO crop research in northern Australia. ment or retired, were still available for consultation. Brisbane: CSIRO Division of Tropical Crops Further, CSIRO involvement in this area of & Pastures, 1985. 186 pp., illus., $8.00. research was, and is being, reduced and the pro- A.G. Eyles, D.G. Cameron and J.B. Hacker duction of a record such as that provided by these (Eds.), Pasture Research in Northern Aus- two books was felt to be desirable. The book has eight chapters, one being devoted tralia: Its history, achievements and future to each of the six research stations that have been emphasis. Brisbane: CSIRO Division of Trop- involved in crop research - the Kimberley ical Crops & Pastures, 1985. 222 pp., illus., Research Station, the Katherine Research Station, $8.00. the Coastal Plains Research Station, the Tobacco These two books were produced to mark the 25th Research Institute, the Narayen Research Station, anniversary of the establishment of the CSIRO and the Cooper Laboratory - and a number of Division of Tropical Crops and Pastures. By their associated locations. The book closes with a chapter nature, however, they trace histories which cover a which attempts an overview and presents some period of much more than 25 years. In the case of lessons from the experience of crop research in the the second book, that dealing with pastures, the north. The Introduction contains an outline of the starting point is 1867; for the first it is the early history of the Division and its antecedents, together 1930s. Thus we are presented with relatively with a useful review of operational problems organ- exhaustive reviews of two related and major areas ised under the general headings of administration of Australian research effort. Given the purposes of and funding, staffing and living and working the books, this juxtaposition is, of course, not conditions. accidental. Given the purposes of the book, this form of To speak of success or failure of research pro- organisation works well. The reader is confronted grams is to tempt providence. Not only may a piece with a series of chapters written in the sober and of research deemed to be a failure actually produce non-dramatic way that one would expect from knowledge which may be the source of a future bon- scientist authors. Despite this, or perhaps because anza, but also one has to be careful about what is of it, the difficulties of working in such an environ- meant by failure. To the devotee of value-free sci- ment, along with the associated tensions, are starkly ence, the notion ofjudging research to be successful and effectively presented. The attempt to produce a or not would presumably be repugnant. Hypotheses scientists' history was helped by the allocation of are either rejected or not rejected and, either way, much of the biographical material and personal knowledge is gained. This reviewer does not adopt anecdote to notes at the end of each chapter. This such a value-free stance. 'Curiosity research' per- stratagem works well, even though it contributes to haps aside, research has objectives, be they implicit the production of an end product with large chunks or explicit, and, in the case of the Division of Trop- of rather dry reading. ical Crops and Pastures, there can be no denying The concluding chapter should be required read- that those who made decisions to allocate resources ing for all research administrators aspiring to excel- to crop and pasture research in northern Australia lence in their calling. It is a concise statement of had clear and materialistic objectives, related to the some lessons that the authors (Wood and Basinski) Historical Records ofAustralian Science, Volume 7, Number 3 feel can be learnt from the Division's experience in overall objective will be left feeling somewhat northern Australia crop research. This experience frustrated. constituted a school of hard knocks, characterised by difficulties of location, environment, Warren Musgrave, deficiencies in administration and planning, and a Dept of Agricultural Economics & Business degree of political involvement which would be Management, uncomfortable for most research teams. This last University of New England. was not surprising, given the highly political atmos- phere within which northern development, particularly that on the Ord River, was conducted over many of the years under consideration. Patrick O'Brian, Joseph Banks: A Life. Lon- In summary, this book is a useful contribution to don: Collins Harvill, 1987. 328 pp., illus., the history of Australian science. It is by no means $39.95. entertaining reading, but it is valuable for the record it provides and for the lessons provided by Sir Joseph Banks (1743- 1820) continues to fasci- that record; lessons which are well summarised and nate and confound. Here we have another semi- discussed in its concluding paragraphs. popular biography addressed to a general audience, based on wide reading (as any biography of Banks Perhaps because of the relative success of much must be), but with little in the way of novel material of the research it describes, the second book, deal- or insight. ing with pasture research, lacks the drama of the O'Brian opts for a broadly chronological account first. It is much more concerned with technical with some thematic cross-cutting between chapters. issues, less with questions of policy, administration To the reader already acquainted with the major and economics. This is very much a scientists' his- episodes in Banks' life, most of the content will be, tory. In fact, it could be represented as a location- perhaps distressingly, familiar. Indeed, the chapters specific scientific review rather than a history. Such on the voyages to Newfoundland and Labrador and a designation is not intended to denigrate the book. on the Endeavour only supply connective tissue for As the authors point out ' . . . the early pasture long extracts taken from Banks' journals. Whilst workers in northern Australia were pioneering a sci- allowing that there is sometimes value in letting the ence not only for the Australian tropics, but for the subject of a biography speak for himself, this prac- tropics of the world'. This alone would seem to justice is here carried too far. Having said this, the tify the book, regardless of what it is called, history device of devoting the final chapter to a selection of or review. One does, however, regret the lack of revealing letters from various stages of Banks' life attention to the questions of policy and adminis- (with commentary) is a pleasing one, sparing us the tration that concerned the authors of the first book. traditional finale of demise and eulogy. That this The second book has three sections, one dealing device stands in the stead of a concluding overview with the pioneers and covering the period till 1952, is less satisfactory, since it deprives us of O'Brian's the second the period from 1952 to 1984. The third reflections on the major messages he wishes the section is an assessment of what has been achieved reader to take away from the book. We are left to and what could be done in the future. A significant guess. feature is the record of successful co-operation Throughout the book, the focus is upon Banks' between State agencies, particularly the Queens- 'character': upon building up an image of the man land Department of Primary Industries and its pre- by examining his relationships with family, lovers, decessors, and the Division. Indeed, in places the friends, enemies, servants, natives, collectors and book seems as much a record of the pasture librarians, and by revealing his attitudes towards research of the Queensland Department as of the institution$ - king, country, the Royal Society, Division. Evidence of such co-operation is much Parliament. Banks was wealthy, extremely well- less apparent in the first book, which does, how- connected and widely honoured, but he was never a ever, report dissonance, particularly between the snob nor ever lost the common touch. He had Western Australian Department of Agriculture and tremendous energy in a startling array of activities, the Division. This dissonance reflected differing and had a 'disinterested love of science', if a certain objectives of the two organisations, which in turn mysterious shyness about publication. He was a were a reflection, at least in part, of the much higher generous patron and benefactor, unstinting in his degree of political intervention in the crop work. In personal relationships, and sometimes a little too the case of pastures, there was clearly a much trusting of the fineness of others' motives. He was a greater coincidence of objectives and hence a more man of order, who wanted reform of the Royal congenial environment for co-operation. Society, but he was frustrated by the general politi- In summary, the two books should be of consider- cal climate. He was benevolent, but grew impatient able interest to readers of this journal and to those at being contradicted, especially in his later years. interested in the history of the CSIRO, particularly He was apolitical in having a distaste for parliamen- with regard to its involvement in northern Aus- tary politics, and he did much to maintain scien- tralia. To the bulk of lay people they would make tific relations with 'enemy' savants during times of very dull reading, while those interested in the war. O'Brian engages in much strenuous character- question of the extent to which the Division met its isation of this kind. Book Review Section

Some of the characterisations, however, are dubi- In my journeying through physics since then I ous, and O'Brian is too dismissive of those who had have bumped into his name continually, but not in a less glowing opinion of the benign Sir Joseph. A the literature of the fields in which I was engaged or deeper understanding of conflicting agendas in the at physics conferences or meetings of the Australian scientific and learned world is necessary to fully Institute of Physics. Nor is he a member of the appreciate Banks' role in it. And, although Banks Academy of Science. Yet he has been the most did studiously avoid the entanglements of parlia- visable and influential person in Australian physics mentary politics as much as possible, he was clearly for more than a generation. The contradictions have a Court man (James Edward Smith once called him intrigued me, on and off, for years. a 'Royal Toady') and a supporter of the Pitt admin- The present volume goes some way to explaining istration through unorthodox, unofficial and, at the them. It was prepared for, and sponsored by, the time, invisible channels. Science Foundation within the University of Syd- But these complaints aside, the result of ney to mark Messel's retirement as Head of the O'Brian's characterisation is the shell of a man School of Physics and Director of the Foundation. defined reactively. Absent is any account of Banks' The bulk of the text has been prepared by J.B.T. larger vision and purpose. To be fair, this is a fault McCaughan, a former student and now Senior Lec- which O'Brian shares with almost all other biogra- turer in Physics, and the volume concludes with a phers of Banks. The great man was not given to pro- fine chapter by Emeritus Professor R. Hanbury grammatic statements. But his actions and Brown. Its title is accurate and pertinent. Messel's activities, when viewed in some contextual depth, time at Sydney already claims the title 'era' and this betray vision and purpose which are otherwise is its 'story': not a history, but a view from the inside clouded by the colour and clutter of his life. This of a very remarkable episode in the history of sci- much has been shown by the writings of H.B. ence in Australia. Carter and, particularly finely, by those of David Born in the wilds of Canada, of immigrant Mackay (In the Wake of Cook, 1985) on the parents, Harry Messel early learnt the value of self- relationships of exploration, science and Empire in reliance, physical fitness and hard work. As an the late eighteenth century. undergraduate immediately after World War 11, he This is not a bad book. As a popular biography it completed two concurrent degrees in Engineering compares favourably with that by Charles Lyte (SLY Physics and Mathematics, both with first-class Joseph Banh, 1980), both in accuracy and read- honours and at the top of both class lists. He com- ability. Even for the afficionado it contains the pleted his Ph.D. in Dublin, under the supervision occasional gem, notably hints of Banks' role in the of Janossy and Schrodinger, famous refugees from early days of the French revolution in conveying the Nazi regime. Newly married, Messel followed secret intelligence to Pitt. The book will certainly his Dublin acquaintance, Herbert Green, to the be of value to the interested layman concerned to mathematical physics group at the University of learn more of the man on the five-dollar note before Adelaide. it becomes a coin. And yet it seems to me that any Here he proposed the formation of an institute of further popular biographies of Banks must await advanced study, to foster research and to retain in new historical insights. Then, perhaps, we may have Australia some of the capable young scientists who a genuine 'life and times' of this enigmatic figure. went abroad to do their postgraduate work. He was supported by some of the university staff and by the David Miller, State Premier, Sir Thomas Playford. When the rug School of Science & Technology Studies, was pulled from under the scheme by the Vice- University of New South Wales. Chancellor, A.P. Rowe, Messel resigned the same day and headed back overseas via a chance inter- view in Sydney. It all seemed far too brash and unconventional: the Federal Government, for D.D. Millar (Ed.), The Messel Era: The Story example, had decreed that scientific research was of the School of Physics and its Science Foun- to be conducted by CSIRO and the new National dation within the University of Sydney, Aus- University. The State universities were primarily tralia, 1952-1 98 7. Sydney: Pergamon, 1987. teaching institutions, although they were not 157 pp., ilIus., $17.50. debarred from research. The story of Messel's appointment in Sydney is Twenty six years ago, a book containing the lectures already legendary. He asked for 14 new permanent from the 196 1 Science School for Physics held at physics appointments, funding for a major research the University of Sydney was thrust into my hands programme and permission to redirect the teaching for review. I was a young postgraduate student, and research of the department. Sydney physics newly arrived in the eastern states from Adelaide. had been leaderless for some years. Much to When I discussed what I might say with the people Messel's surprise Sydney accepted him and all his around me I was amazed at the vehemence of their demands. The Vice-Chancellorbelieved that 'while opinions. I soon realised that the centre of the the tribulations of the administration will probably antagonism was the founder and guiding spirit of be added to by this dynamic personality, the the Science Schools, Professor Harry Messel. Department of Physics will gain increasing inter- Historical Records ofAustralian Science, Volume 7, Number 3 national reputation'. Unfortunately, a volume such Richard Dalitz, Wolfgang Panofsky, James Watson, as this does not reveal even a little of the later tribu- George Porter and Paul Ehrlich, among many lations that the administration and other sections of others. the University of Sydney experienced. Through Messel's contacts with the Duke of It does record in some detail, however, the sub- Edinburgh, President Lyndon Johnson, Japanese sequent and very considerable achievements of prime ministers, captains and kings, the Science Messel, the School of Physics and its Science Foun- School has become international, with participating dation. Harry Messel was the first, and still one of students from New Zealand, the U.K., the U.S.A., only very few entrepreneurs in Australian science to Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Phil- tap the private, corporate and government sectors ippines. Altogether, more than three thousand to anything like their full funding potential. During students have participated directly, at a total cost to his 35 years in Sydney he raised $34M (now worth the Foundation of $1.7M. $ lOOM or more) for the work of his School. In the early 1960s the School produced a number It started with the formation of the Foundation. of texts for physics students and secondary-school Initially focussed upon a possible nuclear power science classes. Messel's recent work on some 100 industry in Australia, but based squarely upon fun- tidal systems and their crocodile populations in the damental research and the need for highly trained various rivers of northern Australia has been graduates, it had little trouble changing and recorded in 20 monumental volumes, published by broadening its view when the money flowed in. Pergamon Press. The number of research publi- New staff of high quality were recruited, often from cations in physics (or the average number per year) overseas, and, again in a manner unprecedented in is not stated, but by any standard the output of the Australia, theoretical physics received its strong School of Physics during the Messel era has been and rightful emphasis. very substantial indeed. In his flirtation with nuclear power, and with the Love him or hate him, Harry Messel cannot be School's success in cosmic-ray and theoretical ignored in the history of Australian science. In due nuclear-physics research, Messel quickly alienated time a scholarly and probing study will be required the nuclear physicists in Melbourne and Canberra. of the man, his influence, his achievements and Whatever the reasons for the frosty disdain between those of his School. For the present this volume pro- Sydney and the rest of the country - and this book vides the bones of the story, a good starting point for provides few insights into such questions - the future scholars, and a good deal else besides. For result was a tragedy for Australian science. It has graduates and associates of the University of Syd- always needed the united effort of all its leaders. ney it will be especially interesting. It is a pity that As the School and Foundation expanded, Messel it lacks an index. won a bitter battle to allow multi-professor schools Here, the last words can be left appropriately to and departments in the University of Sydney. Later, Hanbury Brown: 'Let us hope that one day someone the School of Physics incorporated the Packer will write that book . . . a proper biography . . . In Theoretical Department (led by Butler), Wills the meantime, I hope that I have written enough to Thermonuclear Department (Watson-Munro), show you that Harry Messel is a complex, talented Chatterton Astronomy Department (Brown), man . . . It has been a rare privilege to have known Falkiner Nuclear Department (McCusker), an him.' Astrophysics Department (Mills) and the Basser Computing Department, a pioneer in Australian John Jenkin, computing. Physics Department, McCaughan suggests that the School reached its La Trobe University. zenith around 1970, with Hanbury Brown's inter- ferometer, Mills' cross, the Supper plasma physics research machines, the Cecil and Ida Green KDF9 Alwyne Wheeler, Catalogue of the Natural His- computer, and outstanding work in theoretical and cosmic-ray physics. The 1970s and 1980s, however, tory Drawings Commissioned by Joseph Banks have not been without achievement and contro- on the Endeavour Voyage 1768-1 771 held in versy, and new initiatives were taken in the areas of the British Museum (Natural History) - Part environmental and applied physics. 3: Zoology. London: Bulletin of the British In the realm of teaching - of the general public, Museum (Natural History) - Historical secondary students and tertiary undergraduates - Series Volume 13, 1986. 171 pp., illus., Messel, the School and the Foundation have also £27.00. accomplished much. The Science Schools, first for teachers and from 1962 for secondary students, The Endeavour expedition was the first great voy- have stressed the need for education and especially age of discovery on which professional naturalists for excellence. They provided the first lengthy sci- and artists were included in the ship's company. Sir ence programmes on Australian television and they Joseph Banks and his colleagues returned with an brought to Australia an extraordinary array of tal- enormous wealth of specimens of plants and ani- ent: George Gamow, Thomas Gold, Hermann mals, drawings and descriptions in manuscript. As Bondi, Carl Sagan, Margaret Burbidge, Wernher is well known, only a relatively small number of the von Braun, several astronauts, Glenn Seaborg. species of animals represented by specimens or 354 Book Review Section drawings were formally described and published. eighteenth centuries. Drawings that were the sole Most of these specimens were given by Banks to basis of published descriptions, or those represent- scientific friends or correspondents, or were other- ing specimens that have since disappeared, have the wise dispersed, so that few of them have survived or status of types for taxonomic purposes. can now be recognised as Endeavour material. The catalogue, the greater part of the work, is set Under the terms of his will Banks left his drawings, out in a standard format. The drawings are serially manuscripts, books and specimens to his curator- numbered and the animals are listed under their librarian Robert Brown for life, to be transferred to modern scientific names, as far as identification is the British Museum on his death or earlier if Brown possible, and the family names. A description of the and the Trustees reached agreement. In 1827 Brown drawing in abbreviated form is then given, with the and the Trustees so agreed, and when the new Brit- artist's name, annotations on the drawing and size, ish Museum (Natural History) was built at South references to Solander's manuscript, if any, and Kensington in the early 1880s the Banksian natural Dryander's catalogue. A final section includes a dis- history collections and related drawings and manu- cussion on identification, references to citations of scripts were transferred to that institution, where the drawing or manuscript relating to the drawing, they have remained. and the possible continued existence of In recent decades there has been a great revival of specimens. interest among scholars in the Cook expeditions, It is of interest that only a small number of the and in the last four years detailed catalogues of all drawings represent Australian animals. There are the surviving drawings from the Endeavour voyage two drawings of kangaroos, one of another mar- have been published. These include drawings of supial, a kangaroo skull, a cockatoo, two drawings places visited, peoples encountered and artifacts of a marine turtle, ten of fishes, three of crabs, and collected, and charts, coastal views and other draw- an unidentified jellyfish. The work is illustrated ings of navigational interest. Catalogues of the natu- with black-and-white photographs of a page from ral history drawings have been published in three Dryander's catalogue, seventeen drawings of ani- volumes in the Historical Series of the Bulletin of mals representing a number of classes, and the British Museum (Natural History). Volume 11 examples of the work of all three artists. (1984) covers the botanical drawings from Aus- Alwyne Wheeler's well-prepared and comprehen- tralia, and volume 12 (1987) deals with the botan- sive catalogue is an important addition to the litera- ical drawings from all other places visited. ture of the great age of maritime discovery. It will be All of the zoological drawings, numbering 299 in of great value to animal taxonomists and historians, total, are catalogued in the single volume under particularly those with a special interest in the dis- review, published in 1986. The drawings are the covery and development of knowledge of the fauna work of three artists, Alexander Buchan, Herman of Australia and the Pacific. Diedrich Sporing and Sydney Parkinson, none of whom survived the voyage. Buchan was employed John Calaby, as a landscape artist but produced some drawings of CSIRO Division of Wildlife and Ecology, invertebrates and fishes from Madeira and Brazil. Gungahlin, ACT. He became ill at Tierra del Fuego and died at Tahiti. Sporing's role was that of amanuensis to Banks and Daniel Solander, but he was an accomplished artist and did some drawings of fishes and crabs. He con- C.R. Twidale, M.J. Tyler and M. Davies tracted malaria and dysentery at Batavia and died (Eds.), Ideas and Endeavours: The Natural soon after the ship left Java. Parkinson was among the best natural history artists of his time. He pro- Sciences in South Australia. Adelaide: Royal duced a very large number of botanical drawings Society of South Australia, 1986. 277 pp., and the great majority of the zoological drawings. illus., $28. He also died after the ship left Java. The drawings are accompanied by a number of contemporary The aim of this excellent collection of essays, as the manuscripts, the most important of which are title indicates, is to evoke the ethos and achieve- Jonas Dryander's Catalogue of the drawings of ani- ments of the natural sciences in South Australia mals in the library of Sir Joseph Banks, and over the past 150 years. It is the fifth in the Society's Solander's zoological manuscripts, containing his series of Occasional Publications, and represents descriptions of animals obtained on the voyage and the Society's contribution to the sesquicentennial from other sources. celebrations of South Australia in 1986. In the Introduction the author discusses in detail The spectrum of contributions is wide, which the drawings, the artists and the manuscripts. It makes the presentation of a critical review most dif- concludes with a review of the drawings and manu- ficult. Because of the variation in the breadth and scripts as a zoological resource. Apart from the depth of the work described, the contributions are value of the drawings as a pictorial record of a most themselves uneven, both in depth and length, and, important early voyage of scientific discovery, the as pointed out in the Introduction, in the periods of drawings and manuscripts also provide a superb time they cover. resource for the better interpretation of the inad- There are nine chapters, which I have chosen to equate taxonomy of the seventeenth and early outline separately. Historical Records ofAustralian Science, Volume 7, Number 3

1. Understanding Landscape by C.R. Twidale 6. Plant Pathology by H.R. Wallace Early exploration of South Australia is The difficulties encountered by early settlers in described, and many features of the landscape South Australia, in the absence of knowledge of - such as the stony desert and the Simpson des- the factors governing disease in crop plants, are ert - are illustrated. The origins of particular explored in this chapter, and the role of science features of the landscape are discussed, with in overcoming many initial preconceived con- some emphasis being given to the effects of wind cepts of causes is well presented. The role of the and water erosion. Waite Agricultural Research Institute and 2. Geology by D.W.P. Corbett, B.J. Cooper and P. CSIRO is attested, and the contributions of par- Mooney ticular individuals described. The historical This chapter charts the development of geologi- account of the 'Take-All' disease is particularly cal studies in South Australia, and encompasses illuminating, set against a background of early the early explorations by personnel from the prejudice as to its cause and the results of later Department of Mines and the University of scientific investigation. Adelaide in mapping and in mineral explo- 7. Zoology by S.J. Edmonds ration. This work resulted in the detailed eluci- Like the chapter on Botany, this chapter is com- dation of the structure and stratigraphy of the prehensive. It begins by noting the observations countryside. Particularly notable is the vast of naturalists on the Baudin and Flinders amount of work carried out by a very small expeditions, which preceded the foundation of group of scientists, some of whom are legendary the colony in 1836, and follows the findings of in Australian geology. early exploration. Later, in the period from 1860 3. Soil Science by C.G. Stephens and N.K. to 1880, studies in zoology were actively pursued Northcote through the South Australian Institute and the The rapid development of soil science, University of Adelaide. On this foundation, especially after 1926, is here reviewed. The con- rapid growth in studies of the fauna took place in tributions of the Waite Agricultural Research many fields: ornithology, entomology, parasit- Institute of the University of Adelaide, the ology, anatomy, ecology and physiology. In these CSIRO Division of Soils, and the South Aus- investigations there are contributions by the tralian Department of Agriculture are discussed, University of Adelaide, the South Australian although the authors state that it was necessary Museum, the CSIRO Division of Animal to be selective in the emphasis given to particu- Nutrition and Soils, the Waite Institute and Flin- lar areas of work. Nevertheless, the coverage of ders University. The chapter conveys the many topics is wide, dealing with the history of soil sci- achievements of zoological studies and the ence, the construction of soil maps, soil classifi- excitement which accompanied them. cation, soil chemistry, physics and mechanics, 8. Medical Sciences by R.V. Southcott and soil biology. As the author states at the outset, this chapter 4. Agricultural Climatology by A. Marshall has a more restricted canvas, being largely con- This review is concerned essentially with fined to an historical survey, until 1924, of non- research at the Waite Agricultural Research clinical aspects of the medical sciences in South Institute. Attention is given to the outstanding Australia. This year marks the foundation of the contribution of a number of workers in the field, Australian Journal of Experimental Biology and notably to such topics as the relation of soils to Medical Sciences. While the author does not vegetation and climate, the conditions of soil conform strictly to these constraints, a most moisture governing the hatching of insect pests, interesting description is given of the medical and the development of indices of agricultural problems of early explorers and settlers, with potential. In relation to this last topic, the chap- epidemics of measles, smallpox and tubercu- ter contains a revealing and interesting account losis, and the use of extracts of native plants in of the development of the 'Length of Growing the treatment of bowel and respiratory disorders. Period Map', its progressive modification, and As in the development of other disciplines, the the recognition of its limitations. establishment of the University of Adelaide sig- 5. Botany by Enid L. Robertson nalled the formation of a distinguished medical1 This extensive chapter deals with the develop- scientific community. Work on other areas of ment of botany from the time of coastal surveys disease - such as hydatid disease - in both and inland exploration, through the foundation black and white communities, and their interac- of the University of Adelaide and the establish- tion with each other, is also surveyed. ment of its Botany Department and the estab- 9. Anthropology by Norman B. Tindale lishment of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, the This contribution complements the preceding Museum of South Australia and the State Her- chapter on medical sciences, especially in barium, to the foundation of Flinders University relation to the impact of the initial cultural con- and its School of Biological Sciences. A detailed tact of foreign explorers on the aboriginal popu- description is given of the work of some eminent lation, and the import of European diseases on botanists in such areas as ecology, taxonomy, it. The discussion is especially apposite in genetics, mycology, phycology, plant physiology relation to current discussions on the relation of and plant biophysics. white and black communities in Australia, and Book Rev~ewSect~on

recognises that present problems were defined in The opening essay, by James R. Flynn, deals with South Australia in the last century. the ontological status of intelligence and, in particu- Of the chapters listed, the first two constitute an lar, the status of the Spearman-Jensen theory of excellent background for the succeeding five pres- intelligence. The author defends the theory from entations. In the same way, the chapters on Botany some misguided criticism but offers other criti- and Zoology relate well to the final chapters on cisms of his own. He appraises the theory from the Medical Sciences and Anthropology. This volume point of view of Lakatos's methodology, and finds it documents, and is testimony to, the very substantial wanting in this respect and suggests that it must contributions to the natural sciences in Australia either be seriously modified or replaced. I found which have originated in South Australia. It is this to be an interesting illustration of the fact, especially welcome, since, like the greater history of pointed out by a number of critics of Lakatos, that Australia itself, the history of South Australian sci- the methodology of scientific research programmes ence is often overshadowed by, or neglected in has no normative force. However badly a pro- favour of, that of the eastern states. gramme has fared, one can stick with it in the hope In outlining the contents of this book, it was that things will improve. Lakatos's methodology is stated above that many distinguished scientists par- impotent for one of the purposes he hoped it would ticipated in the fields surveyed. While all of these serve, namely, 'stemming intellectual pollution'. cannot be listed, they include W. Howchin, C.T. A second essay with a psychological theme is Madigan and D. Mawson (earth and related sci- Robert McLaughlin's attempt to put Freud's theory ences), T.G.B. Osborn, J.G. Wood and R.N. of psychoanalysis on a realist footing. To do this he Robertson (plant sciences), H.G. Andrewartha, makes a distinction between Freud's psychology, T.H. Johnston, H.R. Marston and W.P. Rogers (ani- which he refers to as 'epistemically dubious', and mal sciences), and J.B. Cleland, F. Wood Jones and his realist metapsychology, which McLaughlin con- E.C. Stirling in the fields of medicine and anthro- strues as the assumption that psychoanalysis can be pology. In addition to describing the work of these underpinned by neurology. This latter assumption and many other scientists of stature, however, the is referred to as Freud's 'insight'. Whilst I can accept work is also peppered with relevant anecdotal that the physicalist assumption might well serve to comments. define a research programme, presumably what is The book is excellently produced, soft covered needed to justify classifying it as an insight, rather and clearly printed, with many photographs and than as a prejudice (say), is the success of the pro- engravings - some in colour. Many of the photo- gramme in practice. However, McLaughlin's dispar- graphs are of significant historical interest. The aging remarks about the epistemic status of Freud's photographs of early expeditions by camel, car and psychology suggest that that success was not forth- air emphasise the difficulty of these enterprises. coming, at least in Freud's own work. McLaughlin's The book is also valuable in that the disciplines treatment is certainly interesting as an attempt to described are traced through the establishment and interpret Freud's theory in a physicalist way, but it growth of institutions: the Museum, herbaria, uni- does little to justify the superiority ofthat interpret- versities and government departments. The only ation over other possible ones for those not already reservation the writer has about this excellent work committed to physicalism. is the absence of a subject index to the more than Two of the essays are concerned with philosophi- 1 100 references listed at the end of the volume and cal issues in modern physics. Henry Krips employs cited in the text. his version of Bell's Theorem to persuasively argue that, if we accept Quantum Mechanics and reject A.B. Wardrop, non-locality, then we are forced to accept an Botany Department, indeterministic dimension to measurement in La Trobe University. Quantum Mechanics. As Krips portrays that indeterminism, measured values are undetermined, not because of some indeterminacy introduced by the measuring Drocess. but because the values rneasuredWa& themselves indeterministic. Thus John Forge (Ed.), Measurement, Realism and measurement in Quantun Mechanics is not a fail- Objectivity: Essays on Measurement in the ure. It faithfully reflects an indeterminacy inherent Social and Physical Sciences. Dordrecht: in the reality measured. Krips invokes Popper's dis- Reidel, 1987. 346 pp., $130 approx. cussion of indeterminism in classical physics here to soften the blow for those who, unlike the The collection of essays under review is the fifth reviewer, are averse to indeterminism. volume in the series Australasian Studies in History John Norton's essay clarifies some aspects of and Philosophy of Science. Whilst each of the Einstein's general theory of relativity, and deals essays is related to one or more of the three themes, with technically difficult material in an admirably measurement, realism and objectivity, the issues clear and accessible fashion. He considers some discussed are diverse so that the volume is not a texts in Einstein's papers which can be, and fre- coherent whole. Nevertheless, the essays taken quently are: interpreted as supporting a positivist individually make useful contributions to their or operationalist stance and re-interprets them in respective fields. the light of a detailed study of the evolution of Historical Records ofAustralian Science, Volume 7, Number 3

Einstein's formulation of his theory. The relevant an evaluative history of how the quantity was pro- texts stress verification as coincidences between duced. These considerations remain in the measuring devices and the system measured and see epistemological sphere. Ian Lowe broadens the the general theory of relativity as 'taking away from scope of the discussion to investigate how values space and time the last remnant of physical and ~oliticalconsiderations enter into the use of objectivity'. These are interpreted by Norton as scierhfic measurement in social contexts. He offers Einstein's response to the so-called 'hole-argument'. striking and convincing, if not surprising, examples Einstein's initial formulation of the class of trans- of how values and enter into debates con- formations to be included in the demand for general cerning alleged measures of such things as the haz- variance had the consequence that the field inside ards of low-level ionising radiation, the operating an arbitrarily small hole would be undetermined by safety of nuclear reactors and the viability of the boundary conditions around it. This problem is 'alternative' energy sources. I certainly have no removed once the class of transformations is problems accepting the general tenor of Lowe's case adequately characterised as those that actively here, and found his examples interesting and transform the gravitational field rather than merely illuminating. However, he goes further to suggest relabel its co-ordinates. Re-interpreted in this con- that his case leads inexorably to a questioning of the text, Einstein's remarks offer no support to the whole idea of science as an objective exercise. This positivist or operationalist. For those, like myself, latter claim is difficult to evaluate since it is not who are unsympathetic to those doctrines, it is clarified nor argued for, other than by citing a few re-assuring to find that someone of Einstein's stat- references, one ofwhich, somewhat disconcertingly, ure is not to be counted amongst one's opponents. is my own book. David Oldroyd contributes a detailed and fasci- The book under review concludes with four inter- nating account of a controversy involving the related essays on the issue of what it is that is dating of some sedimentary rocks which had a bear- measured by the measuring process in science. ing on the controversial theory of 'punctuated equi- Chris Swoyer offers a realist account, arguing that librium' in evolutionary biology. The dispute over what is measured corresponds to properties of the the dating of the rocks raged for over a decade. system measured. John Forge, by contrast, develops However, with the refinement and multiplication of a version of the view once held by Brian Ellis, that methods, the dispute was eventually settled to the the quantities measured in science are best under- satisfaction of most, though not all, when several stood in terms of classes of linear ordering relation- methods of measurement based on quite different ships. The existence of a quantity is nothing other principles yielded similar results. Oldroyd stresses than the existence of the measured order. I have res- the social character of the disputes involved and ervations about the terms of this kind of debate, presents his work as supporting images of science which seems to assume that a metaphysical account currently fashionable amongst sociologists of sci- of the nature of quantities can be abstracted from ence. Bearing in mind the extent to which some of considerations of the procedures involved in such the sociolo~ists.such as H.M. Collins. seriouslv things as length measurement and the use of bal- challenge The 'objectivity of experiment and ances. Setting aside this reservation and accepting measurement in science, I found Oldroyd a little the terms of the debate, I did not find Forge's case unclear about the extent of his agreement with sufficient to sway me from my realist predilections. them. This was also the view expressed by David Arm- Two essays involve a critical look at the unsatis- strong and Brian Ellis in their commentaries on factory and frequently misleading way in which Swoyer and Forge, the former giving a beautifully scientific measurement is employed in a broader clear and concise summary of the issues at stake and social context. S.O. Funtowicz and J.R. Ravetz the latter raising some justified objections to suggest that the problem be countered by insisting Swoyer's somewhat undiscriminating deployment that the expression of quantitative information, of invariance considerations. especially that to be used in the social sphere in areas such as risk analysis, be qualified in various Alan Chalmers, ways. Some of these qualifications involve the University of Sydney. already familiar notions of estimates of experimental and systematic error. Their novel suggestion is that the quantitative estimates be accompanied by their 'pedigree', which would involve a summary of