STEERING THE SEAS OF REFORM: EDUCATION, EMPIRICAL SCIENCE, AND ROYAL NAVAL MEDICINE, 1815-1860 by Christopher Hamilton Myers Bachelor of Arts in History, Kenyon College, 2009 Master of Arts in History, University of Pittsburgh, 2011 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2016 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH THE DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Christopher Hamilton Myers It was defended on August 2, 2016 before Melanie Hughes, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Pittsburgh Patrick Manning, PhD, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of World History, Department of History, University of Pittsburgh Marcus Rediker, PhD, Distinguish University Professor, Department of History, University of Pittsburgh Dissertation Co-Chair: William Chase, PhD, Professor, Department of History, University of Pittsburgh Dissertation Co-Chair: Seymour Drescher, PhD, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, Department of History, University of Pittsburgh ii Copyright © by Christopher Myers 2016 iii STEERING THE SEAS OF REFORM: EDUCATION, EMPIRICAL SCIENCE, AND ROYAL NAVAL MEDICINE, 1815-1860 Christopher Hamilton Myers, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2016 ABSTRACT As medical and imperial actors, early-nineteenth-century British naval surgeons navigated the sweeping changes that occurred within the Royal Navy, the medical profession, and British society. They embraced and applied empirical natural and medical scientific approaches between the 1810s and 1850s. Their attempts to employ science as they negotiated naval service’s realities and experiences, pursued their scientific and medical interests and duties, and confronted tropical fevers transformed the naval service. Scottish and Scottish-trained medical officers and leaders, who dominated the service through mid-century, spearheaded these efforts. In the process, surgeons’ practical utility to the Navy’s global-imperial duties became an increasingly important consideration, and their professional status and respectability rose. This dissertation culminates with a case study of surgeons’ efforts to confront tropical fevers encountered off the West African coast. These later chapters analyze the changes in medical and strategic thought, approaches, and practices that led to a shift in practices related to fevers and the widespread use of quinine. This account builds on efforts to integrate military and colonial medicine and science into narratives of British history, and the histories of empire, medicine, and science. It draws from medical course and student records, naval papers, reports and correspondence, university and parliamentary committees, and medical and scientific manuscripts and journals. This approach iv sheds analytical, statistical, and demographic light on naval medicine’s place in broader imperial and professional contexts, highlighting the convergence of educational, professional, institutional, and practical reforms with the necessities of service at sea. It portrays the early nineteenth century as a period of turmoil and transition in medicine and science— often labeled the Age of Reform. Professionalization and the rise of science within the medical profession led to educational, professional, and practical upheaval, as well as rising qualifications, authority, and ambitions. Bringing multiple literatures on medical and scientific education, professionalization, and practice into dialogue, this project presents an inclusive but focused view of these developments, and their relations to naval medicine. Naval surgeons emerge as an important group that had to negotiate the myriad professional and societal changes that shaped British science, medicine, and society during this formative period. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ....................................................................................................... xii PREFACE .................................................................................................................................... xix 1.0 INTRODUCTION: NAVAL MEDICINE, SCIENCE, EMPIRE AND REFORM .............. 1 1.1 LITERATURE REVIEW AND SIGNIFICANCE: NAVAL SURGEONS IN MULTIVALENT CONTEXTS .............................................................................................. 3 1.2 CONCEPTUAL ISSUES AND ORGANIZATION: PROFESSIONALIZATION AND THE RISE OF SCIENCE ........................................................................................... 15 2.0 A CRADLE OF SCIENTIFIC SURGEONS: MEDICAL EDUCATION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY EDINBURGH, 1800-1860 ........................................................................................ 26 2.1 EMPIRICAL SCIENCE AND THE CORE CURRICULUM, 1800-1860 ................ 30 2.2 ANATOMY, SURGERY, AND PRACTICAL SCIENCE, 1800-1825..................... 42 2.3 REFORM AND SCIENTIFIC TEACHING IN EDINBURGH, 1825-1865 ............. 50 2.4 THE RISING TIDE OF SCIENCE IN BRITISH MEDICAL EDUCATION ........... 63 3.0 EXPERTISE AND THE FORTUNES OF OVERCROWDING: PROFESSIONALIZING REFORM IN NAVAL MEDICINE, 1815-1860 .......................................................................... 66 3.1 INSTITUTIONAL REFORM AND GROWING PAINS TO 1832 ........................... 69 3.2 THE PROFESSIONAL DEMOGRAPHY OF NAVAL SURGEONS, 1815-1870 ... 76 3.3 MEDICAL REFORM AND SCIENTIFIC COMPETENCE, 1832-1865 .................. 87 3.4 THE SURGEONS’ REFORM MOVEMENT AND THE MEDICAL SERVICE .. 100 3.5 THE DIVERGING PRESSURES AND INTERESTS OF NAVAL MEDICINE ... 108 4.0 A SERVICE OF SCIENTIFIC OPPORTUNITIES: NAVAL SURGEONS, NATURAL SCIENCE, AND MEDICAL PRACTICE, 1815-1865 .............................................................. 112 vi 4.1 MEDICAL OFFICERS AND SCIENCE IN NAVAL AND PROFESSIONAL CONTEXTS ....................................................................................................................... 115 4.2 ANALYTICAL SCIENCE, NATURAL HISTORY, AND MEDICAL PRACTICE ... ................................................................................................................................... 121 4.3 NAVAL SURGEONS AND EMPIRICAL SCIENTIFIC PRACTICE, 1815-1860 ...... ................................................................................................................................... 129 4.4 EMPIRICAL SCIENCE IN THE NAVAL MEDICAL SERVICE, 1815-1860 ...... 141 4.5 NAVAL MEDICINE AND THE PROLIFERATION OF EMPIRICAL SCIENCE ..... ................................................................................................................................... 156 5.0 NAVIGATING THE “WHITE MAN’S GRAVE”: THE MATERIAL CONTEXTS OF NAVAL MEDICAL PRACTICE IN WEST AFRICA, 1815-1838 ........................................... 159 5.1 THE UNDERSTANDING OF BRITISH MORTALITY, 1790-1823 ..................... 161 5.2 MEDICAL CRISES AND EMPIRICAL APPROACHES, 1823-1830 ................... 172 5.3 THE POLITICS AND TENSIONS OF EMPIRICAL SCIENCE, 1830-1838......... 185 5.4 THE STRUGGLE AGAINST THE WHITE MAN’S GRAVE ............................... 197 6.0 THE POLITICS OF AN EMPIRICAL REALIZATION: SCIENCE, NAVAL SURGEONS, AND MEDICINE IN WEST AFRICA, 1838-1860 ............................................ 200 6.1 HUMANITARIANISM, SCIENCE, AND NAVAL PRACTICE, 1838-1843 ........ 202 6.2 SCIENCE AND NAVAL MEDICINE IN A PERIOD OF UPHEAVAL, 1843-1850 .. ................................................................................................................................... 221 6.3 NAVAL MEDICAL SCIENCE AND ITS EFFECTS IN WEST AFRICA, 1850-1860 ................................................................................................................................... 236 6.4 NAVAL MEDICAL SCIENCE, THE ROYAL NAVY, AND THE EMPIRE ....... 244 7.0 CONCLUSION: NAVAL SURGEONS, SCIENCE AND MEDICINE IN AN AGE OF TRANSITIONS .......................................................................................................................... 249 APPENDIX A QUANTITATIVE METHODS AND FINDINGS ......................................... 258 A.1 METHODOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION .................................................................. 258 A.2 THE DEMOGRAPHY OF NAVAL SURGEONS, 1800-1870 ............................... 263 A.3 NAVAL SURGEONS AND EDINBURGH EDUCATION, 1800-1850................. 269 vii APPENDIX B BIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX....................................................................... 272 APPENDIX C FURTHER READINGS AND LITERATURE .............................................. 277 C.1 MARITIME AND NAVAL MEDICINE ................................................................. 277 C.2 MILITARY AND COLONIAL MEDICINE ........................................................... 281 C.3 TROPICAL MEDICINE .......................................................................................... 283 C.4 RISE OF PROFESSIONAL SCIENCE .................................................................... 284 C.5 RISE OF SCIENTIFIC FIELDS AND APPLICATIONS........................................ 286 C.6 RISE OF SCOTTISH SCIENCE .............................................................................. 288 C.7 RISE OF COLONIAL AND NAVAL SCIENCE .................................................... 289 C.8 RISE OF MEDICAL SCIENCE ............................................................................... 290 C.9 THE BRITISH MEDICAL PROFESSION .............................................................