Science, Technology and Medicine in Canada’s Past: Selections from “Scientia Canadensis” ed. by Richard A. Jarrell, James P. Hull

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 931 the then-obligatory intellectual training and professional behavior conditioning in Germany and after a brief stint at Ann Arbor, Abel became the first professor of pharmacology at the Johns Hopkins Medical School. From there many of his students assumed key posts in universities, government, and industry. In addition to his own contributions at the laboratory bench, Abel had an activist’s role in the development of the usual institutional accompaniments of profess­ ionalization—the founding of the disciplinary society, the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET), and the disciplinary organ, theJournal ofPharmacology and. Experimental Therapeutics, which he edited for many, many years. John Parascandola ’s work is solidly anchored in the fine surviving collection of Abel’s personal papers and other primary sources. Pharmacology is the scientific study of the physiological effects of drugs. P&rascandola does very well in introducing nonmedical readers to the historic origins of the held in materia medica and in experimental therapeutics. The story is a tangled one and involves much boundary setting and crossings of disciplinary lines. Although the primary focus is on the period ofAbel’s greatest activity (roughly to 1930), there are brief, interesting comments on later developments. Like a number of other medical fields (“preclinical” is the most common designation), pharma­ cology was both concerned with pure (or basic) knowledge and with applications in practice. It is interesting, as the author notes, that it now deals with effects ranging from the molecular to the whole body level. The virtue of the book leads to my single criticism. It is a very successful brief introduction admirably suitable for use in courses. But the very terseness of Parascandola’s treatment frustrates in two directions. Readers will want to learn more about Abel the man and his role as a Hopkins faculty member and more about the complex interrelations of pharmacology with biological chemistry, with physi­ ology, and with the movement (during Abel’s lifetime) to elevate clinical medicine into a research field in its own right. The pattern disclosed is both like and unlike what was happening in engineering. Note that ASPET initally barred investigators from industry. Com­ parative analyses are obviously called for. Nathan Reingold Dr. Reingold is senior historian emeritus at the National Museum of American History. Science, Technology and Medicine in Canada’s Past: Selectionsfrom “Scientia Canadensis.” Edited by Richard A. Jarrell and James P. Hull. Thorn­ hill, Ontario: Scientia Press, 1991. Pp. 352; illustrations, notes, bibligraphy. $24.95 (paper). Scientia Canadensis owes its existence to careful nurturing by schol­ ars devoted to diverse aspects of science, technology, and medicine. In 932 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AN1) CULTURE an attempt to promote these fields, they organized a biannual conference and began a newsletter. By 1980, they were able to turn this newsletter into a journal; its present name dates from 1984. In selecting articles for this collection, Richard Jarrell and James Hull have chosen to highlight the journal’s range of subjects and approaches. All but one of the fifteen articles first appeared between 1981 and 1985. Science, discussed in six articles and 40 percent of the space, is best represented. That three of the six articles on science and one on medicine are in French reveals the journal’s objective to be a national publication; likewise, the editors expect their collection to be used in general Canadian history courses. The basic argument that science should be interpreted as an aspect of society is established by Vittorio M. G. de Vecchi in his study of the establishment of Canadian scientific organizations from 1877 to 1896. Several segments of the Canadian scientific community adopted British models, and many politicians at first supported these models for ideological reasons. But they subsequently criticized Canadian scientists for not being as practical as their American counterparts. The interplay between British and American models is also explored by Gregory Good in his study of the influence of American science on the Toronto Magnetic Observatory. Raymond Duchesne persuasively argues that, while British and American contributions made Cana­ dian science seem marginal, the equation between a colonial society and colonial science needs critical reexamination. As Jarrell points out, the pressures of an...