Medicine and botany: strange bedfellows? | |
A doctor in the garden: Australian flora and the world of medicine. John Pearn, Brisbane: Amphion Press, 2001 (497 pp). ISBN 1 86499 503 3. |
A doctor in the garden,
by well-known Australian medical historian Professor John Pearn, is clearly a life’s work. It is a collection of historical anecdotes about medical people, or those with a connection to medicine, who have been remembered in the botanical name of a plant. The work is quarto size and beautifully published in hard cover. It is richly illustrated with photographs, some of which are in colour, and drawings of both the honoured doctor (or healer) and the reference plant. The anecdotes are arranged alphabetically by family name. There is a detailed index and a comprehensive bibliography. The book mainly covers doctors who have lived or worked in Australia, although some classical and early modern identities are included. It is dedicated to Surgeon Robert Brown (1773-1858), who accompanied Mathew Flinders and Joseph Banks on the Investigator in 1801 and named many of the nation’s distinctive plants. The text comprises a profusion of historical vignettes. They are, in the author’s words, a “fusion of biography, medicine, botany and history”. Many familiar names spring from the pages, such as Bancroft, Cleland, Leichhardt and Macadam. There are also some surprise inclusions, such as Elsey, Braidwood Wilson and a wounded Prince Albert. Historians of medicine may be a little disappointed that the enduring relationship between doctors and botany has not been treated more comprehensively. Reference works detailing the source of plant names abound, but A doctor in the garden is a unique reference to a subspecialty that few realise exists. It will long remain of use to medical historians. But if you just like to browse, as I do, then you will find it a delight. Rummage among the vignettes and then, as I think the author would like, look at plant names with a little more thought. Brian Reid
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