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+----------------------------------+
|
HOST: An Electronic Bulletin
|
| for the History and Philosophy |
|
of Science and Technology
|
|----------------------------------|
|
Volume 1, Number 1
|
|
Spring/Summer
|
|
July, 1992
|
+----------------------------------+
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| Institute for the History | Produced by IHPST through |
| and Philosophy of Science | the HOST BBS on EPAS and
|
| and Technology, Room 316, | E-Mail, through INTERNET at |
| 73 Queen's Park Crescent, | JSMITH@EPAS.UTORONTO.CA
|
| Toronto, Ontario, Canada. | IHPST@EPAS.UTORONTO.CA
|
| M5S1K7
[IHPST]. |-----------------------------|
| Phone:
(416) 978-5047. | Editors: Julian A. Smith
|
| Fax:
(416) 978-3003. |
Gordon H. Baker
|
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
+------------+
| Contents |
+------------+
Subscriber's Information
About our Contributors
Editorial Introduction
Articles/Works in Progress
(1) Gordon H. Baker, "Paging Dr. Black"
(2) Mary P. Winsor, "Natural History and its Descendants:
Science for Curiosity or Use"
Electronic Resources
(1) Julian A. Smith, "Using Library Catalogues on INTERNET"
Book Reviews
(2) Review of M. K. Thomas, _Canadian Meteorology_.
(3) Review of M. Ainley, _Despite the Odds_.
Information for Authors
+--------------------------+
| Subscriber's Information |
+--------------------------+
HOST: An Electronic Bulletin for the History and Philosophy
of Science and Technology,is produced by the Institute for the
History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (or IHPST) at
Victoria College,Room 316,73 Queen's Park Crescent, University
of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 1K7. HOST appears 2
times a year, in January and July, and contains articles,works
in progress, research notes, communications, book reviews,
electronic resources, and news of interest to the profession.
The HOST Bulletin is distributed in several formats. Copies
through E-Mail (INTERNET at JSMITH@EPAS.UTORONTO.CA) or by the
HOST BBS at EPAS.UTORONTO.CA are available free. Printed
copies ($8) or disk copies ($5) may also be ordered from IHPST
at the address above, and by telephone at 416-978-5047, or fax
at 416-978-3003. Inquiries, subscription orders, submissions,
and review copies of books should be sent to IHPST, addressed
to the HOST Bulletin editors.
+------------------------+
| About our Contributors |
+------------------------+
Gordon H. Baker is a B.A. candidate at IHPST, and an editor of
the HOST Bulletin. Mr. Baker's research interests include 19th
century medicine, and the history of science in Canada.
Julian A. Smith is a Ph.D. candidate at IHPST,and sysop of the
HOST BBS. He is also one of the editors of the HOST Bulletin.
Mr. Smith's research interests include medieval physics, 19th
century medicine, astronomy and cartography in Canada, and the
history of mathematics.
Mary P. Winsor is professor of the History of Biology at IHPST
and has written several books, including Starfish, Jellyfish
and the Order of Life. Professor Winsor's interests include
the history of natural history, ecology, classification, and
conservation.
+------------------------+
| Editorial Introduction |
+------------------------+
Though the history and philosophy of science and technology
is still a very young field,its dynamic growth in recent years
has left scholars struggling to keep up with current research.
Yet while traditional printed works in the field have grown
exponentially, an equally profound and much less appreciated
revolution in research and scholarship has also been taking
place. And our efforts to understand this new development may
ultimately prove far more important than this modern day
proliferation of print.
Since the introduction of personal computers in the late
1970s, scholars have been able to access an increasing number
of electronic databases, bibliographies, research tools and
on-line journals. Few researchers have remained untouched by
these developments, which range from the simple tasks of word
processing to the more complicated efforts of developing
specialized bibliographic tools, text analysis systems and
electronic mail networks.
Other fields in the humanities have not been slow to take
advantage of these new trends.
On-line databases and text
archives are already commonplace in the fields of Medieval
History and Classical Studies;and there are several electronic
journals serving other disciplines in the humanities,including
Modern History and Religious Studies.
Despite these trends,
however, there is as yet no electronic journal devoted
specifically to the history and philosophy of science and
technology.
We believe that the time has come for this to
change.
The HOST Bulletin is intended to fill this gap.
It will be
distributed both electronically and by traditional printing,
and hence will form a bridge between the two media.
The
bulletin
will advance
all aspects of the history and
philosophy of science and technology, but has four principal
objectives:
(1) To provide a much more dynamic and rapid dissemination
of scholarly research, criticism and comment than is
possible with present-day printed texts, whose current
publication delays range anywhere from 1-5 years.
(2) To keep our readers abreast of the rapidly growing
computerized resources available to historians of science
and technology.
(3) To extend the community of scholars by electronic
linkages to libraries, colleges, schools and research
facilities not yet served by traditional history of
science journals.
(4) To help evolve new formats in the presentation of
scholarly research, including evolving works in progress,
motion pictures, interactive video and sound, historic
experiment computer simulations, and so forth.
The support we have already received from historians of
science is promising, and is a happy omen for the future. We
invite you to join us in this new and exciting venture, and
welcome your comments, criticisms and contributions.
Julian A. Smith
Gordon H. Baker
+----------------------------+
| Articles/Works in Progress |
+----------------------------+
+-----------------------------------------------+
| Paging Dr. Black, or, An Inquiry Regarding |
| Medicine as the Model of Choice for Funeral |
| Service, and whether the Principles Adopted |
|
are Used with Legitimacy
|
|
Work in Progres
|
|
By Gordon H. Baker.
|
+-----------------------------------------------+
| Received May 20, 1992 |
| Revised May 22, 1992 |
+-------------------------+
Funeral service personnel seeking social recognition and
prestige in the mid-to late-twentieth century, used the
credibility
of
science
to
support
their
claim
to
professionalism.
In so doing, funeral directors, funeral
assistants and licensed embalmers, emulated the 'scientising'
techniques utilized by medical practitioners of the latenineteenth and early - twentieth centuries.
Whether this
'scientising' of funeral service held any value for its
practitioners (or the general public) is questionable. It may
merely have been a public relations method by which to raise
the status of the 'trade' or 'business' to a 'profession'. In
light of this, one may well ask whether the licensed funeral
director of the 1990s is approaching funeral service as a
theory-based professional, or merely as an applied arts
technician familiar with the language of medical science?
To address these concerns properly,one must examine the claim
to professionalism that funeral directors make and determine
the premises upon which this claim is made.
To this end the
development of the species 'late-twentieth century Funeral
Director', in
North America generally, and in Ontario,
specifically, must be delineated.
Thence, the 'evolution' of
funeral service through its acquisition of a basic body of
abstract knowledge and the ideal of service[2] will be
examined through the institutionalisation, education, and
professional organization of funeral directors. Once done,
questions about the legitimacy of the premises upon which
funeral service practitioners and organizers have built their
impression of 'medical scientising' into a claim to professionalism, will be addressed.
"Embalming and the care of the dead forms the foundation for
the entire funeral service structure...and--in the opinion of
many -- [is] the really professional facet of our vocational
structure" claims Lawrence G. "Darko" Frederick and Clarence
G. Strub.[3] In their textbook, The Principles and Practice of
Embalming, Frederick and Strub carry on to argue that
Protection of the public health is at one and the same
time the mortician's chief obligation and his most
reliable guarantee of privileges ordinarily granted to
only the most respected professions.
In truth, the
mortician is a man apart from the layman of his
community....a person who protects his friends and
neighbors against infection and disease, as well as
providing a more specific service when death occurs.
Like the other recognized professions we have a deep
obligation to the public.
This obligation always takes
precedence over the services we perform for compensation.
In time of epidemic or catastrophe it is our
professional obligation to serve and protect, no matter
what our personal jeopardy may be.
It should be
remembered that in his capacity of sanitarian the
mortician more closely approaches true professionalism.
It is for this function that he receives most of his
formal training, his license to practice, and the
supervision
and protection of the State Board of
Health.[4]
How did the funeral director come to be empowered with this
skill, service above self and mysterious knowledge that permit
Frederick and Strub to boldly claim this ascendancy to a level
of 'true professional'?
The answer to this question will
provide the social context by which this inquiry into the
scientising of funeral service as a means to professionalism
might be grounded.
Research to date has not yet disclosed a monograph of a
specifically Canadian history of funeral service, save Robert
Forrest's Death, Here is Thy Sting.[5]
Even in his section
concerning the evolution of funeral service, Forrest is
dependent upon American histories of funeral directing.[6]
Bearing this in mind,
and considering the
demographic
similarity of Upper Canada/Ontario and the United States in
the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (being overwhelmingly Eurocentric, primarily of British or American
origin),[7] until further research is done in this area, the
assumption shall be made that the development of Canadian
funeral service was similar, albeit on a smaller scale,to that
of the Americans. Briefly, then, here is an examination of the
development of the 'funeral business' in North America.[8]
James J. Farrell[9] presents a clear and accurate description
of the changes in the role of funeral service personnel
between 1850 and 1920. He argues that before the 1880s,
"undertaking was largely an informal, unorganized enterprise,
often the adjunct of a furniture business." [10]
This
supposition is supported by other commentators, including
Habenstein and Lamers, Frederick and Strub, Puckle, and
Pine.[11] Upon the occurrence of a death, a member of the
family or a neighbour (often a woman)[12] would wash, shroud
and 'lay out' the body upon a board placed between two chairs.
Sometimes the features were 'set' (i.e. closing the eyes and
mouth for presentation). At this time the coffin was purchased
from the local cabinetmaker who built to order, or if the town
was large enough to support one, the furniture dealer, who had
a prepared stock.
The six-sided box with a hinged lid[13] was carted to the
home of the deceased, wherein the body was placed for the
funeral. Upon completion of the religious rite the family and
friends would view the body 'in the open air',[14] close the
coffin and transport it to the graveyard, where the sextant or
family friends had dug the grave.
After the committal these
same people filled in the grave.
"In the period before the
professionalization of American funeral service [pre-1870s],
most funerals were simple and unaffected"[15]
Over time, people began to ask the furniture dealers[16] to
undertake the 'laying out' of the body rather than have family
or friends perform those duties.
A box was added to the
'undertakers' wagon to make a hearse for transportation of the
ready made, polished, trimmed and upholstered caskets to the
home.
The development of larger towns saw the emergence of a
bourgeois class of individuals desirous of displaying their
wealth any way they could.
Funerals were not unaffected by
this change in prosperity.
The furniture-dealers/undertakers
proffered (or were asked to provide) a better grade of
paraphernalia, the black horses and specially built hearse of
the local livery stable operator, and a wider range of
services, for funerals.
"The availability of caskets with
silk-lined interiors undoubtedly encouraged efforts to make
the
corpse
look as good as its container.
And the
manufacturers of embalming fluids promoted a product to help
undertakers achieve such results."[17]
In order to appeal to
the
status sensibilities of the bourgeois customer who
"demand[ed] something more in accordance with their surroundings,"[18] it fell to the undertakers to direct the
arrangement of the funeral procession, so that rank and social
standing would be kept in order.
Here,then,we have the funeral service personnel of the latenineteenth and early - twentieth centuries moving from an
undertaker providing funeral paraphernalia such as a rough box
and a wagon, to an undertaker/funeral director providing
upholstered caskets, special mourning coaches or hearses and
services such as the new scientific embalming.
The scientific embalming became practical with the simple
and economical preparation of formaldehyde established by
August Wilhelm von Hofmann in 1868. Formaldehyde proved to be
a more effective preservative when arterially injected than
the solutions of oil of turpentine, oil of lavender, oil of
rosemary and vermillion recommended by the Scottish anatomist
Dr. William Hunter.[19]
Hofmann "prepared formaldehyde by
passing a mixture of methanol vapors and air over a heated
platinum spiral."[20] This, in conjunction with the formaldehyde solution, gas and polymer described by Alexander
Mikhailovich Butlerov, (jointly credited with the discovery of
formaldehyde because of his 1859 work)[21] was used after 1870
by medical schools in the preparation of anatomical specimens.
But how did this lead to scientising of funeral service as a
means to professionalization?
It would seem, according to Habenstein and Lamers, that the
want for chemical embalming by injection of preservatives
resulted from (1) poor results with the use of ice placed on
or about the body to retard putrefaction and keep the corpse
on display in the period 1830 to 1870; (2) the rise of the
sanitation movement and desire to prevent smallpox,diphtheria,
scarlet fever and other epidemics in America; and (3) the
development of medical pathology.
At the first National Funeral Directors' Association
convention in 1882, S. R. Lippincott suggested that "from the
earliest age of which we have any authentic history, it seems
to have been the ardent desire of the scientific world to
obtain the mystery of preserving this wonderful mechanism from
waste and decay and dissolution, so that time should not
efface or destroy it."[22] In other words, for medical science
to learn how the human body functioned, and how disease could
be corrected,it was necessary to have a body that was as close
to the living thing as possible, rather than a putrefying,
discoloured, inexact specimen.
From the stand-point of the
funeral director, preserving bodies to prevent decomposition
also relieved intense emotions, "not only of grief, but of
horror and revulsion."[23]
But what of the other benefit of
chemical embalming, sanitation?
The progress of the sanitation movement on the Continent
inspired travels to Europe by Richard Harlan to study methods
of plague control.
Harlan, an American educator in anatomy,
sanitation and public health and one of the earliest advocates
of creosote as a disinfectant, was so impressed with the use
of embalming as a sanitary measure, that upon his return to
America, in 1840, he had the French chemist Jean Gannal's
History of Embalming translated and published at Philadelphia.
From this time
to the 1860s,
physicians , anatomists,
pathologists and chemists preserving specimens at American
medical schools,and others interested in preservation of flesh
(including urban undertakers who had to delay burial of the
deceased while relatives arrived from the frontier), experimented independently to discover a satisfactory method of
preservation and sanitation.[24]
In this period, however, the undertaker's first reason and
primary motivation for embalming was probably preservation.
The watershed for the use of these chemical preservatives was
the American Civil War. At the beginning of the War embalming
was the province of "physicians, surgeons, physiologists,
anatomists, chemists, pharmacists, druggists and other persons
connected with the rising medical profession."[25]
However,
the desire to have high ranking soldiers returned to their far
away homes, for 'good Christian burials',necessitated that the
undertaker on government contract to perform this duty hire or
go into partnership with a surgeon-embalmer, or learn the
process, and acquire the technology of chemical preservation,
himself.
The new scientific embalming was seen as preferable
to having ice quickly melt away or the released gasses of
putrefying bodies blow out the sides of hermetically sealed
metal shipping containers during transport. After the war, the
surgeon-embalmers returned to the advancing medical field,
leaving embalming to those outside of or on the periphery of
the medical arts.
Undertakers, now familiar with the embalming process,
returned to civilian life and founded undertaking establishments, offering their newly learned skill as part of the
regular service to clients. The embalming of high ranking
officers during the war (and Abraham Lincoln after the war)
brought familiarity and acceptance of the process to the
growing, status hungry, middle class American citizens;a ready
market for the funeral director-embalmers.
But,Farrell convincingly argues, disinfection quickly became
a strong second rationale for the process of scientific
chemical embalming--for reasons of sanitation, social service
and professional posturing. He states that
the refinement of embalming technique coincided closely
with the rise of sanitary science and the acceptance of
the germ theory of disease.
As early as 1883, an NFDA
speaker explicitly identified the germ theory of disease
and the influential 1882-83 researches of Dr. Robert
Koch.
The speaker also related how he had unwittingly
brought diphtheria into his own home by using an ice
casket to preserve the remains of a diphtheria victim.
Ice, he said, did not kill germs, nor did it do more than
retard decomposition of the body. Embalming, on the other
hand, was an excellent disinfectant and preservative.[26]
Thence, after 1883, funeral directors increasingly linked
preservation and disinfection as reasons for embalming. One
funeral director drew the medical analogy that "the surgical
operation saves but one life.
Who can not say how many lives
are saved sometimes by proper embalming and disinfecting of a
tubercular body and of the home?"[27] Farrell continues:
The concern for survivors which permeated this interpretation of embalming placed it within a
species
perspective of life and death. But funeral directors also
realized
the
potential professional and commercial
implications of an attachment to sanitary science. "On
the subject of sanitation as an educational leverage too
much cannot be said," said [National Funeral Directors'
Association] President Robert R. Bringhust in 1890. "If
we would take the position up...how soon we would be
recognized as of much importance in our community." After
1883, funeral directors consistently hitched themselves
to the star of sanitary science.[28]
The existence of the translated History of Embalming, the
work of Koch, and the commercial advantages of the sanitation
movement, together provided 'inspiration and material basis
for numerous articles in early mortuary trade journals'.[29]
Eighty years later the validity of this claim continues to be
sanctioned, as Frederick and Strub, in their "bible,"[30]
proclaim "the modern mortician is primarily a sanitarian, and
only secondarily a beautifier of the dead."[31]
In the late nineteenth century, then, it was the provision
of a premium paying bourgeois clientele interested in the
status of a Lincoln-like funeral, acting upon the suggestion
of the sanitation conscious and community health responsive
funeral director-embalmer, that opened up a market for the
druggists and pharmacist-physicians to experiment and compound
fluids commercially.
By 1880 at least four chemical concerns
engaged in this:
The
Hill Chemical Company of Springfield, Ohio,
[manufacturer of a product formulated by Springfield
druggist Ed. Hill] which had started in 1878 and shortly
afterward became The Champion Chemical Company; The
Clarke Chemical Works; and Mills and Lacey, of Grand
Rapids,Michigan...[and] "Crane's Excelsior Preservation"
...prepared and sold as a sideline by the Globe Casket
Manufacturing Company.[32]
In order to expand their markets further, these and later
chemical companies independently set up embalming classes in
their factories or local funeral homes, or lobbied medical
colleges for assistance to set up embalming 'schools' or
'institutes'.[33]
These institutes then, some connected with
medical colleges through the use of their facilities and
instructors, became established embalming schools for the
purpose of the instruction in embalming techniques, with the
additional benefit of product promotion.
This institutionalization of education, concern for sanitation and the commercial viability of embalming, led to a selfconsciousness on the part of these funeral director-embalmers
that their vocation held a particular place in society.
Formalization of this awareness is seen in the creation of the
National Funeral Directors' Association in 1882, with its main
goals being "education, professionalization and financial
security."[34]
This group recognized the modification in
funeral ceremony that arterial chemical embalming provided.
With this knowledge, they set to work upon formally shifting
the status of all American undertakers to the more skilled,
professional, funeral director-embalmers.
In this situation, the National Funeral Directors' Association's efforts to professionalize followed the marketing
strategy of their affiliated manufacturers.[35] The industrial
revolution had empowered manufacturing companies,enabling them
to produce caskets or chemicals far more effectively and
cheaply than the local cabinetmaker/undertaker-embalmer. As
these companies (which had organized into industry associations) began to supply the cabinetmaker/undertaker with goods,
that part of the undertakers' control over pricing was lost.
The undertakers followed the example of their suppliers and
banded together to control the prices of goods they purchased
and the services they sold.
Further to this, the NFDA
(composed of representatives of funeral service establishments
in small towns in several states) was able to act as an
organized lobby group to defend themselves from adverse
legislation on both state and federal levels.[36]
Yet from its beginnings, as Frederick and Strub informed us
above, embalming was at the centre of professionalization.
Farrell reports that
if necessary,[NFDA members] would develop a scientific
body of knowledge as the basis of a profession.
At the
1883 convention Allen Durfee attributed the "Progress of
the Profession"
to the spread of the "noble art
preservative."
Embalming, he said, had "revolutionized
the methods of the profession, elevating the keeping of
the body to [the] completeness and certainty of an exact
science" Embalming enhanced professional status,because
it allowed undertakers to sell a scientific service in
addition to the traditional wares of the funeral trade.
The similarity of embalming to surgery also suggested
the dignified comparison of undertakers to doctors as
professional colleagues....The semi-scientific services
of comforting the family and directing the funeral
ceremony also required professional performance.[37]
The
success
of
this
groups'
efforts can be seen in the
American language terminology that reflects the change in
funeral director's professional status. H. L. Mencken, in his
The American Language,[38] reports that the term mortician was
proposed by a writer in the Embalmers' Monthly
for February,
1895, but the undertakers, 'who were then funeral-directors,'
did not rise to it until some years later. The term mortician,
Mencken informs the reader,
of course, was suggested by physician, for undertakers
naturally admire and like to pal with the resurrection
men,[39] and there was a time when some of them called
themselves embalming surgeons. A mortician never handles
a corpse; he prepares a body or patient.
This business
is carried on in a preparation-room
or operating-room,
and when it is achieved the patient is put into a casket
and stored in the reposing-room
or slumber-room
of a
funeral-home.[40][41]
Mencken points out another interesting detail about the
professionalization of funeral directors: "On September 16,
1916, some of the more eminent of [the funeral directors] met
at Columbus, O., to form a national association, on the lines
of the American College of Surgeons, the American Association
of University Professors, and the Society of the Cincinnati,
and a year later they decided upon
National
Selected
Morticians as its designation."[42]
It is noteworthy that
William J. Goode in his article The Theoretical Limits of
Professionalization suggests that "most of the occupations
that do rise to such high levels [of knowledge and dedication
to service that society considers necessary for a profession]
will continue to be viewed as qualitatively different from the
four great person professions: law,medicine, the ministry, and
university teaching."[43] Clearly, NSM was trying to overcome
just that difference.
In support of this idea of professionalization through
emulation of these professional groups, Burton J.Bledstein[44]
suggests that middle-class Americans upgrade their occupations
by moving from the distribution of a commodity to offering a
service based on an acquired skill. To demonstrate this point
he cites that "only in America,for example, did undertakers of
the nineteenth century sever their historical ties with
cabinet - makers,
manufacturers of funeral furniture and
liverymen...[where upon] the subject mortuary science soon
entered the curriculum of accredited colleges."[45]
In this
way, "funeral directors would not follow in the wake of 'broom
makers, box and basket-makers'.
As legal agents certified by
county boards of health, they proposed that the members of the
National Funeral Directors' Association be educated, examined
and licensed as professionals."[46]
In this process of professionalization, American undertakers
became
aware of
the new
scientific embalming through
familiarity with the process itself by the Civil War practice
of hiring or working with surgeon-embalmers,
their trade
journals, attendance at
chemical manufacturers' institu-
tionalized mortuary science courses or their local professional associations.
Physicians, surgeons, pharmacists,dentists and veterinarians
all had organized their national societies and associations
for the betterment of their status, before 1870.[47] Following
their lead, the National Funeral Directors Association (1882)
with its self-regulating Code of Ethics (1884)[48] and mandate
of education, [49]
professionalization
and provision of
financial security was able to spread the gospel of embalming,
and pressure all levels of government for friendly legislation. Friendly legislation included regulating the practice
of embalming by state boards of health. This was accomplished
by instituting a framework of special boards of embalmers to
examine and license the members of their own occupational
group, which in turn was used to defined undertakers-embalmers
as a distinct occupational group engaged in sanitary embalming
to reduce epidemics and plagues in large centres.[50]
With this basic foundation of the American situation, it is
now possible to examine existing sources, and extrapolate (for
yet to be researched material),to determine the scientising of
funeral service in Canada since the end of the nineteenth
century.
One must be cautious, however, and recall the
difference in funeral service population size over the time
period considered; in Mencken's 1965 description of National
Select Morticians, he states that "to this day the association
remains so exclusive that, of the 24,000 undertakers in the
United States, only 200 belong to it."[51] The Dominion Bureau
of Statistics conducted a survey of funeral directors in the
year 1964; at that time the total number of funeral directors
in Canada was reported to be 5 908; roughly 25% of the
Americans.[52]
So it must be recognized that the voice of
Canadian funeral directors would not be as strong as that of
their American brethren during professional development.
One must also recall that it was in the 1920s that Canadian
trade exports to the United States surpassed those to Britain
(and have been increasing ever since). The 1920s was also the
decade in which Canada gained its independence from Britain,
becoming a member of the Commonwealth.
From this time then,
American culture and ideas began to gain some ground over the
previously Victorian-minded, strictly protectionist Canadian
political and cultural alignment with Britain.[53] With these
foundations, recognition of new influences and cautions in
place, let us examine Ontario funeral service through its
legislation, education, and scientific professionalization.
Finn, in his Evolution of Funeral Service Education in
Ontario,[54] reports that prior to 1936 one could become
qualified to practice embalming by (1) attending a school of
Mortuary Science in the United States, such as The Champion
School of Embalming in Springfield,Ohio, or The Eckels College
of Mortuary Science;[55] (2) attending a school of embalming
in Europe; (3) attending The Ontario College of Embalming,
established in 1891 by the English trained F. W. Turner;[56]
or (4) attending a course of instruction conducted by Robert
U. Stone at his business, Stone Funeral Service, at 525
Sherbourne Street, Toronto--this course (of about 10 days
duration)[57] began around 1900,was called the Canadian School
of Embalming and ceased to operate when the provincially
recognized
Canadian School of Embalming at the Banting
Institute, University of Toronto, received its charter in
1937.[58]
According to Finn, Robert Stone, other local members of the
profession, faculty of the University of Toronto and staff of
various American Mortuary Science colleges, all lectured
students in preparation for their licensing examinations.
These lectures were held at Central Technical School and the
Anatomy Building at the University of Toronto. The Board of
Examiners sponsored this training session and were responsible
for the course of study.[59]
But what qualifications for setting a course of study did
these Examiners
have?
According to An Act Respecting
Embalmers, 1911, the Board of Examiners was appointed by the
Lieutenant-Governer in Council, and consisted of 'five persons
practically conversant with the business of embalming'. These
five were empowered to 'prescribe the subjects in which
candidates for certificates of qualification as embalmers'
were to be taught.
They set and supervised examinations for
registered applicants,and upon the candidates' passing, issued
licenses
and certificates of qualification to the new,
qualified embalmers.[60]
With the introduction of the 1911 legislation, the state
recognized, accounted for and regulated the Embalmer; the
regulatory limits of this legislation were prescribed by
individuals of the same learned and occupational
rank.
Elizabeth McNabb indicates the significance of this legislation by arguing that "the purpose of the statutes is to
ensure, through registration, that only those considered
qualified can avail themselves of certain privileges relating
to the practice of a given profession."[61]
Just as in the
case of physicians, there exists here the notion that only
those within the group can adequately test, judge and regulate
the qualifications of those desiring to be recognized by
the group.
Included in An Act Respecting Embalmers, 1911, were
provisions for recognition and certification of embalmers:
8. Every person engaged in or carrying on the business
of embalming in Ontario at the time of the passing of
this Act and who applies to the Board for a certificate
of qualification before the first day of January, 1912,
shall, upon furnishing such evidence of sobriety, good
character and experience as the Board may require, and
upon payment of the prescribed fee, be entitled to
receive a certificate of qualification from the Board.
14. (1) No person shall after the 1st day of January,
1912, carry on business as an undertaker in Ontario
without a license from the Provincial Board of Health
which shall be issued upon such terms and subject to
such conditions and regulations and upon payment of such
fee and subject to cancellation or suspension for such
cause as the Provincial Board of Health and the approval
of the Lieutenant-Governer in Council may prescribe.
(2) Every person carrying on business as an undertaker
after the 1st day of January, 1912, without such notice,
shall incur a penalty of $25.
15. Every person who as an undertaker conducts or
directs to burial any human body shall forthwith notify
the Secretary of the Provincial Board of Health of such
burial upon the form prescribed by the regulations of
the Provincial Board of Health,and any person neglecting
or refusing to carry out the provisions of this section
shall incur a penalty of $25, and upon conviction his
license may be suspended or cancelled by the Board. [62]
The Board of Examiners determined one's qualifications, and
the Provincial Board of Health issued a license.
Clearly the
state had become interested in the regulation of sanitation
and statistics associated with it. As a part of the 'health
team' the properly trained embalmer was a member of a state
recognized, skilled occupational group; a group legitimately
trained to engage in sanitation by virtue of its knowledge of
embalming--"the disinfection or preservation of the dead human
body entire or in part, by the use of chemical substances,
fluids or gases,ordinarily used, prepared or intended for such
purpose, either by outward application of such chemical
substances,fluids or gases on the body, or by the introduction
of the same into the body by vascular or hypodermic injection,
or by direct application into the organs or cavities."[63]
It was not until 1914, with the introduction of An Act
Respecting Embalmers and Undertakers that the union of these
two groups was fully recognized.
With this legislation,
embalming was officially accepted as the province of the
undertakers.[64]
It is not surprising that the introduction of such an Act,
and knowledge of the American NFDA's efforts to ward off
unfriendly legislation,
sparked the interest of Ontario
undertakers and embalmers to form the Ontario Funeral Service
Association, in 1922. Their mandate of education,professionalization and financial security was the same as their American
counterparts.[65]
One year later Canadian Funeral Service,
"Canada's Only
Funeral Paper" was founded by James O'Hagan.[66] This paper
regularly published the reports of the Ontario Board of
Examiners[67] and the Ontario Association Bulletin, the report
of the Ontario Funeral Service Association.
James O'Hagan,
through his trade journal, became the mouthpiece of these two
organizations,and constantly editorialized on issues pertinent
to funeral service in Canada; especially the need to professionalize along the American's higher, scientific, educational
model.
Active lobbying, by the Board of Examiners and the OFSA with
politicians, and by O'Hagan within funeral service, culminated
in a most progressive piece of legislation in April 1928. An
Act Respecting Embalmers and Funeral Directors[68] identified
the Funeral Director, and made him distinct from the Embalmer.
The difference between the two was that the Embalmer held a
certificate of qualification from the Board of Examiners,while
the Funeral Director, a person qualified as an Embalmer, had
the management role of operating "a partnership, firm or
incorporated company...for the purpose of furnishing to the
public funeral supplies and services."[69]
Further, it was no longer the province of the LieutenantGovernor in Council to make regulations for the examinations
of candidates for licenses and certificates of qualification
and permits. Under the new legislation, the Board of Examiners
continued to set courses, examine candidates, and issue
certificates of qualification, licenses or permits to embalmers, but they were now allowed to make proposed changes in
regulation directly to the cabinet minister responsible for
administration of the act. The Board was also given the power
to 'provide for the establishment of new, or approve of
existing, schools of embalmment [sic], and conduct special
courses of instruction in embalming and preparing the remains
of deceased persons for interment' as well as: issue 'licenses
for engaging in or carrying on a business as a funeral
director; inspect, regulate and approve in accordance with the
local board of health, the premises,
accommodation and
equipment of funeral directors';and most importantly,the Board
of Examiners could 'specify what was to be considered infamous
or disgraceful conduct in a professional respect on the part
of an embalmer or funeral director'.[70]
The Board of Examiners, composed of "five qualified funeral
directors"[71] had gained the power,through state legislation,
to self regulate and discipline,while being responsible to the
Minister of the Ontario Board of Health.
This process in
medicine is what Blishen[72] refers to as 'collegial control'.
The activities of O'Hagan's trade journal, new powers for the
Board of Examiners and development of the OFSA, laid the
foundations for the emergence of a group consciousness, as
happened in the United States, in 1882. "These bodies and
their activities were to become the basis of professional
identity because they helped to created uniformity of interest
among practitioners by imposing a monopoly of the field of
expertise, by regulating entry into the profession, and by
developing uniform policies and codes of ethics."[73] While
Blishen here is referring to physicians in Canada around the
time of Confederation, the similarity of evolution among
Canadian funeral service personnel sixty years later cannot
be denied.[74]
Blishen notes[75] that in the early stages of development of
organized medicine in Canada, the practitioners had been given
control over education, just as the Board of Examiners had for
funeral service.
For physicians, later developments saw this
control pass to medical schools. "The result was consolidation
of
a uniform,
scientific
doctrine as the basis
for
practice."[76] In Canadian funeral service, the institutionalization of education was made possible by An Act to amend The
Embalmers and Funeral Directors Act, 1928.[77]
The specific changes in this amendment gave the Board of
Examiners the "power to pay out...such sums as it [deemed]
proper to assist in the establishment and maintenance of any
such school or college"[78] of embalming. Further, in keeping
with 'collegial control', "subject to the approval of the
Board, any such school or college [could] conduct a course of
instruction in embalming and general preparation..for articled
students, provided the Board [had] exclusive authority to
grant a certificate of qualification as an embalmer."[79]
A
prerequisite for writing an examination of qualification
became "evidence satisfactory to the Board that [the articled
student had] completed the full course of instruction in one
of such school or colleges" and "any such school or college
[could] conduct a post-graduate course of instruction for
embalmers." Further, "the Board [could] exempt... any person
who [had] qualified as an embalmer in a place outside of
Ontario, provided the qualifications required in such place
[were], in the opinion of the Board, equal to the qualifications required by this Act"[80] In other words, one had to
go to a recognized Ontario school of embalming to be able to
write the qualifying exams, but there was reciprocity with the
American Colleges of Mortuary Science.
This legislation provided the funds and flexibility for the
Board of Examiners to charter the Canadian School of Embalming
at the Banting Institute,in 1937. The Banting institute served
as the headquarters of the Canadian School of Embalming
until 1968,when it moved to the Humber College of Applied Arts
and Technology.
Finn states that although there was not a formal connection
between the CSE and the University of Toronto Medical School,
the faculty of the CSE were staff of the University of Toronto
and its teaching hospital The Toronto General.[81]
The
prerequisites for entrance to the CSE were established as: the
completion of Ontario Grade X; employment with a licensed
funeral director or licensed embalmer; and registration with
the Board of Examiners. The courses at the Canadian School of
Embalming were initially of two weeks duration in each of the
two years of apprenticeship.
By 1968, the course had been
extended to six weeks in the first year and seven weeks in the
second year.[82]
This was a pale effort, according to James O'Hagan, when
compared with the Eckels College of Mortuary Science, which by
1944, was "offering its regular fall 9 and 12 month courses in
scientific embalming and mortuary management...[the outline of
which could be found in] the College's new 24-page brochure -"Professional Training For The Mortuary Field'."[83]
When
compared to the Americans, how much scientific education could
one attain in a four week period at the Canadian school?
James O'Hagan took this question to heart in a series of
editorials in the Fall 1946 and Spring 1947 issues of Canadian
Funeral Service.[84]
"In order to maintain the present high
standards of the profession we should all be very careful and
see to it that those entering as apprentices have good mental
and physical qualifications."[85]
"We... hold the view that
it is high time that our educational standard be improved"[86]
to be more like the Americans.
The American curicula,
according to O'Hagan's editorial, included
Anatomy instruction including lectures, demonstrations
and dissection. Charts, models, lantern slides, motions
pictures, anatomical specimens,manikins and cadavers are
used as visual aids. Histology is studied so the student
may learn some of the important aspects of all structure
and organ architecture.
Embryology is approached from
the stand-point of developmental anatomy.
Physiology
correlates the subjects just mentioned, and explains the
functions of the various organs of the body and the
changes which take place at death. Pathology covers the
cause, course, results and effects of disease processes
in the human body, as well as anatomical and functional
changes caused by disease processes. Bacteriology deals
with bacteria, protozoa and fungi and their relation to
pathology and particularly to infectious and contagious
diseases.
It is related to embalming by studying the
effects
of
disinfectants
and embalming fluid on
bacteria.
Hygiene instruction provides practical information on public health disease, and the precaution
necessary to prevent and overcome the spread of disease.
...Embalming is, of course, the basic subject.
The
history of embalming, tests of death, physical and
chemical post mortem changes, decomposition, and the
relationship of other curricular subjects are given
attention in both classroom and laboratory. Each student
is
made
personally
familiar
with all embalming
techniques...Chemistry lectures and laboratory work take
up that broad subject from its inorganic, organic and
physiological aspects.
Toxicology and the chemistry of
disinfectant and embalming fluids are covered.
What is
your opinion, Mr. Reader?
What do you think should be
done?[87]
O'Hagan then provides a statistical analysis of American
requirements for licensing by number of states. Those of
interest to this paper are:
43 states require 4 years of high school education; 2
require 1 year of college; 2 require 2 years of college.
29 states require 2 years of apprenticeship training
[after college];4 require 3 years;2 require 1-1/2 years;
11 require 1 year.
1 state requires applicant to have 2 years in an
approved school of embalming; 2 require 16 months; 37
require 1 year; 6 require 8 months. [88]
Clearly O'Hagan's point is that standards of scientific
education were far higher, and thus better, in the United
States; it was his expressed wish that Canadians continue to
strive for this level of professional training.
Whether he realized it or not, it would appear that in these
editorials O'Hagan was attempting to emulate the impact of
Abraham Flexner's 1910 report on Medical Education in the
United States and Canada.[89]
In his report, Flexner's
standard, Johns Hopkins Medical School under the leadership of
William H. Welch, was patterned after the progressive German
university state model put in place by Bismarck. All hospitals
that did not fit within Flexners' standard of that model were
'marked for slaughter' as Dr. D. A. Campbell of the Halifax
Medical College stated.[90] "After Flexner, research would be
enthroned as a central function of a medical school and there
would be no more room for the "practical" school whose only
aim was to educate physicians...control of the modern school
would
be
placed
firmly
in the hands of full - time
academics."[91]
O'Hagan, it is reasonable to argue, is citing the American
model of funeral service, with its 'medical' science based
curriculum, as his standard model.
"Once upon a time, we in
Ontario were able to boast of the advances we had made but we
seem to have been contented to rest on our laurels and let the
rest of the world pass us by.
We have had no changes in the
Act for a number of years;
our scholastic requirements still
remain at 2 years' high school although this should have been
raised to matriculation [Grade XII] long since; [92] our
Canadian School of Embalming still offers only a one-month
course,despite the fact that 9 months of intensive school work
is the minimum in most of the States of the Union."[93]
In
point of fact, it was not until 1951 that the Board of
Examiners, with the support of the OFSA, was able to convince
the Ministry of Education to raise the entrance requirement to
Junior Matriculation.[94]
By 1951, the Canadian School of Embalming course was two
months in length: four weeks in each of the two years of
apprenticeship. The June 1951 scientific curriculum for first
year students involved
34 hours of instruction in Anatomy and Physiology, 22
hours on Principles of Embalming, 8 hours of Bacteriology,...10 hours on General Medical Science....A visit to
Toronto's two crematoria and autopsy demonstrations will
round out the curriculum.
Second-year students will attend somewhat similar
lectures but in a more specialized and expert vein,
plus
Sanitation,
Accounting,
Special
Embalming,
Psychology, etc.[95]
By June of 1954 the CSE had increased in its "efficiency and
worth since its reorganization some years ago, [numbering]
among its
faculty some
of the finest lectures to be
found."[96]
These included University of Toronto professors,
employees of the City of Toronto, the Province and the best
embalmers and demonstrators available.[97]
By this time the
Medical Science course had been extended by 7 hours in the
first year, and in second year, Chemistry of Embalming, and an
additional six hours of Special Anatomy, had been added.
All this curriculum information indicates that the education
of funeral service personnel was in fact becoming more
scientised.
The establishment of the Community Colleges of
Applied Arts and Technology system, provided the CSE with and
opportunity to permanently institutionalize in a facility
of its own design.
In 1969 the CSE temporarily moved to the Queensway Campus of
Humber College, thence to its permanent facilities at North
Campus at the completion of building, in January, 1971.[98]
O'Hagan stated that it would "give to funeral service an
advanced status in the minds of everyone; it will provide more
and better training for our future students; it will provide
facilities that were not available previously."[99]
These
included a three table embalming theatre,new equipment and the
best available technology.[100]
In conjunction with new facilities , The Board of Examiners
(now called The Board of Administration) received a request
from the OFSA for a new program of two semesters (equivalent
to 9 months) in length.
After a survey of the members of the
OFSA, asking for input for curricula, the two semester program
was accepted and installed by the Board of Administration in
September 1973.[101]
The science based courses, each one term in length,consisted
of Anatomy and Physiology, Microbiology, Cell Physiology,
Pathology, First Aid and Accident Prevention, Community Health
for Funeral Service Education, Embalming Theory I and II, and
Embalming
Lab I and II.[102]
There were, of course,
administrative courses offered as well. Here then, we have the
minimum standard that James O'Hagan was calling for in 194647. A nine month scientised, theory-based college experience
with a twelve month 'internship' including on going assignments in a correspondence format.
Upon successful completion of the course work and internship,
the articled student would return to Humber College for a tenday refresher theory session followed by two sets of examinations: the theoretical examinations set and supervised by
the Board of Administration; and the practical examination---embalming a body in a local Toronto funeral home under the
supervision of a member of the Board.[103]
This is the scientific content of the course today. Frederick
and Strub claim these
"essential portions of the basic
sciences...give you a more complete understanding of the
principles and procedures [enabling you to understand] WHY
problems occur and WHY they are treated in certain ways as
well as HOW the individual problems are treated.
It is our
purpose to present you with the fundamental knowledge which
will enable you to think scientifically.
Without the ability
to reason and to adapt this basic knowledge to the problem at
hand you can never hope for successful resultsw....In no other
vocation does the practitioner need to be so adaptable to
changing conditions and ever-new problems."[104]
Embalming is based upon a certain degree of knowledge of
chemistry, anatomy, bacteriology, histology and pathology;
this cannot be denied.
But is this training, as it stands, a
good premise to use as the 'standard of professionalism upon
which this vocation rests'?
A. M. Carr-Saunders and P. A.
Wilson, in their often cited The Professions,[105] provide a
prescriptive method by which to attain the status of a
professional; when compared to the legislative and organizational accounts of doctors[106] funeral directors seem to
have generally followed directions.
This account, however, is unsatisfactory.
The professional
medical community is much larger,and the services they provide
are demanded, not proffered and accepted as those services of
the funeral director. In other words, if one is sick, one
seeks help to get better; it is only because of middle class
sensibilities and the desire for
'presentation'
of the
deceased that the funeral director's services are required.
Otherwise sanitation could be more easily accomplished with
modern technology's answer to the funeral pyre, the crematorium retort.
William J. Goode[107] provides a more suitable framework for
analysis. He argues that the "processes by which an occupation
tries to rise constitute a set of transactions among the
occupation as a collectivity, its individual members, other
related occupations, and the larger society....An occupation
can command more prestige only if the society, applying its
evaluative
criteria,
perceives the performances of the
occupation to be better than before or higher than those of
similar occupations. An occupation can enjoy more power if it
can exchange some of its friendly relations, income, prestige,
or political influence for legal privileges or controls."[108]
This, as has been demonstrated, is exactly what funeral
service
personnel
did
through their organizations and
institutions.
Scientific embalming in modern times came out
of anatomical medicine and pharmacy. By giving up control over
commercial chemical and casket manufacture, in a non-hostile
fashion, the core task of the embalmer was more strictly
defined; and both groups were satisfied -- the embalmers could
offer their services of preservation and sanitation to the
bourgeois, and the manufactures had a steady market for their
products.
The organization of groups such as the National Funeral
Directors
Association
and
the Ontario Funeral Service
Association
permitted
a focused pursuit of
'friendly'
legislation that would permit self regulation and a raising of
professional entrance standards.
The Canadian Funeral Services trade journal (and its more
recent competition Canadian Funeral News) provided a forum for
transactions among the occupation as a collectivity.
The Board of Administration provided legitimacy as being the
disciplinary, final arbitrating, self-regulatory extension of
the state that created, organized and transmitted knowledge to
its members.
Once entered into the profession as an apprentice, or rather
articled student,
organized educational programs and institutions provided the novice with 'abstract knowledge and
skills organized into a codified body of principles which were
applicable to concrete problems,
that society at large
considered relevant (viz. sanitation for community health;
preservation
and
presentation
for
psychological wellbeing).'[109]
In their claims to professionalism, the funeral service
occupational group can be seen to have a mysterious knowledge
in the form of scientific embalming;they are thus a group that
possesses knowledge others do not.
Professional knowledge
is one of the two traits by which the 'semi-professionals' as
Goode calls them, generate professionalism.[110]
The other trait of professionalism that Goode requires is
that of 'the service ideal. "The ideal of service...may be
defined in this context as the norm that the technical
solutions which the professional arrives at [being] based on
the client's needs, not necessarily the best material interest
or needs of the professional himself, or for that matter,
those of the society."[111]
In identifying a group that fulfils the criteria for a
professional ideal of service, Goode demands the members of a
group be self-sacrificing, and believe that in a system of
rewards and punishments set out by the professional community,
'virtue pays'. Also, the practitioner must be the person who
decides upon the client's needs, not the reverse. Finally, the
society at large must also believe that the profession not
only attests to, but follows these ideals.[112]
In funeral service there seems to exist the ideal and fact
that real sacrifice is required by its practitioners. This is
exemplified by the willingness of some funeral directors to
risk personal health and embalm identified AIDS cases in the
early 1980s, before substantial evidence of the ways of transmission were available; whether these practitioners were using
scientific reasoning in their judgement is not clear.
Most practitioners live by the ideal that 'virtue pays';even
though statistical data may differ, most funeral directors
today believe that word-of-mouth is the best advertising;
having your name in Newsletter of the Board of Administration,
or worse,the daily newspapers, in connection with professional
misconduct, induces significant conformity in the occupational
group.
Variance from Goode's formula has already been described in
that the medical practitioner decides upon the clients' needs,
in funeral service, the client imposes his own judgements. By
Goode's standard, funeral service is less than professional.
The final factor in Goode's formula is the most difficult to
assess: 'The society actually believes that the profession not
only accepts these ideals, but also follows them to some
extent.'
If this were the case, Robert Forrest, Jessica
Mitford[113], or any of the other critics of funeral service
would not have been able to, nor had the need to, publish
monographs encouraging simple, unaffected funeral services---either in the form of a simple casket and service or immediate
disposition of the deceased by cremation with a memorial
service held later. Further,there would have been no need for
the Canadian Funeral Service Association and the Federal
Government to survey the funeral industry in 1956, '64,'68 and
'75, questioning the cost of funerals and the income of
employees.[114]
Does
society believe that the funeral
profession follows its ideals? It is not clear at this point,
but is worthy of further research. But what of the scientising
of funeral service?
Once one knows the six points of injection,[115] is able to
raise arteries and veins without breaking them, had dependable
fluids and suitable personal protection, a limited theoretical
knowledge may help in postulating why swelling is occurring,
but it is generally heroic measures passed on by a senior
embalmer, or the panic stricken operator's ingenuity, that
provide a solution. Most students will only embalm two bodies
in the first year school setting, and that will be in a group
of four to six other novices. This is not a research setting,
nor, probably, is it meant to be. There is little room in the
training of a funeral director for an arena of research--this
is left to the chemical company researchers[116] and the
university medical researchers.
It is now clear, however, that science was used as a premise
for professionalization of funeral service and the scientising
of the medical profession was used as a model; self regulating
organizational structures such as the Board of Examiners or
Administration, and professional organizations mandated for
education, professionalization and financial security, namely
the NFDA, NSM, and OFSA provided the public relations and
government lobby voice to raise the status of the 'trade' or
'business' to a profession.
There can be no question that funeral service ' stood on the
shoulders' of medicine to reach a level of professionalism
through many means, including scientising. Is this scientising
a legitimate premise?
One might argue that it was for
physicians and surgeons in the late nineteenth century,
when they 'stood on the shoulders' of the natural scientists.
It would seem, then, that the use of science as a legitimating
factor in the professionalization of funeral service by
emulation of the medical model is as legitimate as the use of
science in the professionalization of medicine.
Whether the
premises of the medical practitioners' claim to professionalism
is legitimate
is yet another question
worthy of
consideration.
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Name"
Canadian
O'Hagan, James, "Eckels College Fall Opening Date,"
Funeral Service, 22 (Sept. 44)9:27.
Canadian
O'Hagan, James, "This Matter of Higher Education"
Funeral Service, 24 (April 1946)4: editorial page.
Canadian
O'Hagan, James, "This Matter of Higher Education"
Funeral Service, 24 (August 1946)8: editorial page.
Canadian
O'Hagan, James, "This Matter of Higher Education"
Funeral Service, 24 (Sept. 1946)9: editorial page.
Canadian
O'Hagan, James, "This Matter of Higher Education"
Funeral Service, 24 (Nov. 1946)11: editorial page.
Canadian
O'Hagan, James, "This Matter of Higher Education"
Funeral Service, 25 (Jan. 1947)1: editorial page.
Canadian
O'Hagan, James, "This Matter of Higher Education"
Funeral Service, 25 (Feb. 1947)2: editorial page.
Canadian
O'Hagan, James, "This Matter of Higher Education"
Funeral Service, 25 (Mar. 1947)3: editorial page.
Canadian
O'Hagan, James, "This Matter of Higher Education"
Funeral Service, 25 (Apr. 1947)4: editorial page.
Canadian
O'Hagan, James, "This Matter of Higher Education"
Funeral Service, 25 (May 1947)5: editorial page.
Canadian
O'Hagan, James, ed. "School Session" Canadian Funeral Service,
29 (June 1951) 6:10.
O'Hagan, James, ed. "Embalming School Offers
Canadian Funeral Service, 32 (June 1954) 6:10.
O'Hagan, James, ed. "A Big
Service, 46 (May 1968) 5:10.
Step
Fine Course"
Forward." Canadian Funeral
Penny, Sheila M. " 'Marked For Slaughter': The Halifax Medical
College and the Wrong Kind of Reform, 1868-1910." Acadiensis,
19 (1989): 27-51.
Government Publications
Canada, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Funeral Directors, 1964
(Ottawa: Published by Authority of the Minister of Trade and
Commerce, November, 1966).
Canada, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Funeral Directors, 1968
(Ottawa: Published by Authority of the Minister of Trade and
Commerce, November, 1970).
Canada, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Funeral Directors, 1976
(Ottawa: Published by Authority of the Minister of Trade and
Commerce, May, 1978).
McNabb, Elizabeth, A Legal History of the Health Profession in
Ontario (Toronto: Queen's Printer, 1970), as cited in Blishen,
Bernard R., Doctors in Canada: The Changing World of Medical
Practice. (Toronto: Statistics Canada, in association with
University of Toronto Press, 1991), p. 8.
Statutes of Ontario, An Act Respecting Embalmers (Toronto:
L. K. Cameron, 1911), S.O., 1911, 1 Geo. V, Chap. 51, Sect. 3
pp. 430-33.
Statutes of Ontario.
An Act Respecting Embalmers and Funeral
Directors (Toronto: The United Press, Ltd., 1928), S.O., 1928,
18 Geo. V, Chap. 31, pp. 74-79.
Statutes of Ontario An Act to Amend The Embalmers and Funeral
Directors Act, 1928 (Toronto: T. E. Bowman, 1936), S.O., 1936,
1 Ed. VIII, 1936, Chap. 20, pp. 88-91.
Revised Statutes of Ontario, An Act Respecting Embalmers and
Undertakers (Toronto:Warwick Bros. & Rutter, Publishers,1914),
R.S.O., 1914, Vol. 1, Chap. 174, pp. 1834-1837.
Revised
Statutes of Ontario, The Embalmers and Funeral
Directors Act
(Toronto: T. E. Bowman, 1937), R.S.O., 1937,
Vol 1, Chap. 242, pp. 2591-2597.
Personal Communications
Baker, Gordon H. (Personal Experience
College, Sept. 1980 - June 1982).
and
notes , Humber
Bliss, Michael, personal communication, lecture, HIS262Y, Mar.
10, 1992.
Brodie,
Sheelah,
Secretary,
Ontario
Funeral
Service
Association, (Personal communication, January 30, 1992).
Knight,
Robert, LFD, (Personal communication, Jan. 21, 1992).
Unpublished manuscripts
Finn, John R.,
Evolution of Funeral Service Education in
Ontario (Rexdale, Ont.: Unpublished paper submitted to Humber
College of Applied Arts and Technology to fulfil a Professional Development requirement, June 1974).
Notes:
*I would like to express my thanks to the staff of the
Funeral Service Education Program at Humber College of Applied
Arts and Technology, Rexdale, Ontario, for their invaluable
assistance through the research stage of this paper, most
notably: Donald Foster, Director of the program for his
comments and the use of the FSE Journal Library, John Finn,
for the use of his unpublished paper Evolution of Funeral
Service Education in Ontario, (Rexdale, Ont., June, 1974),
Paul Faris, and Jean Ball, Office Coordinator.
[1] This was, and, to the author's knowledge, still is the
message used over the public address system at the Toronto
General Hospital to request a morgue attendant to assist a
Funeral Home representative in a transfer of human remains.
[2] This follows William J. Goode, "The Theoretical Limits of
Professionalization" in Etzioni, Amitai, The Semi-Professions
and Their Organization: Teachers, Nurses, Social Workers. (New
York: Collier-Macmillan Limited and The Free Press, 1969), pp.
266-313.
[3] Frederick,L.G."Darko" and Clarence G.Strub. The Principles
and Practice of Embalming, 4th. ed. (Dallas, Texas: L. G.
Frederick, 1958, 1975), p. 2.
[4] Ibid., p. 3.
[5] Forrest, Robert, a.k.a. Coriolis. Death, Here is Thy Sting
(Toronto, MontrDal: McClelland and Stewart Ltd., 1967).
[6] That history which
service is Habenstein,
has formed the bed-rock of funeral
Robert Wesley and William Mathias
Lamers. The History of American Funeral Directing, rev.
(Milwaukee,: Bulfin Printers, 1955, 1962); others include
Farrell, James J. Inventing The American Way of Death, 18301920, (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1980); Irion,
Paul E.
The Funeral: Vestige or Value? (Nashville: Abingdon
Press, 1966); Mitford, Jessica The American Way of Death
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1963);
Puckle, Bertram S.
Funeral Customs: Their Origin and Development (New York:
Frederick A. Stokes Company, Publishers, 1926); and Pine,
Vanderlyn R., Caretaker of the Dead: The American Funeral
Director (New York: Irvington Publishers, Inc.,1975). Perhaps
an organized group such as the Ontario Funeral Service
Association or the Ontario Board of Administration for Funeral
Service will commission such a document in the future.
[7] See Francis,R. Douglas, Richard Jones and Donald B. Smith.
Origins: Canadian History to Confederation,
(Toronto: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston of Canada, Ltd.,1988) and Francis, R.
Douglas; Richard Jones and Donald B. Smith.
Destinies:
Canadian History Since Confederation, (Toronto: Holt, Rinehart
and Winston of Canada, Ltd., 1988) for the best Canadian
history to date.
[8] The information concerning the development of funeral
service was central to the training that the author received
in his Funeral Service Education Course at Humber College
A.A.T. in the 1980/81 school year and was based upon the
sources listed in footnote 6.
For the purposes of this paper
with the exception of specific quotations or ideas (for which
notation will be provided) the information presented will be
considered 'public domain' (i.e. in funeral service education)
for its delineation here.
[9] Farrell, (op. cit., 1980).
[10] Ibid., p. 147.
[11] See note 6 for bibliographic references.
[12] In early to mid-nineteenth century towns this woman would
often be a nurse or midwife. Habenstein and Lamers (op. cit.,
1962), p. 237.
[13] Ibid.
[14] In very hot weather the body was not present within
place of the funeral service because of the odour.
the
[15] Farrell, (op. cit, 1980), p. 148.
[16] The sextant or livery stable operator may well have been
asked as well,depending on the local situation. See Habenstein
and Lamers (op. cit., 1962), pp. 240-41.
[17] Ibid., p. 149. See also Habenstein and Lamers (op. cit.,
1962), pp. 226 - 250.
[18] Benjamin, Charles, "Essay" The Casket 7(Feb. 1882): 2 as
cited in Farrell, (op. cit., 1980), p. 149.
[19] Ibid.
See also Forrest, (op. cit., 1967), p. 25.
[20] Frederick and Strub, (op. cit. 1975), p. 41.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Farrell, (op. cit., 1980), p. 162.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Habenstein and Lamers (op. cit., 1962), pp. 321-22.
[25] Ibid., p. 337.
[26] Farrell (op. cit., 1980) 162.
[27] Ibid.
[28] Ibid., pp. 162-63.
[29] Habenstein and Lamers (op. cit., 1962), pp. 323.
[30] ..as The Principles and Practice of Embalming is referred
to in funeral service education programs.
[31] Frederick and Strub (op. cit., 1975), p. 3.
[32] Ibid., p. 340.
[33] Ibid., p. 344. Habenstein and Lamers suggest that a
certain Prof. Clarke suggested (in the fall of 1881) "to Dr.C.
M. Lukens, a demonstrator of anatomy in Pulte Medical College,
Cincinnati that an embalming school should be set up at that
institution.
Agreement was reached in March, 1882; and the
first session open in the amphitheatre March 8 and ended
March 31."
[34] Farrell, (op. cit., 1980), p. 150.
[35] Ibid.
[36] Ibid., p. 146.
[37] Ibid., p. 151.
[38] Mencken, H. L. The American Language: An Inquiry into
the Development of English in the United States, 4th ed. rev.
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965), pp. 287-88.
[39] Puckle, (op. cit., 1926), p. 178, reports that this is a
term used to refer to body-snatchers who, "finding that good
prices were paid by the anatomists for bodies of those
recently dead open up a nefarious traffic with the schools,
which assumed the most disgraceful proportions before any
sever measures were adopted to stamp out the evil". For well
argued information about this trade, see Richardson, Ruth.
Death, Dissection and the Destitute. (London and New York:
Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987).
[40] Frederick and Strub (op. cit., 1975), p 47, suggest that
"Mortuary...is usually applied to an establishment exclusively
designed and equipped for this particular work and for the
comfort of the bereaved. The funeral home is generally thought
of as a residence remodeled or adapted for this purpose."
[41] Mencken, (op. cit., 1965), p. 287.
[42] Ibid.
[43] Goode, William J. (op. cit., 1969), p. 267.
[44] Bledstein, Burton J. The Culture of Professionalism: The
Middle Class and the Development of Higher Education in
America (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1976).
[45] Ibid., p. 4-5.
[46] Ibid., p. 33.
[47] Carr-Saunders, A. M. and P. A. Wilson, The Professions
(London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd., 1964).
[48] Farrell, (op. cit., 1980), p. 151.
[49] Ibid.
At the first national convention of the NFDA,
secretary S. R. Lippincott called for the laying of "the
cornerstone to a new structure to art and science...to plant
our standard in the army of science...[and gain] greater
scientific inquiry into the best methods of mortuary science."
[50] Habenstein and Lamers (op. cit., 1962), p. 451.
[51] Mencken (op. cit., 1965), p. 287.
[52] Canada, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Funeral Directors,
1964 (Ottawa: Published by Authority of the Minister of Trade
and Commerce, November, 1966), p. 4.
Ontario composed 560 of
the 1,418 firms or 40% with 2 289 of the 5,908 paid employees,
or 39%.
[53] Bliss, Michael, personal communication, lecture, HIS262Y,
Mar. 10, 1992.
[54] Finn, John R. Evolution of Funeral Service Education in
Ontario (Rexdale, Ont.: Unpublished paper submitted to Humber
College
of
Applied
Arts
and Technology to fulfil a
Professional Development requirement, June 1974).
[55] The Eckels College of Mortuary Science, so named in March
1944, was originally know as The Philadelphia Training School
for Embalmers (established 1897) and the Eckels College of
Embalming. See O'Hagan, James, ed. "Eckels College Revises
Name" Canadian Funeral Service, 22(Mar. 1944) 3:26.
[56] Finn (op. cit., 1974), Pt. Intro., p. 1, cites Canadian
Funeral Service 46(Aug. 1960) 8 as his reference, and although
I have no doubt as to the accuracy of this reference, the
author has not as yet had the opportunity to check it
personally.
Thus greater information is not available about
the history of this particular institution.
Turner emigrated
to Canada in 1870, Finn reports.
[57] Ibid., Part I, p. 1.
[58] Finn (op. cit., 1974), Pt. Intro., pp. 1-2.
[59] Ibid.
[60] Ontario Statutes, An Act Respecting Embalmers (Toronto:
L. K. Cameron, publisher and printer to the King's Most
Excellent Majesty, 1911) 1 Geo. V., 1911, Chap. 51, Sect.3 pp.
430-31.
[61] McNabb,Elizabeth A Legal History of the Health Profession
in Ontario (Toronto: Queen's Printer, 1970), p. 1, as cited in
Blishen, Bernard R. Doctors in Canada: The Changing World of
Medical Practice. (Toronto: Statistics Canada, in association
with University of Toronto Press, 1991), p. 8.
[62] Ibid., p. 433.
Italics added.
[63] Ibid., Sect. 2, p. 430. This definition was consistent
through all acts up to and including the penultimate one;
however, in the 1937 RSO, The Embalmers and Funeral Directors
Act (Toronto: T. E. Bowman, 1937), Vol 1, Chap. 242, Sect. 12
(2),p.2596, indicates that "the Lieutenant-Governer in Council
may make regulations governing and prescribing the kinds of
fluid and chemicals which may be used in the practice of
embalming."
Research has not indicated at this point whether
this was Embalming fluid company pressure, or the desire of
the coroner's office to eliminate embalming chemical's arsenic
and other lethal materials from the Coroner's equation of a
cause of suspicious death.
[64] Revised Statutes of Ontario, An Act Respecting Embalmers
and Undertakers (Toronto: Warwick Bros. & Rutter, Publishers,
1914), R.S.O. 1914, Vol. 1, Chap. 174, pp. 1834-1837.
[65] Brodie, Sheelah, Secretary,
Ontario Funeral Service
Association, (Personal communication, January 30, 1992).
[66] O'Hagan, James "Dean of Canada's Funeral Industry" and
"First
Professional Instructor Speaks," Canadian Funeral
Service (op. cit) 22 (Mar. 1944) 3:10
[67] These reports consisted of the changes in curriculum,
number of students in first and second year training and
professional discipline information.
[68] Statutes of Ontario.
An Act Respecting Embalmers and
Funeral Directors (Toronto: The United Press, Ltd., 1928) 18
Geo. V, 1928, Chap. 31, pp. 74-79.
[69] Ibid., Sect. 2 (e), p.74.
[70] Ibid., pp. 75-76.
Italics added.
[71] Ibid., Sect. 3 (1), p. 75.
[72] Blishen (op. cit., 1991).
[73] Ibid., p. 13.
[74] For examples of the power of self regulated liscensure in
medicine, see Hamowy, Ronald, Canadian Medicine: A Study in
Restricted Entry
(Vancouver: Fraser Institute, 1984), pp.
148-58.
[75] Blishen (op. cit., 1991), p. 15.
[76] Coburn, David, George M. Torrance, and Joseph M. Kaufert.
"Medical Dominance in Canada in Historical Perspective: The
Rise and Fall of Medicine." International Journal of Health
Services, 13 (1983): 407-32, as cited in Blishen (op. cit.,
1991), p. 15.
[77] Statutes of Ontario, An Act to Amend The Embalmers and
Funeral Directors Act, 1928 (Toronto: T. E. Bowman, 1936), 1
Ed. VIII, 1936, Chap. 20, pp. 88-91.
[78] Ibid., Sect. (4).
[79] Ibid. Italics added.
[80] Ibid.
[81] Finn (op. cit., 1974), Pt. I, p. 1
[82] Knight,
1992).
Robert,
LFD,
(Personal communication, Jan. 21,
[83] O'Hagan, James, "Eckels College Fall
Canadian Funeral Service, 22 (Sept. 44) 9:27.
Opening
Date,"
[84] O'Hagan,James, "This Matter of Higher Education" Canadian
Funeral Service, 24 (April, August, Sept. Nov. 1946) 4, 8, 9,
11 and 25 (Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May 1947) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5:
editorial page.
[85] Ibid., 24(Apr. 1946)4:10
[86] Ibid., 24(Aug. 1946)8:11.
[87] Ibid.
[88] Ibid.
[89] Flexner, Abraham, Medical Education in the United States
and Canada: a Report to the Carnegie Foundation for the
Advancement of Teaching, Bulletin No. 4 (New York: Carnegie
Foundation, 1910).
[90] Penny, Sheila M. " 'Marked For Slaughter': The Halifax
Medical College and the Wrong Kind of Reform, 1868-1910."
Acadiensis, 19 (1989): 27.
[91] Ibid., p. 28.
[92] This, of course, is exactly what Abraham Flexner was
suggesting in his Medical Education in the United States and
Canada (op. cit., 1910). By raising the standards of entrance
only the better educated, better suited applicants would get
into the course to being with.
Fewer graduates would be the
result;
an added bonus was that the reduced number of
practitioners were able to raise their prices (and income =
status) because they would be in greater demand. Whether this
is sound reasoning on the parts of Flexner or O'Hagan is
questionable (although it may be overstating the case on
O'Hagan's part), since it would only be those who could afford
to go to school long enough to attain the prerequisites that
would enter the profession;
these people generally had the
community status to begin with.
[93] O'Hagan, James "This Matter of Higher Education: What of
our Articled Students?" Canadian Funeral Service 24 (Sept.
1946) 9:11.
[94] Finn (op. cit., 1974), Pt. II, pp. 4-6.
[95] O'Hagan, James, ed. "School Session" Canadian
Service, 29 (June 1951) 6: 10.
Funeral
[96] O'Hagan, James, ed. "Embalming School Offers Fine Course"
Canadian Funeral Service, 32 (June 1954) 6: 10.
[97] Ibid.
[98] Finn (op. cit., 1974), Pt. II, p. 2.
[99] O'Hagan, James, ed."A Big Step Forward." Canadian Funeral
Service, 46 (May 1968) 5: 10.
[100] Baker, Gordon H. (Personal Experience, Humber College,
Sept. 1980 - June 1982).
[101] Ibid, p. 5.
[102] Baker, Gordon H. (Personal Notes, Sept. 1980-June 1981).
[103] Ibid.
Several of the sixty funeral homes in Toronto
opened their preparation room doors to the examiners and
candidates annually.
[104] Frederick and Strub (op.cit.,1975), pp. 11-12.
added.
Emphasis
[105] Carr-Saunders, A. M. and P. A. Wilson (op. cit., 1964).
[106] Ibid., pp. 65-103.
[107] Goode, William J. (op., cit., 1969).
[108] Ibid., p. 268.
[109] Ibid.
[110] Ibid., pp. 277-78. Amitai Etzioni in his preface to the
collection of which Goode's essay is part points out that
'semi-professional' is not used in a derogatory way.
The
meaning is that of a group: whose training is shorter; status
less legitimated; right to privileged communication less well
established;specialized body of knowledge smaller;and autonomy
from supervision or societal control less than the professions. See Etzioni, Amitai, The Semi-Professions and their
Organization (New York: The Free Press, 1969), p. v.
[111] Ibid., p. 278.
[112] Ibid., 278-79.
[113] Forrest, Robert
cit., 1963).
(op. cit., 1967); Mitford, Jessica (op.
[114] Canada, Statistics Canada (op, cit., 1958, 1966);Canada,
Dominion Bureau of Statistics,
Funeral
Directors, 1968
(Ottawa: Published by Authority of the Minister of Trade and
Commerce,November,1970); Canada,Dominion Bureau of Statistics,
Funeral Directors, 1976 (Ottawa: Published by Authority of the
Minister of Trade and Commerce, May, 1978).
[115] The six points are: both Carotid arteries and Jugular
veins; Auxiliary arteries and veins; and Femoral arteries and
veins.
[116] For example, Dr. Jerome F. Frederick, Director of
Chemical Research, The Dodge Chemical Company. Frederick is a
Fellow of the American Institute of Chemists, a Fellow of the
New York Academy of Sciences and an Honorary member of the
British Institute of Embalmers; the Dodge Chemical Company
supplies embalming fluid products commercially.
Note to the Reader:Thank your for taking the time to read this
work.
In reading, please keep in mind that your comments are
welcome and encouraged. In the message/replies section of the
HOST BBS, you will find places where you can enter your
thoughts. Comments that would be helpful include: accurate
correction of dates, places, people mentioned; suggestions for
direction of the argument (viz. are there questions that you
feel should be addressed, etc.); of course, in a draft such as
this there are bound to be some typos (even with these
electronic spell checkers--what we really need is a grammer
and syntax checker).
If you have any questions as you read
through the work, please do not hesitate to call me at 5881750 (area code 416). Thanks again.
Gordon H. Baker.
+----------------------------------------+
| "Natural History and its Descendants: |
|
Science for Curiosity or Use"
|
|
by Mary P. Winsor, copyright 1992
|
|
Work in Progress
|
+----------------------------------------+
| Received July 9, 1992 |
| Revised July 11, 1992 |
+-------------------------+
Much of the charm of botanical illustrations flows from their
sense of serene objectivity. They evoke the quietude of pure
study, for we see in them both the concentration of the
artist, whose goal was to record the unchanging essence of the
species, and then the careful hand of engraver and colorist,
whose goals were to transmit faithfully what the scientific
artist has seen.
Similarly, the disinterested curiosity
motivating the scientific explorer is central to the romantic
allure of the tale of Banks, Solander, and other Eighteenth
Century naturalist-travellers. Indeed for all science, purity
of motive is an essential ingredient to its privileged claim
in our hearts.
Who is unmoved by the image of Archimedes,
concentrating so intently on a problem of pure geometry that
he forgets to be afraid of the soldier about to slay him?
Indeed, the pursuit of truth for its own sake is an ideal of
enduring power, inspirational to historians as well as to
scientists.
Carl von Linni, great teacher that he was, sometimes drew
upon this noble ideal of pure curiosity.
For example, when
trying to inspire his pupils to study insects, he would tell
them a story.
"Once upon a time," he would say, "the seven
wise men of Greece" were discussing what might be "the
greatest wonder in the creation.
One of them, of higher
conceptions than the rest," suggested there may be life on the
moon, and so they asked the chief of the gods, Jupiter, to let
them visit there, and their wish was granted.
Athough their
purpose was to record the wonders of that place, upon their
arrival they spent the first day gathering their strength for
the task ahead, the second day distracted by the charms of the
local ladies, and the third day in court, settling lawsuits
brought on by their activities on the second day!
When they
got back to earth they could give no details about the kinds
of plants and animals of that distant and wonderful place.[1]
We are told that Linnaeus meant his students to interpret the
fable thus: the three days represent the three stages of a
man's life, the first devoted to the idleness of youth, the
mature devoted to family responsibilities,and old age to legal
wrangling over one's estate.
Although he evidently intended
his morality tale simply to shame young men into resolving not
to neglect any of the undescribed wonders that surrounded them
at home, the fable would seem to apply especially well to the
students he sent forth to scour faraway lands:
Pehr Kalm who
went to North America, Frederik Hasselquist who went to the
Middle East, Pehr Loefling who went to Spain, and of course
Daniel Carl Solander who circumnavigated the globe with Cook
and Banks.
The dissertation in which we find the fable dates
from the period when Solander was himself a student, and
carries an extra sting when we recall that Banks did allow
himself some distractions in Tahiti,and did later find himself
involved in some legal wrangling. The fable seems even more
pointed when we recall that Banks and Solander failed to
publish a full account of the wonders they had seen and
collected, a failure which greatly disappointed Linnaeus
himself.
For people who are still working on the great unfinished
catalogue of the species on our planet, and also for those of
us who have been celebrating with our research the history of
systematics, this little fable seems to capture nicely the
spirit of worthy curiosity motivating naturalists and their
supporters, the noble and disinterested love of creation which
fueled the production of countless volumes and filled museums
and herbaria with specimens.
That it is right and good for
naturalists and illustrators to try to record the diversity of
living things, we accept implicitly, just as the wise men in
Linnaeus's story agreed that it was a worthy goal to describe
the wonders of creation.
And the historian of botany or
zoology, like the fable's narrator, tells us stories, the more
true the more moving, whose purpose is to encourage us to
continue this great quest.
Yet have a care.
Linnaeus understood very well that his
fable was a fantasy. He knew that not only was the journey to
the moon the stuff of dreams,so too the society that sponsored
it was utter fiction.
Everyone in the fable accepts that
describing living things, purely out of curiosity, is an
admirable thing to do, so that the failure to do it earned
blame.
Furthermore, we are presented at the outset with the
prior existence of specialized researchers - the wise men or
philosophers whose speculative discussion of an eminently
useless question is accepted by the storyteller as perfectly
legitimate.
The fable also assumes the existence of expert
describers, the "chosen companions" - artists and naturalists
- who were invited along on the expedition to the moon.
Linnaeus was keenly aware that neither the professional post
of expert naturalist nor the cultural attitude necessary to
support it was well established in eighteenth-century Europe.
The same essay that gives us the foolish moon travellers
begins with a powerful complaint against prevailing attitudes.
A question is often put, says Linnaeus, by the vulgar to men,
who are busied in examining the productions of nature, and
that with some sort of sneer, "To what end are all these
inquiries?"
By which they mean to insinuate, that these
vertuosi are at the bottom but madmen, who spend their time in
a kind of knowledge, which promises no advantage; and in this
way of thinking they are the more convinced of being right,
as they find natural history no part of public institutions,
not
received into academies
amongst the
philosophical
sciences, and as holding no rank either in church or state.
For this reason they look on it as a mere curiosity, which
only serves as an amusement for the idle and indolent.
This
objection has been made to myself...and by its frequent
repetition has at last quite worn out my patience."[2]
We have other testimony besides that of Linnaeus to show that
the scientific study of nature could be received with sneering
scorn, and that this attitude caused problems. In 1752 Richard
Pulteney in England wrote to John Hill, commiserating with him
that a hoped-for post as botanist to Kensington Gardens had
not materialized. So indignant was Pulteney that he forgot to
break his thoughts up into sentences.
I...lament that Natural History whose dignity &
importance is so great that it certainly claims the
highest regard from the intelligent part of mankind,
meets with so little encouragement amongst our great
men who have it in their power to render it respectable
and flourishing & under whose patronage it would not
longer be laughed at and despised as is its general
fate at least with us in the country where few people
even of those whose education should have taught them
otherwise have any other Idea of it than that it is a
useless & idle curiosity.[3]
Knowledge for its own sake can be seen as nobly disinterested, but it can just as easily seem frivolous because
pointless.
In every generation, scientists have to grapple
with the problem of educating policymakers away from their
natural tendency to see research that is undertaken merely to
satisfy curiosity as a ridiculous waste of money and time.
Of course the fable of the wise men of Greece is no help at
all in combatting disrespect for natural history.
Far from
showing why we ought to devote effort to describing the living
world, the story simply assumes that this is desirable.
Linnaeus even claims that upon returning ignorant from their
moon trip, the wise men "were treated every where with
contempt," even though no useful spinoff had been promised.
In this story it is taken for granted that perfectly idle
curiosity is virtuous.
We can render it as an argument thus:
Premise - that describing creatures is good. Postulate - a
wonderful opportunity to describe new creatures
exists.
Conclusion - one must not neglect this opportunity.
It is a
morality tale inciting to action only the already converted.
It does nothing for anyone who might think natural history is
a frivolous pastime.
The essay in which we find the fable was the an academic
dissertation,
"Of the Use of Curiosity,"
defended
by
Christopher Gedner in 1752. Its purpose was to arm students of
Linnaeus and other naturalists against the common view that
their study was useless.
Similar themes feature very
prominently in many other of Linnaeus's writings.
Everyone
familiar with Linnaeus knows how often and how vigorously he
insisted that there are solid reasons for doing natural
history, but how his various arguments fit together, and how
they connect with the young sciences of botany and zoology has
received little attention.
These questions deserve a closer
examination than I can make, so my intention here is more to
raise issues than to settle them.
Commentators in our century have tended to regard Linnaeus's
writings on utility as quaint and inconsequential,and the most
authoritative scholars scarcely mention them.
Those writers
who do not his great interest in the economic usefulness of
natural history seem to want to discount it or apologize for
him [4], like one who states, "The importance of science for
economic progress is one of the grand themes of his speeches
and his general remarks, but it was hardly decisive of the
priorities in his everyday work."[5]
For many years I shared
this attitude, reading those essays only for whatever inklings
of proto-ecology I could extract from his sketches of the
policing of nature
- the interdependence of plant and
herbivore, prey and predator. I now see my former reaction as
wrong, for I now think that the question of the usefulness or
purity of natural knowledge is just as important for the
actual operation of science, then and now, as Linnaeus claimed
it was.
To neglect "the use of curiosity" is to convert the
real world into mere fable.
At the very beginning of his career, Linnaeus was hired by
the wealthy George Clifford to catalogue the plants in his
garden.
This context allowed the young botanist to affirm
that there were other justifications for his science beyond
its time-honored usefulness to medicine. In the 1738 Hortus
Cliffortianus, Linnaeus says that besides its relevance to
health, botany is an innocent pleasure resembling Adam's, and
also that philosophers are not entitled to consider themselves
wise when there is so much in nature of which they are
ignorant.[6] He thus mentions one argument based on utility botany as an accessory to medicine - and three arguments
independent of utility - pleasure, part of total body of
possible knowledge (these two assumed in the fable), and
imitation of Adam.
All four were to remain in Linnaeus's
repertoire throughout his career, but these four were of
lesser importance than two other claims he would soon begin to
make: appreciation of God, and economic utility.
The duty of humankind to admire the works of the Creator as
a form of worship was commonly proclaimed, and there is no
doubt about Linnaeus's sincere piety in his many repetitions
of it.
He asserts that "every part of knowledge, which sets
forth the stupendous works of the Creator, is never to be
looked upon as of no consequence."[7] Natural theology in the
broad sense covers a spectrum from vague appreciation by the
devout to the logical demonstration of God's existence and
character based on evidences from nature.
We may be called
upon to admire the creation aesthetically, or to appreciate
with our intellect the cleverness of God the engineer.
Linnaeus shows little interest in such distinctions, however.
Religious sentiment being so clearly important in Linnaeus's
own love of nature,what I think remarkable is not his frequent
allusions to the Creator but his easy admission that most
people,be they farmers or kings, need motives other than piety
to justify natural history.
Linnaeus devoted his most extended arguments to economic
rather than theological uses of natural history.
We can
perhaps forgive him the rhetoric he produced in the first few
years after his return from Holland, for he was then eager to
occupy himself with his beloved botany but had to practice
medicine to earn a living.
In those years a belief in the
practical benefits to be expected from science was highly
fashionable in Sweden. The promotion of useful science was the
dominant goal of the new Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences,
which Linnaeus helped found in 1739.[8] It was in that context
that he elaborated a version of the utility argument so
extreme as to be positively embarrassing to a post-Darwinian
reader.
His goal was evidently to expand the list of useful
plants and animals beyond familiar examples like medical herbs
and farm animals, to include every species without exception.
In an essay delivered to the Swedish Academy, he declared,
"The end of Nature in the creation of every distinct species
of animal is not exclusively confined to its own well being,
it is also subservient to that of man and other animals."[9]
And he means subservient.
Fish come to the shallows to lay
their eggs,instead of reproducing in the safety of deep water,
in order that the animals which feed on them may have food;
mergansers do us the favor of herding schools of fish to
where we can catch them; the bee makes honey, and the silkworm
silk, in order that humans may enjoy them.
For anyone weaned
on the Origin of Species, this is hard to swallow.
However
arrogant this belief may seem to us, we must recall that it
was a well-established view even before Linnaeus's birth.[10]
It did not take long, though, for Linnaeus to attain his
wished-for post as professor of botany at Uppsala. After 1741
what further need had he for constructing arguments on behalf
of natural history?
Yet something was driving him to keep up
an energetic campaign to prove that his favorite study may not
be labelled mere idle curiosity.
He was fond of pointing out
that all the economic production of a nation can be based only
on the productions of nature, because aside from the very
elements, all things that exist in the world are either
mineral, vegetable, or animal, and thus fall within the
purview of the natural historian.
The naturalist can advise
the farmer which fodder is preferred by sheep or cattle or
horses, which crop will thrive best on which soil, which tea
from the tropics might be acclimatized to Europe, and which
migrating bird the hunter can expect on which date. He seemed
never to tire of such examples, and he assigned to his
students data-collecting projects to substantiate this kind of
claim.[11]
His utility arguments go even further, for these eminently
practical and common-sense examples would limit the economic
utility of the naturalist's expertise to species of direct
usefulness, like silkmoths and bees and wheat. Linnaeus tries
to do more; he insists on the utility of every single
species of organism.
Even things of small stature, like
insects or mosses, easy to despise, must be included. He
believes that the world is so constituted that one may not
regard any part of natural history as useless.
How can he push his claim for utility so far?
Not by
claiming that everything is directly useful or usable by man
(though direcly harmful organisms are of course just as good
for the utility argument as useful ones, since the naturalist
will advise us how to fight them, as he tells us when running
down the list of noxious insects).
He does this in two ways:
first, by claiming that everything that is not directly useful
is indirectly useful. A tiny insect is food to another insect
which is food to birds whose song gives pleasure. Second,
things which seem irrelevant to us now will some day be put to
use after naturalists have identified their hidden potentials.
Both approaches are summed up in the credo: "the all-wise
Creator made every thing for man's use."[12]
Such views accorded with the theology of his day, based on
the Biblical statement that after God had finished making the
plants and beasts, He declared that they were good. He and his
contemporaries found it in their interest to ignore the very
explicit message of Genesis that none of the descendants of
the fallen ancestors of humanity may expect nature to be
benign.
The most vivid description of nondomestic creatures
to be found in all of Scripture is the voice of God
admonishing Job that to understand why wild animals behave as
they do, indeed even to know very much of what they do, is
beyond human powers.
After two and a half centuries of exploding population, we
must see Linnaeus's belief that God made everything for our
use
as tragically oblivious to any distinction between
undisturbed primeval nature and living things manipulated by
humans. From this side of the environmental crisis, he looks
naive, or worse, for his theology assures him that every
attempt to exploit or alter nature is not only legitimate,
it is fulfilling the original intention of the Creator. There
is no place in his scheme for the idea that creatures in the
wild have the right to their own pristine way of life, or that
human activity could threaten nature's proper order. Educated
by Malthus and by cruel experience, we are struck by the
inherent contradiction between Linnaeus's admiration for the
wonderful balance of nature, where every creature depends on
others so that all are necessary, and his claim to the
unlimited rights of our species to exploit to the fullest
every other living thing.
While imagining himself to be like
Adam in Paradise - naming, and learning about, every species Linnaeus had somehow managed to forget the Fall, when we took
upon ourselves the freedom to do evil, and our Maker did not
give us any guarantees that we would not mess things up.
In making comments like these I am straying from my proper
place.
I would be a poor historian indeed if I expected
Linnaeus to foresee the future or to be other than a man of
his own time.
His contemporaries felt as he did, that they
were just beginning to explore an earth of virtually limitless
resources, an earth intended by God for the human race to
dominate; his contemporaries did not read in Job a warning to
respect the sanctity of wilderness.
It is we of the late
Twentieth Century, however, not Linnaeus's contemporaries, who
are gathered here now to consider the global reach of European
naturalists. We cannot and we should not censor our awareness
of what occurred after Cook's voyages.
What we must be very
careful to do is to identify our claims of causation clearly
rather than
allowing
the sequence of events to imply
causation.
It is common for environmentalists, reading the
unenlightened writings of earlier generations, to infer that
such old bad attitudes were the cause of subsequent abuses to
nature. I think the connection has not been shown.
When Linnaeus insists that there will be economic advantage
and not merely spiritual good in the study of every single
living kind, it strikes us as so implausible that we become
suspicious.
Thus for example K. G. Hildebrand said, "Of
course, even Linnaeus may have felt the temptation that is
known to most scholars, in our own days as in the eighteenth
century - the temptation to over-emphasize the practical
usefulness of one's work, in the hope of getting better grants
in that way."[13]
Hildebrand is reluctant, however, to
attribute any hypocrisy to a hero of botany,and so he suggests
that Linnaeus could have genuinely believed that one must do
first things first, and agrees with Linnaeus that the project
of naming must precede any direct applications of knowledge.
Deciding that Linnaeus was sincere, however, does not dispose
of the question why utility remained such an important theme
throughout his life.
First of all, why were motives of
pleasure and piety not enough, and secondly, once installed in
a professorship what further support did he need?
I think
Hildebrand was right to whiff the scent of grantsmanship. The
comparison, however, should not be to a modern researcher
applying
for
a grant who is tempted to puff up its
applicability, for grantsmanship occurs within an established
system.
The comparison should be to one of those pioneering
entrepreneurs who convinced the government to set up the
granting system in the first place.
Gunnar Ericsson argues in a stimulating little essay that
Linnaeus engineered the success of his botanical system by
careful attention to personal contacts.
He was skilful,
Ericsson says, at
"the marketing of his ideas in the
international republic of letters."[14]
I regard this as a very important insight, but I would extend
it much beyond the marketing of his taxonomic ideas. I suggest
that Linnaeus not only wanted to see his own taxonomic ideas
triumph, he wanted to promote the business of natural history.
Linnaeus was concerned not just with his personal love of
nature and with the spiritual well-being of his students,
he was visionary enough to recognize that immortality for
his enterprise required what we may call a higher degree of
professionalization. The scorn of the ignorant was common, he
said, because people
"find natural history no part of
public institutions, not received into academies amongst
the philosophical sciences, and as holding no rank either in
church or state."
He bent his efforts throughout his career
to change this situation.
Clearly, this attitude must be
combatted if professorships and institutions for natural
history are to increase.
Linnaeus, in saying that the vulgar "are the more convinced
of being right, as they find natural history no part of public
institutions," was pointing to the cycle of cause and effect;
he was suggesting that if natural history were to have a
larger place in public institutions, that status in itself
would help counter the sneers of the vulgar.
Botany was already deeply entrenched in medical teaching, but
Linnaeus's ambition was to open up a much larger base of
support for natural history.
He wanted to establish an
entirely new justification, which would encompass all plants
and animals, not just those already known to be useful, and
which would relate to all aspects of the national interest,
not just curing disease. To accomplish this end, the arguments
he used with George Clifford are not enough.
The difference
between the pleasure and piety motives and the usefulness
motives are the difference between an individual's actions and
a public activity.
Worship and amusement are esentially
private concerns, whereas something that promises economic
advantage has a call on the public purse; it merits support
from public-spirited sponsors or from government.
When Linnaeus wrote to the Spanish ambassador to ask that
Pehr Loefling be allowed to collect in Spain, he didn't
mention Adam, or the pleasures of innocent botanizing, or the
virtue of knowing God's works.[15]
He spoke only of direct
practical utility, asserting that natural knowledge can aid
agriculture and all the other useful arts.
Frans Stafleu emphasized to us twenty years ago that
Linnaeus's influence was spread by his students.[16] For some
reason, though, we generally allow ourselves to assume that
this just happened, that is, that there is a law of nature
causing good ideas to be taken up and gain adherents.
Surely
the instance of Mendel should keep reminding us that there is
no such law.
That Linnaeus's students travelled widely, and
that many of them found careers as naturalists, was in large
part the result of his actions on their behalf.
He was
behaving like the founder of a new school or discipline; even
though his own employment was secure, for the sake of the
students who would continue his work, he had a strong interest
in convincing potential supporters of the utility of natural
history.
Marti Kerkkonen's study of Pehr Kalm's journey in North
America demonstrates beyond doubt the vivid belief in utility
that Linnaeus shared with predecessors and contemporaries.[17]
They expected a large and immediate economic benefit to come
from the study of plants and animals of exotic lands.
Kalm's
own motive was not something we would recognize as scientific
curiosity; it could be called greed, in the most positive
sense we can give that word - he had a passionate desire to
discover things that would prove economically beneficial.
University administrators in Turkku, Finland, convinced by the
same belief in the utility of knowledge of new plants and
animals (especially those already used by people of other
lands), created a professorship for Kalm,and it is significant
that they named it a professorship of economics. Banks and
Solander evidently had the same sort of expectation. Their
interest in what use the human inhabitants of each place make
of the native plants and animals reflects their search for
products that might be useful to Europeans, rather than a
merely anthropological curiosity to learn about different
cultures.
Linnaeus envisioned a serious social role for a new kind of
naturalist - a person trained by him or by one of his students
- a person expert not only in the taxonomic characters of each
species but in its relationship to other species and to
humankind.
This breed of naturalist would have a significant
involvement in practical matters, whether silk production or
beekeeping, pest extermination or the acclimatizing of exotic
plants. He expected the careers of his students to continually
provide new examples of his credo that the whole of nature was
created for humankind.
He was committed to this belief, and
he acted on it himself.
He spent years trying to grow tea,
coffee, and mulberry plants in his own garden.
He urged his
English correspondent John Ellis, "Study that Botany may
always be turned to some beneficial purpose."[18]
Albrecht
von Haller wrote Linnaeus that Lyonnet's dissection of a
caterpillar, while an amazing display of skill, was not
interesting because not useful.[19]
Von Haller did not care for useless studies, but to Linnaeus
useless natural history was a contradiction in terms.
His
theology made it axiomatic that every bit of nature is
potentially useful, so that every research into natural
history is worthy. It is common now to claim that research in
pure science must be protected, because its later benefits are
unpredictable, but there is an important distinction between
our rationale and Linnaeus's.
The modern claim is founded on
historical instances.
His claim was based on his confidence
in a God who was both creator and beneficent provider. No
pragmatic view of a later
generation would ever again
intertwine the pure and applied as tightly as Linnaeus did.
The picture I am sketching here is based closely and quite
simply on the public pronouncements of Linnaeus and his
students and upon well-known items of his biography. Nevertheless it is not the picture we are commonly given of
Linnaeus. For myself, I am aware that what made the fragments
of evidence take this shape was the work I have been doing on
naturalists of later centuries.
I have recently argued that
Louis Agassiz, when founding the Museum of Comparative Zoology
in Cambridge,Massachusetts,in 1859 was attempting to establish
a new discipline.[20]
His activities were an inextricable
combination of intellectual argument about the meaning of
classification, the career expectations of his students, and
the creation of an institutional base that would combine
research and teaching.
William Coleman likewise argued that
Claude Bernard's classic description of scientific method,
Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine, cannot be
separated from his attempts to convince the French government
of the necessity to fund laboratories where students would do
research at his side.[21]
Such arguments about interdependent cognitive and social
factors feel rather delicate and dangerous, I think because we
are each sensitive in our personal lives to charges of selfinterest or hypocrisy. We know that when a person is making a
rational claim, it is unfair to accuse that person of greed or
other personal motives. Belief that human beings can separate
matters of fact from matters of personal or social advantage
is the cornerstone of intellectual discourse and of civilized
reason.
Thus when Linnaeus seems to present a claim for the
immediate economic utility of natural history, a claim which
seems to us highly exaggerated in the light of later events
and which looks calculated to elict favors from those in
power, we want to understand how Linnaeus could reasonably
really have believed such things.
We want to exonerate him
from charges of venality. The economic beliefs of his day and
his own theology do thoroughly exonerate him, but I think the
significance of his utility arguments does not end there. His
beliefs about the economic utility of natural history were
just as central to the new discipline he envisioned and began
to build as were the particulars of his taxonomic principles
and practice.
Professionalization has been described as the Second
Scientific Revolution, no less momentous for the emergence of
modern science as the concepts of Copernicus, Galileo and
Newton; this second revolution has been located in the Nineteenth Century, with its explosion of journals, specialist
societies, university laboratories, and the creation of PhD
degree programs.[22]
Momentous changes in the social
establishment of science did occur in that century, but
analogous changes were going on well before the invention of
the modern PhD.
The hallmarks of professionalism are not
absolute but can evolve.
For example, we may think of
systematics as one of the last of the biological sciences to
be professionalized, because we know that as recently as the
first part of our own century, many museum curators were
amateurs, whereas their colleagues in histology or physiology
had to undergo rigorous training and would follow wellestablished career paths.
Teddy Roosevelt arrived at Harvard
in the 1870s as an eager young naturalist, and was horrified
to learn that if he wanted a career in biology he would have
to go to Germany for years of advanced microscopical training.
He looked back with nostalgia to the great Louis Agassiz, who
had taught zoology and geology at Harvard from 1846 to 1873.
Yet in Agassiz's own heyday he had sought to build a school
where the traditional outdoor naturalist would be transformed
by years of discipline, peering at embryos through the latest
microscope and debating abstract questions of morphology, in
preparation for a professorship in the expanding system of
American universities.
To Agassiz's contemporaries he had
been a fierce agent of professionalization, only later to be
transformed into a mythic figure.
It could be argued that in spite of the amateur curators,
systematics was one of the first rather than the last branches
of biology to be professionalized.
Richard Pulteney in his
letter to Hill, and Linnaeus in his essay on the use of
curiosity, recognized how essential something like professionalization was to the future vigor of their beloved
science. By the end of their own century the increase of jobs,
the specialization of literature, the cycles of students
becoming teachers in their turn, were far advanced in zoology
and botany, due in some significant degree to Linnaeus's
lifelong efforts.
We count Linnaeus among the success stories in the history
of science because there was an unbroken chain of students and
admirers, workers doing similar things under his influence,
a rapidly expanding network of collectors, museum builders,
keepers of herbaria and naturalists who derived much of their
research
program
from him.
His robust enterprise of
cataloguing the world's flora and fauna carried on, however
modified by each subsequent generation, in unbroken sequence.
When I say his "research program" I don't mean his ideas and
theories, which looked old-fashioned almost the moment he
announced them, but his standard of practice - the naming and
describing according to rule, the mandate to add new species
and to reexamine the affinities of old ones - a research
program that absorbed Darwinism without missing a beat and
flourishes today.
To trace back this genealogy, however, is not to say that
natural history turned out as Linnaeus intended.
His success
was not of that rare kind, and it is important for us to
understand how dismally his plan failed.
He had a coherent,
integrated vision, but it required that the first step, the
cataloguing all creatures, would be accomplished very quickly
-by his students, or at the very latest by their students. He
estimated the grand total of all species of plants and animals
at 40,000.[23]
His intention was that with the help of his
efficient method, other things would be learned about these
plants and animals - their role in the ecosystem and their
usefulness to humankind.
But that is not what happened.
Modern ecologists can trace their ancestry back only four or
five generations at most, not to followers of Linnaeus, nor do
the applied specialties like economic entomology or forestry
descend from his students. The cataloguing project, instead of
nearing completion, exploded and became a goal unto itself.
It is perfectly obvious that Linnaeus was promoting the
practical utility of zoology and botany in order to widen its
base of financial support, lifting it from the position of
handmaiden to medicine to a greater role as essential to a
nation's whole economy.
A modern academic biologist has a
reflex reaction against such a justification, certain that
science must be pure in its core, what Linnaeus's contemporaries called "a kind of knowledge, which promises no
advantage."
The number of scientifically-trained people
employed
to
produce
practical results - in medicine,
agriculture, forestry, and other realms - is many times
greater than those actually doing pure research, but the
highest status is reserved for those whose work is not
directed at a practical goal.
Why is this?
Why the distinction between pure and applied
research, and why such a difference in status, so unlike what
Linnaeus hoped for? My speculation, so far little more than a
guess, is a process analogous to natural selection. Just as a
religion in its infancy, whatever the particulars of its
theology
and
rituals,
had
better attach a value to
proselytizing or it will not grow, likewise a profession in
the process of inventing itself had better choose to define
itself by autonomous goals. Pure curiosity may be idle, that
is, useless, but it can be assessed by others with similar
goals and training, insulated from the opinion of outsiders.
A profession which defines itself in part by its economic
usefulness, as Linnaeus was in effect doing, has put itself in
a more vulnerable position than one which acts as its own
assessor.
Professionals must be judged by the elite of their
colleagues, not by those who employ or fund them.
De Jussieu
and Cuvier made the goal of botany and zoology the revelation
of nature's own order, whereas for Linnaeus that order was but
the means to another end, namely, the discovery and storage of
economically useful information.
Banks's florilegium was
assembled by men who hoped for material advantage from all new
knowledge; it has acquired the halo of pure science only
through the haze of subsequent ages.
In eighteenth-century
Sweden, however, utilitarianism was a fad that quickly ran its
course.[24]
Subsequent generations seem to have quietly
dropped Linnaeus's ambitious claims for the usefulness of
natural history.
The fact that modern biology compartmentalizes pure from
applied research must have a major impact on our ability to
cope with the nightmare of ecological destruction we have
unleashed. We turn to respected biologists for guidance, only
to discover that systematists and ecologists have different
measures of diversity, that ecology has focussed on modelling
ideal stable environments and avoided ecosystems "artificially" disturbed by humans,
that the idealistic young
biologist concerned about habitat destruction soon learns that
practical issues are not as highly valued by those who will
control the reward system as is research on purely theoretical
questions.
Linnaeus, whose theology allowed him to believed
deeply that practical problems were just as worthy of his and
his students' attention as were matters of idle curiosity,
never expected things to turn out this way.
1. Carl Linnaeus, "Of the use of curiosity" (Amoenitates
Academicae, vol. 3, Oct 21, 1752),
Miscellaneous Tracts
relating to Natural History Husbandry and Physick, transl.
Benjamin Stillingfleet, 3rd ed., London, 1775, Reprint Arno
Press, 1977, pp. 161-200, p. 167-170.
2. Ibid., pp. 162-163.
3. 12 August 1758, from The Letters and Papers of Sir John
Hill 1714-1775, ed. with commentary by G. S. Rousseau (AMS
Press, Inc., New York, NY [AMS Studies in the Eighteenth
Century, no. 6] 1982), pp. 92-93.
4. An exception is P. Smit, "The zoological dissertations of
Linnaeus," in Linnaeus: Progress and Prospects in Linnaean
Research ed. Gunnar Broberg (Almqvist & Wiksell International,
Stockholm and Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation,
Pittsburgh, 1980, pp. 118-136) who reports without apology
(p. 121) that Linnaeus's journeys were made not only for
scientific purposes but also "and equally emphatically, had
economic importance."
5. Gustav Hildebrand, "The economic background of Linnaeus:
Sweden in the Eighteenth Century," in Linnaeus: Progress and
Prospects in Linnaean Research ed. Gunnar Broberg (Almqvist &
Wiksell International,
Stockholm and Hunt Institute for
Botanical Documentation, Pittsburgh, 1980, pp. 18-29, p. 27.
6. John Lewis Heller,
Studies
in
Linnaean Method and
Nomenclature, Verlag Peter Lang, New York, 1983, p. 83.
7. Carl Linnaeus, "The Swedish Pan," Miscellaneous Tracts
relating to Natural History Husbandry and Physick, transl.
Benjamin Stillingfleet, 3rd ed., London, 1775, Reprint Arno
Press, 1977, pp. 341-362, p.354.
8. Tore Frdngsmyr, ed., Science in Sweden: The Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences: 1739-1989 (Science History Publications,
Canton, Massachusetts, 1989), p. 3.
9. Carl Linnaeus, "On Insects: Oration," Select Dissertations
from the Amoenitates Academicae, transl. F. J. Brand (London
1781, reprint Arno Press, 1977), p. 311.
10. Keith Thomas, Man and the Natural World: a History of
Modern Sensibility (Pantheon Books, New York, 1983), pp.
17-29.
11. Carl Linnaeus, "On the use of natural history," "The flora
of insects," "On the migration of birds," transl. F. J. Brand,
Select Dissertations from the Amoenitates Academicae (London,
1781, reprint Arno Press, New York 1977); "The Swedish Pan,"
in Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Natural History Husbandry
and Physick, by Carl Linnaeus, transl. Benjamin Stillingfleet,
3rd ed., London, 1775, Reprint Arno Press, 1977.
12. Carl Linnaeus, "Of the use of curiosity" (Amoenitates
Academicae, vol. 3, Oct. 21, 1752), Miscellaneous Tracts
relating to Natural History Husbandry and Physick, transl.
Benjamin Stillingfleet, 3rd ed., London, 1775, Reprint Arno
Press, 1977, pp. 161-200, p. 167-170, p. 164.
13. Gustav Hildebrand, "The economic background of Linnaeus:
Sweden in the Eighteenth Century," in Linnaeus: Progress and
Prospects in Linnaean Research, ed. Gunnar Broberg (Almqvist
& Wiksell International, Stockholm and Hunt Institute for
Botanical Documentation, Pittsburgh, 1980), pp. 18-29, pp.
26-27.
14. Gunnar Ericsson, "The botanical success of Linnaeus: the
aspect of organization and publicity," in Yearbook of the
Swedish Linnaeus Society, commemorative volume, Uppsala 1979,
pp. 57-66, p. 61.
15. James Edward Smith, A Selection of the Correspondence of
Linnaeus and Other Naturalists (London, 1821, reprinted New
York: Arno Press, 1978), vol. 2, pp. 459-463.
16. Frans A. Stafleu,
Linnaeus and the Linnaeans:
the
Spreading of their Ideas in Systematic Botany, 1735-1789 (A.
Oosthoek's Uitgeversmaatschappij N.V. for the International
Association for Plant Taxonomy, Utrecht, Netherlands, 1971).
17. Martti Kerkkonen, Peter Kalm's North American Journey:
its Ideological Background and Results (Helsinki: Finnish
Historical Society, 1959).
18. James Edward Smith, A Selection of the Correspondence of
Linnaeus and Other Naturalists (London, 1821, reprinted New
York: Arno Press, 1978), vol 1, p. 111.
19. Von Haller to Bonnet 2 Feb 1761
"J'ai lu cet admirable
ouvrage de Lyonnet. Avec toute son exactitude il est bien sec.
Je m'apercois, que tout ce qui ne se lie pas aux sciences
utiles, ne m'interessent pas."
The Correspondence between
Albrecht von Haller and Charles Bonnet, ed. Otto Sonntag, Hans
Huber Publishers, Bern, 1983.
20. M. P. Winsor, Reading the Shape of Nature (University of
Chicago Press, 1991).
21. William Coleman, "The cognitive basis of the discipline:
Claude Bernard on physiology," Isis 76 (1985), pp. 49-70.
22. Everett Mendelsohn,
"The emergence of science as a
profession in nineteenth-century Europe," in The Management of
Scientists, ed. Karl B. Hill, Boston, 1964.
23. Carl Linnaeus, Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Natural
History Husbandry and Physick, transl. Benjamin Stillingfleet,
3rd ed., London, 1775, Reprint Arno Press, 1977, p. 125.
24. Tore Frdngsmyr, ed., Science in Sweden: The Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences: 1739-1989 (Science History Publications,
Canton, Massachusetts, 1989), pp. 10-11.
+----------------------+
| Electronic Resources |
+----------------------+
+---------------------------------------------------------+
|
|
| Using Library Catalogues and Databases through INTERNET |
|
|
|
By Julian A. Smith
|
|
|
+---------------------------------------------------------+
|
|
| Received May 17, 1992 |
| Revised
May 21, 1992 |
|
|
+--------------------------+
It is surprising how much of an academic's reasearch efforts
go into the simple "finding" of texts. Computer databases can
aid enormously in this work, but they are often difficult to
access, due to cryptic online commands, incompatible systems,
or the lack of any current directory to the rapidly growing
collection of online catalogues.
This brief paper provides
an introduction to the library databases available through
INTERNET, and a short guide on how historians of science may
access them.
Now most of us already have access to our local library
catalogues; and, for example, in Toronto (areas code 416),
historians may call up the libraries of the University of
Toronto (978-3959 or 978-7329, and type FELIX),York University
(736-5258 and type VTAM, then your terminal type...usually
VT100 or VT52) and the Etobicoke Public Library (245-0062).
Even IHPST's own library is now online through the HOSTBASE
Door of the HOST BBS (652-4440).
But what happens if you want to consult a library database
in another city?
Is there a way to do it without spending a
fortune in long-distance charges? The answer is yes...all you
need is access to INTERNET through either your own E-Mail
address, or that of IHPST. The trick is by using a program
called telnet.
Telnet allows you to open up your University
mainframe to another University...whereupon it can access the
library catalogue for you.
To do this, let us assume that you have dialed up the
University mainframe. In our Toronto example, this is usually
done through Kermit. Enter KERMIT at the DOS C:> prompt, and
it will give you an MS-Kermit> prompt. Enter UNIX12 or UNIX24
here (depending on the speed of your modem) and it will enter
the mainframe for you.
Type in your user identification and
password (or that your Institute) and you are ready.
The screen should give you a prompt like /homes/yourid/ % At
this, you type in telnet. You will get a telnet> prompt.
If
you enter a ?, you will get a full list of options,but for now
we only need a few: open, status, close and quit. Status shows
you whether or not you are online, and close and quit will
sever your connection and quit the telnet program, returning
you back to the /homes/yourid/ % prompt. Entering open, on the
other hand, will yield a (to) command, whereupon you can type
the INTERNET address of the library you want. We have included
a list of libraries, with their INTERNET addresses, at the end
of this paper. Let's try an example to see how it works.
Suppose I wanted to consult the online catalogue of the
California State University Library. After consulting our list
I would type, at the telnet open (to) prompt, the address:
COAST.LIB.CSULB.EDU and let telnet dial the library. Once on,
you will see a list of options, including t= to find a title,
a= to find an author, s= to find a subject, and k= to find
keywords.
At this point, you can enter your desired item to
search (say, Descartes) as a=Descartes and the California
computer will return a list of books by this figure. This can
all be captured by your host program as an ASCII download
file,or,if worst comes to worst, the keys "shift-print screen"
will suffice. When you have seen enough, you can usually exit
by typing in the telnet escape sequence, which is usually
Control-Z. However, the computer you have called may have its
own ideas about logging off...watch those opening screens
carefully!
Once you are out of the library, you may want to see if you
are still online to the other computer or not; status tells
you this. If you are and want to log off, type in close. And
when you want to leave telnet and go back to /homes/yourid/ %,
just type in quit.
Now you can read your e-mail, transfer
files, or whatever.
Logging out of Kermit involves a cryptic
Control-Right Square Bracket ^], then a Shift-Question mark ?,
then you type in c to close. The word exit gets you back to
the DOS prompt. That wasn't so hard, was it?
Before we finish this article, a few caveats are in order.
Virtually any telecommunications program can access telnet in
principle, but in practice certain function keys may not be
supported.
You should contact your systems advisor to be
sure.
Meanwhile, always be attentive to system changes! New
libraries are coming online all the time, and this list
is bound to become obsolete very quickly. Also realize that
this directory is far from complete...it lists only major
libraries known to the author, and ignores the enormous number
of online BBSs, data and text retrieval systems, and other
sources of information (these will be covered in future
articles).
Finally, as far as can be determined, these
systems are all free, and do not require either user accounts
or secret passwords. Good luck and happy researching!
AUSTRALIA
Australian Defence Force Academy:
To access the ADFA library system,TELNET LIBRARY.ADFA.OZ.AU.
When prompted for a destination, enter LIBRARY; when asked to
login, type E. To exit, pick the X option from the main menu.
Australian National University's Library:
The Australian National University's Library catalogue is
called URUCA. Telnet to FACTS11.ANU.OZ.AU (needs VT100). When
access to the network has been obtained, this will appear on
your screen:
CONNECT ANU CSC MICOM Classes are: ANUB COOMBS CSC0 CSC1
CSCUNIX FAC0 FAC1 FAC2 FACUNIX URICA ENTER CLASS.
Type in
URICA in response to this prompt. A URICA screen will appear.
All URICA enquiries are menu driven.URICA is always logged on,
except from 5 p.m. on Fridays, to 1 p.m., AEST on Saturdays,
when the system closes for maintenance.
To get a help screen, press the backslash key "`"; to finish
a URICA search (but not exit from the network), press the full
stop key. Enter "#4" to go back to the main menu, and to disconnect send a break. The network will automatically log you
off if you leave the keyboard idle for 15 minutes.
Deakin University Library:
Telnet to LIBRARY.DEAKIN.OZ.AU (128.184.1.1). The Library's
online system contains records for all items in the Library,as
well as items which are on-order. Also, the on-line system
contains the holdings at the Gordon Technical College Library.
If the connection is successful, you will receive something
like: SunOS UNIX (sol.deakin.OZ.AU.) login:
At this prompt,
type: alice.
The system will then indicate when ALICE was
last used, display "messages of the day", and then try to find
the type of terminal being used. If it fails, the system will
prompt you for the device type. TERM = (unknown). Type: <the
code corresponding to your terminal type>.
If you don't know
the terminal type, simply press [RETURN], and the system will
attempt to provide a reasonable format. The system will try to
establish a connection to the Library's computer. If it fails
the system will respond with "Remote is busy". The system will
then break the connection with your terminal,and you will need
to restart from Step 1 to establish a new connection.
If the connection is established, the system will respond by
a) clearing the screen, b) giving instructions to start and
finish an ALICE session i.e. type "Q" to start, <CR>~.<CR> to
end. You can now start ALICE, and any subsequent commands will
need to be ALICE commands. Usually, the right ALICE commands
are displayed at the bottom of the screen. To leave ALICE, you
type: ~. (i.e. tilde, dot) and [RETURN].
Griffith University:
To access, type TELNET LIBRARY.GU.EDU.AU.
To exit, use the TELNET escape key.
Macquarie University:
To access, type TELNET MARS.MQCC.MQ.OZ.AU.
To exit, use the TELNET escape key.
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology:
To access the Library Computer, TELNET CCANNEX02.XX.RMIT.EDU
When the menu appears, select either VICNET96 or VICNET24. At
the "Which System?" prompt, enter MATLAS. To logoff, type END.
Murdoch University
This Western Australia University Library may be accessed by
dialing telnet to LIBRARY.MURDOCH.EDU.AU. To logoff, use the
telnet escape key.
South Australian Institute of Technology:
To access, type TELNET LV.SAIT.EDU.AU and enter OPAC at the
Username prompt. To exit, hit CTRL-\.
University of Adelaide:
This library system is available by to INTERNET by dialing
telnet to library.adelaide.edu.au or 129.127.4.28.
When you
see the login:prompt,type in blsnet (be sure to use lowercase)
and you will be logged in.
To quit, use the telnet escape
key.
University of Melbourne:
Type TELNET LIBRARY.UNIMELB.EDU.AU.
To exit,
hit CTRL-X.
University of Newcastle:
To access, type in TELNET LIBRARY.NU.OZ.AU. At the username
prompt, type ALLEYCAT. To exit, type 0.
University of New England:
To access, type TELNET OPAC.UNE.OZ.AU.,
disconnect, use the TELNET escape key.
then type PAC.
To
University of New South Wales:
To access, type TELNET LIBPRIME.LIBSYS.UNSW.OZ.AU then enter
login libcat. To exit, use the TELNET escape key.
University of Queensland:
To access, type TELNET LIBSYS.CC.UQ.OZ.AU then enter BE.
exit, type END or BYE.
University of Western Australia:
To
To access, telnet to fennel.cc.uwa.oz.au, or alternatively,
to library.uwa.oz.au. This database has 650,000 records.
To
logoff, use Ctrl-D.
CANADA
Athabasca University:
To access, telnet to auctus.admin.athabascau.ca. You will be
prompted for a username; enter aucat.
When you want to exit,
type in quit.
Brandon University:
To access, telnet to library.brandonu.ca, or 142.13.16.102.
When prompted for a username, type in libcat. To logoff, type
in either E (exit, end) or Q (quit).
McGill University:
To access, telnet mvs.mcgill.ca, or 136.3206.27.5,and select
menu item 2. You will be prompted for a system to use: enter
MUSE at this point. To logoff, enter OFF.
Queen's University:
To access the Queen's University library, TELNET or TN3270
QUCDNADM.QUEENSU.CA (130.15.125.20).
To exit, use the TN3270
escape key.
University of Calgary:
To access, telnet to 136.159.1.70.
When prompted for your
request: type in library. Then choose your terminal type. To
logoff, use the telnet escape key.
University of New Brunswick:
To access, TELNET or TN3270 UNBMVS1.CSD.UNB.CA (131.202.1.2)
TAB down to the Application field, and enter NETLIB. To quit,
use the standard escape key.
University of Saskatchewan:
To access this system (700,000 records),telnet either one of
128.233.20.1 or 128.233.21.1. At the request: prompt, type in
LIB, and you will be logged in. To exit, use the telnet escape
key.
University of Toronto:
To access the University of Toronto through the Internet,use
telnet 128.100.100.31; and once you are on, type FELIX to get
into the library catalogue. Once in, you will be given a menu
of choices for branch libraries: ROBARTS,SIGSAM, SCIMED, ENGIN
and PHARM (for Robarts Main Humanities Library, Sigmund Samuel
Humanities Library, Science and Medicine Library, Engineering
Library, and Pharmacy Library).
Type in the one you want and
press enter; BYE at the main FELIX screen will let you logoff.
Be careful to enter branch commands in Uppercase only.
University of Western Ontario:
To access thias GEAC-based system, telnet 129.100.2.14, and
once on, enter NET to get into the system, and LIBRARY to get
into the library. SEND will be one of your F keys (this will
depend on your terminal emulation), and needs experimentation.
To logoff, use the telnet escape key.
York University:
To access, telnet to 130.63.1.10. When prompted for your
terminal type, try VT100.
If you get the main system logon,
start by typing VTAM; if not, all you need is YORKLINE to let
you into the York library.
FINLAND
Helsinki: Finnish National Bibliography
FENNICA, the Finnish National Bibliography, consisting of 20
thousand serials and 200 thousand monographs (1977-present) is
available in Swedish or English via telnet to HYK.HELSINKI.FI,
or 128.214.4.130. At the login,type HELLO yourname,USER.CLAS01
and you should be allowed in. At the ANNA UUSI prompt, enter
/LANG1 to get English, or /LANG2 to get Swedish.
GERMANY
University of Konstanz:
POLYDOS.UNI-KONSTANZ.DE is the Konstanz library, running
KOALA, a proprietary online cataloging/database software. It
may be used to scan the library's inventory of about 1,400,000
volumes,using (combinations of) about a dozen search criteria,
such as ISBN, ISSN, authors' names, title etc. The user interface is TTY-like and entirely in German. It features an online
help system, and message handling to contact the database
managers.
To access, telnet polydos.uni-konstanz.de (134.34.
3.5), on ***PORT 775***, during library opening hours (8:00 to
21:30 local time on Mon to Fri, 9:00 to 19:00 local time on
Sat.). There are a few limitations to using KOALA:the machine
is quite slow (and suffers from overload), and the number of
KOALA sessions in parallel is limited (currently to 9).
ISRAEL
ALEPH: The Inter-University Computerized Catalog System:
All the Israeli libraries are interconnected, and all may be
accessed through any telnet port. Just telnet to any of these
locations, and enter the username: ALEPH, and select your terminal. Be careful not to select any demanding Hebrew letters;
unless your machine is properly configured, it will make your
screen unrecognizable. Once in, three letter codes (in menus)
let you choose any of the libraries below (and their branches)
easily:
telnet address
RAM2.HUJI.AC.IL
(128.139.4.207)
ALEPH.BIU.AC.IL
(132.70.9.36)
BGULIB.BGU.AC.IL
LIB.HAIFA.AC.IL
(132.74.1.100)
ALEPH.HUJI.AC.IL
(128.139.4.207)
LIB.TECHNION.AC.IL
(132.68.1.20)
TAUVAX.TAU.AC.IL
(132.66.32.6)
WISLUB.WEIZMANN.AC.IL (132.76.64.14)
location
Central Aleph
Bar-Ilan University
Ben-Gurion University
Haifa University
Hebrew University
Technion University
Tel Aviv University
Weizmann Science Inst.
MEXICO
I.T.E.S.M.:
The Instituto Tecnologico y Estudios Superiores de Monterrey
Online Catalog is formed by 26 campuses in 22 different cities
all over Mexico. To access, telnet mtecv2.mty.itesm.mx, then,
at the login prompt type "mtycat" with no password. The system
is key sensitive, so you must type "mtycat". The presentation
screen describes the system in Spanish; at this, type in "r".
Library of the Universidad de las Americas, Pueblas:
The library's online catalog may be accessed by using telnet
bibes.pue.udlap.mx (140.148.1.5). When the system prompts you
for a username: type <LIBRARY> (you need VT100 emulation). The
online catalog may be accessed Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m.
-10:00 p.m., and Saturday from 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
However,
due to maintenance requirements, it may not be available from
3:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m. on Friday.
NEW ZEALAND
Victoria University of Wellington:
To access,telnet library.vuw.ac.nz, and when prompted ENTER
SERVICE: Enter "LIB". It will say "Press RETURN to log on GO";
press RETURN. When prompted "LOGON PLEASE:", enter "PUB" and
RETURN. You should see a screen whose last line reads: "To use
the catalog press the key labeled <Return>".
To disconnect,
please return to this screen, enter "LATER" and press RETURN.
SWITZERLAND
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology:
To access, telnet ethics.ethz.ch. To escape, use the local
telnet escape key. Caution: as far as is known, this service
is only available between 0400-0800 AM local time.
UNITED KINGDOM
All the English libraries are accessed through one centre.
You simply telnet to SUN.NSF.AC.UK, or 128.86.8.7. The system
will ask you for a login: type in janet
(make sure you use
lowercase). You do not need a password. Once in, you can call
any library you want (out of 67!),
using the host addresses
listed below.
If you are prompted for a "logon", usually the
word LIBRARY does the trick.
Aberdeen University: uk.ac.aberdeen.library
Continuous. 600,000 records.
Aberystwyth University: uk.ac.aberystwyth.library.
User: library. Available 0830-2300. EXIT to logoff.
Aston University: uk.ac.aston.geac
Available 0900-2200 (M-Th), 0900-1900 (Fr), 0900-1700 (Sa).
180,000 records. END to logoff
Bangor University: uk.ac.bangor.library
Available 0800-2215 (M-Fr), 0900-2300 (Sa), 0800-2300 (Su).
275,000 records.
Bath University: uk.ac.bath.library
Login with password OPAC. Continuous.
250,000 records.
OFF to logoff.
Belfast's Queen's University: uk.ac.queens-belfast.library
Birmingham University: uk.ac.birmingham.library
Available 0900-2300 (M-F), 0900-1230 (Sa).
825,000 records.
Bristol University: uk.ac.bristol.lib
Username: library. EXIT to logout. Available 0730-2400.
450,000 records.
Brunel University: uk.ac.brunel.lib
Available 0900-2100 (M-Th), 0900-1800 (Fr), 0930 Sa - 0800 M.
200,000 records.
Cambridge University: uk.ac.cambridge.university-library
Enter Y to logon. Continuous. Branch libraries in menus.
City of London Polytechnic: uk.ac.city-poly.tower.vax
Username: library. Available 0730-2230. 155,000 records.
City University: uk.ac.city.library
Available 0930-2030.
Cranfield Institute of Technology: uk.ac.cranfield.library
Available: 0800-2400. EXIT to logoff. 125,000 records.
Dundee University: uk.ac.dund.lib
Continuous. 240,000 records.
Dundee College of Technology: uk.ac.dundee-tech.library
Durham University: uk.ac.durham.library
Type <CR> when connected. 500,000 records.
2200 (M-Sa), 1330-2200 (Su).
Available 0830-
East Anglia: uk.ac.east-anglia.computing-centre.info
Username: INFO. Continuous. 495,000 records.
Edinburgh University: uk.ac.edinburgh.geac
Continuous. 1,000,000 records.
Edinburgh University - Eulolis: uk.ac.edinburgh.emas-a
User: LIBRARY. Password: GUEST. Serials lists.
Essex University: uk.ac.sx.sersun1
Login: library.
Exeter University: uk.ac.exeter.library
Username: LIBRARY. EXIT to quit. Available 0800-2300.
500,000 records.
Glasgow University: uk.ac.glasgow.library
END to exit from OPAC system.
1,000,000 records.
(M-Sa), 1400-2130 (Su).
0900-2130
Heriot-Watt University: uk.ac.heriot-watt.library
Logon: Set terminal to 8-bit no parity. Logoff using Ctrl/P A.
Hull University: uk.ac.hull.li.geac
Continuous.
Kent University: uk.ac.ukc.iris
Username:UKCLIB. Password:UKCLIB.
305,300 records.
Username:CATS.
0800-2400.
Lancaster University: uk.ac.lancaster.library
Continuous. 530,000 records.
Leeds Polytechnic: uk.ac.leeds-poly.library
Leeds University: uk.ac.leeds.library
Available 0900-2200. END to exit. 900,000 records.
Leicester Polytechnic: uk.ac.leicp.opac
Logon: SERVICE: OPAC. Available 0845-2100.
245,000 records.
Leicester University: uk.ac.leicester.library
Username: LIBRARY.
EXIT to logoff.
Available:
750,000 records.
0900-2200.
Liverpool University: uk.ac.liverpool.library
Continuous. To logoff, select "Stop this DOBIS/LIBIS session".
London University - Central Libertas: uk.ac.lon.consull
Username: LIBRARY.
London University - Politics and EconomicsL uk.ac.lse.blpes
Username: LIBRARY.
London University - Imperial College of Science,Technology and
Medicine: uk.ac.imperial.lib
Username: LIBRARY.
EXIT to
logoff. Available: 0800-2400. 305,000 records.
London University - King's College: uk.ac.kcl.lib
Username: LIBRARY.
0830 - 2100 (M-Fr), 0900 - 1900 (Sa-Su).
800,000 records.
London University - Queen Mary and Westfield College:
uk.ac.qmw.lib
Available 0800 - 2300.
EXIT to
Username: LIBRARY.
logoff.
London University - Royal Holloway and Bedford New College:
uk.ac.rhbnc.lib
EXIT to logoff.
Available: 0800 - 2115.
Username: LIBRARY.
London University - University College: uk.ac.ucl.lib
Username: LIBRARY. Available 0800-2400. EXIT to logoff.
thousand records.
Loughborough University: uk.ac.lut.lib
To exit, type E. Available 0700-2200.
300
290,000 records.
Manchester University:uk.ac.manchester.central-services.pacx-b
Logon: Owens Class: LIBRARY.
Enter ? at terminal type screen
for a list; choose 229 if you're not sure which one you want.
600,000 records.
Newcastle University: uk.ac.durham.gate
Logon: Which Service? NCL.INFO. Continuous.
500,000 records.
Nottingham University: uk.ac.nottingham.library
Logon: LIBRARY. Available: 0800-2200. 400,000 records.
Open University: uk.ac.open.acs.vax
Logon: Username: OULIBRARY. EXIT to logoff. Available:
to 2400 (M-F), 0830-1700 (Sa-Su). 140,000 records.
0830
Oxford Polytechnic: uk.ac.oxford-poly.library
Oxford University: uk.ac.ox.pacx, or uk.ac.oxford.gandalf-pacx
Enter <CR> at "Call connected..." prompt; at "Which Service?"
enter LIBRARY.
Terminal Type: VT100 or PC.
To logoff, type
//stop. Continuous.
Polytechnic of Central London: uk.ac.pcl.yak
User: LIBRARY. EXIT to logoff. Continuous.
150,000 records.
Polytechnic South West: uk.ac.poly-south-west.library
Username: LIBRARY. 0830-2200 (M-F), 0900-1700 (Sa), 1000-1800
(Su).
344,000 records.
Reading University: uk.ac.rdg.linnet
When connected press Ctrl-O twice. Clear screen with Ctrl-P/A
and CLR.
Rutherford Appleton Library: uk.ac.rutherford.ibm-b
logon using LOGON LIB4, LIB5, LIB7, or LIB8. Password depends
on season: SPRING92, SUMMER92, AUTUMN92, WINTER92, etc.
END
to logoff. 90,000 records.
St. Andrews University: uk.ac.st-andrews.lib
or: uk.ac.st-andrews.circon 180,000 records.
Salford University: uk.ac.salford.saiso
To logout: @<CR>. Available: 0900-2050 (M-F), 0900-1200 (Sa).
160,000 records.
Sheffield University: uk.ac.sheffield.library
0800 - 2130 (M-Sa), except 0800-1700 (F).
600,000 records.
South Bank Polytechnic: uk.ac.southbank-poly.geac
Logon: at prompt, enter G. 0900-2100 (M-F). 250,000 records.
Southampton University: uk.ac.southampton.using
Logon: type Logon using. Continuous. 500,500 records.
Staffordshire Polytechnic:
uk.ac.staffordshire-polytechnic.library.
GEAC system in use.
Stirling University: uk.ac.stirling.library
LIBRARY to logon. Continuous. 200,000 records.
Strathclyde University: uk.ac.strathclyde.library
END to logout at any time. 320,000 records. 0830-2200 (M-F),
0830-1200 (Sa).
Surrey University: uk.ac.surrey.sysi
Login: type LOGIN MCS999. Password: SIS. Down 0700-0900 daily.
250,000 records.
Sussex University: uk.ac.sussex.library
Continuous. 425,000 records.
Swansea University: uk.ac.swansea.library
Username: LIBRARY.
EXIT to logout.
Available: 0800 - 2400.
400,000 items.
Thames Polytechnic: uk.ac.thames.library
At prompt: PAD> type CALL LIBRARY. 0900-2100
1700 (F).
University of London: uk.ac.lon.consull
(M-Th),
0900 -
University of Ulster: uk.ac.ulster.library
University of Manchester, Institute of Science and Technology:
uk.ac.umist.central-services.prime-a.
Login: LOGIN LIBRARY. Password: LIBRARY. Available:0900-2245.
150,000 records.
University of Wales College of Cardiff:
Available: 0745-2130. 360,000 records.
uk.ac.cardiff.library
Warwick University: uk.ac.warwick.opac
Logon: type OPAC.
Quit: Ctrl-Y three times.
Availability
uncertain: believed 0900-2130 daily. 420,000 records.
York University: uk.ac.york.library
Continuous. 230,000 records.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS:
To access, telnet dra.com, or 192.65.218.43.
Assumes VT100
terminal emulation. To logoff, use telnet escape key.
ALABAMA:
Auburn University:
Telnet to AUDUCACD.DUC.AUBURN.EDU. Push TAB until the cursor
is in the APPLICATION field.
Type 01, and press RETURN.
CALIFORNIA:
California State University, Long Beach:
Telnet to COAST.LIB.CSULB.EDU, and VT100 or VT102 at the
terminal type prompt. Press the return key a few times. COAST
(NOTIS) should be self-explanatory and help screens abound. To
leave system, use the telnet escape command.
Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo:
Telnet to library.calpoly.edu. Enter the username of POLYCAT
and follow the instructions. To disconnect, enter a ctrl-d.
The University of California's online catalog:
Telnet MELVYL at MELVYL.UCOP.EDU. VT100 is supported, and
logoff instructions are provided.
University of California, Berkeley:
Telnet to GopAC.BERKELEY.EDU.
The GLADIS library catalogue
is public access and does not need a password. The catalog has
the holdings of most UCB libraries,including the main library,
the Moffitt Undergraduate Library, the Bancroft Library and 23
branch libraries. The catalog is complete for monographs from
1977 to the present and incomplete for earlier monographs.
California State University:
To access, type TELNET COAST.LIB.CSULB.EDU, and enter VT100
at the ENTER TERMINAL TYPE prompt.
Press RETURN a few times.
The connection can be closed by hitting the TELNET escape key.
Claremont Colleges:
This system serves the six Claremont Colleges: Harvey-Mudd,
Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Scripps, Pitzer, and the Claremont
Graduate School.
To access, TELNET BLIAS.CLAREMONT.EDU, and
at the login prompt, type library. Enter v for terminal type,
and y to confirm. To exit, select B on the main menu.
Occidental College:
To access, telnet kitty.oxy.edu, and type oasys.
use the telnet escape command.
To logoff,
COLORADO:
Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries-CARL:
To access, telnet to pac.carl.org. VT100 is supported, and
logoff instructions are provided.
CARL offers the following
groups of databases:
1. Library Catalogs
2. Current Article Indexes and Access (including UnCover)
3. Information Databases (including Encyclopedia)
4. Other Library Systems
5. Library and System News
LIBRARY CATALOGS
6. Auraria Library
17. Regis/Teikyo Loretto
7. School of Mines
18. Luther College
8. Univ Colo at Boulder
19. Northwest College
9. Univ Colo Health Sciences
20. State Dept. of Education
10. Univ Colo Law Library
21. Colorado State Publications
11. Denver Public Library
22. Government Publications
12. Denver University
23. Univ Col Film/Video-Stadium
13. Denver University Law
24. CCLINK-Community Colleges
14. Univ of Northern Colorado 25. Colorado Health Sciences
15. University of Wyoming
26. High Plains Libraries
16. Colorado State University
CARL Library catalogs now contain over 4 million records.
CURRENT ARTICLE INDEXES AND ACCESS:
ARTICLE INDEXES:
UNION LISTS:
50. UnCover-Article Access
53. Boston Library Consortium
51. Magazines / Trade & Industry Index (includes full text
delivery)
CURRENT RECEIPTS
NATIONAL SERIALS DATABASE
52. New Journal Issues
54. CONSER
FULL TEXT:
55. Online Libraries
INFORMATION DATABASES:
60. Choice Book Reviews
61. Encyclopedia
62. Environmental Education
63. Metro Denver Facts
64. School Model Programs
65. Internet Resource Guide
OTHER LIBRARY SYSTEMS:
70. Boulder Public Library (Boulder, CO)
71. MARMOT Library System (Colorado Western Slope)
72. Pikes Peak Library System (Colorado Springs, CO)
73. University of Hawaii System (Honolulu, HI)
74. Montgomery County Dept. Public Libraries (Rockville, MD)
75. Northeastern University (Boston, MA)
News is currently available for:
1. Auraria
9. University of Wyoming
2. C.U., Boulder
10. C.U. Health Sciences
3. Denver Public Library
11. Info Colorado
4. Denver University
12. Government Pub.
5. Denver University Law Library
13. Luther College
6. School of Mines
14. CC Link (Comm Coll)
7. U.N.C.
15. GENERAL PAC NEWS
8. Regis College
16. Technos : January
DATABASE: UnCover:
This database contains records describing journals and their
contents. Coverage is rapidly growing as CARL member holdings
are processed. UnCover is restricted to the patrons of CARL's
member Libraries. Others may make special arrangements.
DATABASE: Encyclopedia:
The Academic American Encyclopedia, by Grolier Electronic
Publishing, is a 20 volume encyclopedia.
It contains 30,000
articles of general interest in the humanities, sciences and
the social sciences, as well as information about contemporary
life.
Many biographies are included, and the information is
updated regularly. Note: The encyclopedia is restricted to the
patrons of certain of CARL's member libraries.
DATABASE: Choice Book Reviews:
The file includes reviews from September 1988 on,supplied by
the Association of College and Research Libraries.
DATABASE: BLC Union List:
This database has the current journal holdings of the Boston
Library Consortium, a cooperative association of academic and
research libraries in the Greater Boston area. It includes the
State Library of Massachusetts, Boston College, the Boston
Public Library, Tufts University, Boston University, MIT, the
University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Boston, and Worcest.,
Brandeis University, Northeastern University, and Wellesley
College.
DATABASE: Conser:
The CONSER file is a subset of the authenticated MARC CONSER
file. It contains approximately 220,000 bibliographic records.
DATABASE: Metro Denver Facts:
METRO DENVER FACTS is "a statistical summary of metropolitan
Denver's growth and assets as a business location." The data
is supplied by the Economic Development Group of the Greater
Denver Chamber of Commerce, and is presented here as a project
of the METRO DENVER NETWORK and CARL.
DATABASE: InfoColorado:
InfoColorado is a pilot database pertaining to the business
and economy of Colorado and its municipalities. It is made up
of newspaper abstracts dating from November 1986, as well as
from selected issues of area business journals and reports.All
call numbers refer to Auraria Library.
DATABASE: New Journal Issues:
Information about journal issues received the previous day
by some of the CARL libraries.
CONNECTICUT:
Yale University:
To access, use TN3270 orbis.yale.edu
DELAWARE:
University of Delaware Libraries:
To access, telnet to DELCAT.UDEL.EDU or DELCAT.ACS.UDEL.EDU.
In response to the ENTER TERMINAL TYPE: prompt, type your
terminal type and press the RETURN key.
Press it again when
the "Welcome to DELCAT" screen appears. To log off,type either
QUIT or EXIT and press the RETURN key.
FLORIDA:
State University System:
LUIS (Library User Information Service) is the catalog of the
State University System (SUS) libraries. LUIS runs on hardware
belonging to the NERDC.
It is run by the Florida Center for
Library Automation (FCLA), a SUS agency. There are actually 9
LUIS catalogs, one for each university.
LUIS is available
7:30 a.m.-1:00 a.m.Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m.-1:00 a.m. Saturday
and 10:00 a.m.-1:00 a.m. Sunday.
To log on, use the tn3270
version of telnet to connect to nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu.
After
reaching nervm, press enter. CP READ will be displayed in the
lower right corner. Type DIAL VTAM and press enter. The screen
will clear and the message NERDC VTAM IS ACTIVE will be shown.
Next, type "nerluis" on the next line and press enter; then,
after you see "NERDC VTAM IS ACTIVE:, type nerluis.
You will
see the WELCOME TO NERLUIS screen. Type "1" here after ENTER
SELECTION HERE and press enter.
You will then see the NERDC
SECURITY MODULE screen. Type "fcl" after GROUP-ID. The cursor
will tab to the next line after "fcl" and your operator ID, so
do not press enter. For demonstration purposes,type "aaya" for
both operator ID and password, and then press enter.
You should see the message SIGN-ON COMPLETE. Press the clear
key to clear the screen, then type "luis" and press enter to
display a menu showing each of the catalogs available in LUIS.
Type the number associated with the desired LUIS catalog, and
press enter. To change catalogs, type "menu" from the command
line of any screen to return to the catalog menu screen.
To
exit LUIS, press your clear key until the screen is clear. If
you have problems clearing your screen, type "#$#$" and enter
on the command line. This gets you out of the catalog you are
in, but you are still signed on to LUIS.
When the screen is
clear, type logoff and press enter.
When you see the message
SIGN-OFF IS COMPLETE, you are logged off and the message NERDC
VTAM IS ACTIVE will reappear.
To end the telnet connection,
type UNDIAL, and press enter when the NERDC VTAM IS ACTIVE
message reappears.
GEORGIA:
Emory University Libraries Online Public Access Catalog:
The online catalog system is based on IBM DOBIS/Leuven software. It contains the union catalog for 5 library groups:
General (Woodruff, Chandler, and Chemistry Libraries), Health
Sciences Center Library, Law Library, Oxford College Library,
and Theology Library. The catalog database contains more than
500,000 bibliographic records.
The online catalog is located
on host EMUVM1.CC.EMORY.EDU; TN3270 emulation is required.
After you see the VM screen,press ENTER to get CP READ. Type
DIAL VTAM and press ENTER. At the VTAM screen, type LIB and
press ENTER. When the CICS screen appears, press the PF1 key.
The next screen will be the initial library systems screen. To
exit, terminate the telnet connection. Context-sensitive help
is available in the catalog with the PF2 key.
No account or
password is required. Scheduled availability: Monday-Saturday
0800 - 0200; Sunday Noon - 0200.
ILLINOIS:
Northwestern University "LUIS":
To access, telnet PACX.ACNS.NWU.EDU. Once on, press ENTER or
RETURN; you will then see "enter class". Type 60, and press
ENTER or RETURN twice. At this point you will be prompted for
a terminal type; VT100 is preferred. Pressing ENTER or RETURN
again will provide you the catalog's introductory screen.
To
sign off, please enter a percent sign (%) at any prompt.
You
can then disconnect your telnet session. The online catalog
disconnects if there is no keyboard activity within a 2 minute
period. A help screen explaining the NOTIS-based system may be
seen by typing an ampersand &.
University of Chicago:
To access, telnet to OLORIN.UCHICAGO.EDU, and at the ENTER
CLASS prompt, enter LIB48. When CONNECTED appears,press RETURN
and to exit the system, type LOGOUT.
The University of Illinois at Chicago:
To access, telnet to UICVM.UIC.EDU; you should see a screen
with "more" in the right corner.
Use Clear key, and you will
get UIC _ame screen; then press enter, and at the logon screen
type: DIAL PVM. At the response: PVM (Passthru) screen, move
the cursor to NOTIS and press the Enter key twice. This should
give you the LUIS introductory screen.
To leave, type ####,
then after the PVM (Passthru) screen, type PA1.
You will see
the same screen with a telnet message in lower left corner. At
this point, type QUIT and press enter.
University of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign System:ILLINET Online:
The online system for the University of Illinois library,and
over 800 academic, public, and special libraries in Illinois.
To access, telnet GARCON.CSO.UIUC.EDU; the hours are Monday Saturday: 8:00 a.m. - Midnight, and Sunday Noon-Midnight. You
can also telnet to the host or the address and enter LCS at
the login prompt.
There are over 3,000,000 titles in the
University of Illinois Library, and 20 million in the state.
INDIANA:
Indiana University:
To access, type TN3270 IUIS3270.UCS.INDIANA.EDU, or TELNET
IUIS.UCS.INDIANA.EDU. Enter VT100 as the terminal type, and
pick 4 on the menu. To exit, enter Q twice.
Purdue University:
To access, type tn3270 lib.cc.purdue.edu, or 128.210.9.8.
To logoff , type q (enter) and then quit (enter). THOR--THe
Online Resource is an on-line database of information about
books, periodicals, and other items in the Purdue University
Libraries.All serials and books added to the Libraries after
June 1976 can be found in THOR.
THOR is controlled through
a set of single letter commands followed by an equal sign =.
Type the command,your search topic, and press the ENTER key.
Upper and lower case are the same. For instructions,type the
search command without the equal sign.
Prior to searching,
press the clear button until the THOR menu screen appears.
Then pick either the BOOK or FILM/VIDEO database to search.
The University of Notre Dame Library:
Telnet to IRISHMVS.CC.ND.EDU; TN3270 emulation is required.
At the ENTER COMMAND OR HELP prompt enter "library" and press
the enter key. You will be logged onto the library system via
SIM3278 either as a VT100 terminal or a 3278-2 terminal. #HELP
gets SIM3278 help. The rest of the instructions are on the
screen (after clearing the intro logo). To leave type x on the
command line and press the enter key. At the ENTER COMMAND OR
HELP prompt, type bye and press the enter key.
KANSAS:
The University of Kansas Library:
Telnet to KUHUB.CC.UKANS.EDU; VT100 emulation is supported
and logoff instructions are provided. For system availability
(voice), call (913) 864-4320. For assistance, or to report a
problem, call (913) 864-0110.
At the username prompt, type
relay; you should see "University of Kansas X.25 Network Relay
Facility".
Type one of the following mnemonics to connect to
the given system:
VM: NAS 8043 (VM/CMS)
MVS: IBM 3082
Harris: Harris 100 (VDS)
OCAT: On-Line Library Catalog System<CR>
Help: Network Help/Status Facility
DELPHI: The Delphi Network
telnet: prompts for a telnet address
Tn3270: prompts for a telnet address (using IBM 3270)
Or type q to quit. At system ? type OCAT and return. You will
see "Connecting to On-line Library Catalog system...Enter
Terminal Type:" There are many choices here,
but if you are
emulating a VT100, try typing vt100 enter to pick up the local
modifications to the character set.
At the prompt "UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS (LAWRENCE) VTAM NETWORK
TYPE SYSTEM ID AND PRESS ENTER OR PRESS ENTER FOR OPTIONS" you
should type ocat, then return. You get a "SIGN ON-CLEAR SCREEN
TYPE OCAT OR CSSN AND PRESS ENTER TRANSACTION";a banner screen
appears here. Just escape twice, then type ocat and press
return. You should see "University of Kansas Libraries-Online
Catalog and Information System".You will then be logged on. To
logoff, use the telnet escape key.
Kansas State University:
To access the catalog, type TN3270 KSUVM.KSU.EDU and then
LOGON LYNX. Alternatively, use TELNET TELNET.KSU.EDU; select
destination as KSUVM, enter VT100 at terminal type prompt, and
type LOGON LYNX. To logoff, type QUIT.
MAINE:
Bates College:
Telnet library.bates.edu; after connecting, type ladd.
Bowdoin College:
Telnet phebe.bowdoin.edu; after connecting, type library.
Colby College Library System:
Telnet library.colby.edu; after connecting, type Innopac.
University of Maine System Library Catalog:
To access,telnet to URSUS.MAINE.EDU; URSUS is the catalog of
the University of Maine System Libraries, using the Innovative
Interfaces software (INNOPAC). After you have connected, type
ursus in lower case letters at the login prompt,and then press
RETURN to see a list of valid terminal types: VT100, Wyse, or
emulator. Specify your terminal type and confirm it, and begin
searching. The URSUS database contains more than 700,000
bibliographic records.
MARYLAND:
AIM (Access to Information about Maryland):
Telnet to AIM.UMD.EDU, a database of activities and services
available at the College Park campus.
The main intent is oncampus use, but the information is public.Besides a menu-based
directory,the system also provides schedules for campus events
(type "S" at the main menu).
UMCAT (Online Catalog for UM Libraries):
Telnet to UMCAT.UMD.EDU, a public access catalog for the
libraries of five campuses (UMCP,UMAB-Law,UMBC,UMES,and UMUC),
run on a Geac 8000 system at the University of Maryland at
College Park. If blank screen appears, type CAT to access the
online catalog.
MASSACHUSETTS:
Boston University "TOMUS":
Telnet to LIBRARY.BU.EDU;VT1 emulation is supported and logoff instructions are provided. Boston University's Catalogue
(TOMUS) has over 1,500,000 volumes and 2,500,000 microforms.
The collection represents a majority of the holdings for all
libraries on campus. TOMUS is a Carlyle system and provides
online help screens.
HOLLIS-Harvard University OnLine Library Information System:
Telnet or TN3270 to hollis.harvard.edu (128.103.60.31).
If
the next screen you see begins "Mitek Server..."press ENTER or
RETURN. VT100 emulation is provided, but only those terminals
connecting as ascii devices see this screen.
The next screen
will begin "HARVARD UNIVERSITY / OFFICE FOR
INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY". Type "hollis" after the prompt and pressENTER:==>
hollis. "Welcome to HOLLIS" should appear next.
No password
is needed. The union catalog of the Harvard libraries (HU) and
the database of older Widener Library materials (OW) have no
access restrictions.
However, some other databases in HOLLIS
may have access restrictions because of vendor requirements.
To exit, use the telnet escape command.
If (and only if) you
came in through "Mitek Server...", you can also exit by
pressing the Escape key and typing the letter "x" twice: ESC
xx.
MICHIGAN:
The University of Michigan:
Telnet to CTS.MERIT.EDU; VT100 emulation is supported and
logoff instructions are provided. The University of Michigan
uses NOTIS under MVS/ESA on an IBM 3090-600E. After telneting
to Michigan, you may have to type a RETURN for the system to
recognize you. You will then be prompted for terminal type,
(VT100 is recommended). The system will follow with a prompt
asking "Which Host?".
Enter "mirlyn".
You will be asked to
confirm your terminal type, after which you should get a NOTIS
screen. To exit, type ctrl-e %quit or disconnect your telnet.
Michigan State University Libraries:
Telnet to magic.lib.msu.edu;TN3270 emulation is recommended.
At the VM3270 screen, type: dial magic <cr>; at the Terminal
Emulator screen: VT100 <cr>.
If only VT100 emulation is
available, use the following IP address and logon steps:
merit.msu.edu; at the Which Host? prompt, enter: MAGIC <cr>;
and at terminal emulation i.d., enter: VT100 <cr>. To logoff,
enter an appropriate break command, then enter quit twice. The
catalog of the Michigan State University Libraries contains
1,300,000 records of books, serials, microforms, software, and
other non-book materials. Hours of availability (EDT):MondayFriday 7:30 a.m.-11:15 p.m.; Saturday 10:00 a.m. -11:15 p.m.,
and Sunday Noon - 11:15 p.m. During term breaks, try MondayFriday 7:30 a.m.-6:15 p.m.; and Saturday 10:00 a.m.-6:15 p.m.
Wayne State University:
Telnet with TN3270 to CMS.CC.WAYNE.EDU; use TAB to move to
the COMMAND line. At the COMMAND line, type DIAL VTAM. At the
WSUNET menu, type LUIS. To exit the system, type LOGOUT.
MINNESOTA:
The University of Minnesota Library System:
Telnet to LUMINA.LIB.UMN.EDU; TN3270 emulation is required.
Running NOTIS on an IBM 4381, LUMINA (Libraries of the
University of Minnesota Integrated Network Access) has nearly
all the current collection on-line.
The system is considered
by some to be relatively difficult to use, involving complex
logoff escape sequences, for example. Be prepared to break the
connection from your end using the telnet escape command.
MISSOURI:
University of Missouri:
Telnet to UMRVMB.UMR.EDU; at the CP READ prompt, enter DIAL
VTAM Enter LUMIN.
To exit, close with whatever break command
works for you.
University of Missouri at Rolla:
To access, type TN3270 UMRVMB.UMR.EDU, press RETURN, and at
the CP READ prompt, enter DIAL VTAM. Enter LUMIN, and press
RETURN.
To exit, type #LOGOFF, enter /NET at the Enter
Application Name prompt, and enter UNDIAL.
University of Missouri at St. Louis:
To access, type TN3270 UMSLVMA.UMSL.EDU; TAB down to the
COMMAND prompt, enter DIAL VTAM, and at the VTAM LOGON prompt,
enter LIBCICS. To exit, type #LOGOFF, and when the VTAM LOGON
appears, enter UNDIAL.
Washington University-St. Louis
To access WUSTL's library computer, TELNET WUGATE.WUSTL.EDU
and at the login: prompt, type LUIS. Choose VT100 as terminal
type, and at the menu, choose option 1.
To exit the library,
the connection is be closed by hitting the TELNET escape key.
NEBRASKA:
University of Nebraska:
To access the University of Nebraska Library, type in TELNET
UNLLIB.UNL.EDU; and at the login: prompt, type LIBRARY. Then
select V for type of terminal, and enter Y to confirm. To logoff, enter D.
NEVADA:
University of Nevada Las Vegas:
To access, type TELNET LIBRARY.LV-LIB.NEVADA.EDU, and at the
login: prompt, type LIBRARY. Select V for type of terminal,
and enter Y to confirm. To logoff, enter D.
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
Dartmouth College Library Online Catalog:
Telnet to LIB. DARTMOUTH.EDU; VT100 emulation is supported
and logoff instructions are provided.
Contents include BOOKS
file-all monographic holdings of Dartmouth College Libraries;
BOOKS file-all serial holdings;and ORDERS file-on order and in
process materials. DARTMOUTH MEDLINE is available to students,
staff and faculty; Grolier's Academic Encyclopedia is also restricted to them. Other files of Dartmouth Special Collections
are also available. SELECT FILE for a list of files.
NEW JERSEY:
Princeton University Library:
To access the Library Catalog telnet PUCABLE.PRINCETON.EDU
At the response: Connect message, blank screen, type: <cr>. At
the response: #, type: Call 500.
You should see the welcome
screen for the Online Catalog. To exit, type end.
You will
see the response: # (your session will be ended).
Rutgers University:
To access,type TELNET LIBRARY.RUTGERS.EDU, and press RETURN.
To exit, type END.
NEW MEXICO:
The University of New Mexico:
To asccess, telnet BOOTES.UNM.EDU.
This will get you into
the General Library, the Parish (business) Library,the Science
and Engineering Library, and the Medical Center Library. VT100
emulation is supported and logoff instructions are provided.At
the login prompt, enter STUDENT1.....STUDENT6. No password is
required. Select Library from main menu.
University of New Mexico General Library:
Telnet to 129.24.8.195. Type start to display the LIBROS
welcome screen. Online help screens are available by entering
help or a ?. LIBROS has all US Government Printing Office
cataloging records since 1976. The US GPO records are updated
monthly. LIBROS also contains some cataloging records from the
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and the Planning
Library of the City of Albuquerque. The system offers keyword,
boolean search capability. In addition to author, title, and
subject search commands, LIBROS offers an abstract index and
retrieves all keywords from the abstract field. US GPO records
and the City of Albuquerque Planning Library use the abstract
field. The command find abstract is used to retrieve keywords
from the abstract field.
Most materials listed in LIBROS are
available through interlibrary loan or individuals may contact
the UNM Library Document Delivery Service.The Delivery Service
charges a minimum of $5.00 per request for mailing photocopies
directly to requestors.
The Document Delivery Service may be
contacted by phone at 505-277-7135 or by FAX at 505-277-6019,
or by Internet at srollins@bootes.unm.edu, or by Bitnet at
srollins@unmb.
University of New Mexico Medical Center Library:
Telnet to BOOTES.UNM.EDU, and at the username prompt, enter
UNM_INFO. Select the option for libraries and from that menu,
select the Medical Center Library.
New Mexico State University:
Telnet to LIBRARY.NMSU.EDU; VT100 emulation is possible but
not explicitly present. Logoff instructions are provided.
At
the ":", enter "hello user.libr01"
NEW YORK:
Cornell University:
The online catalog database is stored on the IBM mainframe
computer CORNELLC and includes records for about one-half of
the 5,000,000 volumes owned by the sixteen Cornell libraries.
Most records are for materials acquired since 1973. However,
records for many items acquired before 1973 have been added to
the catalog,including most of the Africana, Engineering, Ento-
mology,Hotel,ILR,Mathematics,Physical Sciences, and Veterinary
libraries. The online catalog is usually available from 6:30
a.m. through 4:00 a.m. However,due to maintenance requirements
the online catalog might not be available 10:00 p.m. Saturday
to noon Sunday, and 10:00 p.m. to Midnight Sunday. The online
catalog is most heavily used from 2:00-4:00 p.m. weekdays and
might be slow to respond during those hours.
To log on, telnet CORNELLC.CIT.CORNELL.EDU; TN3270 emulation
is required and logoff instructions are provided. Once on, you
type cornellc and receive a Cornell Banner; then at the LOGON
prompt you press enter. You should then see CP READ CORNELLC;
then you type library plus enter, and you should get into the
library catalogue. To end your online catalog session, ===> x
enter returns to TN3270 (from any screen).
Be sure to exit
TN3270 to end the session.
New York University:
BobCat runs on the Geac System 9000. The circulation status
information is posted in the OPC. BobCat does not require any
logon procedure or password. Telnet to BOBCAT.NYU.EDU and hit
return to wake up a port.Type END to disconnect a session. The
system offers menus for each step. The online catalog lists
more than 750,000 records including many pre1973 items and all
material purchased after 1973. BobCat contains the holdings of
NYU's Division of Libraries, as well as the libraries of the
New School for Social Research, the Parsons School of Design,
the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, and
the New York Academy of Art.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute:
To access, telnet to INFOTRAC.RPI.EDU; VT100 emulation is
supported and logoff instructions are provided.
The service
has been known for some years as "Infotrac", a name created at
Rensselaer before there was a commercial product by that name.
The name will soon change to "Infotrax" to avoid confusion.
Once connected, you will be prompted for terminal type;enter
? for a list of possible answers. After entering your terminal
type, you will get a banner, and a request to type return.Then
you get the following menu:
WELCOME TO INFOTRAC
RPI Libraries' Information System
(Copyright 1989)
To look for BOOKS ................. type CATalog
To look for JOURNALS .............. type JOUrnals
To look for NEW BOOKS ............. type ORDers
To look for HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS .. type HOMework
To look for ARCHITECTURE SLIDES ... type SLIdes
To look for IEEE articles or papers type IEEe
To display Library NEWS bulletins . type NEWs
To send us a MESSAGE .............. type MESsage
To END the session ................ type STop
Type one of the file names from the list and press RETURN.
From this point the system is self-explanatory, and HELP is
available in the various categories.
State University of New York at Binghamton
Telnet to BINGVMC.CC.BINGHAMTON.EDU; TN3270 emulation is
required and logoff instructions are provided.From the command
line type "dial vtam"; from VTAM menu screen type elixir. The
initial catalog screen will appear--OPAC is NOTIS, with usual
search keys including keyword/boolean. To exit: clear screen
(CTRL-Z with tn3270) type off ENTER and type undial ENTER. You
must use the "tn3270" command to access ELIXIR.
NORTH CAROLINA:
Triangle Research Libraries
The Triangle Research Libraries include the libraries for
Duke, North Carolina State University, and University of North
Carolina. To access, type TELNET LIBROT1.LIB.UNC.EDU. To exit
use the TELNET escape key.
OHIO:
Case Western Reserve University:
Telnet to EUCLID.CWRU.EDU; to exit hit the telnet key CTRL-]
followed by Q.
Cleveland Public Library:
To access, type TELNET LIBRARY.CPL.ORG. Select 1 on the menu
and select 1 on the next menu.
To logoff, hit CTRL-Z, then
select 5 on the menu (twice).
Kent State University:
Telnet to CATALYST.KENT.EDU; CATALYST contains the complete
holdings of the KSU Libraries.
CATALYST is available Mon-Sat
7:00 AM to 2:00 AM and Sun 1:00 PM to 2:00 AM (EST).
Ohio State University:
Telnet address is LCS.US.OHIO-STATE.EDU
University of Toledo:
You will have to use the TN3270 commands for connecting to
UTMOST. You type: OPEN UOFT01.UTOLEDO.EDU, and should get the
response of a large UT logo on screen.
You hit enter, then
type: DIAL MVS. The response will be "dialed to mvs ####"; at
that point you type: UTMOST. If after dialing MVS you receive
a message "application invalid", then just go ahead and type
UTMOST anyway; sometimes it works! To disconnect, depress the
ALT/C, several times if necessary, until you get a completely
blank screen. Then type "DISC", which should cause you to exit
from UTMOST and also to sever the telnet connection.
OREGON:
Oregon State:
To access, TELNET SYTEK.UCS.ORST.EDU, and type OASIS at the
destination prompt.
Enter OASIS, and enter 11 for the VT100
emulation. To exit, use the TELNET escape key.
University of Oregon:
Telnet JANUS.UOREGON.EDU;<--connect to JANUS and type return
twice. You will see a <--wake up JANUS: What kind of terminal
are you using? Type in v <-- specify VT100 (must be lowercase)
and then type in y <-- confirm your terminal choice. Then you
can (Commence using JANUS).
PENNSYLVANIA:
Carnegie Mellon University:
To access, TELNET CMULIBRARY.ANDREW.CMU.EDU, and enter VT100
as terminal type.
Press RETURN, and enter 1 at the menu. To
exit, type Q.
Lehigh University:
Type TELNET ASA.LIB.LEHIGH.EDU. To exit, type END.
University of Pittsburgh:
To connect to PITTCAT, telnet to GATE.CIS.PITT.EDU. PITTCAT
is the University of Pittsburgh's online library catalog. It
currently contains bibliographic information for 1,400,000
titles in all University of Pittsburgh libraries including the
Hillman Library humanities and social sciences, Afro-American,
Buhl (Social Work),East Asian,Allegheny Observatory, Business,
Chemistry, Computer Science, Darlington Memorial, Engineering,
Fine Arts,Langley,Library and Information Science,Mathematics,
Music,Physics,Public and International Affairs/Economics, Falk
Library of the Health Sciences, Learning Resource Center
(Nursing),Law,Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic,and the
regional campus libraries at Bradford, Greensburg, Johnstown,
and Titusville. PITTCAT is based on NOTIS and provides author
title subject and keyword access to all Pittsburgh University
serial titles and to most books added to library collections
since 1981.
Circulation and on-order status information is
available for some library locations in PITTCAT.PITTCAT can be
accessed seven days a week the following (EST) hours: 7:00 AMmidnight Monday, 6:00 AM-midnight Tuesday-Friday,8:30 AM-10 PM
Saturday, and 9:30 AM-midnight Sunday.
To exit from PITTCAT, hold down the <CTRL> key and press the
backslash "\". Your session will be disconnected.
Exit from
telnet using locally established procedures.
There are several additional resources in PITTCAT. These include LIS, LIAS, PENPAGES, EBB, EDIN, ASA, PENNLIN, MEDINFO,
and NIH. Descriptions follow:
LIS: IP-address: cmulibrary.andrew.cmu.edu. For Assistance,
call (412) 268-2442. VT100 emulation is supported and logoff
instructions are provided.LIS is a library catalog information
retrieval system which indexes all the words in the entries.
Several databases are available: the CMU library catalog and
journal list, a set of bibliographies on a variety of topics
compiled by CMU librarians, and an index to architectural
pictures found in a number of standard reference books.
LIAS: IP-address: lias.psu.edu. For assistance, call (814)
865-0672. VT100 emulation is supported. Logoff is difficult.
LIAS is the on-line catalog of the Penn State libraries. The
catalog contains approximately 1,500,000 titles, representing
not only the holdings at the main campus at University Park,
but also the holdings of the 20 Commonwealth campus libraries.
Besides monographic and serial records, LIAS also provides
bibliographic access to parts of the government documents
collection; the maps collection; the archives and manuscript
collections; and machine-readable datafiles on campus. Telnet,
preferably using VT100, to LIAS.PSU.EDU (128.118.25.13).
No
action is necessary until after the following message appears:
SELECTION? The user should hit a carriage return and will then
be greeted with the following prompt:WE ARE PSU>>>Hit carriage
return twice at this point. Now, you can begin searching the
LIAS database. LIAS does not differentiate between author,
title, series or subjects in its commands.
Simply enter the
words you wish to search. The user can type HELP for more
information on using LIAS. For general reference material,type
HELP COMMANDS.
There is an extensive HELP system that can
answer questions. There is no logoff command;close your telnet
connections manually.
PENpages: IP-address: psupen.psu.edu. You require vt100;for
assistance on pprepnet, call (717) 787-6120 (PSDC).
PENpages
is a database of agriculture and Extension related information
ranging from daily, weekly, and monthly agricultural news and
alerts to permanent reference material.It is maintained by the
faculty and staff of the College of Agriculture and offered as
a public service by the Cooperative Extension of Penn State.
EBB: IP-address: psuvm.psu.edu.
Needs tn3270; if emulating
VT100-use address cac3270.psu.edu. For assistance,call 814 863
2494. EBB is a database of information relating to Penn State,
including academic programs, academic calendars, and phone
directories.
EDIN IP-address: psuvm.psu.edu or cac3270.psu.edu (it needs
tn3270).
For assistance, call (717) 787-6120 (PSDC).
The
Pennsylvania State Data Center maintains this database of population and economic statistical data, which includes the
Commerce Business Daily.
EDIN is accessible through the EBB
service of Penn State.
ASA: IP-address: asa.lib.lehigh.edu; requires VT100.For help
call (215) 758-4998 or jpl3@lehigh ujluci@vax1.cc.lehigh.edu
VT100 emulation is supported but not required.TN3270 emulation
is possible. Logoff instructions are provided. Lehigh's (GEACbased) library catalog is now accessible through PREPnet.
PENNLIN: IP-address: pennlib.upenn.edu. Requirements: VT100
(for assistance, call (215) 898-7555 ot pennlibr@upen). VT100
emulation is supported, but logoff is difficult.
PENNLIN is
Penn's NOTIS-based on-line library catalog system.
MEDINFO: IP-address: med.upenn.edu.
Needs a VT100 user at:
penn_med. For assistance, call (215) 898-9755.VT100 emulation
is supported and logoff instructions are provided. UPenn's
medical school provides access to a version of its MEDINFO
bulletin board via PREPnet.
NIH Guide: IP-address: nic.cis.pitt.edu (Requires VT100).For
assistance, call (412) 624-7417. Logging on to this service is
difficult, but worthwhile.
The NIH (National Institutes of
Health) Guide contains information on scientific initiatives
and administration regarding extramural programs. The guide is
being provided to Pitt on-line as a pilot project.
Files are
available by anonymous FTP in the "nihguide" subdirectory. The
guide is published weekly, and information from the last 4
weeks is online.
RHODE ISLAND:
Brown University atProvidence, Rhode Island 02906:
This is OPAC Western Library Network (WLN) software, running
under MVS/XA and Com-Plete. TN3270 emulation is required and
logoff instructions are provided. Telnet BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU;at
the BROWN logon screen: TAB to "COMMAND" and type DIAL JOSIAH
<cr> or type DIAL JOSIAH <cr> on the VM logon screen. The
passthru menu should display. TAB to any of the Josiah choices
on the screen and <cr>. Follow the instructions on the screens
which follow. The Josiah Search Menu supports searches by
author, title, subject, and author/title combinations. Help is
available at any point by pressing the PF1 key. PF key
alternatives are also supported by typing PF1 (PF3, PF5, etc.)
after any >> prompt. The direct command language is a modified
form of the language developed by the Western Library Network
(WLN). Use of this Josiah option requires familiarity with the
WLN command language.The direct command supports bibliographic
file searches by author, title, subject, series,isbn/issn, and
year of publication;authority file searches by author,subject,
and series;and call number browse.Boolean and keyword are also
available. To logoff, press the PF10 key to display the Josiah
logoff option and choose the option from the menu; press the
PF3 key; at the passthru menu, press the PA1 key;and type QUIT
and then <cr>.
SOUTH CAROLINA:
Clemson University:
To access, type TN3270 CLEMSON.CLEMSON.EDU; choose option B
on the menu, and push RETURN. To exit this system,you must use
the TN3270 escape key.
TENNESSEE:
University of Tennessee:
Telnet DCA.UTK.EDU; VT100 emulation is supported but logoff
is hard. At the ENTER HOST NAME OR HELP
to connect to the GEAC system.
prompt type LIBRARY
University of Tennessee, Memphis:
For the Health Science Library, telnet to 132.192.1.1.
For
HARVEY LIS, the UT Memphis Library Online Catalog, telnet to:
utmem1.utmem.edu (132.192.1.1). At TERMINAL TYPE, type VT100.
At the Username prompt, type HARVEY and press return. It will
take a few seconds for the library system's menu to appear on
the screen. The database, miniMEDLINE, is only available to
the UT Memphis community. Press Control-P and then Escape to
end long displays. To log off, just press return at the main
library menu.
Vanderbilt University:
Acorn, the public access NOTIS catalog is available, but is
restricted to the Multiple Database files (MEDLINE, Wilson
and CRL).
Acorn requires VT100 emulation; simply telnet to
CTRVAX.VANDERBILT.EDU. At the Username prompt enter ACORN and
press return.
Type the letter "y" and press return after the
"Are you ready to proceed prompt?" Press return again when you
see "SysAv1 Appl" at the bottom of the screen.
Proceed with
the search and when finished, from any screen, press CTRL and
the letter "Z".
TEXAS:
North Texas State University:
Type TELNET LIBRARY.UNT.EDU.
To exit hit the TELNET escape.
Rice University:
To access, type TN3270 LIBRARY.RICE.EDU. When signon screen
appears, hit TAB twice. On COMMAND ==> line,type DIAL LIBRIS.
CTRL-Z to clear the screen. To logoff, use the TN3270 escape
key.
Sam Houston State University Library:
The Sam Houston State University (SHSU) Library System is
available on THENET. The following steps can be used to access
it. Type SET HOST LOKI from the VAXcluster. At the Username:
prompt, type LIBRARY. See the "Using DRA Altas" section for
details on using the SHSU library. To exit, just hit CTRL-Z.
Texas A&M Library System:
NOTIS at Texas A&M contains materials held by the Sterling
Evans Library.
To log on, type SET HOST VENUS from a THENET
node or telnet to VENUS.TAMU.EDU from the Internet.
At the
Username: prompt, type VTAM; and at the Texas A&M Statewide
Network screen, type NOTIS.Then at the CICS screen hit RETURN.
At this point, you are in NOTIS and can enter any command.
Texas Woman's University:
To access, type SET HOST TWUV1. At the Username: prompt,type
IRIS. Press RETURN several times when prompted to.
Hit CTRL-\.
To exit:
UT Arlington Library System:
LUIS (Library User Information Service) at the University of
Texas at Arlington contains materials held by the UT Arlington
Library. To access LUIS, telnet ADMIN.ARL.UTEXAS.EDU; as soon
as you are connected, hit RETURN. At the TERMINAL TYPE prompt,
type VT100, and at the VTAM selection menu, type NOTIS. Then,
at the CICS Logo Screen, press RETURN;on the next screen, type
LUUT. At this point,you are in LUIS and can enter any command.
UT Austin Library System UTCAT:
The Online Catalog UTCAT for the University of Texas, Austin
contains records for approximately 3,500,000 items.The Catalog
contains most items found in the Perry-Castaneda (PCL),Branch,
and undergraduate libraries; the Asian Collection; the Benson
Latin American Collection;some government documents,maps,sound
recordings, and microfilm/microfiche sets;rare books and manuscripts; some items found in the Barker Texas History Center;
some items in the Humanities Research Center;some items in the
Middle East Collection; and some items in the South Asian
Collection. UTCAT is normally available Sunday-Friday 6 AM- 2
AM, and Saturday 6 AM- Midnight.
To access,type SET HOST UTAUS from any THENET node,or telnet
UTAUS.CC.UTEXAS.EDU, and at the Username: prompt, enter UTCAT.
Press 1 and the Keypad ENTER key at the UT Library Information
Systems screen.At the Welcome to the UT Library Online Catalog
screen, press the Keypad ENTER key. Now you should be in the
UT Library Online Catalog--Search Choices Menu.From this menu,
you may type 1 or 2 letter search commands and the word(s) you
want to search for. After your search command is typed in, hit
the ENTER key. To exit, type STOP, followed by ENTER,and type
4 followed by ENTER. Please note that some terminal packages
remap the ENTER key to other keys. For example, in Procomm the
equivalent to ENTER is Shift-F10. ENTER is equal to ESCO M.
University of Texas at Dallas:
To access, TN3270 VM.UTDALLAS.EDU <-- to connect to UTD (use
telnet VM.UTDALLAS.EDU from IBM host running TCP/IP under VM).
LIBRARY <--type on COMMAND line of Logon screen; ENTER <--to
receive NOTIS Opening screen.
UTAH:
Brigham Young University
To access, type TN3270 LIB.BYU.EDU, then type BYLINE at the
userid prompt. Enter e on the next screen. To exit, use the
TN3270 escape key.
University of Utah Marriott Library:
To access, telnet to Utahlib or to Lib.Utah.Edu using TN3270
emulation. You will be greeted by a VM logon screen. ENTER to
move to the next screen. Type D UNIS, followed by ENTER. ENTER
again gets to the catalog screen. To disconnect, break your
telnet connection in your usual way; any interval longer than
two minutes with no keystrokes will also end the session.
VIRGINIA:
The Old Dominion University Library:
This library holds over 1,600,000 items in a variety of
formats; microform, recording, newspaper, periodical and book.
It is a selective depository of U. S. government publications
and documents of the State of Virginia. To access,just telnet
geac.lib.odu.edu and press ENTER.
Press ENTER again to get
GEAC's attention. The GEAC catalogue then comes online. At the
end of the session, type END or QUIT,or for CMS users type F4.
While online, type HELP for help.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University runs VTLS:
The VTLS system is connected to the outside world through
the campus IBM ROLM CBX. The CBX can be accessed using telnet
128.173.5.4. After connecting to the CBX, and getting the
informative prompt, issue the command CALL VTLS to connect to
the VTLS system, running on the Library's HP3000 Series 950
computer.
Virginia Commonwealth University Library System:
To access, type: telnet vcuvm1.vcu.edu. At the "VM" screen
(which requests USERID,PASSWORD,and COMMAND),the cursor should
be at the USERID ===> prompt. Type: ENTER. You will see the
response: "Enter one of the following commands" and will list
four commands (LOGON, DIAL, MSG, and LOGOFF). Type: DIAL VTAM,
and press ENTER.
Then type the letter L for the VCU library
catalog, and press ENTER twice. Now you will be in the library
catalogue. To exit, type CTRL and Z (1-3 times), then LOGOFF.
At the VTAM screen, type UNIDIAL.
Note: if your host computer does not support full 3270
emulation, the computer will read "Enter one of the following
commands" and will list only two: MSG and LOGOFF.In this case,
type LOGOFF. Start over by substituting the command "tn3270",
instead of "telnet",i.e.,type: TN3270 VCUVM1.VCU.EDU,or TN3270
128.172.001.066. If TN3270 is supported by your host,you will
get the four choices, including DIAL;type DIAL VTAM.Follow the
instructions above.
WISCONSIN:
University of Wisconsin Library Catalogs:
The Network Library System (NLS) is the online public catalog
of the libraries at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and
the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
NLS supports separate
online catalogs for each campus. The UW-Madison online catalog
contains more than 1,700,000 titles cataloged since 1976,
located in 25 libraries on the campus and at the Center for
Research Libraries in Chicago.
The UW-Milwaukee catalog
contains approximately 900,000 titles.
Use tn3270 (telnet
supporting 3270 emulation) to access blue.adp.wisc.edu.
When
connected you are presented a menu from which you select NLS1,
the library catalog. (If you don't know how your function keys
are mapped,TAB to the option you want and press ENTER). Telnet
access is also available via a gateway machine providing the
necessary 3270 emulation.
From your local host use telnet to
access nls.adp.wisc.edu.
You will be prompted to enter a
terminal type.
VT100 is the default, or you can enter the
command list to display the supported terminal types. Upon
entering a valid terminal type, select NLS1 from the menu
to connect to the library catalog. Upon entering NLS, a screen
is displayed, at which you either press ENTER to search the
Madison catalog, or type Mil, and press ENTER, to search the
Milwaukee catalog.
To exit, enter the command exit on any
screen to return to the Main Menu. Here you select the option
to quit. This returns control to your local host.
(Thanks to Don Marby, Department of History, Mississippi State
University, compiler of the list from which this catalogue was
derived).
+----------------+
| Book Reviews |
+----------------+
Thomas, Morley K., The Beginnings of Canadian Meteorology
(Toronto: ECW Press, 1991), 299 pp. + index.
Morley Thomas' long-awaited history of Canadian meteorology
provides an excellent overview of the theory and practice of
weather observations in this country. Meticulously researched
and painstakingly documented, the text concentrates primarily
on the history of meteorology in the 19th and early 20th
centuries.
This period, which saw the first Canadian weather
networks and government-funded observatories, was crucial to
the development of the science in this country, and Thomas
handles his material with grace,depth and poise.Unfortunately,
the book is notably deficient in its account of 18th century
observations,and as far as the early efforts to record weather
by Jesuit missionaries and Arctic explorers in the 17th
century are concerned, virtually no information is given.
In
this respect, Thomas' work is quite like that of York
University historian Richard Jarrell's The Cold Light of Dawn:
A History of Canadian Astronomy (Toronto: University of
Toronto Press, 1988); magnificent in its portrayal of science
after 1840, but rather preliminary before.
The story is told by region and not by chronology. This will
please local historians but infuriate the general reader. We
see the peculiar situation of 19th century Ontario weather
networks appearing before J.F. Gaultier's Quebec journals of
the 1750s; and a brief history of ancient and Renaissance
meteorology showing up in chapter 7, almost half-way through
the book!
Thomas' diligent and careful research at the archives of the
Atmospheric and Environmental Services Library in Downsview,
Ontario, has provided a unique focus to this book. Unlike
Suzanne Zeller's Inventing Canada (Toronto: University of
Toronto Press, 1987), which covers much the same story in
chapters 6-9 from the point of view of the English sources,
Thomas
consciously
restricts
himself
to the Canadian
documents. Not surprisingly,much of the work is devoted to the
development of meteorology in Ontario (13 of the 17 chapters),
particularly the establishment of the Toronto Meteorological
Observatory and the National Meteorological Service. Although
Charles Smallwood's meteorological records at Isle Jesus and
McGill University, and Edward Ashe's work at the Quebec
City Observatory, were all of great importance, these accounts
are compressed into one chapter covering all of Quebec.
Atlantic Canada and the efforts of Halifax's Frederick Allison
and Fredericton's Brydone Jack (who Thomas wrongly credits as
the builder of the first astronomical observatory in Canada)
are similarly shortened; and all of Western Canada and the
Arctic is telescoped into a mere 20 pages. However, there is
enough information given in these brief accounts to at least
point the researcher in the right directions.
An interesting quirk of the book is Thomas' habit of
including figures, charts and plates at the end of each
chapter, rather than in the middle or at the end of the book.
This is quite helpful for a first read, but in subsequent
searches, it is often difficult to remember just where that
desired table or plate appeared (and persons and subjects
mentioned in these figures are unfortunately not recorded in
the index). A more thorough index, or table of figures, would
have been useful.
The physical layout of the book is excellent. Typefaces,
footnotes, tables and charts are clear and easy to read, with
very few typographical errors; the binding is sturdy and well
made.
ECW Press is to be congratulated on a job well done,
particularly as this work is unlikely to be superseded for a
good length of time.
All in all, Thomas' book is an excellent summary of Canadian
meteorology. It is sure to take its rightful place alongside
Richard Jarrell's work on astronomy, or Morris Zaslow's
account of Canadian geology, Reading the Rocks (Ottawa:
Macmillan, 1974); all three represent the most significant
attempts to date to document the history of their respective
sciences in Canada.
Julian A. Smith.
Ainley, Marianne Gosztonyi, Despite the Odds: Essays on
Canadian Women and Science (Montreal: Vihicule Press, 1990),
445 pp.+ index.
Despite the Odds is a collection of articles on various
aspects of Canadian
women and science; and
like most
anthologies, it suffers from the drawbacks of repetition, lack
of focus, conflicting and inconsistent methodologies, and a
general
lack
of
direction.
Yet
in spite of these
difficulties, Ainley's book actually succeeds very well in its
goals of suggesting further research and engaging the reader's
interest in this "important but neglected topic".
The work is broken up into three parts; historical studies,
biographical studies and contemporary concerns.
Only the
first two are of much interest to historians. In part one,
Ainley surveys women in the natural sciences from 1815-1965,
Clara Chu and Betrum Macdonald look at 19th century female
inventors and technologists, and Margaret Gillett chronicles
the "statistical deviant" of McGill professor of botany Carrie
Derrick (this article would probably have fitted better in
part 2).
We then see Diana Pedersen's and Martha Phemister's
"case study" of early Ontario women in photography; they
reinforce the common argument that
new "gender-neutral"
technologies often continue to reinforce existing sex roles.
Two studies of women and medicine follow; the first looks at
the Ontario Medical College for Women, and the second examines
the comparative "flourishing" of women in Ontario pharmacy.
These accounts are both intriguing, but unfortunately they
add to an already strong "Ontariocentrism" in the text; a few
more articles on other areas (particularly the West or Arctic
Canada, which is completely ignored) would have been helpful.
Dianne Dodd's very interesting "Canadian" alternative to Ruth
Schwartz Cowan's
studies
of advertising
and household
technology follow;and this "historical" section concludes with
a comparative study of three sociologists: Helen Hughes,
Aileen Ross and Jean Burnet. Like Carrie Derrick, this
article is better suited to part two.
Part two offers readers biographical studies of Canadian
women doctors (Maude Abbott, Blossom Wigdor), physicists and
geologists (Harriet Brooks, Alice Wilson), mathematicians
(Cypra Krieger), botanists and horticulturalists (Isabella
Preston, Margaret Newton). By and large these biographies are
excellently written, but it is a pity so many lesser known
Canadian women astronomers, chemists and anthropologists were
omitted to make room for famous figures like Abbott, whose
stories have already been told several times. The other major
problem is a lack of comparative studies. We are frequently
told, for example, that the Depression hindered the scientific
advancement of various women. Now as an argument, this seems
reasonable enough, but without looking at how well their male
rivals fared in this economically hostile climate, it is very
difficult to reach accurate conclusions about the extent and
nature of discrimination and prejudice.
Part three is the most problematic. "Contemporary concerns"
speaks more to philosophers of science than historians, and
its articles range from the magnificent (Karen Messing,
Gillian Krannis) to the mundane (Louise Lafortune). The
soporific Lafortune, for instance, tells us of knitting in
second grade math class, and of playing "seduction games" in
singles bars, comparing the "results" when she either tells
her dates she is a secretary or a mathematician! But it is in
Messing's
and
Krannis' accounts of GRABIT ( Groupe de
recherche-action en biologie du travail), a University of
Quebec group dedicated to feminist approaches to science, that
the exciting potential of this research is displayed. GRABIT
members reject the traditional, male "objective" view of
science, actively solicit input from their research subjects,
and take an active interest in group members' personal lives
and family responsibilities.
Their
consciously feminist
inquiries offer an exciting new approach to science, and
eschew the popular stereotype of a selfless male researcher,
toiling alone in the laboratory for weeks on end, in the
elusive "pursuit of truth".
Their scientific results will
give philosophers much to think about.
Ainley's work concludes with topical biographies of each of
the authors, and a very useful bibliography of sources, which
alone is worth the price of the book. It is a solid anthology
of women in Canadian science, and would be of value both as a
book of course readings or as a reference work. Vihicule Press
has ensured good production and layout throughout, although
the binding is a bit flimsy, and showed definite signs of wear
after only two readings! Yet if this minor flaw is overlooked,
the reader will be well pleased with Ainley's effort.
Julian A. Smith.
+-------------------------+
| Information for Authors |
+-------------------------+
The HOST Journal welcomes submissions from researchers in
all aspects of the history and philosophy of science and
technology. We publish articles, book reviews,bibliographies,
comments, research notes, works in progress, and news of
general interest to those in the profession. The HOST Journal
appears twice a year (January and July), and is available
in both printed and electronic forms.
Contributions are
welcome in either English or French; all research papers will
be refereed.
Contributors may submit their work in either
printed or electronic form.
Printed manuscripts must be
typed, double-spaced with one inch margins, on A4 paper (8= X
11"); figures must be provided as 8 X 10" prints.
The
original manuscript must be submitted along with two copies.
Electronic submissions on disk (in duplicate) may use either
IBM, Apple or Macintosh formats; they may be in either Word
Perfect, Microsoft Word, or ASCII text. Graphic images may be
included in either .GIF, TIF, PCX or Macintosh PICT formats.
All research articles must include an abstract, in 250 words
or less, and a short (under 200 words) author biography.
Printed submissions should be sent to the editors, at the
following address:
Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and
Technology Room 316, 73 Queen's Park Crescent, Victoria
College, University of Toronto, Toronto,Ontario, Canada
M5S 1K7.
telephone: (416) 978-5047
fax:
(416) 978-3003
Electronic contributions may be either mailed on disk to
IHPST, or uploaded directly to the HOST BBS,at (416) 652-4440.
They may also be submitted by Electronic Mail to INTERNET, at
the following addresses:
JSMITH@EPAS.UTORONTO.CA
IHPST@EPAS.UTORONTO.CA
Submissions should
follow the style of the
Canadian
Historical Review, and the spelling of either the Oxford
English Dictionary or Le Dictionnaire Frangais Larousse.
All
correspondence concerning papers should be addressed to the
editors, at IHPST.
Manuscripts will not be returned, but the
copyrights remain with the authors.
Julian A. Smith
Gordon H. Baker