More than bugs and stones: Chemistry in the Royal Society of New South Wales

Historical Records of Australian Science

Volumn 13, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 117-130

  Baker, Anthony T ^a   Rae, Ian D ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY   (Australia)

^b UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 52849113343     PISSN: 07273061     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1071/HR0001320117     Document Type: Article

References (98)

1. D. Denoon, Settler Capitalism: The Dynamics of Development in the Southern Hemisphere (Oxford, 1983). Denoon's book does not mention professional or scholarly activity.
2. G. Blainey, The Tyranny of Distance (Melbourne, 1966).
3. D.W. Chambers, 'Does Distance Tyrannize Science?', in R.W. Home and S.G. Kohlstedt, International Science and National Scientific Identity (Dordrecht, 1991), pp. 19-38.
4. G. Basalla, 'The Spread of Western Science', Science, 156 (1967), 611-622.
5. R.MacLeod, 'On Visiting the Moving Metropolis: Reflections on the Architecture of Imperial Science', Historical Records of Australian Science, 5 (3) (1982), 1-16.
6. See also I. Inkster, 'Scientific Enterprise and the Colonial "Model": Observations on Australian Experience in Historical Context', Social Studies of Science, 15 (1985), 677-704
7. and J. Todd, 'Science at the Periphery: An Interpretation of Australian Scientific and Technological Dependency and Development Prior to 1914', Annals of Science, 50 (1993), 33-58.
8. A. M. Moyal, Scientists in Nineteenth Century Australia: A Documentary History (Stanmore, NSW/North Melbourne, Vic, 1976).
9. M.E. Hoare, 'Learned Societies in Australia: The Foundation Years in Victoria, 1850-1860', Records of the Australian Academy of Science, 1 (1967), 7-29.
10. See also M.E. Hoare, Science and Scientific Associations in Eastern Australia, 1820-1890, PhD thesis, Australian National University, 1974.
11. D.F. Branagan, Words, Actions, People: 150 Years of the Scientific Societies in Australia', Journal and Proceedings, Royal Society of New South Wales, 104 (1972), 123-141.
12. I.D. Rae, 'Chemical Organizations in Australia and New Zealand', Ambix, 42 (1995), 28-49.
13. Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria, 3 (1858), xli-xlii. Sections were also described in the 1854 constitution of the Society but the re-emergence of the matter several years later is evidence that this early attempt at specialization did not come to anything. The British Association for the Advancement of Science, founded in 1831, did not include a literature section, and nor did other societies of this kind founded between 1815 and 1908, with the exception of the Congrès Scientifiques de France that existed from 1833 to 1878:
14. E. Ausejo, 'The Window Case of Science: the Associations for the Advancement of Science and the Birth of Scientific Congresses in Western Europe', Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences, 44 (1994), 338-371. The Royal Society of Canada was unusual but not unique among learned societies in combining literature and history with the sciences, although the latter were more influential in the development of the Society:
15. C. Berger, Honour and the Search for Influence: A History of the Royal Society of Canada (Toronto, 1996), pp. 7, 42.
16. R.H. Kargon, Science in Victorian Manchester: Enterprise and Expertise (Baltimore and London, 1977), especially pp. 5-14.
17. R.S. Watson, The History of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1793-1896) (London, 1897). The lectures delivered before the Society and reported in its roceedings were entirely of a scientific nature until 1831, but the ratio of science to literature (religion and politics being eschewed) declined thereafter to be 1:1 in the second half of the nineteenth century.
18. Similarly, the Manchester society had very few literary, historical or philosophical contributions in its 10,000 or so papers covering 200 years of operation: Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society: Index to the Memoirs and Proceedings 1781-1989 (Manchester, 1991).
19. The authors thank Professor Roy Macleod for useful comments on this point. An anonymous referee drew the authors' attention to the existence of many Mechanics Institutes in Australia. Discussion of these is to be found in P.C. Candy and J. Laurent, eds., Pioneering Culture: Mechanics Institutes and Schools of Arts in Australia (Adelaide, 1994).
20. R.P. Stearns, Science in the British Colonies of America (Urbana, 1970), pp. 670-2.
21. The quotation is taken from the Centenary Oration delivered by A.P. Elkin, 'The Challenge to Science, 1866; the Challenge by Science, 1966', in the Society's centenary volume A Century of Scientific Progress (Sydney, 1966), pp. 9-32, particularly p. 17.
22. A. Morton, 'Some Account of the Work and Workers of the Tasmanian Society and the Royal Society of Tasmania from the Year 1840 to the Close of 1900', Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, (1900-1901), 109-126.
23. J. Somerville, 'The Royal Society of Tasmania, 1843-1943', Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, (1944), 199-221.
24. Author Index 1898-1944, Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, (1945), 141-156;
25. Subject Index 1898-1944, Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, (1946), 143-158.
26. F.A. Cudmore, 'Author Index to the Publications of the Royal Society of Victoria', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 46 (1934), 275-319.
27. C.A. McCallum, 'Author Index of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, Vol. 47 (1934/ 5) -70 ( 1958)', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 73 (1959), 51-63.
28. R.T.M. Pescott, The Royal Society of Victoria from Then, 1854, to Now, 1959', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 73 (1959), 1-40.
29. The observation was made by the professor of chemistry at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand: T.H. Easterfield, 'The Position of Chemical Research in Australasia', Report of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 12 (Brisbane, 1909), 115-120.
30. J. Radford, The Chemistry Department of the University of Melbourne: Its Contribution to Australian Science 1854-1959 (Melbourne, 1978).
31. Hoare, The Chemistry Department of the University of Melbourne: Its Contribution to Australian Science 1854-1959 (op. cit. (n. 7), pp. 19-20.
32. Pescott, The Chemistry Department of the University of Melbourne: Its Contribution to Australian Science 1854-1959 (op. cit. (n. 21), pp. 19-20.
33. Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria, 3 (1858), xiii, xli-xliii.
34. A. Bougher and V. Semeniuk, 'A Bibliography and Index to the Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia Volumes 1-70', Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, 74 Supplement (1991), 1-35.
35. F. Alexander, Campus at Crawley (Melbourne, 1963), p. 179.
36. G. Tattersall, 'Norman Thomas Mortimer Wilsmore, 1868-1940', Journal of the Chemical Society (London), (1941), 59-60.
37. Anon, (although the text is the same as that of Tattersall's obituary in the British journal), 'Obituary: Norman Thomas Mortimer Wilsmore, 1868-1940', Journal & Proceedings of the Australian Chemical Institute, 7 (1940), 315-318.
38. A.R.H. Cole, 'Noel Stanley Bayliss 1906-1996', Historical Records of Australian Science, 11 (1996), 191-211.
39. F.S. Colliver, 'An Author Index for the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland 1884-1959, and the Transactions of the Queensland Philosophical Society 1859-1882', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 71 (1959), 65-101.
40. B. Chiswell, A Diamond Period: A Brief History of the Chemistry Department of the University of Queensland from 1910 to 1985 (Brisbane, 1987), pp. 29-30.
41. B. Zerner, 'Jones, Thomas Gilbert Henry (1895-1970)', in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 14 (Melbourne, 1996), pp. 585-586. Jones' educational progress was accelerated, allowing him to complete his secondary schooling as dux of Newcastle High School in 1911 and graduate BSc from the University of Sydney in 1915.
42. D.P. Craig, 'Ronald Sydney Nyholm 1917-1971', Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 18 (1972), 445-475.
43. Lahey's work is included, along with that of many other natural product chemists, in D.J. Collins, C.C.J. Culvenor, J.A. Lamberton, J.W. Loder and J.R. Price, Plants for Medicines: A Chemical and Pharmacological Survey of Plants in the Australian Region (East Melbourne, 1990).
44. A death notice for Dr Joseph Lauterer, MD (Freiburg), who died at age 64, appeared in the Australasian Medical Gazette (Sydney), 21 August 1911, p. 480. He had served as a surgeon in the Franco-Prussian war and was remembered in Brisbane for his work on Zamia poisoning (by constituents of the Macrozamia cycads) and as the author of several books.
45. Chiswell, Australasian Medical Gazette (op.cit. (n. 31), pp. 79-80.
46. The indices did not form parts of regular volumes but are usually bound with the issues of the year of publication. Royal Society of South Australia, Index to the Transactions, Proceedings and reports, Volumes XXV-XLIV, 1901-1920, and to the Memoirs Volumes I-II, 1899-1912 (1922). Royal Society of South Australia, Inc., Index to the Transactions Volumes XLV-91, 1921-1967 (1967).
47. R.W. Chapman, 'Centenary Address No. 3: The Past Work of the Royal Society outside the Domain of Natural Science', Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 60 (1936), 25-30. Ernest Scott, professor of history at the University of Melbourne, giving his ANZAAS presidential address, wondered whimsically whether the University of Melbourne's establishment of a Chair of 'Natural Science' could be construed to mean that some science was unnatural:
48. E. Scott, 'The History of Australian Science', Report of the Twenty-Fourth Meeting of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (Canberra, January 1939), pp. 2-16, especially p. 12.
49. R.J. Best, Discoveries by Chemists: A History of the Chemistry Department of the University of Adelaide 1885-1984 (Adelaide, 1987), pp. 43-45 and 114-117.
50. A.F. Day, 'Subject Index of the First Half Century (1867-1916) with Four Years of the Philosophical Society of NSW; bound with Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 108 (1975).
51. The work of the museum has recently been described in some detail: D.W. Barrett, 'A Cuckoo in the Nest? Chemical research in museums, with special reference to the origin, development, and demise of the phytochemical research programme at the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney, Australia (1878-1979)', Ph.D. thesis, University of New South Wales, 1999.
52. J.L. Willis, 'Baker, Richard Thomas (1854-1941)', in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7 (Melbourne, 1979), pp. 154-155.
53. H.H.G. McKern, 'Smith, Henry George (1852-1924)', in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 11 (Melbourne, 1988), pp.646-647.
54. H.H.G. McKern, 'Penfold, Arthur de Ramon (1890-1980)', in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 11 (Melbourne, 1988), pp.195-196.
55. M. Lyons and C.J. Pettigrew, 'Maiden, Joseph Henry (1859-1925)', in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10 (Melbourne, 1986), pp.381-383. The biographers note that Maiden published 45 papers in the Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 95 in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, and over 100 in the Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales.
56. J. Read, Humour and Humanism in Chemistry (London, 1947), pp. 302-338.
57. A.T. Baker, 'Archibald Liversidge: A Giant of Australian Science', Chemistry in Australia, 64 (1997), 16-19.
58. R. MacLeod, 'Organizing Science under the Southern Cross', in R. MacLeod, The Commonwealth of Science: ANZAAS and the Scientific Enterprise in Australasia 1888-1988 (Melbourne, 1988), pp. 19-39.
59. Brief biographies of Fawsitt and other chemists at Sydney University may be found in D. Branagan and G. Holland, Ever Reaping Something New: A Science Centenary (Sydney, 1985), pp. 33-71.
60. A.T. Baker and S.E. Livingstone, 'The Early History of Coordination Chemistry in Australia', Polyhedron, 4 (1985), pp. 1337-1351.
61. D.P. Mellor, 'The development of Coordination Chemistry in Australia', Records of the Australian Academy of Science, 3 (1976), part 2, 29-40.
62. A.J. Birch, to See the Obvious (Washington, D.C, 1995), pp.17-21.
63. C. Turney, U. Bygott and P. Chippendale, Australia's First: A History of the University of Sydney, Volume 1 (Sydney, 1991), pp. 528-530.
64. WF. Connell, G.E. Sherington, B.H. Fletcher, C. Turney and U. Bygott, Australia's First: A History of the University of Sydney, volume 2 (Sydney, 1995), pp.254-259.
65. A.J. Birch, 'The Detection and Estimation of a-Phellandrene in Essential Oils', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 71 (1937), 54-59.
66. R.H. Harradence and F. Lions, 'Morpholine as a Reagent for Mobile Halogen Atoms and Nitro Groups', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 70 (1936), 406-412.
67. S.J. Hazlewood, G.K. Hughes and F. Lions in conjunction with K.J. Baldick, A. J. Birch, J.W. Cornforth, R.H. Harradence, J.N. Graves, S.S. Gilchrist, J.J. Maunsell, E.H. Monaghan, T. Wilkinson and L.E.A Wright, 'Pyrroles Derived from Acetonylacetone', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 71 (1937), 92-102.
68. 'John Warcup Cornforth', in S. Forsén and T. Frängmyr, eds., Nobel Lectures: Chemistry 1971-1980 (Singapore, 1993), pp. 185-186. This biographical statement precedes Cornforth's Nobel lecture entitled 'Asymmetry and Enzyme Action', pp. 187-198.
69. Craig, Nobel Lectures: Chemistry 1971-1980 op. cit. (n. 32).
70. A.D.C. Rivett to D.I. Masson, 29 March 1933, University of Melbourne Archives; quoted by L. Weickhardt, Masson of Melbourne: The Life and Times of David Orme Masson (Melbourne, 1989), p. 172.
71. Although it is not a primary journal for the publication of research results, the establishment of the Australian Chemical Institute's Journal and Proceedings in 1933 is worth noting. Up to that time, Institute news appeared in a dedicated section of the Chemical Engineering and Mining Journal.
72. Radford, Nobel Lectures: Chemistry 1971-1980, op. cit. (n. 23);
73. Weickhardt, Nobel Lectures: Chemistry 1971-1980, op. cit.(n. 57).
74. I.D. Rae, 'Chemists at ANZAAS - Cabbages or Kings?',
75. in Macleod, Nobel Lectures: Chemistry 1971-1980, op. cit. (n. 47).
76. R.J.W. Le Fèvre, 'The Establishment of Chemistry within Australian Science - Contributions from New South Wales', in Royal Society of New South Wales, A Century of Scientific Progress (Sydney, 1967), pp. 332-378.
77. Rae, A Century of Scientific Progress op. cit. (n. 9).
78. B. Carroll, The Engineers: 200 Years at Work for Australia (Barton, ACT, 1988), pp. 101-102;
79. A. Inglis, 'Hargrave, Lawrence (1850-1915)' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 9 (Melbourne, 1983), pp. 196-198.
80. These figures were kindly provided by Dr D.J. Collins, who is compiling a bibliography of Australian chemistry publications up to 1900.
81. W.H. Brock, The Fontana History of Chemistry (London, 1992), pp. 603-605.
82. Sydney University Reprints. Series III: Chemistry organic and inorganic. Volume 1, 1924-1932; volume 2, 1933-1934; volume 3, 1935-1938. The presence of physical chemistry would not have substantially altered these figures since little was published during this period. The Chemistry classification took in some papers from medical research units, as well as the Department of Chemistry, but again no serious distortion is produced by their inclusion here.
83. This observation receives support from Professor David Craig, who was a student at Sydney during the period under discussion. 'Frank Lions', he said, 'by example and persuasion, stimulated the Sydney chemists to publish there. He also promoted the reading of papers at the regular meetings of the Royal Society of NSW and urged members, undergraduate as well as staff, to be there. The meetings were lively and well-attended.' We thank Professor Craig for his comments.
84. For example, G.J. Burrows and A. Lench, 'Coordination Compounds of Cadmium with Tertiary Arsines', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 70 (1936), 218-221.
85. R. Home, Australian Science in the Making (Cambridge, 1988), p. 25.
86. R.S. Nyholm, 'Presidential Address', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 88 (1955), 1-29. It is of interest to note that the address was read by D.P. Mellor, since Nyholm had by that time moved to a chair at University College, London. As well as the discussion about the state of the Royal Society of New South Wales, Nyholm's address includes an excellent review of contemporary magnetochemistry.
87. There is a one incident which allows of the suggestion that control of the Society's publications might have been exercised by those who felt strongly that chemical papers might be better placed in another journal, although the formation of such a hypothesis is tempered by the realisation that redirection of submitted manuscripts might have been an attempt to maintain high standards by directing inferior (as judged by referees) work to other publications. The instance concerns rejection of a paper submitted by Michael Lederer that dealt with chromatography of inorganic ions, and was subsequently published in an international journal. The letter of rejection, from chemist D.P. Mellor, says that since the referee considered the paper to be 'more suited to another journal, the Council has directed me to return the article with the suggestion that it be submitted to the Australian Journal of Science': M. Lederer, 'Fifty Years of Inorganic Chromatography', The Chemical Intelligencer, 5 (3) (1999), 31-34.
88. G. Burrows, 'Organic Arsenicals in Peace and War', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 74 (1940), M1-M16.
89. F. Lions, 'Freedom of Science (Presidential Address)', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 81 (1947), 1-11.
90. F. Lions, 'Design of Quinquidentate Chelating Agents', Reviews of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Royal Australian Chemical Institute, 19 (1969), 177-190.
91. A.T. Baker, The Contribution of Dwyer and Lions to the Design of Sexadentate Ligands', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 132 (1999), 65-82.
92. Abstracts of Proceedings, Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 76 (1942), xxvi.
93. The decline of the section of ANZAAS devoted to chemistry in the face of competition from the specialist societies has been described by Rae, Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, op. cit. (n. 59).
94. Berger, Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, op. cit. (n. 10), p. 108.
95. S. Baatz, Knowledge, Culture and Science in the Metropolis: the New York Academy of Sciences 1817-1970 (New York, 1990), pp. 119-124, 200 and 219.
96. R.C.L. Bosworth, quoted in Nyholm, Knowledge, Culture and Science in the Metropolis: op. cit. (n. 69), pp. 5-6.
97. A.J. Birch, 'Sir Robert Robinson: A Contemporary Historical Assessment and a Personal Memoir', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 109(1976), 151-160.
98. Personal communication c. 1980 by the late Dr S.R. Johns, the subject under discussion being the quality of the Australian Journal of Chemistry for which Johns was a member of the editorial board.