Darwin鈥檚 Audubon by Gerald Weissmann, Plenum, New York,
拢17.22$28.95, ISBN 0306459817
TODAY we think of John James Audubon as a painter, of birds mainly, but he
had the eye of a scientist as well as an artist. He was widely respected as a
naturalist; it was for his scientific achievements that he was elected a Fellow
of the Royal Society in 1830. Darwin himself was influenced by Audubon鈥檚 keen
observations. Out of this connection Gerald Weissmann, in Darwin鈥檚
Audubon, discovers a web of links between the two men and, from that web,
references spin out to the social and professional worlds they inhabited.
As both scientist and artist, then, Audubon, was at home in the two cultures
before they had begun to drift apart into the mutual ignorance and distrust so
deplored a century later by C. P. Snow. It is tempting to suppose the gulf
between the sciences and humanities now stretches so wide as to be unbridgeable,
but in this collection of two dozen essays Weissmann, good doctor that he is,
provides an antidote to despair. He writes of medicine, his profession, but his
context embraces poetry, painting and music. In his hands, a tale about science
turns into a celebration of the achievements of rational thought. Others have
attempted this, but never, I think, in quite this way or so successfully.
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In 鈥淭he Doctor With Two Heads鈥�, for example, he uses a painting called
The First Trial of X-ray Therapy for Cancer of the Breast to consider the
way in which the patient is portrayed and, from that, the way women were
portrayed as passive objects in much of 19th-century art. The arrival of the
research ship Atlantis II at Woods Hole Field Center in Massachusetts provokes
thoughts of Moby Dick and of the chivalry displayed on the Titanic, the wreck of
which Atlantis II had been investigating (hence the essay鈥檚 title, 鈥淭itanic and
尝别惫颈补迟丑补苍鈥�).
All these essays are informed by a deep compassion. 鈥淏锚te Noire鈥�
describes an ancient condition we call post-traumatic stress disorder.
鈥淧uerperal Priority鈥� recounts the resistance that had to be overcome before the
cause of an often fatal disease was recognised to be an infection carried by
doctors and midwives from patient to patient. Oliver Wendell Holmes, poet and
humorist as well as a Harvard professor of anatomy, played a major part in
working out the cause of puerperal fever. Weissmann tells us Holmes was the
model on which Arthur Conan Doyle based Sherlock.
Sometimes compassion is revealed as admiration. 鈥淭hey All Laughed at
Christopher Columbus鈥� (the title is a line by Ira Gershwin) records the
navigational skill and superb seamanship of the admiral even during the last
decade of his life, when he was crippled by Reiter鈥檚 syndrome, an illness
Weissmann describes. Compassion may also lead to anger: here, it is directed at
those who pervert or misrepresent the scientific endeavour. Some, for example,
attack the idea of 鈥渧alue-free鈥� science, maintaining that all science is a
social construct. This phrase, Weissmann reminds us, also sums up the view of
the National Socialists and of Lysenkoists.
He traces the steps by which genuinely brilliant researchers, such as Edward
Pernkopf of the University of Vienna, imposed National Socialist principles on
medical science, redirecting research into fields such as 鈥渞acial hygiene鈥� and
the 鈥済enetics of fitness鈥�, that were far from value-free. Even then, though,
Weissmann鈥檚 humanity allows him to make fun of his targets, if indirectly. The
title, 鈥淪pringtime for Pernkopf鈥�, refers to the joke musical in The
Producers, one of the funniest movies ever made, in which Nazis are
portrayed as ludicrous.
The book is sheer delight. Wise, erudite, at times moving, always respectful
of human dignity, and sometimes witty enough to make me chuckle out loud,
Weissmann should really be appreciated in small doses: take one essay at a time
to allow for proper digestion. This is probably impossible, for the writing
encourages gluttony; one essay simply feeds the appetite for the next, so the
book is devoured in one great binge. If you plan to give the book as a Christmas
present, I advise you to buy it early so you can read it yourself before parting
with it.