{"id":1501,"date":"2015-03-12T11:48:05","date_gmt":"2015-03-12T11:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.lshtm.ac.uk\/library\/?p=1501"},"modified":"2015-03-12T11:48:05","modified_gmt":"2015-03-12T11:48:05","slug":"devotion-to-the-cause-addresses-by-the-director-1924","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.lshtm.ac.uk\/library\/2015\/03\/12\/devotion-to-the-cause-addresses-by-the-director-1924\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotion to the cause: addresses by the Director (1924)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Balfour\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sir Andrew Balfour<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Library serial collection holds some fascinating publications of the School including journals, bulletins, collected papers, reports and memoir series (dating from between 1899-1988).\u00a0 These historical publications are soon to join the Library’s other serials (published pre-2010) that are stored in the University of London Library Depository in Egham.\u00a0 Amongst the titles to be moved is the Collected Addresses and Laboratory Studies (Vol.1-7, 1924-1931) which includes Addresses given by the Director of the School (1923-1931), Sir Andrew Balfour.\u00a0 This post\u00a0is a brief introduction to these Addresses (focusing on Vol.1, 1924-5), highlighting some of the main themes and ideas.<\/p>\n

Subjects to be studied at the School<\/strong><\/p>\n

The main areas of study (divisions) for the School are to be the nervous system, chemistry and biochemistry, immunology and bacteriology, medical zoology, and epidemiology and statistics. Of particular importance for Balfour is the teaching of biochemistry (essential for diet, vitamins, hygiene), immunology (the health and economic values of vaccines and serums), and bacteriology (for its bearing upon hygiene). Balfour also provides insights into his own education at Edinburgh University with passages describing the ‘unfortunate … mass of dry facts’ that epidemiology was reduced to, and the ‘nearly said wasted’ hours spent on chemical analyses.<\/p>\n

Practical training of students<\/strong><\/p>\n

Balfour is very clear in emphasizing the practical ends to the research and study of the School.\u00a0 He states that the School is not to be a ‘mere machine for enabling youths to pass certain examinations or a temple of esoteric study and academic research’.\u00a0 Instead students are\u00a0 to go out and experience public health conditions in both the home and working lives of the wider population.\u00a0 Educational campaigns are\u00a0stressed as the most important means to promote public health.\u00a0 The School must train and guide its students so that they can see this wider outlook.<\/p>\n

Diet and hygiene<\/strong><\/p>\n

Balfour shows great concern for the ‘most important class of the community – the workers’.\u00a0 He recognised the necessity of enabling\u00a0the poor\u00a0to eat both cheaply and healthily.\u00a0 Education is\u00a0required to ‘get the best food value’ and to help eliminate wastage of food.\u00a0 Balfour is very critical of the excess consumption of the British population post-WW1 (Balfour had served in the Royal Army Medical Corps).\u00a0 One passage is scathing in its attack on those who ‘by their copious libations wash themselves into graves which they have dug with their own teeth’, the emphasis being on alcohol, an excess of tea and coffee, effervescent liquids,\u00a0and eating more than was required.\u00a0 Balfour concludes that although the War ‘should have taught us all a salutary lesson … it has been forgotten’.<\/p>\n

In addition to the above Balfour was\u00a0troubled about the ‘evils’ of certain food preservatives (e.g. being added to milk), and the poor food hygiene that he witnessed – ‘we are a dirty nation in many matters concerned with food handling’.\u00a0 He points to America as a country that Britain could learn from in this area.<\/p>\n

British Empire<\/strong><\/p>\n

‘I sometimes think it tends to forget its own responsibilities’ was the way Balfour summed up the British Empire’s approach to public health.\u00a0 Although Balfour was keen to show the good that the British Empire had done, he was all too aware that there was much welfare work left to do.\u00a0 The British West Indies\u00a0are described as (from a hygiene point of view) ‘a disgrace to the British flag’, and that the Dutch looked at our efforts in the Far East with ‘pitying contempt’.\u00a0 Once more education is advocated as a way to improve standards, however Balfour stresses that educators must be people familiar with local customs and beliefs.\u00a0 Education\u00a0should be suitable for the local population, free of British ‘dogma’.<\/p>\n

Travels<\/strong><\/p>\n

Balfour\u00a0had extensive experience of working in Africa, and many of his addresses on the colonial medical services focus on this country.\u00a0 Not only does Balfour discuss various diseases, infections and conditions (incl. malaria, yellow fever, sleeping sickness, plague, leprosy, syphilis, dysentery, tuberculosis), but he also goes into great depth describing the local flora and fauna.\u00a0There are\u00a0the ‘dangers of a forced descent amongst reeds and water cabbages and hippopotami and crocodiles’, and the ‘vast territory of forest, grass plain, morass and hill ridges’ to cross.\u00a0 The Victoria Falls are ‘hurtling itself in froth and spume’, while the the peak of Ruwenzori is seen ‘glistening through clouds and mist’.\u00a0 Balfour’s\u00a0descriptions have a lyrical quality, rich and highly descriptive.<\/p>\n

Writing style<\/strong><\/p>\n

These addresses reveal an element of Balfour’s personality in a way that the\u00a0accompanying laboratory studies do not.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Balfour comes across as a man passionate in his advocacy of public health for all.\u00a0 His style is authoritative and objective, but also reflective.\u00a0 Balfour engages his audience by\u00a0reciting verses\u00a0from poets (incl. Byron and Robert Burns), recalling biblical stories (‘presumably, you know your Leviticus and Deuteronomy’), and referring to writers and philosophers of Ancient Greece (incl. Aristophanes and Hippocrates) and Ancient Rome (incl. Tacitus, Livy, and Cicero).\u00a0 The breadth and depth of Balfour’s knowledge is impressive and one that he obviously expected his audience to share.<\/p>\n

Balfour’s addresses are\u00a0a fascinating read\u00a0from both a scientific and historical perspective.\u00a0 To request these items (or any other serials published pre-2010) and find out more information please visit the\u00a0Offsite Request Form<\/a>\u00a0page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The Library serial collection holds some fascinating publications of the School including journals, bulletins,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":326,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27711,27710],"tags":[44752,44751],"class_list":["post-1501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journals","category-library-resources","tag-offsite-request-form","tag-sir-andrew-balfour","odd"],"yoast_head":"\nDevotion to the cause: addresses by the Director (1924) - Library, Archive & Open Research Services blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.lshtm.ac.uk\/library\/2015\/03\/12\/devotion-to-the-cause-addresses-by-the-director-1924\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Devotion to the cause: addresses by the Director (1924) - 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