Preface
From Faculty of Medicine Online Museum and Archive
THIS BOOK is not an official history of the Faculty, although its content is largely historical. In the first place, it is not history at all because neither I, nor either of my fellow editors, is an historian; indeed, it is with considerable trepidation that we venture to record and publish historical information. In the second place, it is not history because it has been written too rapidly. This is not merely a technical objection but a quite fundamental one. The planning of this book took little more than a year, and the writing and editing only six months.
The idea of producing the Centenary Book was born out of discussions between the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Professor R. S. Gye, and myself, which took place early in 1980. By April 1980, we had decided to proceed, and had formed an editorial subcommittee. By the end of 1980, the subcommittee had formulated an outline for the book, and we had begun to issue invitations to potential contributors. Late in 1981 the Dean provided funds with which we could engage the services of a half-time research assistant (Mrs Nina Webb) and she began work in January 1982. We decided to finance the venture by seeking advance subscriptions, and to fix the size of the volume in the light of the response. It was overwhelming—at the time of going to press in February 1983 we have over 1,400 subscriptions including several from corporate bodies, and there are clearly more yet to come. Consequently, we have allowed the volume to grow to almost twice the originally planned length, and have included many more illustrations than we had thought would be possible. Most of the writing and editing has, of necessity, been done in the short space of six months, a time span that would lead any historian to shake his head in disapproval. Writing history is a craft—it cannot be learned overnight, and histories cannot be written in a hurry. Accepting this, and not claiming to be masters of the craft, we have restricted our scope considerably, and have tried to produce a narrative making only a limited attempt at evaluation and criticism. To stress the point that we are not writing history, we have deliberately refrained from using scholarly footnotes, even when our research efforts might have justified them. Instead, we have merely provided bibliographies at the end of each section, indicating the most important sources that we have consulted. In addition, we have avoided using the word history in the book’s title. It goes without saying that we wanted the book to be accurate, and we have spared no effort to check our facts—nevertheless, in the time available to us, our checking is far from comprehensive, and we can only apologize in advance for the errors that are bound to be present. In general, whenever we have given a date in full, it can be taken that we have consulted a primary source, but where only a year is given, we may not have done so. One day we hope to produce a real history and, for this reason, we will welcome having our attention drawn to errors, both of omission and of commission.
If the book is not history, then what is it? We hope it will be seen as a factual compilation, recalling and setting in perspective, the people and events that have shaped the Medical School. It may serve as a starting point for those who wish to write real history, just as Barff’s jubilee book on the University of Sydney, published in 1902, was our starting point. Our book aims to tell about the people who founded and built up the School, and to celebrate their achievements. So often one hears mentioned the great names of previous generations, and yet, almost as often, one is only vaguely aware of who they were. If this book should serve as a source of reference to answer questions about our founders and early graduates, and to outline how our Faculty grew, we will have fulfilled our aims. A comment on the organization of the book may be helpful. In Chapter 1 we have outlined briefly how the Faculty came to be formed in 1856, and why its twenty-six years of existence before the appointment of Anderson Stuart have been overlooked or passed over in silence. In Chapter 2 the Examiners of the Faculty in the 1856–1882 period are discussed, as well as the fifteen practitioners who obtained medical degrees by examination. Some attempt has been made to ascertain how each examiner came to be appointed, and what motives led each candidate to offer himself for examination. In Chapter 3 the careers of the early teachers and graduates of the newly formed Medical School are examined. The need for brevity led us to restrict consideration to teachers appointed before 1890 and to graduates from the first two years (1888–1889). Chapter 4 deals with the Faculty from the time of Anderson Stuart’s appointment up to 1920, the year of his death, while Chapter 5 deals with the period up to the early 1930s when the Bosch Professors of Medicine and Surgery were appointed. We felt that the period after 1930 was too recent to be dealt with in a dispassionate and critical way so the general outline stops in the early 1930s.
The decision to write a general account of the growth of the Faculty obliged us, for the sake of clarity and brevity, to omit much detail of potential interest. To compensate for this, we have invited contributions from colleagues whose personal acquaintance with events enabled them to provide factual outlines of the development of individual disciplines; these contributions have carried the story forward to the present. For similar reasons, we have also invited contributions from the Teaching Hospitals, the Medical Library, and the Medical Society. Two further chapters complete the body of the text. One, on the subject of early women graduates (Chapter 6), and another on what we now know as the Anderson Stuart Building (Chapter 10), in which so much of the Faculty’s development has taken place. Finally, in the hope that they will prove useful as a research aid, we have appended lists of Professors, early teachers, medically qualified officers of the University and Deans of the Faculty.
In order to avoid producing an indigestible list of acknowledgements in the Preface, we have attempted to mention at appropriate places in the text, either in footnotes or in the figure legends, the names of all those who have helped us in our research efforts. Illustrations appearing without a specific acknowledgement were obtained from within the University, and are mostly to be found in the University Archives.
The assistance of several persons has been so extensive and substantial, however, that it is only in this preface that their names can properly be acknowledged. For providing much biographical information, and giving freely of their time, I am deeply indebted to Miss M.A. Tovell, Archivist of the Victorian Branch of the A.M.A., to Mrs Alison Holster, Librarian of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Dr U. Bygott, Research Assistant for the University of Sydney History Project, Dr C. Cunneen of the Australian Dictionary of Biography Project Office, and the staff of the office of the Registrar General of N.S.W. I should like to thank Associate Professor K. Cable and Emeritus Professor W. M. O’Neil for reading and criticizing parts of the manuscript. I am grateful to the Acting Registrar, Mr P. Westlake, the Librarian, Dr N. Radford, and the University Archivist, Mr K. Smith, without whose co-operation we could not have proceeded. Most of the illustrations of the book are the work of Mr M. Henry-Myers—either he produced new photographs for me or he rephotographed and retouched old ones, in all cases with consummate skill. My thanks to Mrs N. Kos, Mr S. Towner, Miss A. Papandreou and the staff of the Dean’s office for help on countless occasions and in countless ways.
I should like to thank all the members of the editorial subcommittee for their hard work and wise counsel. In particular, I thank my co-editors, Dr Ann Sefton and Mrs Nina Webb, who worked hard, not only on the manuscript, but on me to keep me sane, Professor K. W. Cleland, who gave unstintingly of his time when I called on him in a moment of real crisis, and Emeritus Professor C. R. B. Blackburn and Mrs N. W. G. Macintosh for their labours in correcting the proofs. My thanks are also due to the Director and staff of Sydney University Press, in particular to Mr Mark Matheson, the book’s designer, who brought taste, professional skill and enthusiasm to bear on this task. To the Vice Chancellor of the University of Sydney, Professor J. M. Ward, I am especially indebted for his support and advice and for his patience and helpfulness when reading my bumbling attempts at historical writing. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to the Dean, Professor R. S. Gye, for entrusting this task to me and for his help, advice and encouragement.
John Atherton Young Sydney, February 1983
Go to next article in timeline: Foreword by John M. Ward, AO, Vice-Chancellor and Principal
Go back to contents page of Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine (1984) by J Young, A Sefton and N Webb