Under The Microscope

CAMBRIDGE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY Series: MEDICINE, edited by Roy Porter; Cambridge University Press, 1996; 400 pp; A$64.95
ASTRONOMY, edited by Michael Hoskin; CUP 1997; 392 pp; A$64.95 ARCHAEOLOGY, edited by Paul G. Bahn; CUP 1996; 386 pp; A$64.95

Reviewed by Vicki Hyde

You know that these books can attract the attention of young and old alike when you're woken up on a Saturday morning by a five-year-old thumping you on the ear with the Cambridge Illustrated History of Archaeology and demanding to be shown the picture of the sarcophagus!

The illustrations, despite being predominantly in black and white, are interesting enough to intrigue those new to the many and various fields of knowledge; the text, for the most part, is very satisfying in both the broadness and the detail which is covered in what are extensive and demanding subjects. The editors have, for the main part, done their job well in ensuring that the books draw on the specialist knowledge of individual writers for different chapters, yet retain a consistency of style and approach.

There's obviously room for different approaches -- Roy Porter, editor of Medicine, has chosen to cover different aspects of medicine within individual chapters. Thus this volume deals with the historical development of, for example, hospitals and surgery starting with trepanning, progressing through barber surgeons and on into the hi-tech surgery of today. Given the diverse fields in medicine such an approach is a good one, enabling the development of the disciplines to be covered without having to hold on to too many strands at once.

Astronomy progresses in a more chronological fashion, from the ideas of antiquity and medieval astrologer/astronomers. It is pleasing to see sections devoted to the often-ignored areas of Chinese and Islamic astronomy included here, though that makes the omission of early Indian interest in the area all the more surprising. On reaching modern times, the writers acknowledge that astronomy this century has faced almost as many on-going fundamental changes about our knowledge as the centuries preceeding. As the final chapter asks, "where does history end and astronomy begin?", a problem that has to be dealt with by any historian.

Perhaps archaeologists have it a little easier, with their discipline being primarily just two centuries old. Don't let the recent provenance fool you however. The Archaeology volume is as much about how we view the world as people, and the social aspects of archaeology, from treatment of sites and information to competing philosophical approaches, play as important a role as actual digs and discoveries.

Throughout these works the role of the people involved in wondering about the stars, exploring the human body, digging in the desert shine through -- that we have learned so much is not because we have stood on giant shoulders, but because so many have been willing to lend their shoulders to be stood upon.

Vicki Hyde is the editor of New Zealand Science Monthly.