White man in tropical Australia: Anton Breinl and the Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine
Harloe, Lorraine Joan (1987) White man in tropical Australia: Anton Breinl and the Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine. Honours thesis, James Cook University of North Queensland.
|
PDF (Thesis)
Download (27MB) | Preview |
Abstract
An excerpt from the introduction:
This thesis does not purport to be a biography of Anton Breinl, nor does it aspire to pursue the theme of white man in the tropics. It strives to balance, at an appropriate academic level, the contribution of the individual in a cataclysmic period; and to draw attention to a few of the relevant advances in tropical medicine pertaining to northern Australia, so pronounced from the 1890s to the end of the First World War. The theme of public health, especially in relation to diseases such as leprosy, yaws, gangosa, eye infections, dysentery and digestive disorders including beriberi which afflicted many non-white peoples such as the Australian Aborigines, Papuans, Torres Strait and Pacific Islanders and others, still requires serious research.
Chapter one examines from written sources some attitudes towards white man in the tropics. Chapter two looks at Breinl's background, the negotiations in relation to the Institute's establishment, and ultimately Breinl's appointment as Director. Chapter three illustrates some of Breinl's work while Director of the Institute and his endeavours to fulfil an unrealistic brief. Chapter four recounts the personal anxieties to which Breinl was subjected because of his origins. Chapter five relates the demise of the Townsville involvement in research into tropical medicine, the politics, and the intrigue which led to the removal of the Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine to Sydney in 1930. It is a subject which requires further detailed research.
Actions (Repository Staff Only)
 |
Item Control Page |