Science and Empire
East Coast Fever in Rhodesia and the Transvaal

The story of East Coast fever, a lethal disease of cattle, and its scientific study.

Paul F. Cranefield (Author)

9780521392532, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 February 1991

404 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.7 cm, 0.76 kg

"...fascinating, well-written book....thoroughly grounded in research in relevant archives and the scientific literature. The author has many significant things to say about the process of scientific discovery, the role of intellectual authority, communications among researchers, and intellectual relationships between center and periphery. He also tells a very interesting and important story." K. David Patterson, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Science

East Coast fever is a lethal disease of cattle, caused by a parasite that multiplies within T-lymphocytes, causing them to become lymphoblasts that behave like cells in leukaemia and lymphoma. This is the story of the disease and its effects on farmers, as well as of the scientists who studied it. The disease was unknown to western science or to veterinary practice until it was introduced into Rhodesia in 1901. It devastated the cattle-raising and ox-cart dependent transport systems of Rhodesia and South Africa and was not fully brought under control for some 50 years. The book describes the social and economic impact of the outbreak, the scientific investigations into it, and the effort to control it. The scientific study of the disease was done in part by the famous bacteriologist Robert Koch, whose many early errors had a negative effect on later investigators whose work was far more sound.

List of illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Prologue
2. The places and the players
3. A new disease?
4. The search for an expert
5. Robert Koch in Bulawayo
6. Joseph Chamberlain
7. Arnold Theiler, Charles Lounsbury and Duncan Hutcheon
8. The fight against East Coast fever
9. The African-owned cattle in Rhodesia
10. Two more parasites and another new disease
11. What is East Coast fever?
12. Epilogue
Notes and references
Index.

Subject Areas: History of medicine [MBX]