Medical geologists during the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration

Abstract

AbstractAlthough the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration is best remembered for races to the South Pole, the majority of expeditions at the time had scientific aims with geology as one of the important sciences to be studied. Almost all the expeditions carried a doctor, who was usually expected to contribute to the science of the expedition and was often appointed more for his non-medical skills than his medical ones. On the Scotia expedition, Dr J. Harvey Pirie was appointed as doctor, bacteriologist and geologist, and on the Discovery expedition, Dr Reginald Koettlitz was appointed as botanist, but had earlier spent three years as geologist in the Arctic. Ernest Gourdon, the geologist on both French expeditions, was a medical student at the time (although some sources speak of him a being medically qualified) and he obtained doctorates in both geology and medicine for his work in the Antarctic. Perhaps the most important geological discovery of the era was made by Dr Edward Wilson who was a zoologist and artist rather than a geologist, but had a wide interest in natural history. This paper describes these doctors and their contribution to geology on these expeditions.