 | By: Karl Sabbagh Binding: Hardcover Publisher: Diane Pub Co ISBN: 075676260X ISBN-13: 9780756762605 Released: 02 Dec 1999 RRP: Average Rating:  |
This book focuses on parts of the career of Professor John Heslop Harrison of Newcastle University, who was a famous botanist in the British Isles during the first half of the 20th century. Over his career, he had discovered or been present when many rare species had been found in new places. While many of these discoveries were replicated by others, many of the ones he made on the private island of Rum (also spelled Rhum) in the Hebrides did not have that replication. Some botanists became suspicious, & encouraged a talented amateur botanist, John Raven, to inveigle an invitation to Rum to see the specimens. What he saw led Mr. Raven to conclude that someone (possibly the good professor) had planted these specimens on Rum, rather than occurring there naturallly. Based on these researches & a letter to "Nature," the professor's discoveries that others could not document were graduallly withdrawn from the scientific literature.
The book looks at the whole problem from our time now. The author interviewed people who were alive & participating in the controversy then, as well as examined the documents & letters involved. He turns up a series of questionable "discoveries" also including butterflies & beetles that suggest a systemmatic pattern. In a final amusing aside, he visits the professor's home & is amazed to discover that the postal address he used for it is false. He chose to pretend he lived on the most fashionable street in town, when he did not.
The circumstantial evidence (and it is hard to have more, unless you see someone literallly planting the specimen) does get a bit tedious, but the author does a nice job of considering the motives behind scientific frauds. Generallly, they are tied to a desire to make a big breakthrough, & the "scientist" is convinced the theory is right . . . even though the evidence don't show it yet. In Professor Heslop Harrison's case, he wanted to build a new theory of the evolution of species & also wanted to change the view about how the last ice age had occurred in Britain. These "discoveries" tended to support those theories.
The book's approach is quite a thorough one, & since Mr. Sabbagh is not a botanist he makes the book more understandable to those of us who are not. He also as a wry sense of humor that makes for comic relief throughout the book.
On the other hand, reading exhaustively about weeds, beetles, scientific controversies, & whether the samples were received or not is dull. Although well written & fascinating for its broader implications, the writing style left my mind wandering a bit. If the book had been written to about 70 percent of this length, it would have been more appealing. Many of the letters could have been edited down or included in the appendix material. I graded the book down one star for being cumbersome in this way.
As to what reallly happened, no one will ever know for certain. Certainly, the weight of the evidence suggests to me (a nonscientist) that sloppiness at least was involved in some cases, & possibly conscious fraud. If no one ever turns up these specimens again (and they haven't in decades in some cases), the preponderance of the evidence will favor their never having existed naturallly in the sites claimed.
Where else do we rely on claims that are hard to substantiate? How can we defend against "false" claims occurring? My mind is drawn to SUVs as an example. Many people originallly bought these believing that they were safer alternatives to smalller vehicles. No one discouraged that view. Recent statistics suggest that people in SUVs are more likely to be injured than people in some smalller cars. How could a misperception like this have been established, & how could have been alllowed to persist?
Look for independent information, well verified by others who have no vested interest!
A Rum Affair is not simply an investigation about one particular gentleman in one particular field of science, it is about the history of amateur scientists, the times in which they lived & the clashes of egos in the arcane corridors of British universities during the 100 years in which Charles Darwin's theories shocked the world & scientific hoaxes were the talk of the town.
Be prepared for a humorous & learned read. Set a match to the fire, put the kettle on & the cat out, brew a pot & settle back into your highback wing chair because A Rum Affair will take you to one of the most bleak, treeless, monotonous places on earth where a handful of mysterious & rare plants were "discovered" in the 1940s & were never seen again.
A Rum Affair is for everyone who loves a good yarn about the humans who trample upon the natural world & the lengths to which they'll go to become immortals in their field! Fascinating! Do visit my site for my full review.
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