Book reviews

Drawing on methodologies and theories used to understand forms of material culture, this paper traces the spatio-temporal lives of a group of medicine chests manufactured by Burroughs Wellcome and Co., the business co-founded by Henry Wellcome which is now known as GlaxoSmithKline. The paper examines the biographical, historical and commercial histories connected with these objects. In particular, it considers how the chests became embroiled within narratives of progress and modernity associated with the production and promotion of ‘modern’ pharmaceuticals and the establishment of a collection of objects through which Wellcome attempted to trace the ‘history of medicine and mankind’ from evolutionary perspectives. Using empirical research from a variety of contexts, the paper therefore reflects on how the chests’ circulation, use and display shed light on historical geographies of science, collecting, commerce and empire in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Le parcours des pharmacies portatives à travers le monde: esquisse sur les géographies de la cueillette et des produits pharmaceutiques

En s'appuyant sur des méthodologies et des théories qui servent à comprendre les formes de culture matérielle, cet article esquisse les vies spatiales et temporelles d'un ensemble de pharmacies portatives fabriquées par l'entreprise Burroughs Wellcome et cie, cofondée par Henry Wellcome et qui est connue aujourd'hui sous le nom de GlaxoSmithKline. Cet article aborde sous les angles biographique, historique et commercial les histoires associées à ces objet. Il se penche en particulier sur la façon dont les pharmacies se sont mêlées aux récits sur le progrès et la modernité liés à la production et la promotion de produits pharmaceutiques «modernes» et à la constitution d'une collection d'objets à partir desquels Wellcome a tenté d'esquisser dans une optique évolutive une «histoire de la médecine et de l'humanité». [Agrave] partir de recherches empiriques issues d'un large éventail de contextes, cet article examine donc comment la diffusion, l'usage et la présentation des pharmacies peuvent donner des renseignements sur les géographies historiques de la science, de la cueillette, du commerce et de l'empire à la fin du dix-neuvième et au début du vingtième siècle.

Mots-clefs: géographies historiques de la culture matérielle, cueillette, commerce, empire, histoires de la science, de la médecine et des produits pharmaceutiques, biographie.

Botiquines de medicina trotamundos: análisis de las geografías de coleccionar y farmacéuticos

Haciendo uso de metodologías y teorías que se emplea para entender formas de cultura material, este papel detalla las vidas espacio-temporales de un grupo de botiquines de medicina, fabricados por Burroughs Wellcome and Co., una empresa cofundada por Henry Wellcome, que hoy en día es conocida como GlaxoSmithKline. El papel examina las historias biográficas, históricas y comerciales relacionadas con estos objetos. En particular, considera cómo los botiquines llegaron a verse envueltos en narrativas de progreso y modernidad, asociadas con la producción y promoción de farmacéuticos modernos y el establecimiento de una colección de objetos, por los cuales Wellcome pretendía detallar la ‘historia de la medicina y del hombre’ desde perspectivas evolucionarias. Haciendo uso de investigaciones empíricas de varios contextos, el papel considera cómo la circulación, el uso y la exposición de los botiquines revela las geografías históricas de ciencia, coleccionar, comercio e imperios en la última parte del siglo 19 y la primera parte del siglo 20.

Palabras claves: geografías históricas de la cultura material, coleccionar, comercio, imperio, Historias de ciencia, medicina y farmacéuticos, biografía.     

Time–geography,gentlemen, please: chronotopes of publand in Patrick Hamilton’s London trilogy

This paper considers the time and the place of drinking in modern British life, as represented in Patrick Hamilton’s trilogy of novels set in the publand of London’s West End in the interwar years, through Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of the chronotope and with critical nods to Hagerstrand’s time–geography corpus. The chronotopes of pubs and their neighbourhoods, which we term ‘publand’, are discussed initially in their novelistic presentation in Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky (1935), and then in relation to the ‘character zones’ of the novels’ principal protagonists. The key themes, defined in the paper, are the asynchronicity of personal and social relations, the dialogic construction of heterochronicity, and the presentation of a prosaic chronotope. Though the paper is a contribution to literary geography, we aim to contribute to the cultural geographic understanding of the time–space rhythms and routines of everyday leisure drinking, making claims for the wider significance of chronotopic analysis.     

Exceptional preservation of a prehistoric human brain from Heslington,Yorkshire, UK

Archaeological work in advance of construction at a site on the edge of York, UK, yielded human remains of prehistoric to Romano-British date. Amongst these was a mandible and cranium, the intra-cranial space of which contained shrunken but macroscopically recognizable remains of a brain. Although the distinctive surface morphology of the organ is preserved, little recognizable brain histology survives. Though rare, the survival of brain tissue in otherwise skeletalised human remains from wet burial environments is not unique. A survey of the literature shows that similar brain masses have been previously reported in diverse circumstances. We argue for a greater awareness of these brain masses and for more attention to be paid to their detection and identification in order to improve the reporting rate and to allow a more comprehensive study of this rare archaeological survival.     

The Gender of Europe's Commercial Economy, 1200–1700

This essay proposes that between about 1200 and 1700, commerce was rescued from the margins of the European moral economy with the help of a gender binary that took shape among a rising class of European merchant and artisan families. Among this class, a more rigid sexual division of labour was accompanied by a cultural narrative that credited tradesmen with the ability to serve the social whole and charged their wives and daughters with the task of ridding consumption of the taint of sin. The story of the commercial revolution in Europe was, thus, in part a social, legal and cultural history that redefined male and female for a rising class of people and, in fact, helped define the class itself.     

The analysis of two historic fired artificial stonewares: Coade stone (18th–19th centuries) and a recent discovery from Oxnead Hall,Norfolk (16th–17th centuries)

Coade stone has played a significant role in architectural and ornamental design since its inception in the early 18th century. It is well known that earlier, experimental, architectural stoneware products existed, but few of these have been studied in detail scientifically, and only one major analytical study of Coade stone has appeared in the literature. This paper presents a new spectroscopic analysis of Coade stone along with that of a newly discovered sample from Oxnead Hall in Norfolk where it known that Sir Clement Paston experimented with artificial stone in the late 16th century. The results demonstrate that it is possible to differentiate between the two variants on the basis of both the raw materials used and the different phases formed in their production processes.     

Crime and the City Solution: Crime Fiction, Urban Knowledge, and Radical Geography

Radical urban geography has recently begun a critique of crime fiction, seeing its ideological shortcomings as politically instructive. This paper argues that this critique is theoretically naive and suggests that a concentration on the epistemological claims of both fiction and urban geography is more fruitful. The paper turns the critique back on radical geography and celebrates the critical possibilities of some forms of crime fiction. Specifically, the police procedurals of British author John Harvey are used to illustrate the genre's ability to articulate alternative epistemologies, ways of knowing the city that track the structure of everyday life and thus offer a critical, realistic, and reflexive approach to the city and itsproblems.     

Implications of climate change for glacier tourism

For more than 100 years, the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers in Westland Tai Poutini National Park have attracted thousands of tourists annually and have emerged as iconic destinations in New Zealand. However, in recent years, the recession of both glaciers has been increasingly rapid and the impacts on, and implications for, visitor experiences in these settings remain relatively unexplored. A mixed-method approach was adopted to investigate visitor experiences and stakeholder perspectives through an assessment of climate-related changes on tourism at the glaciers in Westland Tai Poutini National Park. The bio-physical conditions at both the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers were reviewed in order to assess the magnitude and rate of retreat. Perceptions of climate change risk and awareness of impacts in the National Park were assessed through stakeholder interviews (n = 13) and a visitor survey (n = 500) was used to better understand how impacts at these sites have affected and may continue to affect visitor experiences. Research results were reported to local communities via a series of public talks. Results revealed the fundamental importance of viewing the glaciers as a significant travel motive of visitors, suggesting that there is a ‘last chance’ dimension to their experience. Furthermore, the results demonstrate a high adaptive capacity of local tourism operators under rapidly changing environmental conditions. The implications of altered visitor experiences for tourism operators and protected area managers are discussed in light of these findings.