Selections: Medical men

It was necessary that the AAE’s Antarctic bases each have a medical officer. Given the extensive biological training involved in medicine, and Mawson’s insatiable thirst for science in the AAE, it was almost inevitable that medical people would be expected to take on some scientific work.

Two of the expedition’s surgeons – Archibald McLean and Sydney Jones – were friends and fellow graduates of the University of Sydney. Jones was selected on the recommendation of McLean, who had been appointed as the expedition’s chief medical officer.

Dr S. E. Jones and Dr A. McLean, taken at Grafton in 1908. Newspaper clipping source unknown. © McLean Papers, Mitchell Collection, State Library of New South Wales.

McLean’s surgical competence was matched by his capacity for ideas, scientific and otherwise. He suggested to Mawson that expeditioners receive heliograph training, and undertook to study the effect of Antarctic work on urinary secretion and composition, to gain practical experience in canine diseases, and to investigate a program of microbiological research. Jones also offered to pursue bacteriology, in which he and McLean had gained proficiency during their hospital training.