Tuesday, July 14, 1959 Summer Session Kansan
Page 3
BOOKS
By Gilbert M. Cuthbertson
THE KANSAS DOCTOR: A CENTURY OF PIONEERING, by Thomas Neville Bonner. University of Kansas Press, $5.
Written to commemorate the centennial of the Kansas Medical Society, Bonner's new book, "The Kansas Doctor: A Century of Pioneering," pays tribute to the modern and historical doctors who have pioneered the frontiers of medicine in Kansas. The book is permeated with narratives of hardships, struggles with epidemics and politics.
The first governor of the state was Dr. Charles Robinson; the first lieutenant-governor, Dr. Joseph Root, and the first secretary of state, Dr. John W. Robinson. This fact presents eloquent testimony to the role of doctors in organizing the state government.
Bonner narrates the stories of Kansas pioneers in medicine itself as well as politics, men who have established a proud, varied and progressive tradition. Among these is Dr. Samuel Crumbine's pioneering in public health, food purification, sanitation—the Dr. Crumbine, "who outlawed the common drinking cup" and "swatted the fly."
The roster of distinguished Kansan physicians continues with the Meningers, who made Topeka "the American Vienna;" Dr. Arthur E. Hertzler, the author of "Horse and Buggy Doctor"; Dr. Logan Clendenning, noted writer and physiologist. Here also are recorded the names of Dr. Samuel Williston, noted entomologist and paleontologist, and Dr. Clarence E. McClung, discoverer of the hereditary significance of chromosomes.
Particularly outstanding is the development of the University of Kansas Medical School from the struggle over the site, which prompted one Leavenworth doctor to write in 1880: "That department can only succeed in Leavenworth and it will be robbing the medical profession of its heritage and the people of their money to plant a . . . medical school in a little fourth rate, Yankee town (Lawrence)."
Today, the University Medical School under the careful supervision of Dr. Murphy and Dr. Wescoe has become the symbol of the period Bonner speaks of as the "Kansas Medical Renaissance." The "Murphy Plan" includes increased training and research facilities, encouragement of rural practice, and expansion of postgraduate education facilities. This program has materially broadened, qualitatively and quantitatively, KU's Medical School.
Many KU faculty members, past and present, are honored in this account. The building of hospitals, founding of societies, journals, the Brinkley "goat gland" campaign, the struggles between homeopaths, ectecles, osteopaths, chiropractors—"The Kansas Doctor" summarizes the history of all of these areas.
Bonner concludes: "The Kansas doctor might well congratulate himself on the most splendid period of achievement in the entire history of medicine in Kansas."
WASHINGTON SQUARE, by Henry James. Bantam Classics, 35 cents.
Not one of that select circle of James novels that professors like to tout ("The Wings of the Dove," "The Ambassadors," "The Golden Bowl"), "Washington Square" is early James, understandable James. It is a simple, tightly written story, which film- and play-goers will recall as "The Heiress." It deals with Catherine Sloper, unattractive daughter of a wealthy aristocrat of New York; the father, a kind of Moulton-Barrett tyrant type, and Morris Townsend, man about town who plans to marry Catherine for her money, and is spurned. "Washington Square" lacks a climax, as the film and play did not, and it dwindles away into comparative nothingness after Catherine has renounced the man she once had madly loved. But it is a perceptive portrait of mid-19th century American society, and an always engrossing tale.—CMP
LAST TRAIN FROM GUN HILL, by Gordon D. Shirreffs. Signet, 35 cents.
A new and rather dismaying publishing twist is represented in "Last Train from Gun Hill." It is the basing of a book upon a motion picture script—and not the most enduring script at that. The film is "Last Train from Gun Hill," which features Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn. It is the story of a sheriff whose Indian wife is raped and murdered by the weakling son of a powerful rancher. The rancher also is the former partner of the sheriff, and it turns into quite a situation when the sheriff comes to get the son. The story is fast-moving and highly unimportant; in the tradition of "High Noon," it is no "High Noon," but it is a shade better than "Gunsmoke" and the other cowpoke tales we see on television. —CMP
DOCTOR NO, by Ian Fleming, Signet, 35 cents.
A mysterious and exciting adventure concerns British secret service agent James Bond. Forsaking cold, dreary London for the sunny Caribbean on a routine investigation, Bond encounters a beautiful blonde, a fire-belching dragon, and a torture maze of a mad doctor. What was to have been a convalescence becomes instead a battle for survival. These elements combine with an easy style to produce interesting, even absorbing, light reading. —NAP
THE HOOK, by Vahé Kateha, Simon and Schuster, $2.50.
"The Hook" is an interminable small book about soldiers who have been ordered to execute a prisoner, and cannot arouse enough courage or ruthlessness to do it until after a treaty has been signed, ending the war, and then only by trickery. It should be dreadfully compelling, heart-stopping, powerful, graphic, vital, significant, symtomatic of our times, etc. It isn't. It's just tedious.-Alexandra Mason.
Psychologist Studying Oskaloosa To Learn Effects of Size of School
A University of Kansas psychologist is studying the effect of community and high school size on the life and experiences of high school students by first assembling a staff of "on the spot experts."
Roger G. Barker, professor of psychology who is conducting the study through the KU Midwest Psychological Field Station at Oskaloosa, has added eight high school students to the staff as junior research assistants for the summer. They will help collect and analyze data from the schools and five Jefferson County communities they represent.
The eight are LeVerna Kesinger, McLouth; Nancy Hamon and Eugene Curtis, Valley Falls; Joye Hensleigh, Winchester; Marilyn Peek, Rock Creek; Roger Brammel and Sonja Hampton Oskaloosa, and Larry Sheldon, Winchester. Other community representatives assisting with surveys are Ted Binkley of Nortonville and Darlene May of Zawakey.
The project is financed by a three-year grant of $61,607 from the U.S. office of Education. It is the first project to be supported at KU by the U.S. Office of Education through its co-operative research program.
"We hope to gather some much needed information for judging the best size for high schools," Dr. Barker said. "Previous studies have considered almost exclusively the curriculum offerings of schools of various sizes."
advantages. Dr. Barker believes the new study may shed light on the question of whether "it may be better to correct what deficiencies the small schools have than to form larger schools and lose the educational benefits of small community schools."
Work done at the Midwest Field Station—now in its 12th year—and in Lawrence by Dr. Herbert A. Wright, professor of psychology, shows that small communities and small schools have many educational
Since joining the KU faculty in 1947 Dr. Barker has lived in Oskaloosa where he immediately established the Midwest Psychological Field Station.
He is the president of the Society for Research in Child Development.
research in Child Development. Various government agencies and foundations have provided the financial support for these 12 years and assure its continuation for at least three more with expanded activities. A grant from the National Institute of Health provides for continuance of studies on what children actually do in the situations where they live their everyday lives. Included in this study is a comparison of the life of the children in an English town and is Oskaloosa.
The work of Dr. Barker and associates in Oskalaosa has resulted in the publication of two books and numerous articles. Many graduate students have there developed the material for theses for the master's degree and dissertations for the Ph.D. degree.
Indeed, Midwest—as Oskalaosa is called in these publications—a county seat town of about 750 persons, now may be the best known of all Kansas towns in the professional world of psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists.
The guest book at the station has the names of visitors from many universities in the United States,
and also from Norway, Australia, India, Belgium, England, Switzerland, Sweden and New Zealand.
Besides Dr. Barker as director, the summer staff of the Field Station includes Clifford L. Fawl, Arthur J. Dyck and Mrs. Louise Barker, research associates; Mrs. Sylvia Dyck and Eleanor Hills of Oksaloa, Richard H. Lawless, Wichita, and Naan Roos, Lund, Sweden, research assistants. The regular office staff of Maxine Mize and Isla Herbert is supplemented for the enlarged program by LaVelle Anderson, Verna Mae Hundley, Marjorie Elkinton and Patricia Gardener.
Steel Union Orders Talks
NEW YORK—(UPI)—The executive board of the United Steelworkers Union Monday ordered union negotiators to comply with President Eisenhower's request for immediate resumption of contract talks in an effort to avert a strike at midnight today.
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