President: Professor Christopher Stephens MBA MAEd FRCGP
A meeting of the Southampton Medical Society was held on the 2nd October 2024 at the Ampfield Golf Club. The previous year’s President, Dr David Rowen, was in the chair. The minutes of the last meeting were approved.
A minutes silence was held in memory of two doctors: Dr Arthur Page and Dr Colin Godber.
Dr Rowen introduced our speaker Dr John Gould, who spoke to the title “The Birth of Oceanography”. Dr Gould said this is a story of two research ships and raises the very old question of How do the Oceans Work? It is particularly important in relation to climate change. The two ships are HMS Challenger and the German ship SMS Gazelle.
Communications were very difficult in 1872. Suez was started in 1869, In the 1860s communication by cable was being developed and the first transatlantic cable was laid in 1885. There was no knowledge as to what the oceans were really like. Edward Forbes in his azoic theory thought there was no life possible at depth and Thomas Huxley propounded his theory that the oceans had an inexhaustible amounts of large fish. As a consequence a number of expeditions were set up to try and find out - for example HMS Porcupine , HMS Lightening and of course HMS Challenger under the captaincy of Charles Wyville Thomson. Challenger was a small ship with a large number of scientists and crew on board. It was very crowded. Our speaker introduced the scientists to us one by one.
Challenger was away for 4 years and zigzagged over the oceans, an equivalent distance of three times around the world. The Gazelle was set up by the German government to compete for knowledge and followed Challenger. The two expeditions were very different. The Gazelle had a bad time with illness. Scurvy affected the whole crew while the Challenger had no cases as the crew had citrus rations. Malaria was severe on the Gazelle whilst the Challenger kept it at bay with quinine. The crew of the Gazelle also suffered many serious accidents. This was not a problem on the Challenger. Both met up by accident in Montevideo and such was the degree of suffering in the Gazelle that she was quarantined.
The results of the Challengers observations have stood the test of time. For instance the measurements of salinity have not changed between then and now. The multiple volumes containing the scientific observation from this expedition are still studied.
The observations of the these two scientific cruises which departed in 1872 are the baseline of todays observations on global warming and the changing climate.
Both ships were eventually broken up, Dr Gould said, but the figurehead of HMS Challenger now adorns the front hall of the Southampton University Oceanography Centre.
Dr Rowen thanked the speaker for his very interesting and fascinating lecture. There being no other business the meeting was closed.