Medical memorials in Antarctica: a gazetteer of medical place-names

• Published in: Journal of Medical Biography
• Main Authors: Sullivan, Peter, Pearn, John
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 2012
• Subjects: History and Philosophy of Science; Medicine (miscellaneous); Antarctic; Brabant; Brabant Island; Cardell; Charcot; Davis Station; Davis-Station; Four Islands; Loubet; Loubet Coast; Lugg; Lyall Islands; Surgeon Island; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1258/jmb.2012.012060; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1258/jmb.2012.012060; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1258/jmb.2012.012060

In Antarctica an astonishing more than 300 ‘medical’ place-names record the lives of surgeons and physicians who have served as leaders, clinicians and scientists in the field of polar medicine and other doctors memorialized for their service to medicine. These enduring medical memorials are to be found in the names of glaciers, mountains, capes and islands of the vast frozen Southern Continent. This Antarctic Medical Gazetteer features, inter alii, doctor-expedition leaders, including Jean-Baptiste Charcot (1867–1936) of France and Desmond Lugg (b. 1938) of Australia. The Medical Gazetteer lists 43 geographical features on Brabant Island that were named after famous doctors. This Gazetteer also includes a collection of medical place-names on the Loubet Coast honouring Dr John Cardell (1896–1966) and nine other pioneers who worked on the prevention of snow blindness and four islands of the Lyall Islands Group, including Surgeon Island, named after United States Antarctic Medical Officers. Eleven geographic features (mountains, islands, nunataks, lakes and more) are named after Australian doctors who have served with the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions based at Davis Station. Biographic memorials in Antarctica comprise a collective witness of esteem, honouring in particular those doctors who have served in Antarctica where death and injury remains a constant threat.