The Royal Society of Edinburgh The Scientific Life of Dr Livingstone Professor Michael Barrett Professor of Biochemical Parasitology (Infection

Immunity and Inflammation Life Science) University of Glasgow

19 March 2013 Report by Jennifer Trueland On the 200th anniversary of David Livingstones birth, Professor Michael Barrett described the man, his life, and his achievements as explorer, doctor, and humanitarian as well as an important figure in the Scottish tradition of tropical medicine.

David Livingstone was a remarkable Victorian an explorer, doctor, scientist, naturalist and writer he was, Professor Barrett said, one of the most astonishing figures in the history of humanity. In a lecture to mark the 200th anniversary of Livingstones birth, Professor Barrett focused on the scientific achievements of the mill boy from Blantyre, in the context of his life more generally. In particular, he described Livingstones contribution to and understanding of tropical medicine. David Livingstone was born in Blantyre in Lanarkshire, and lived with his parents and siblings in a small room in a tenement for mill workers. From the age of 10, he worked 14 hours a day in the mill, then attended school for two hours and read until midnight. He was keen to study science, being fascinated by fossils, flora and fauna, but his strictly evangelical father wouldnt let him, believing that science and Christianity could not be reconciled. The young David, however, found a way forward: inspired by the writings of Thomas Dick, an eccentric scientist from Broughty Ferry, who wrote that science and religion were striving for the same truth, he persuaded his father that he could study medicine so that he could save the heathen as a missionary. Livingstone studied medicine in Glasgow, before applying to the London Missionary Society where he was to meet the missionary Robert Moffatt, who was home from Kuruman, in South Africa. Livingstone had intended going to China, but the opium wars intervened, and he decided to follow Moffatt and go to southern Africa instead. Livingstone quickly made a reputation for hard work and derring-do the famous episode where he fought off a lion, which left him with a broken arm, only enhanced his image. He married Moffatts daughter, Mary, who travelled with him across the Kalahari Desert. It was here that Livingstone was to make one of his first significant discoveries in Lake Ngami; a large body of water so close to the Kalahari was important if his idea of opening up Africa to legitimate trade and agriculture was to succeed. Livingstone was keen to find a route into central Africa and walked many thousands of miles to try to find a way. Walking through Africa was tough there were no roads, and there were threats from wildlife not just the big beasts we associate with Africa, but tiny creatures such as the mosquito. At the time, it wasnt known that malaria was carried

by mosquitoes, and Livingstone had repeated attacks of the disease; indeed, he nearly died. Meanwhile he was showing his scientific zeal and curiosity. When he first saw the Victoria Falls, for example (he was the first to bring this incredible landmark to the attention of Europeans), it wasnt enough for him simply to wonder at their beauty and majesty: he immediately took his sextant and other scientific equipment and proceeded to measure it and record his observations. Deciding that the Zambezi river was the answer to finding a workable route, he went back to Britain and proceeded to raise the money for what was to be an ill-fated expedition. Livingstone was feted as a hero back in the UK, and his ideas and writings were influential. He believed that the slave trade was the biggest impediment to development in Africa, for example, and this was a view that gained some momentum with his backing. Interestingly, another eminent Victorian, Charles Darwin, held similar views, and had a similar life pattern at this point (studying medicine in Scotland, theology in London, then travelling, although in Darwins case it was to South America). John Murray published Darwins Origin of the Species in 1858, the year after the same publisher brought out Livingstones Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa. Livingstones writings were remarkable for the beauty of his descriptions, but also for the observations of natural history. He discovered several new species such as the honey guide, a bird which annoys and irritates humans and leads them to a bees nest, knowing that the humans will raid it for honey and the bird can feast on their leavings. Despite this skill as a naturalist, he disagreed with Darwin on evolution, saying he was witnessed no struggle for life on the plains of Africa, but this avowal of a stubborn Christian, sticking to the idea of God as creator, was at odds with his writing, in which he described evolution in practice. Livingstones observations contributed greatly to human understanding of medicine. For example, he observed the association between the bite of the tampan tick and relapsing fever, and probably gave the first description of an arthropod transmitting disease. His work was followed up by other great Scottish pioneers of tropical medicine, such as Patrick Manson, who established that mosquitoes acted as a vector for disease, and encouraged the amazing all-rounder and polymath Sir Ronald Ross to investigate the life cycle of the malaria parasite, and establish how it was transmitted by mosquitoes. This discovery had huge significance: because mosquitoes were implicated, people could protect themselves by sleeping under mosquito nets and by draining swamps. Of course there were also drugs for malaria. Livingstone himself was assiduous about taking quinine to cure himself of African fever, and worked out the correct dosage, which was to take it until it caused ringing of the ears. He also invented pills called Livingstone Rousers, in which the active ingredient was quinine. Some of Livingstones ideas didnt quite work in practice. For example, he noted that if domestic animals in Africa were bitten by the tsetse fly, they became emaciated and died, but wild animals didnt. It would be too difficult to train wild animals such as buffalo in Africa to pull carts, so Livingstone imported Indian buffalo which were already domesticated thinking they too would be immune. They, however, werent resistant and died. It was fruitless, but he was always trying, said Professor Barrett. Livingstone won funding for his Zambezi expedition on the basis that it would open up mineral-rich central Africa for trade, and he also wished to ameliorate the lot of the African people, but he was thwarted by a number of circumstances. Perhaps the main

barrier was the un-navigable rapids of the Zambezi, which he hadnt previously noticed and which despite the horror of his travel companions he tried to conquer time and again. Other issues were famine, cholera and the growth of the slave trade, which all told against him. He did find a tributary, and did find what is now known as Lake Malawi, but that wasnt what he had set out to do. Nevertheless he reported that the area was ripe for conversion by missionaries, and a number arrived only to die very quickly from malaria. His wife, Mary, also died. Livingstone felt very guilty and responsible for the missionaries deaths, because he had assumed they would take quinine, but hadnt advised them to do so. The enterprise was considered a fiasco, and Livingstone was profoundly embarrassed, returning to Britain this time as a villain, rather than a hero. By this time African exploration was all the rage, and Livingstone joined the latest great debate, which was over the source of the Nile. Explorers such as Richard Burton and John Speke were competing over it and Livingstone, still wanting to find ways into Africa, thought hed look for it too. It was harder this time to raise the money, but Livingstone travelled back to Africa, to Zanzibar, and spent his time tracing rivers to try to find the source. He became very ill, and lost his medicine chest; he was dependent on Arab traders, and eventually travelled to Lake Tanganyika, where his supplies were stolen. He was in a parlous state, and rumours of his death were already circulating in Britain. It was at Lake Tanganyika that the famous meeting was to take place between Livingstone and the journalist Henry Morton Stanley, who had been sent to find him by the New York Herald newspaper and who probably didnt actually say Dr Livingstone, I presume. Stanley brought him new life, supplies and medicines, and tried to persuade him to go back to Britain. This Livingstone refused to do, and he continued to try to find the source of the Nile, but had lost his scientific instruments. He didnt know where he was as he traversed inhospitable swamps, and, in fact, was out of his way by miles. Livingstone died on 1 May 1873. He was eviscerated and his heart buried in Africa, then his body was dried and transported on foot for over a thousand miles by his attendants, before being returned to Britain, where he as buried in state in Westminster Abbey. Although the cause of death is generally given as malaria and internal bleeding caused by dysentery, Professor Barrett believes that Schistosomiasis, or bilharzia, an infection caused by parasitical tropical worms found in water, is a likely candidate based partly on the knowledge that Livingstone had terrible bleeding haemorrhoids, for which he refused an operation on the grounds that it would be embarrassing. It is likely, then, that Livingstone fell victim to one of the tropical diseases which still kills people today, despite his contribution to our understanding of parasitology. Professor Barrett finished by outlining the current state of malaria, and neglected tropical diseases, saying that efforts were underway to continue the work of Livingstone, and other great Scottish pioneers of tropical medicine, in making such conditions a thing of the past. But who is todays Livingstone? Professor Barrett could only describe a composite: as a naturalist, David Attenborough, whose television programmes are engaging and fascinating, much like Livingstones books; as an explorer, astronaut Neil Armstrong, and as a preacher and human rights activist, Martin Luther King. It takes a collection of people an extraordinary achievement for a mill boy from Blantyre whose 200th birthday we celebrate today.

Questions An historian asked whether a recent television characterisation of Livingstone as a liar over the prospects of the ill-fated Zambezi expedition was harsh. Professor Barrett said that he felt Livingstone had exaggerated the ease and the benefits, but that this was for reasonable reasons. His preliminary exploration had missed the rapids which obviously scuppered the attempt but he couldnt have been expected to know about the spread of cholera and famine, and the increase in slavery. He messed up, he exaggerated, but that doesnt mean he was a liar, he said. He said that Livingstone was manic depressive, and that in his optimistic moments, he thought he could pull anything off. I think he generally believed that colonisation was plausible, and he was profoundly disappointed when it didnt happen. Another historian pointed out that Livingstone deserved credit for not subscribing to the view of the anthropologists an ethnographers of the time who have been called pseudoscientific racists that there were different species of human. Richard Burton, on the other hand, believed there were. The historian added that he felt that part of the failure of the Zambezi expedition was down to Livingstones lack of political flair. Professor Barrett agreed, saying that Darwin had also been outraged by ethnographers and others using measuring sticks to try to define differences. Burtons portrait is on prominent display in the Victorian explorers section of the National Portrait Gallery, while Livingstone does not. Its outrageous that his isnt the biggest portrait in the Victorian gallery, he added, urging everyone to write to the gallery to make that point. Sir John Arbuthnott asked how Livingstone kept in touch with the latest scientific thinking when on very long journeys to inaccessible places. Professor Barrett said that Livingstone received copies of The Lancet and British Medical Journal sometimes a year out of date and that he also received letters. Indeed, he was a prodigious letter writer, sometimes penning 20 per day. Great sacks of mail used to arrive by sea, then be transported to towns and villages by anyone who happened to be going that way, including Arab traders. His own mail went the reverse route. Asked why malaria wasnt on the list of neglected tropical diseases on the point of being controlled or eradicated, Professor Barrett said that unfortunately it is so widespread that it isnt considered neglected. Microsoft billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates has dared to express the ambition of eradication of malaria, and there are positive initiatives taking place such as product development partnerships. The good news is that incidence of malaria has fallen dramatically, he said.

Vote of Thanks Professor Stephen Blackmore, Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, and the Queens Botanist in Scotland, thanked Professoressor Barrett for delivering a remarkable lecture. Professor Blackmore said he had been in Malawi and had tried to retrace some of Dr Livingstones footsteps, but had been interested to hear Professor Barrett talk about the man as a scientist, and keen observer, as well as an explorer.

Opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of the RSE, nor of its Fellows The Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotlands National Academy, is Scottish Charity No. SC000470