The Troubled and Exciting Years of the First Four Decades of the 20th Century — Part I

Abstract

In 1918 The Great War was over, but the scars were to remain for a long time, especially in Europe. Although Anglo-American links were strengthened, the scientific communications with Europe and within Europe had been interrupted. Their restitution took several years, and the economic and political upheavals on the continent of Europe made a return to the pre-war level of zest and high standard of research and teaching difficult. Personal friendships across the frontiers had been severed; the feeling of bitterness and animosity had not escaped the scientific field. Sir Edward Schaefer, an upright and kindhearted man, found it necessary to change his name by adding that of his teacher and predecessor in the chair of physiology, Sharpey, to his own, in order to dissociate himself clearly from the war-oriented direction which Central-European science had taken. The autumn issue of the Journal of the History of Biology for 1976 is largely taken up with the development of Endocrinology during that period, and in “A brief introduction” of that “special section of endocrinology”, Professor Diane Long Hall and Dr. Thomas F. Glick discuss the interesting papers presented, which “indicate the extent to which the history of this complex field may be used to throw light on the intellectual and social history of the twentieth century”¹.