Sh09
antarctic Medicine

Abstract

From the earliest classical cartographers, belief in the existence of a ‘Terra Australis’ was widespread. There had to be a great southern land to balance the geography of the world. Inexorable plate tectonics may have separated Australia and Antarctica 45 million years ago but it was only within the last few hundred years that Abel Tasman and James Cook isolated and defined them as separate lands for science, politics and strategy. In 1901, the Australian colonies had just federated and formed a nation, the Commonwealth of Australia. The International Geographical Congress had proclaimed 1901 as ‘Antarctica’ year. The heroic age of Antarctic exploration was underway. Antarctic medical practice is unique because there is no indigenous population. This review starts with the primitive medicine practiced by doctors on board with Captain James Cook in 1775. The heroic era of Scott, Shackleton, Amundsen and Mawson was followed by a highly mechanized transition period and ends with modern medicine used in permanent stations and research. In Antarctica, we have Earth’s remaining tenuous links with outer space (the last two great frontiers). NASA scientists have used Antarctica to test lunar survival strategies because ‘this is as close to lunar conditions as we could get here on Earth’.