Colonialism, tropical disease and imperial medicine: Rockefeller philanthropy in Sri Lanka

century New Zealand by Natasha Glaisyer. The two nursing sections are more substantial, at least empirically, and contain several wellcrafted studies of nursing theory and practice both in "old" and "new" countries. Of particular note is Michael Barfoot's study of nursing reforms at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, which revisits some of the debates over Florence Nightingale's "motivation", endorsing the recent tendency to interpret her actions in terms of her strongly-held Unitarian beliefs. Cheryl Cordery's chapter on the enduring appeal of mid-nineteenthcentury nursing practices also makes some interesting linkages between the "miasmatic" theory to which Nightingale was so attached and her class-based world view. The following section on indigenous health opens with a valuable essay by Donald Denoon on 'Pacific island depopulation', which assesses the relative merits of two rival interpretations of depopulation. One attributes the dispossession of land from aboriginal peoples to the biological impact of "virgin soil" epidemics; the other sees dispossession and changing patterns of land use as, in themselves, a reason for depopulation. Denoon ends with a timely call for more attention to be given to the resilience of certain indigenous populations, and for explanations of population decline where there were no epidemics. Denoon's essay, thus, serves as a cautionary tale against the dangers of biological determinism (a' la Alfred Crosby) and against the historian's infatuation with "the epidemic". The other essays in the section are more empirical but useful none the less. Some explore the mechanics of health services for indigenous peoples, while others are more concerned with colonial constructions of race and health. The two final sections on fringe medicine and other "miscellaneous" aspects of medicine unfortunately add little to our knowledge and constitute a weak ending to the book. Nevertheless, it is a collection which contains some valuable contributions-both analytical and empirical-to the history of Western medicine in its colonial context, and it would be a pity if these were allowed to languish in obscurity.