2000 HSS/PSA Program 1 - History of Science Society

HSS Abstracts
of experimental acoustics across Europe and North America, resulting in a
proliferation of novel instruments for studying sound. The Klang (Sound)
Analyzer, made by Rudolf Koenig (1832-1901), demonstrated one of Helmholtz’
finest achievements, the theory of sound quality, or Klangfarbe. Koenig, who
had played a major role in developing the Helmholtz resonator into an instrument
of “precision and certainty,” first introduced the Analyser in 1865. It was part of
a family of instruments deriving from a new optical method invented by Koenig
in 1862, the manometric flame technique. In this talk, I describe how the Analyser
developed, what it was used for, early praises and critiques of its performance, a
later adaptation by Max Kohl, and how it actually worked in the classroom and
laboratory. Such a common, yet complex instrument provides a rich perspective
on the practice of acoustics in the nineteenth century. Much of this research
stems from the examination and operation of Koenig’s instruments at the
University of Toronto and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. In
particular, I focus on the Sound Analyser, now at Toronto, that Koenig
demonstrated at the 1876 exhibition of Philadelphia.
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John␣ L. Parascandola U.S. Public Health Service
Science and Sex:
The Venereal Disease Education Campaign of the U.S. Public Health
Service in World War II
In a speech delivered in January, 1999, Surgeon General David Satcher
indicated that while generals and admirals in the military rely on ships or
aircraft or troops as their source of power, the Surgeon General of the Public
Health Service (PHS) “relies on science—the best available science—to
manage and advance the nation’s health.” It has not always been easy, however,
to establish public health policies on the basis of scientific knowledge alone,
without the intervention of social, political, and economic considerations. This
paper attempts to illuminate this point by examining the difficulties encountered
by the PHS and Surgeon General Thomas Parran in balancing medical and
moral concerns in the Service’s VD education campaign during the Second
World War. In a scenario that resembles in many ways the reaction to the
AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, Parran and the PHS were criticized in some
quarters for being too explicit about sexual matters and for promoting
prophylactic measures in the educational materials produced and distributed
by the Service. While Parran was sensitive to moral and religious concerns,
he believed that health agencies were responsible for dealing with venereal
diseases as dangerous contagions and not for the teaching of sexual morality.
He noted that with the aid of available scientific methods it should be possible
to eliminate venereal disease in his generation’s lifetime, a timetable that “may
be well in advance of any major changes in the sex habits of the population as
a whole.” Science, however, sometimes had to bow to social and political
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