In view of the increasing and devastating damage by rhinoceros beetle (Oryctes rhinoceros) to coconut palms in the middle of last century, many efforts were made to find an efficient natural control factor against this pest, which could not be controlled by pesticides. The basic procedures of these monitoring programmes are outlined together with the final detection of a virus disease in oil palm estates in Malaysia in 1963. In extensive laboratory studies, the virus was isolated and identified as the first non-occluded, rod-shaped insect virus, morphologically resembling the baculoviruses. Infection experiments clarified the pathology, histopathology, and virulence of the virus and demonstrated that the virus was extremely virulent to larvae after peroral application. These findings encouraged the first pilot release of virus in 1967 in coconut plantations of Western Samoa where breeding sites were contaminated with virus. Surprisingly, the virus became established in the Samoan rhinoceros beetle populations and spread autonomously throughout the Western Samoan islands. As a consequence, there was a drastic decline of the beetle populations followed by a conspicuous recovery of the badly damaged coconut stands. This unexpected phenomenon could only be explained after it was shown that the adult beetle itself is a very active virus vector and thus was responsible for the efficient autodissemination of the virus. The functioning of the beetle as a 'flying virus factory' is due to the unique cytopathic process developing in the midgut after peroral virus infection. Pathological details of this process are presented. Because of the long-term persistence of the virus in the populations, rhinoceros beetle control is maintained. Incorporation of virus into integrated control measures and successful virus releases in many other countries are recorded.
The history of medical physics in Asia-Oceania goes back to the late nineteenth century when X-ray imaging was introduced, although medical physicists were not appointed until much later. Medical physics developed very quickly in some countries, but in others the socio-economic situation as such prevented it being established for many years. In others, the political situation and war has impeded its development. In many countries their medical physics history has not been well recorded and there is a danger that it will be lost to future generations. In this paper, brief histories of the development of medical physics in most countries in Asia-Oceania are presented by a large number of authors to serve as a record. The histories are necessarily brief; otherwise the paper would quickly turn into a book of hundreds of pages. The emphasis in each history as recorded here varies as the focus and culture of the countries as well as the length of their histories varies considerably.
Malaysia plays the leading role in homeopathy in Southeast Asia. The history of homeopathy in the Malay civilization began in the 1930s. Since then, it has been practiced mainly by Malays who are all Muslims. Homeopathy in multiethnic Malaysia is embedded in Islamic culture and has to do with ethnic identity of the Malays within the Malay/non-Malay dichotomy of the society. This survey explores the relationships between homeopathy and Malay traditional medicine, as well as between homeopathy and Islam.
In the concluding part of her war diary, Brenda MacDuff, a nurse with the Colonial Nursing Service in Malaya, tells of her final incarceration, eventual freedom and reunion with her husband.
In Part 1 of her war diary, Brenda MacDuff, a nurse with the Colonial Nursing Service in Malaya, tells of her early experiences in the country at the outbreak of war in the East and of her subsequent capture by the Japanese Army.
The article is dedicated to the life and work of Dr. Roy Selby (1930-2002), an American neurosurgeon who founded neurosurgery in Malaysia. Dr. Selby stayed in Malaysia from July 1963 to May 1970. He opened the first neurosurgical department at the general hospital in Kuala Lumpur and established a training program under which Malaysian physicians and nurses were sent to neurosurgery centers in the United States and Canada. Some physicians came back and headed local neurosurgical units. On his return to the United States, Dr. Selby practiced neurosurgery until 1986, when he had to give it up due to the impact of progressive congestive heart failure. From 1986 to 1994, Dr. Selby taught graduate courses in the Department of Psychology at East Texas State University, Texarkana, Texas. He was a pioneer of spinal surgery and founded the Lumbar Spine Society. Dr. Selby was a world citizen neurosurgeon and advocated international standards of training in neurosurgery. From 1985 to 1994, he was chairman of the Archives Committee of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Dr. Selby serves as a model of a physician as a humanist.
The war exploits of Australian Army nurses have been represented in a number of literary sources, but there is a paucity of data about the nurses who served in the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960). Using descriptive interpretive historiography, with a central focus on oral testimony, this paper aims to highlight the culturally rich and diverse environment of Malaya in the 1950s. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four women from the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps to expose their experiences and perceptions of the Malayan environment and its people. The information provided by these nurses was subjected to manual thematic analysis resulting in the emergence of a number of themes. One prominent theme, Malaya's cultural diversity, was chosen for this paper because it contained an abundant source of new and rich data. To protect the identities of the informants pseudonyms were used in the presentation of the oral narratives. This approach led to revelations about how Australian women, with limited knowledge or exposure to other cultural groups, engaged in work and leisure time pursuits in Malaya's exotic cultural milieu.
This paper highlights the role of women from the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps who served in the Malayan Emergency. The British administrators of Malaya declared an Emergency in 1948 in response to threats posed by Chinese Communist Terrorists. Australia was slow to support Britain, but in 1955 Australian ground troops, accompanied by six Army nurses were deployed to Malaya. The nurses worked in British Military Hospitals, continuing the traditions of their antecedents; yet their contributions remain hidden from view. The exact number of Australian nurses who served in the Emergency is unknown, because of the poor record-keeping of the Southeast Asian conflicts. However, it is estimated that 33 Australian Army nurses served in Malaya from 1955, with some continuing their service into the early 1960s. The experiences of four of these nurses are revealed in this paper: they are no longer invisible partners.