*1st edn, 3 vols (1. Venomous Terrestrial Australian Animals; 2. Venomous and Poisonous Australian Marine and Aquatic Animals; 3. Poisonous Australian Plants and Fungi), with illustrations, Canberra, Defence Publishing Service (hardcover)
There are occasions when you are given a truly remarkable book. Such a book (or series of three books) is the Manual of Envenomation and Poisoning – Australian Fauna and Flora by Geoff Newman-Martin. These three handsome tomes obviously represent a good part of a career for a dedicated medical scientist.
It is in the nature of military occupation that it often consists of outdoor work. And the outdoors contains a lot of nasty things, at least in Australia. As is well known, Australia is highly over represented in the field of venomous animals and poisonous plants. We are, perhaps, most famous for our snakes, which are the most toxic in the world, but we also have a diverse collection spiders whose bite may be lethal or damaging, a fine menagerie of marine animals that can kill or maim, and a veritable smorgasbord of poisonous plants.
Newman-Martin has them all (or at least all the known ones). Page after page, volume after volume he catalogues them all, and in considerable detail. This work is meticulously researched.
The three volumes are arranged in a sensible manner. One volume is an extensive documentation of the knowledge of venomous territorial Australian animals. The next tome deals with venomous and poisonous marine and aquatic animals. The final book narrates most of what is known about poisonous plants and fungi in Australia For each identified poisonous or venomous animal or plant, there is a comprehensive but concise description of the subject, its identifying features, the clinical features of the poisoning or envenomation, and a comprehensive description of both the first aid and the later medical treatment.
The volumes are appropriately illustrated. In some places, use is made of diagrams, and in others, there are photographs. There are multiple references to websites where further information or more illustrations for the species under question can be obtained. It is a mammoth undertaking; one feels the sense of awe felt when first reading the Complete Oxford Dictionary, or understanding the size of the Great Wall of China. Who would have the patience and persistence to undertake such a task?
The manuals are filled with wise counsel: ‘Only personnel who have received specific survival training in identifying edible species should attempt to eat frogs’ and ‘When using outdoor latrines it is prudent check under the lid before use’.
One can make criticisms. For example, this is a military manual, set out as a military manual; civilians may find navigating through such a manual difficult. Perhaps the layout could have been made a little friendlier, with, for example, use of larger font for the species headings.
And it is possible to make criticisms of the text. Take, for example, the discussion of our old friend Lactrodectus hasselti (the Redback spider). The description is comprehensive, and everything that is in the entry seems to me to be correct. But there is interesting material that is left out. For while this spider is dealt with under the ‘Australian Spiders’ (rather than under ‘Introduced Spiders’) there is considerable doubt in the literature that this is the case. L. hasselti was not reported before about 1870, and even then it was initially only reported in Queensland, before becoming the ubiquitous pest that it has now become. Surely a line or two about this interesting question might have been appropriate. And perhaps a line or two about the close evolutionary relationship between the Redback spider and the less-venomous Black Widow spider may have added to the description of the spider. Lastly, it would not have been nationalistic hubris to mention that since the advent of the Australian-developed vaccine some fifty years ago, there has not been a single fatality from Redback bite, despite more than 15,000 people being bitten.
But these are the quibbles of a pedant, and they should not detract from the overall monumental nature of the achievement. The reader may reflect that if this is the nature of the criticism, then the underlying text is of a high calibre.
A more fundamental criticism could be made of what is being done with these volumes. The new Defence Centre for Occupational Health has printed these volumes as Defence Manuals in handsome and durable hardback format, and this will have limited distribution (because of cost) throughout the Defence establishment. In addition, copies are to be made available to the State and Territory authorities. It is also published on CD, and will also be published as a widely disseminated loose-leafed manual, so that it may be a living document. This is all well and good, but surely this is a national asset, and it should be more widely available. Could not a civilian version of this be published as a Handbook of Envenomation and Poisoning – Australian Fauna and Flora?
Such a set of volumes is never going to make the best-seller list. But it could be usefully found in many libraries and should be found in every casualty ward, where this impressive work could be exploited every day. We all accept that the special hazards of military life mean that a particular effort should be made to provide first-class health care for members of the Defence Force, and for this reason, such a manual has been made for the Force. It would be of great benefit to the broader Australian community if this manual was also available for civilian use, perhaps in a format that suited the civilian or medical mind.
One could reflect that if the defence forces of the world could match this achievement for their own countries, then there would be a substantial corpus of toxicological reference material for the benefit of our species. And with this work, the hard yards have been covered – Australia is the hardest place to write such a book. After all, what would a parallel book for, say, Ireland contain? No snakes (per kind favour of St Patrick), one or two spiders of marginal toxicity, a few dodgy mushrooms, the ever-present hemlock, and you are done as far as the toxicology of Ireland is concerned.
You might ask how such a mammoth task could be completed by a Centre that is relatively young. In fact, the work was commenced when Newman-Martin was part of Defence Health, and completed at the Defence Centre for Occupational Health.
In releasing this manual, the Defence Centre for Occupational Health has demonstrated that it is serious in discharging its charter to improve the occupational health and safety of members of the ADF. Newman-Martin has set a very high standard for the Centre to follow; it is incumbent on all those associated with the Centre to try to approach to this standard.
Reviewed by:
Dr Keith Horsley, MB, BS, MPubAdminAustralian Institute of Health and Welfare,GPO Box 570, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia. Email: keith.horsley@aihw.gov.au
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