Bancroft, Joseph (1836 - 1894)

Summary

Joseph Bancroft was a medical practitioner in Brisbane who combined private practice with an appointment as house surgeon at the Brisbane General Hospital. He investigated diseases afflicting both humans and agricultural livestock. Leprosy and typhoid both absorbed his attention. He was the first to discover that filariasis was caused by a worn (named Filaria bancrofti in his honour) and suggested mosquitoes as a vector in transmission. Bancroft's interest in pharmacology led him to investigate the narcotic properties of Australian indigenous plants, including a mixture of leaves known as pituri and used by Aborigines as a stimulant. His work on Duboisia myoporoides and related species revealed them to be a source of hyoscine and atropine, and laid the foundation for their commercial production. Other research interests included rust-proof wheat, diseases of sugar cane and bananas, and the drying and canning of beef for export. In 1888 Bancroft was appointed to the royal commission examining the rabbit problem: he was involved in experiments (ultimately unsuccessful) to test whether the introduction of fowl cholera, proposed by Louis Pasteur, would work. Bancroft was actively involved in local scientific organisations and served as president for several of them. His roles in medical associations included as a member of the Central Board of Health and President of the Medical Board. The Brisbane suburb of Kelvin Grove was named after his house.

Details

Chronology

1859

Education - MRCS, LSA, Manchester Royal School of Medicine and Surgery, United Kingdom

1859

Education - MD, University of St Andrews, United Kingdom

1859 - 1864

Career position - In private practice, Nottingham, United Kingdom

1864

Life event - Migrated to Australia for health reasons

1864 - 1894

Career position - Medical practitioner, Brisbane

1866 - 1883

Career position - Member, Philosophical Society of Queensland

1867 - 1868

Career position - Visiting surgeon, Brisbane General Hospital

1868 -

Career position - House Surgeon, Brisbane General Hospital

1870 - 1894

Career position - In private practice, Brisbane

1876 - 1894

Career position - Trustee, Queensland Museum

1882

Career position - Member, Queensland Medical Society [II]

1882 - 1883

Career position - President, Philosophical Society of Queensland

1882 - 1894

Career position - President, Medical Board of Queensland

1884 - 1885

Career position - Inaugural President, Royal Society of Queensland

1886

Career position - President, Queensland Medical Society

1886

Career position - Career position - President. Queensland Medical Society[III]

1886

Career position - Foundation Member, Field Naturalists' Section, Royal Society of Queensland

1886 - 1894

Career position - Member, Queensland Medical Society [III]

1888 -

Career event - Original [founding] member, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1888

Career position - President, Section I (Hygiene and Public Health), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Australian Botanists - Biographies, MS 064; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

John Oxley Library, Manuscripts and Business Records Collection, State Library of Queensland

• Joseph Bancroft - Records, 1887 - 1891, OM72-152; John Oxley Library, Manuscripts and Business Records Collection, State Library of Queensland. Details
• Mabel Josephine Mackerras - Records, 1968, OM68-20; John Oxley Library, Manuscripts and Business Records Collection, State Library of Queensland. Details
• Thomas Lane Bancroft - Records, 1912, OM72-6; John Oxley Library, Manuscripts and Business Records Collection, State Library of Queensland. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• Collins, David, Chemistry in 19th Australia - Select Bibliography, An exhibition of the Encyclopedia circa 2005 with assistance from Ailie Smith and Gavan McCarthy., eScholarship Research Centre (original publisher), Melbourne, 2009, https://eoas.info/exhibitions/ciab/ciab_ALL.html. Details

Books

• Pearn, John, The Bancroft oration and the Bancroft Medal ([Parkes, A.C.T.]: Australian Medical Association, [1991?]), 12 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Mackerras, M. Josephine, 'Bancroft, Joseph (1836-1894), medical practitioner' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 3: 1851 - 1890 A-C, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1969), pp. 84-85. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030084b.htm. Details

Edited Books

• Pearn, John and Powell, Laurie eds, The Bancroft Tradition (Brisbane: Amphion Press, 1991), 277 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• 'Obituary Notice of Dr. Joseph Bancroft', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 10 (1894), 102. Details
• Bancroft, J, 'Respiration in the roots of shore plants', Report of the first meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 1 (1889), 327-331, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15813417. Details
• Bancroft, J., 'The Pituri Poison.', Transactions of the Philosophical Society of Queensland, 1 (1872), 1-2. Details
• Bancroft, J., 'Pituri and Duboisia.', Transactions of the Philosophical Society of Queensland, 2 (1877), 1-13. Details
• Bancroft, J., 'Cases of filarious disease', Transactions of the Pathological Society of London, 29 (1878), 407-19. Details
• Bancroft, J., 'Diseases of animals and plants that interfere with colonmial progress', Divinity Hall record, 1 (1879), 1-14. Details
• Bancroft, J., 'Pituri and Tobacco.', Transactions of the Philosophical Society of Queensland, 3 (1879), 1-16. Details
• Bancroft, J., 'Duboisia Pituri', Wing's Southern Science Record, 2 (1882), 221- 222. Details
• Bancroft, Joseph, 'Address by [...] President of Section H - Sanitary Science and Hygiene "Various hygienic aspects of Australian life"', Report of the first meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 1 (1889), 494-504, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15813586. Details
• Bancroft, Joseph, 'Indigenous medicinal plants (exhibit of specimens)', The Australasian Medical Gazette, 13 (1894), 42. Details
• Boreham, P. F. L.; and Marks, E. M., 'Human filariasis in Australia: introduction, investigation and elimination', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 97 (1986), 23-52. Details
• Ford, E., 'The Life and Influence of Joseph Bancroft, MD Bancroft Oration', The Medical Journal of Australia, 1 (1961), 153-170. Details
• Gordon, Catherine A.; Jones, Malcolm J.; and McManus, Donald P., 'The history of Bancroftian lymphatic filariasis in Australasia and Oceania: is there a threat of re-occurrence in mainland Australia?', Tropical medicine and infectious disease 3(2:58):1-25, 3 (2:58) (2018), 1-25. Details
• Keogh, Luke, 'Duboisia pituri: a Natural History', Historical Records of Australian Science, 22 (2) (2011), 199-214, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR11008. Details
• Mackerras, I. M.; and Marks, Elizabeth N., 'The Bancrofts: a century of scientific endeavour [includes lists of publications]', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 84 (1) (1973), 1-34. Details
• Pearn, John, 'In sundry places: Queensland place names and memorials commemorating Joseph Bancroft', Proceedings of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, 14 (10) (1992), 507-16. Details
• Ryley, Malcolm J. and Drenth, Andre, 'Joseph Bancroft's discovery of Fusarium wilt of banana', Historical records of Australian science, 35 (2) (2024), 158-69. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR23012. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q14949101. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/73286195. Details
• 'Bancroft, Joseph (1836-1894)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1464386. Details

See also

• Cramond, T., 'The Fifty-sixth Bancroft Oration: 'a Transient popularity'', Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, 18 (2) (1990), 252-264. Details
• Foley, Paul, 'Duboisia myoporoides: the Medical Career of a Native Australian Plant', Historical Records of Australian Science, 17 (1) (2006), 31-69, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR06001. Details
• George, Alex S., Australian botanist's companion (Kardinya, W.A.: Four Gables Press, 2009), 671 pp. Details
• Maiden, J. H., 'Records of Queensland Botanists', Report of the twelfth meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 12 (1910), 373-383. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15379603. Details
• Ratsch, Angela; Steadman, Kathryn J.; and Bogossian, Fiona, 'The pituri story: a review of the historical literature surrounding traditional Australian Aboriginal use of nicotine in central Australia', Journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine, 6 (2010), [13]. https://doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-6-26. Details
• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details