McLean, Archibald Lang (Archie) (1885 - 1922)

Summary

Archibald McLean was the Chief Medical Officer on Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition 1911 - 1914. In this role he regularly took throat, nose and skin swabs from expedition members, as well as measurements of blood pressure, haemoglobin and cell counts,and nail and hair growth, and noted general health observations. He also made substantial collections of bacteriological specimens from ice, soil and animals. His endeavours laid the groundwork for modern research in the effects of Antarctic residence on humans. When most members of the Expedition left Antarctica in February 1913 McLean and five other men remained to overwinter for another year awaiting the return of Douglas Mawson's overdue sledging party. At the completion of the Expedition McLean helped prepare for publication Mawson's The home of the blizzard (1915). In 1917 McLean was awarded the University of Sydney Medal for his doctorate of medicine thesis 'Bacteriological and other researches in Antarctica'. He served in World War I in both the Royal and Australian Army Medical Corps, and was awarded the Military Cross. He died of tuberculosis at the young age of 37. The McLean Nunataks, George V Land, Antarctica, are named in his honour.

Details

In 2022, journalist Michael Marshall noted ("In from the cold", New Scientist 19 February 2022, page 47):

Anything stored in melting ice, snow and permafrost is going to come out. So we need to know what microbes are in there. One of the first attempts to find out took place almost a century ago. The Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911 to 1914 was a difficult affair in which two team members died and a third had a mental breakdown. But the expedition's chief doctor, Archibald McLean, succeeded in growing cultures of bacteria, fungi and protozoa from Antarctic ice. Even when he dug more than 2 metres down into the ice, he found life. McLean described his findings in the journal 'Nature' in 1918. With considerable foresight, he suggested that the microbes were carried to Antarctica on winds and fell to the ground in snowflakes. When they reach the icy surface, he wrote, "the frozen organisms. . . commence a new life-history".

Chronology

1906

Education - Bachelor of Arts (BA), University of Sydney

1910

Education - MB, University of Sydney

1911

Education - ChM, University of Sydney

1911 - 1914

Career position - Chief Medical Officer and Bacteriologist, Australasian Antarctic Expedition

1914 - 1916

Career event - Served with the Royal Army Medical Corps

1917

Education - MD, University of Sydney

1917 - 1918

Career position - Captain, Australian Army Medical Corps

1918

Award - Military Cross (MC)

1918 - 1922

Career position - Medical Officer, Red Cross War Chest Farm Colony, Beelbangera, New South Wales

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• McLean, A. L., Bacteriological and other researches (Sydney: Government Printer, 1919), 141 pp. Details
• McLean, Archibald; edited with an introduction by Riffenburgh, Beau, The Antarcic diary of Archibald Lang McLean (Norwich, U.K.: Erskine Press, 2020), 404 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Guly, H. R., 'Human Biology Investigations During the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration (1897-1922)', Polar Record, 50 (2014), 183-91. Details
• Guly, H. R., 'Archibald Lang McLean (1885 - 1922) - explorer, writer and soldier', Journal of Medical Biography, 26 (1) (2018), 43-8. Details
• Guly, Henry R., 'Bacteriology During the Expeditions of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration', Polar Record, 49 (2013), 321-7. Details
• McLean, A. L., 'Bacteria of ice and snow in Antarctica', Nature, 102 (1918), 35-9. https://doi.org/10.1038/102035a0. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q4786399. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/177193541. Details
• 'McLean, Archibald Lang (1885-19221231)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1772650. Details

See also

• Chester, Jonathan, Going to extremes: Project Blizzard and Australia's Antarctic heritage (Sydney: Auckland: Doubleday Australia, 1986), 308 pp. Details
• Jensen, David, Mawson's remarkable men: the personal stories of the epic 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expediton (Sydeny: Allen and Unwin, 2015), 183 pp. Details
• Lugg, Desmond and Ayton, Jeff, 'In the Footsteps of McLean, Jones and Whetter: 100 Years of Australian Antarctic Medical Practice', Australian Antarctic Magazine, 22 (2012), 36-9. Details
• Mawson, Douglas, The home of the blizzard: being the story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911 - 1914, 2 vols (London: J.B. Lippincott: Heinemann, 1915). Details
• Quinn, Kylie, 'Mawson's Men', Australian Antarctic Magazine, 22 (2012), 8-12. Details
• Süssmilch, C. A., 'Presidential address', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 57 (1924), 1-53. Details