John Cleland a giant of pathology/diseases as Adelaide University professor from 1920; does 7000+ autopsies
John Cleland, future professor of pathology at Adelaide University, observing an operation at Adelaide Hospital in 1898.
Norwood-born John Burton Cleland in 1920 was appointed first Marks professor of pathology at Adelaide University. He began one of the largest series – more than 7000 – of meticulous autopsies by one person.
Cleland’s unrivalled experience in aspects of pathology was supplemented by an interest in anthropology and many papers on the diseases of Australian Aboriginals.
Yet Cleland’s scientific interests, including botany, pursued through a huge amount of committee work, have proved of even more lasting value than his medical studies. Cleland Conservation Park in the Mount Lofty Ranges is named after him.
Cleland was educated at Prince Alfred College and the universities of Adelaide and Sydney. The deadlock between Adelaide Hospital’s honorary doctors and the government in 1897 meant students had to transfer to medical schools in Melbourne and Sydney.
In 1900, he became house surgeon at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and then second resident pathologist. His MD thesis was on “Iodic purpura. Cirrhosis of the stomach and colon'”. He studied at the London School of Tropical Medicine in 1903 and in Glasgow. In 1904, he was cancer research scholar at London Hospital.
Next year Cleland went as government bacteriologist and pathologist to Western Australia where bubonic plague was active. He studied the parasites of rattus rattus and rattus norvegicus, and the laterality of pregnancy in these mammals. He eradicated the trypanosomal disease surra in camels at Port Hedland.
One of his celebrated cases in forensic pathology was the “spirit of salts murders': by painting child victims' throats' with strong hydrochloric acid, simulating diphtheria.
Cleland joined the bureau of microbiology, Sydney, in 1909 and he became principal microbiologist. He edited the Australasian Medical Gazette and made major contributions to experimental medicine. The first was the proof in 1916 that the virus disease dengue is transmitted by the culicine mosquito aedes aegypti. The second was in defining encephalitis, the “Australian X disease”, and proving it distinct from poliomyelitis.
In 1920, Cleland became first Marks professor of pathology (including bacteriology) at Adelaide University. He began one of the largest series – more than 7000 – of meticulous autopsies ever conducted by one person. He continued routine autopsy work into his mid 80s.
He was honorary pathologist at Adelaide Hospital in 1920-38, then honorary consultant. He was also honorary consulting pathologist to Adelaide Children’s Hospital. He had unrivalled experience in macroscopic morbid anatomy and histopathology, often diagnosing rare conditions at a glance.
With each 1000 autopsies, he analysed his findings in the Medical Journal of Australia or Royal Adelaide Hospital’s Medical and Scientific Archives that he founded and edited in 1921-48.
Cleland's interest in anthropology culminated in many papers on diseases of Australian Aboriginals. He also promoted and did field work in anthropology. With Thomas Campbell and Frederick Wood, he formed and chaired the board of anthropological research at the university. His early researches were in blood groupings and the ecological aspect of Aboriginal life. Some of these studies were made with Thomas Harvey Johnston and N. B. Tindale.
Cleland was twice president of the Anthropological Society of South Australia and a member of the state's Aborigines Protection Board.
