Introduction
1.C.H. Fagge to J. Edwards, 9 July 1932, William Gibson Research Committee Correspondence, 1926–1932, M10, Royal Society of Medicine Archives, London.
2.Don Beaven, personal communication, 15 April 2005.
3.Jean Caradus Williams, interview with author, 16 April 2005.
Chapter One: a pioneering spirit
1.Undated interview, Transcript of interviews with Dr Bell, MS-1078/003, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
2.‘New Zealand sheat family has strong link with damaged Somerset Church’, New Zealand Free Lance, 30 July 1952.
3.Suzanne Aufricht, unpublished memoir.
4.Jean Caradus Williams, ‘The Bell Family Affair’, unpublished manuscript, iv.
5.Williams, ‘The Bell Family Affair’, v.
6.Examiner, 12 May 1864, cited in ‘William Gordon Bell’, V.R. Gunn Manuscript, MS Papers 01120–9, Alexander Turnbull Library; see also E.J. Wakefield, Adventure in New Zealand (London: John Murray, 1845; repr., 1908) 343.
7.J.N.W. Newport, Footprints: The story of the settlement and development of the Nelson back country districts (Christchurch: Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd, 1962), 152–53.
8.Muriel E. Bell, ‘No. 271, How things began’, Correspondence and clippings relating to Dr Bell’s New Zealand Listener articles, MS-1078/063, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
9.Williams, ‘The Bell Family Affair’, vii.
10.Jim McAloon, Nelson: A regional history (Whatamango Bay: Cape Catley, 1997), 128.
11.D.C. Low, Salute to the Scalpel: A medical history of the Nelson Province (Nelson: D. Low, 1960).
12.Wallace Bell and Jean Williams, ‘The environment into which Muriel Bell was born’, unpublished manuscript, Rex Malthus, personal collection, 4.
13.Ibid., 3.
14.Margaret C. Brown, Difficult Country: An informal history on Murchison ([Murchison]: Murchison Historical & Museum Society, 1976), 127.
15.D.A. Hamer, ed., The Webbs in New Zealand, 1898 (Wellington: Price Milburn, 1975), 55.
16.Nelson Evening Mail, 14 May 1917.
17.Buller Post, 18 March 1902.
18.Nelson Evening Mail, 14 May 1917.
19.‘Methodism in Murchison’, unpublished paper, Murchison Museum Historical Society, 4.
20.Jean Caradus Williams, interview with author, 16 April 2005.
21.Bell and Williams, ‘Environment’, 2.
22.Brown, Difficult Country, 128.
23.Undated interview, Transcript of interviews with Dr Bell, MS-1078/003.
24.Muriel E. Bell, ‘No. 11: How likes and dislikes for foods arrive’, Correspondence and clippings relating to Dr Bell’s New Zealand Listener articles, MS-1078/063.
25.‘Nutritionist revisits Nelson’, Nelson Evening Mail, 12 March 1966.
26.Brown, Difficult Country, 156.
27.See, for example, an article in the WCTU’s magazine: Luther Gulick, ‘The Home Maker: What she ought to know’, White Ribbon, 11 January 1900.
28.Bell and Williams, ‘Environment’, 6.
29.Undated newspaper cutting, Bunting’s Scrapbook, 1903–8, Murchison Museum & Historical Society. This is a collection of clippings relating to Murchison in the 1900s.
30.Bell and Williams, ‘Environment’, 7.
31.Surgery was ‘apparently’ not attempted on Frank Bell (Bell and Williams, ‘Environment’, 7. The Buller Post’s account differs on this point, and I have taken the newspaper account as correct.
32.Jean Caradus Williams, Slate Pencil to Word-Processor (Christchurch: Waverley Press, 1995), 3.
33.Bell and Williams, ‘Environment’, 7.
34.Ibid.
35.Myrtle Randerson to a friend in Nelson, 1974, cited in Bell and Williams, ‘Environment’, 7.
36.Mona Randall, interview with author, 9 August 2005.
37.Buller Post, n.d., Bunting’s Scrapbook, 1903–8; Bell and Williams, ‘Environment’, 7.
38.‘Terrible tramway accident. Mr & Mrs Thomas Bell the victims. Mrs Bell killed outright’, 4 May 1907, Bunting’s Scrapbook, 1903–8.
39.‘For your tram memories scrap book, curator of colonial history’s account’, Evening Post, n.d.
40.Buller Post, 7 May 1907.
41.Undated clipping, Bunting’s Scrapbook, 1903–8.
42.Nelson Evening Mail, 14 May 1917.
43.Williams interview, 16 April 2005.
44.Bell and Williams, ‘Environment’, 8.
45.Buller Post, 29 October 1907.
46.Williams, Slate Pencil to Word-Processor, 4.
47.There is no record of domestic help in the two years before Thomas Bell’s remarriage.
48.Undated interview, Transcript of interviews with Dr Bell, MS-1078/003.
49.Ibid.
50.‘Nutritionist revisits Nelson’.
51.Ibid.
52.Bell and Williams, ‘Environment’, 9.
53.Bell, ‘No. 11: How Likes and Dislikes for Foods Arrive’.
54.Nelson College for Girls: Fifty years, 1883–1933, compiled by C.B. Mills and edited by the Jubilee Committee (Nelson: A.G. Betts, 1933), 86.
55.Nelson College for Girls: Fifty years, 86.
56.Ibid.
57.Undated interview, Transcript of interviews with Dr Bell, MS-1078/003.
58.Nelson College for Girls: Fifty years, 88.
59.‘Leslie George Bell, 1892–1963’, The Bell Family Affair, newsletter no. 29, August 2003.
60.Bell and Williams, ‘Environment’, 10.
61.Undated interview, Transcript of interviews with Dr Bell, MS-1078/003.
Chapter Two: medicine as a career path
1.Marion F. Robinson, ‘Muriel Emma Bell: Scientist and woman’, in The Moonstone: More about selenium; The First Muriel Bell Memorial Lecture (Palmerston North: Nutrition Society of New Zealand, 1975), 9.
2.Carol Dyhouse, ‘Driving ambitions: Women in pursuit of a medical education, 1890–1939’, Women’s History Review 7, no. 3, 1998, 321–41.
3.Daniel Colquhoun, ‘On some realities: Terrible and otherwise. A plea for the Empire Service League’, Otago University Review 32, no. 2, October 1918, 33. The Dunedin branch of the Empire Service League was established in 1918.
4.Derek A. Dow, Safeguarding the Public Health: A history of the New Zealand Department of Health (Wellington: Victoria University Press, 1995), 108.
5.Betty Tunnicliffe, ‘Food, fresh air and cod liver oil’, In Our Lifetimes: A collection of reminiscences (Rotorua: Rotorua Writers Group, 2001), 68–69.
6.Erik Olssen, ‘Truby King and the Plunket Society: An analysis of a prescriptive ideology’, New Zealand Journal of History 15, no. 1, 1981, 32–20.
7.Rima D. Apple, Mothers and Medicine: A social history of infant feeding, 1890–1950 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987), 131.
8.Linda Bryder, A Voice for Mothers: The Plunket Society and infant welfare, 1907–2000 (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2003), 80.
9.Dorothy Page, ‘Dissecting a community: Women medical students at the University of Otago, 1891–1924’, in Communities of Women: Historical perspectives, ed. Barbara Brookes and Dorothy Page (Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 2002), 115.
10.Obituary of Thomas Bell, Nelson Evening Mail, 14 May 1917.
11.Wallace Bell and Jean Williams, ‘The environment into which Muriel Bell was born’, Rex Malthus, personal collection, 10.
12.Bell and Williams, ‘Environment’, 11.
13.Mona Randall, interview with author, 9 August 2005.
14.‘Obituary: Dr Raynor Colin Bell’, New Zealand Dental Journal 21, 1926, 227–28.
15.Kathleen Bell, interview with Marcy Varnham, 21 March 1993, Woodford House oral history project, Oral History Collection 0061, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.
16.Kathleen Bell interview.
17.The student Christian Union took up the new ideals of the international Labour movement and concerned itself with moral education. See The Australian Intercollegian 21, 1918.
18.Otago University Review 32, no. 2, October 1918, 33.
19.Otago University Review 33, no. 1, June 1920, 68.
20.Nancy M. Taylor, The New Zealand People at War, vol. 1, The Home Front, (Wellington: Department of Internal Affairs, Historical Publications Branch, 1986), 171.
21.Page, ‘Dissecting a community’, 127.
22.Jubilee Records, ‘50 Years anniversary of the college (1961)’, St Margaret’s College: Records, AG-157 R, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
23.Untitled newspaper clipping, Otago Daily Times, 4 September 1961.
24.Ibid.
25.George D. Sayer, quoted in Ann Strong, ‘Home Science’, Otago University Review 35, no. 2, October 1922, 29.
26.Otago University Review 34, no. 1, September 1921, 65.
27.Frances I. Preston, Lady Doctor, Vintage Model (Wellington: A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1974), 16.
28.Minutes of the November 1920 General Meeting, Women’s Club General Meetings Minute Book 1915–22, MS 641 47/3, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
29.Ibid.
30.Minutes of Meeting, 30 June 1920, Otago University Students’ Association, Otago University Women’s Club, Committee Meetings, Minute Book 1915–1922, MS 641 47/1, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
31.Undated interview, Transcript of interviews with Dr Bell, MS-1078/003, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
32.Preston, Lady Doctor, 12.
33.Ibid., 41.
34.‘A woman’s place: Medical student not wanted’, Otago Daily Times, 11 August 1969.
35.Untitled article, notes of IFUW annual meeting in May 1922, Otago University Review 35, no. 2, October 1922, 58.
36.For an account of the medical curriculum and training, see Preston, Lady Doctor, 9–46.
37.Preston, Lady Doctor, 10.
38.Muriel E. Bell, ‘John Malcolm: Obituary’, New Zealand Medical Journal 53, no. 296, 1954, 436–39 ; James R. Robinson, ‘Physiology’, Medical Research in Otago, 1922–1997: As portrayed by 75 years of the proceedings of the University of Otago Medical School (Dunedin: Otago Medical School Research Society, 1998), 59.
39.John Malcolm to Edward Schaefer, 24 February 1913, in Taylor, Douglass William, Professor: Letters, 1905–1932, from Professor John Malcolm, Dunedin, to Sir Edward Sharpey-Schafer (1905–1932), Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
40.Gordon Bell and Charles Hercus, Otago Medical School under the First Three Deans (Edinburgh: E. & S. Livingstone Ltd, 1964), 186.
41.Douglas Robb, Medical Odyssey (Auckland: Collins, 1967), 25.
42.Ibid.
43.Bell and Hercus, Otago Medical School, 186.
44.Frank Fitchett, ‘The Teaching of Pharmacology: A report by Professor Fitchett’, in Bell and Hercus, Otago Medical School, 368.
45.Bell, ‘Obituary: John Malcolm’, 438.
46.Preston, Lady Doctor, 535–37.
47.Margaret D. Maxwell, compiler, Women Doctors in New Zealand: An historical perspective, 1921–1986 (Auckland: IMS, 1990), 124.
48.Preston, Lady Doctor, 54.
Chapter Three: research
1.Michael Belgrave, ‘A subtle containment: Women in New Zealand medicine, 1893–1941’, New Zealand Journal of History 22, no. 1, April 1988, 44–55. See also R.E. Wright-St Clair, ‘Women in New Zealand medicine before 1930’, in Margaret D. Maxwell, Women Doctors in New Zealand : An historical perspective, 1921–1986 (Auckland: IMS, 1990), 163–79.
2.One such meeting of seven medical women took place on 27 October 1921, with Dr Emily Siedeberg, Winifred Bathgate, Marion Whyte, Grace Stevenson, Emma Irwin, Emily Nees and Ina Moody in attendance. The Medical Women’s Association was established on 19 December 1921. See Maxwell, Women Doctors in New Zealand, 1.
3.‘Annual report of Dunedin Branch of New Zealand Medical Women’s Association’, New Zealand Medical Journal 27, 1928, 180.
4.Lady Florence Barrett, ‘President’s foreword’, Medical Women’s International Journal 1, no. 2, November 1925, 3.
5.Barrett, ‘President’s foreword’, 4.
6.Janet C. Angus, By Degrees: The history of the Otago Branch of the New Zealand Federation of University Women, 1921–83 (Dunedin: New Zealand Federation of University Women, Otago Branch, 1984), 121–23.
7.Gordon Bell and Charles Hercus, Otago Medical School under the First Three Deans (Edinburgh: E. & S. Livingstone Ltd, 1964), 233.
8.Undated interview, Transcript of interviews with Dr Bell, MS-1078/003, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
9.Ibid.
10.Charles Burns, Some Aspects of Alcohol Use and Human Nutrition, with Special Reference to the Acute Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome, Third Muriel Bell Memorial Lecture, 10 February 1977 (Palmerston North: Nutrition Society of New Zealand, 1977), 1.
11.Undated interview, Transcript of interviews with Dr Bell, MS-1078/003.
12.Ibid.
13.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Nutrition in New Zealand: Forty years’ history, 1920–1960’, Supplement to the Journal of the New Zealand Association of Home Science Alumnae (N.Z.) 31, 1962, 28.
14.Undated interview, Transcript of interviews with Dr Bell, MS-1078/003.
15.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Mineral deficiencies in New Zealand’, Journal of the American Dental Association 40, no. 3, 1962, 20–42.
16.Diana Brown, ‘ “Stepping-stone to cretinism”: Goitre in New Zealand, 1920–1950’, B.A. (Hons) research essay, University of Otago, 2000.
17.Frances I. Preston, Lady Doctor, Vintage Model (Wellington: A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1974), 57.
18.Muriel E. Bell, Some Studies in Basal Metabolism (Wellington: Wellington Publishing Company Ltd, 1923). Also published in New Zealand Medical Journal 22, 1923, 322–32.
19.Ibid., 3.
20.Burns, Some Aspects of Alcohol Use and Human Nutrition, 2.
21.Undated interview, Transcript of interviews with Dr Bell, MS-1078/003.
22.Wallace Bell and Jean Williams, ‘The environment into which Muriel Bell was born’, Rex Malthus, personal collection.
23.Preston, Lady Doctor, 55.
24.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Danger in raw milk’, Listener, 27 November 1950.
25.Barbara Smith, interview with author, 12 April 2005.
26.Burns, Some Aspects of Alcohol Use and Human Nutrition, 1.
27.Douglas Robb, Medical Odyssey (Auckland: Collins, 1967), 31.
28.Otago Witness, 3 August 1926, 45.
29.Maxwell, Women Doctors in New Zealand, 1–3.
30.John Malcolm to Lindo Ferguson, 14 July 1926, Correspondence relating to Muriel Bell’s MD examination, MS-2640/030, Malcolm Family Papers: Papers particularly relating to Professor John Malcolm, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
31.Norman Edson, Typescript of reminiscences of the Physiology and Biochemistry Departments, MS 1623/023, University of Otago Medical Library: Historical Collection, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
32.C.R. Burns, ‘Postgraduate study’, Digest of the Otago University Medical Students Association 1, no. 1 (October 1934), 35.
33.‘Post-graduate research, Great Britain’, Medical Women’s International Journal 1, no. 2, November 1925, 67.
34.Paul Baker, King and Country Call: New Zealanders, conscription and the Great War (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1988), 178; Archibald Baxter, We Will Not Cease (Auckland: Penguin, 1987).
35.Jocelyn Harris, personal communication, 12 April 2005.
36.Betty Holt, Women for Peace and Freedom: A history of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in New Zealand (Wellington: Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, 1985), 15.
37.Jean Caradus Williams, interview with author, 16 April 2005.
38.Millicent Amiel Baxter, The Memoirs of Millicent Baxter (Whatamongo Bay: Cape Catley, 1981), 66.
39.Jim Hefford, interview with author, Wellington, 13 May 2005.
40.Brigid Pike, ‘Jean Park, Hetty Weitzel’, in Book of New Zealand Women: Ko kui ma te kaupapa, ed. Charlotte Macdonald, Merimeri Penfold and Bridget Williams (Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 1991), 497–500; Edson, Typescript of reminiscences.
41.‘Annual Report of Dunedin Branch of New Zealand Medical Women’s Association’, 180.
42.Burns, Some Aspects of Alcohol Use and Human Nutrition, 2.
Chapter Four: knowing by instinct
1.‘Post graduate study in Vienna’, New Zealand Medical Journal 31, 1932, 383–89.
2.Muriel E. Bell, ‘No. 187: Our minerals’, Correspondence and clippings relating to Dr Bell’s New Zealand Listener articles, MS-1078/063, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
3.Margaret D. Maxwell, compiler, Women Doctors in New Zealand: An historical perspective, 1921–1986 (Auckland: IMS, 1990), 76.
4.Medical Women’s International Journal 1, no. 6 (May 1928).
5.Muriel E. Bell, ‘School milk’, Milk in Schools, MS-1078/001, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
6.Maxwell, Women Doctors in New Zealand, 4.
7.Carol Dyhouse, ‘Women students and the London medical schools, 1914–39: The anatomy of a masculine culture’, Gender and History 10, no. 1, April 1998, 110–32.
8.Muriel E. Bell to J. Edwards, 28 July 1929, William Gibson Research Committee, Correspondence 1926–1932, M10, Royal Society of Medicine Archives, London.
9.Robin Hyde, Gill Boddy and Jacqueline Matthews, Disputed Ground: Robin Hyde, journalist (Wellington: Victoria University Press, 1991), 147.
10.Minutes, 1 July 1929, William Gibson Research Committee Minute Book 1919–57, M7, Royal Society of Medicine Archives, London.
11.Undated interview, Transcript of interviews with Dr Bell, MS-1078/003, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
12.Ernest Marsden to Muriel E. Bell, 3 September 1929, William Gibson Research Committee, Correspondence 1926–1932, M10, Royal Society of Medicine Archives, London.
13.Muriel E. Bell to J. Edwards, 7 September 1929, William Gibson Research Committee Correspondence, 1926–1932, M10.
14.Undated interview, Transcript of interviews with Dr Bell, MS-1078/003.
15.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Mineral deficiencies in New Zealand’, Journal of the American Dental Association 40, no. 3, 1962, 204.
16.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Report to Royal Society of Medicine’, 9 July 1930, William Gibson Research Committee, Minute Book 1919–1957, M7, Royal Society of Medicine Archives, London.
17.Bell, ‘Report to Royal Society of Medicine’.
18.Undated interview, Transcript of interviews with Dr Bell, MS-1078/003.
19.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Nutrition unit – letters to the editor’, Evening Star, 11 September, 1963.
20.Tom Jaine, ‘Introduction’, in J.C. Drummond and Anne Wilbraham, The Englishman’s Food: A history of five centuries of English diet (1957; repr., London: Pimlico, 1991), 9–10.
21.Alice M. Copping, ‘Sir Jack Cecil Drummond, F.R.S: A biographical sketch’, Journal of Nutrition 82, no. 1, January 1964, 5.
22.Elizabeth McLaughlin, ‘Dr Elizabeth Gregory’, Newsletter of the Association of Home Science Alumnae, March 1984, 2.
23.McLaughlin, ‘Dr Elizabeth Gregory’.
24.Undated interview transcript, Biographical information on Dr Bell and notes relating to nutrition, MS-1078/108, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
25.Undated interview, Transcript of interviews with Dr Bell, MS-1078/003.
26.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Report to Council awarding William Gibson Research Scholarship’, 31 December 1930, William Gibson Research Committee, Minute Book 1919–1957, M7.
27.Arini Fisher to John Malcolm, 23 January 1932, MS-2640/009, Malcolm Family Papers, Papers particularly relating to Professor Malcolm, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
28.Dietetics: A course of lectures delivered at University College Hospital, supplement to University College Hospital Magazine (London: John Bale, 1930).
29.Maxwell, Women Doctors in New Zealand, 77, incorrectly states that the conference was held in Vienna.
30.‘Imperial Social Hygiene Congress’, British Medical Journal 2, July 1931, 157.
31.C.H. Fagge to J. Edwards, 9 July 1932, William Gibson Research Committee Correspondence, 1926–1932, M10.
32.Muriel E. Bell, Elizabeth Gregory and J.C. Drummond, ‘Studies of the alleged toxic action of cod liver oil and concentrates of vitamin A’, Zeitschrift für Vitaminforschung 2, no. 3, July 1933, 161–82; Muriel E. Bell, ‘Albuminuria in the normal male rat’, Journal of Physiology 79, no. 2, 1933, 191–93; Muriel Emma Bell, ‘High protein diets and acid-base mechanism’, Biochemical Journal 27, no. 5, 1933, 1430–37; Muriel Emma Bell, ‘Cystine and nephrotoxicity’, Biochemical Journal 27, no. 4, 1933, 1267–70.
33.Charles Burns, Some Aspects of Alcohol Use and Human Nutrition, with Special Reference to the Acute Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome: Third Muriel Bell Memorial Lecture, 10 February 1977 (Palmerston North: Nutrition Society of New Zealand, 1977), 2.
34.Esme R. Turner, ‘Dr Muriel E. Bell, M.D. (NZ)’, Woman Today, March 1938, 270–71.
35.M.M. Campbell to H.E. Holland, 16 October 1927, Correspondence 1903–1931, MS-Papers 1815-02, H.E. Holland, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.
36.Gary Werskey, The Visible College: A collective biography of British socialists and scientists of the 1930s (London: Allen Lane, 1978), 25.
37.Jim Saunders, undated postcard, Rex Malthus, personal collection.
38.Aldous Huxley, ed., An Encyclopaedia of Pacifism (London: Chatto & Windus, 1937), 40.
39.Naomi Black, ‘The mothers’ International: The Women’s Co-operative Guild and feminist pacifism’, Women’s Studies International Forum 7, no. 6, 1984, 467–76.
40.Fisher to Malcolm, 23 January 1932.
41.Undated interview, Transcript of interviews with Dr Bell, MS-1078/003.
42.Muriel E. Bell, ‘A case of chylothorax’, British Medical Journal 1, 1935, 1211–16.
43.Frances I. Preston, Lady Doctor, Vintage Model (Wellington: A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1974), 56.
44.Bernard Harris, ‘Government and charity in the distressed mining areas of England and Wales, 1928–30’, in Medicine and Charity before the Welfare State, ed. Jonathan Barry and Colin Jones (London: Routledge, 1991), 207–24.
45.Elizabeth Peretz, ‘The costs of modern motherhood to low income families in interwar Britain’, in Women and Children First: International maternal and infant welfare, 1870–1945, ed. Valerie Fildes, Lara V. Marks and Hilary Marland (London; New York: Routledge, 1992), 263.
46.A.M.N. Pringle, ‘An enquiry into malnutrition’, 1938, cited in Fildes, Marks and Marland, Women and Children First, 279n18.
47.Malcolm McKinnon, The Broken Decade: Prosperity, depression and recovery in New Zealand, 1928–1939 (Dunedin: Otago University Press, 2016), 141.
48.Muriel E. Bell, ‘No. 238, Nutritional wedding’, Correspondence and clippings relating to Dr Bell’s New Zealand Listener articles, MS-1078/063.
49.Tony Simpson, The Sugarbag Years (Auckland: Godwit, 1997), 190.
50.McKinnon, The Broken Decade, 171–72.
51.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Submission to the Commission on Education by NZ Milk Board re: School Milk’, undated, Milk in Schools, MS-1078/001.
52.‘Nutrition Classes and Health Camps’, New Zealand Official Yearbook, 1934 (Wellington: Government Printer, 1934), 137.
53.Derek A. Dow, Safeguarding the Public Health: A history of the New Zealand Department of Health (Wellington: Victoria University Press, 1995), 141.
54.D.G. McMillan, ‘A National Health Service: New Zealand of to-morrow’, Digest of the Otago University Medical Students Association 1, no. 1, October 1934, 28.
Chapter Five: gaining ground in new zealand
1.Jim Hefford, personal communication, 22 April 2005.
2.Hilary Stance, ‘Janet Fraser: Making policy as well as tea’, in Margaret Clark, Peter Fraser: Master politician (Palmerston North: Dunmore Press, 1998), 64.
3.Michael Belgrave, ‘Needs and the State: Evolving social policy in New Zealand history’, in Past Judgement: Social policy in New Zealand history, ed. Bronwyn Dalley and Margaret Tennant (Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 2004), 23–26.
4.James Ng, Windows on a Chinese Past (Dunedin: Otago Heritage Books, 1999), vol. 3, 413.
5.League of Nations Health Organisation, resolution based on 1935 report ‘Nutrition and public health’, International Affairs Social Affairs Health Nutrition and Dietetics, EA2 1956/4b 108/7/67 1a, Department of External Affairs, National Archives, Wellington.
6.W.B. Sutch, The Quest for Security in New Zealand (Wellington: Oxford University Press, 1966), 242.
7.Margaret McClure, A Civilised Community: A history of social security in New Zealand, 1898–1998 (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1998), 80–81.
8.New Zealand Medical Journal 36, 1937, 349–51, cited in Derek Dow, ‘Driving their own health canoe: Maori and health research’, in Past Judgement: Social policy in New Zealand history, ed. Bronwyn Dalley and Margaret Tennant, (Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 2004), 95.
9.D.W. Carmalt-Jones, Annals of the University of Otago Medical School, 1875–1939 (Wellington: A.H. & A.W Reed, 1945), 239; Gordon Bell and Charles Hercus, Otago Medical School under the First Three Deans (Edinburgh: E. & S. Livingstone Ltd, 1964), 233–34.
10.Bell and Hercus, Otago Medical School, 234.
11.Carmalt-Jones, Annals, 239.
12.Margaret Neave, interview with author, 14 May 2005.
13.Cited in Dorothy Page, Anatomy of a Medical School: A history of medicine at the University of Otago, 1875–2000 (Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 2008), 90.
14.Sandys Wünsch to John Malcolm, 14 January 1936, Cobalt research and related papers, MS-1078/066, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
15.C.A. Elvehjem and F.J. Stare, ‘Cobalt in animal nutrition’, Journal of Biological Chemistry 99, 1933, 473.
16.J.K. Dixon to Muriel E. Bell, 23 January 1936, Cobalt research and related papers, MS-1078/066.
17.E.J. Underwood & J.F. Filmer, ‘Enzootic marasmus: The determination of the biologically potent element (cobalt) in limonite’, Australian Veterinary Journal 11, 1935, 84–92.
18.J.K. Dixon to Muriel E. Bell, 18 November 1936, Cobalt research and related papers, MS-1078/066. See also Muriel E. Bell, ‘Some physiological aspects of the cobalt problem’, New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology 18, 1937, 716–19.
19.Undated interview transcript, Biographical information on Dr Bell and notes relating to nutrition, MS-1078/108, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
20.E.R. Turner, ‘Muriel E. Bell, M.D.’, Woman Today, March 1938, 270–71.
21.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Correspondence: Health of children’, Woman Today, March 1938, 288.
22.‘Welfare centres’, Woman Today, May 1938, 47.
23.Turner, ‘Muriel E. Bell, M.D.’
24.Margaret D. Maxwell, Women Doctors in New Zealand: An historical perspective, 1921–1986 (Auckland: IMS, 1990), 7.
25.Janet C. Angus, By Degrees: The history of the Otago Branch of the New Zealand Federation of University Women, 1921–83 (Dunedin: New Zealand Federation of University Women, Otago Branch, 1984) 37.
26.Editorial Committee, Minutes of 22 February 1937 meeting, Minutes of Conferences & Committee Meetings of Woman Today, 3 December 1936–6 Nov 1939, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.
27.Turner, ‘Muriel E. Bell, M.D.’
28.Muriel E. Bell to Michael Watt, 1 October 1940, H 1 241 B130, Medical Research Council Nutrition Research, National Archives, Wellington.
Chapter Six: state nutritionist during world war II
1.New Zealand Parliamentary Debate 252, August 1938, 468, cited in Derek Dow, ‘Driving their own health canoe: Maori and health research’, in Past Judgement: Social policy in New Zealand history, ed. Bronwyn Dalley and Margaret Tennant, (Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 2004), 97.
2.NZMRC Minutes, 6 June 1944, Council Papers 1945, MS-1636/005, University of Otago Medical Library: Historical Collection, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
3.Muriel E. Bell, ‘John Malcolm, obituary’, New Zealand Medical Journal 53, no. 296, 1954, 437.
4.Derek A. Dow, ‘Hercus, Charles Ernest, 1888–1971’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography: www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/4h28/hercus-charles-ernest
5.Derek A. Dow, ‘Watt, Michael Herbert, 1887–1967’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography: www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/4w8/watt-michael-herbert
6.Sir Charles Burns, ‘Nutrition Society of New Zealand, Third Muriel Bell Memorial Lecture: Some aspects of alcohol use and human nutrition with special reference to the Acute Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome, delivered 10 February 1977’, Proceedings of the Nutrition Society of New Zealand, 1977, 27.
7.Ibid.
8.Gordon Bell and Charles Hercus, Otago Medical School under the First Three Deans (Edinburgh: E. & S. Livingstone Ltd, 1964) 180.
9.Norman Edson, Typescript of reminiscences of the Physiology and Biochemistry Departments, MS-1623/023, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
10.Undated interview, Transcript of interviews with Dr Bell, MS-1078/003, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
11.‘Report of Nutrition Research Committee 1939–40’, Report of Nutrition Research Committee dietary survey, MS-1078/009, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
12.Nutrition Research Committee of Medical Research Council, ‘Report of Nutrition Research Committee of MRC for year ending March 31, 1939’, MS-1078/089, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
13.‘Report: Suggestions for research work on nutrition submitted to MRC February at first meeting’, Correspondence between Watt and Malcolm, MS-2798/009, Malcolm Family Papers, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
14.‘Nutrition in Dominion: Investigation Plan approved, questionnaire on diet proposed, programme for medical research’, The Press, 21 June 1938.
15.Malcolm McKinnon, The Broken Decade: Prosperity, depression and recovery in New Zealand, 1928–1939 (Dunedin: Otago University Press, 2016), 266–67.
16.W.B. Sutch, ‘Milk for schools: The government’s scheme explained’, National Education 2, December 1935, 502–03.
17.C.A.L. Treadwell, ‘National milk scheme, children’s health: Wellington’s example, voluntary or state?’ Evening Post, 9 August 1935.
18.H.C. Corry Mann, Diets for Boys during the School Age, Medical Research Council Special Report Series No. 105 (London: HMSO, 1926).
19.Muriel E. Bell, ‘School milk in New Zealand, 14th International Dairy Congress’, Milk in Schools, MS-1078/001, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
20.Department of Health, Division of School Hygiene, Suggestions to Parents [c. 1934], Milk for schools 1930–36, H 1 35/102 b.12, Department of Health, National Archives, Wellington.
21.League of Health of NZ Youth, 1935 pamphlet emphasising importance of milk for children and calling for national scheme, Milk for schools 1930–36, H 1 35/102 b.12.
22.Bell, ‘School milk in New Zealand’.
23.‘Milk in schools: “Much unfounded talk about waste,” ’ Otago Daily Times, 24 June 1955.
24.‘Milk in schools: 230,000 children can’t be wrong’, National Education 23, October 1941, 340.
25.Sutch, ‘Milk for schools’, 502.
26.Minutes of the meeting of the Central Milk Council, 27–28 February 1945, Minutes Central Milk Council 1945–51, AATJ W4100 9 1, National Archives, Wellington.
27.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Report of nutritionist for the year 1944–45’, Nutrition reports, MS-1078/071, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
28.Ibid.
29.‘The case for pasteurisation’, New Zealand National Review, 15 December 1944, 75.
30.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Report of nutritionist for the year 1945–46’, Nutrition reports, MS-1078/071.
31.F.H. McDowall, A.K. McDowell, J. Jean Clemow and Muriel E. Bell, ‘The effect of sunlight on the nutritional properties and flavour of milk in glass bottles’, Dr Bell’s radio talks and articles, MS-1078/058, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
32.Muriel E. Bell to Doris Gordon, director of maternal welfare, Department of Health, 3 February 1947, Medical Research Nutrition 1946–50, YCBN 5977 60g 240/2, National Archives, Auckland.
33.Minutes of the meeting of the Central Milk Council, 5 March 1948, Minutes Central Milk Council 1945–51, AATJ W4100 9 1.
34.Ola Rudman, ‘Seeing’s believing’, New Zealand Women’s Weekly, 12 December 1946, 18.
35.Minutes of the meeting of the Central Milk Council, 17 October 1945, Minutes Central Milk Council 1945–51, AATJ W4100 9 1.
36.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Report of the nutritionist for the year ending 31 March 1948’, Nutrition reports, MS-1078/071.
37.Muriel E. Bell, ‘No 118: First things first’, Correspondence and clippings relating to Dr Bell’s New Zealand Listener articles, MS-1078/063, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
38.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Report of nutritionist for year 1948–49’, Nutrition reports, MS-1078/071.
39.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Notes on policies and performances of the Nutrition Research Department to 1957’, Dr Muriel Bell, AG-0070–04/263, Royal New Zealand Plunket Society: Records, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
40.Muriel E. Bell to Hilda Ross, 18 February 1952, Appointment Central Milk Council, 1945–53, ADOO 17021, IMD2 3/2, National Archives, Wellington.
41.Undated interview, Transcript of interviews with Dr Bell, MS-1078/003.
42.Sandra Coney, ‘New Zealand Women’s Food Value League, 1937–1948’, in Women Together: A history of women’s organisations in New Zealand: Nga ropu wahine o te motu, ed. Anne Else (Wellington: Department of Internal Affairs, 1993), 270–71; Sandra Coney, ‘New Zealand Women’s Food Value League’, in Standing in the Sunshine: A history of New Zealand women since they won the vote (Auckland: Viking, 1993), 100–01.
43.Coney, ‘New Zealand Women’s Food Value League’, 270–71.
44.‘Books in Brief: Modern food habits, [by] Guy Chapman’, New Zealand Women’s Weekly, 12 August 1937.
45.Editorial Committee, Minutes of 22 February 1937 meeting, Minutes of Conferences & Committee Meetings of Woman Today, 3 December 1936–6 November 1939, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.
46.V. Macmillan, ‘The home in the country: What A.C.E. does for the farmer’s wife’, New Zealand Journal of Agriculture 58, 1939, 51–54.
47.W.M. Stenhouse, Whitcombe’s Everyday Cookery for every Housewife: 1,067 copyright, selected, and tested recipes, revised by cooking experts and leading dieticians (Christchurch: Whitcombe and Tombs, c. 1939), 6.
48.Vernon Henry Mottram, ‘Food and the housewife’, in J.C. Drummond, John Boyd Orr, Robert McCarrison et al., The Nation’s Larder and the Housewife’s Part Therein (London: G. Bell and Sons, 1940), 96.
49.Elizabeth Gregory and Elizabeth C.G. Wilson, Good Nutrition, ed. Muriel E. Bell on behalf of the Nutrition Research Committee of New Zealand Medical Research Council (Wellington: Department of Health, 1939, 1944 (wartime edition), repr. 1942, 1945, 1952, 1956).
50.Muriel E. Bell to R.A. Shore, acting director general of health, 4 June 1939, Medical Research Council Nutrition Research, H 1 241 B130, Department of Health, National Archives, Wellington.
51.On nurses, see Kai Tiaki 38, no. 6, June 1945, 131. On pharmacists, see Mr Clayton, secretary, Publicity Committee, Department of Health, to Muriel E. Bell, 2 October 1941, Health Education Publicity Work, Good Nutrition, General, 1941–49, H1 34/20, Department of Health, National Archives, Wellington.
52.Margaret Tennant, ‘ “Missionaries of health”: The School Medical Service during the inter-war period’, in A Healthy Country: Essays on the social history of medicine in New Zealand, ed. Linda Bryder (Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 1991), 146–47.
53.Ulric Williams to Michael Savage, 11 February 1938, cited in Derek Dow, Safeguarding the Public Health: A history of the New Zealand Department of Health (Wellington: Victoria University Press, 1995), 131.
54.Dow, Safeguarding the Public Health, 139.
55.‘Editorial: Vitamins’, New Zealand Medical Journal 37, 1938, 184.
56.‘Report of Nutrition Committee of MRC for year ending March 31, 1939’, Nutrition Committee of Medical Research Council, MS-1078/089, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
57.Muriel E. Bell to Michael Watt, 8 June 1939, Medical Research Council Nutrition Research, H 1 241 B130.
58.Ibid.
59.Michael Watt to John Malcolm, 15 December 1939, Medical Research Council Nutrition Research, H 1 241 B130.
60.Muriel E. Bell to Michael Watt, 10 February 1940, Medical Research Council Nutrition Research, H 1 241 B130.
61.‘Report of Nutrition Research Committee 1939–1940’, Report of Nutrition Research Committee dietary survey, MS-1078/009.
62.‘The Darkest Hour’ speech, 30 May 1940, in House of Representatives, in Selections from the Wartime Addresses of the Rt Hon Peter Fraser, Prime Minister of New Zealand (Wellington: EV Paul Govt Printer, 1946), 12.
63.Jocelyn Harris, personal communication, 12 April 2005.
64.Report of Nutritional Research Committee dietary survey, MS-1078/009.
65.The School Lunch (Wellington: Government Printer, Department of Health, 1950); reissued as School Lunches (Wellington: Government Printer, Department of Health, 1953).
66.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Report of nutrition officer 1940–41’, Miscellaneous nutrition research reports and related correspondence, MS-1078/006, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
67.Muriel E. Bell to R.A. Shore, 25 December 1941, Health Education Publicity Work, Pamphlets and Booklets 1941–46, H1 34/9, National Archives, Wellington.
68.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Preserve black currants’, Correspondence and clippings relating to Dr Bell’s New Zealand Listener articles, MS-1078/063.
69.Muriel E. Bell, ‘No. 39: Gather ye rose hips while ye may’, Correspondence and clippings relating to Dr Bell’s New Zealand Listener articles, MS-1078/063.
70.Muriel E. Bell, ‘No. 25: New Zealand grapefruit’, Correspondence and clippings relating to Dr Bell’s New Zealand Listener articles, MS-1078/063.
71.Bell, ‘No. 39: Gather Ye Rose Hips While Ye May.’
72.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Report of Nutrition Committee for year ending 31 March 1946’, Nutrition reports, MS-1078/071.
73.Bell, ‘Notes on policies and performances of the Nutrition Research Department to 1957’.
74.Bell, ‘Report of Nutrition Committee for year ending 31 March 1946’.
75.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Report on the commercial trial of higher extraction flour’, Nutrition reports, MS-1078/071.
76.Bell, ‘Notes on policies and performances of the Nutrition Research Department to 1957’.
77.Ibid.
78.Mona Randall, interview with author, 9 August 2005.
79.Jim Hefford, interview with author, 13 May 2005.
Chapter Seven: driving dietary changes forward
1.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Report of nutritionist for the year ending 31 March 1948’, Nutrition reports, MS-1078/071, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
2.‘Presidential address to the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science, Canberra, 13th January 1954’, in Theodore Rigg & ANZAAS, Role of Science in the Development of New Zealand Agriculture (Nelson: Cawthron Institute, 1954), 18.
3.‘Not vegetables but fat’, NZ Commerce, May 1946.
4.Norma Metson, ‘Spreading the food ration: World faces acute shortage’, New Zealand Journal of Agriculture 72, January 1946, 103–05.
5.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Sugar enough, if you study the uses of it: Three articles by Dr Muriel Bell’, AG-0071–1/44, Royal New Zealand Plunket Society: Records, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
6.‘Packing parcels for overseas’, New Zealand Journal of Agriculture 76, April 1948, 406–08.
7.Jabberwocky, ‘Gifts of fat are forging new links with Britain’, NZ Women’s Weekly, 3 February 1949, 10.
8.Frances Preston, Newsletter written by Frances Preston and papers relating to Fat for Britain campaign, December 1949, MS-2432/009, Preston Family Papers, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
9.‘Public ill-health: Need for action’, NZ National Review, 15 September 1945, 73.
10.Muriel E. Bell, Nutrition in the First Five Years, lectures given at a refresher course on the pre-school child to medical officers of the Department of Health, August 1948 (Wellington: R.E. Owen, 1949), 34.
11.‘Nutrition: National health requires adequate nutrition’, New Zealand Journal of Agriculture 74, May 1947, 536.
12.Bell, Nutrition in the First Five Years.
13.‘One in 10 NZ children has a bad food habit’, Standard, 3 October 1949; ‘Malnutrition in NZ’, Auckland Star, 9 July 1949.
14.Harold Turbott to minister of health, 22 June 1948, Nutrition General 1946–49, H 1 31, Department of Health, National Archives, Wellington.
15.New Zealand Official Yearbook 1950 (Wellington: Government Printer, 1950), 827; New Zealand Official Yearbook, 1934 (Wellington: Government Printer, 1934).
16.Muriel E. Bell to Miss McKenzie, dietician, 9 September 1948, Nutrition General 1946–49, H 1 31, Department of Health, National Archives, Wellington.
17.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Mineral deficiencies in New Zealand’, Journal of the American Dental Association 40, no. 3, 1962, 205.
18.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Nutrition research: General speech’, Dr Bell’s radio talks and articles, MS-1078/058, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
19.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Report of nutritionist 1942–43’, Miscellaneous nutrition research reports and related correspondence, MS-1078/006, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
20.Ibid.
21.E.V. McCollum, Nina Simmonds, J. Ernestine Becker & R.W. Bunting, ‘The effect of additions of fluorine to the diet of the rat on the quality of the teeth’, Journal of Biological Chemistry 63, 1925, 553.
22.Medical Research Council Minutes, 22 May 1940, Council Papers 1941, MS-1636/001, University of Otago Medical Library: Historical Collection, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
23.Bell, ‘Report of nutritionist 1942–43’.
24.Undated interview, Transcript of interviews with Dr Bell, MS-1078/003, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
25.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Report of Nutrition Committee for year ending 31 March 1948’, Nutrition reports, MS-1078/071.
26.Marion Robinson, interview with Ruth Barton, 11–12 February 1994, OHA 2637, Oral History Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.
27.Ola Rudman, ‘Seeing’s believing’, New Zealand Women’s Weekly, 12 December 1946, 18.
28.Minutes, Nutrition Committee, 26 April 1945, Nutrition reports, MS-1078/071.
29.‘Report of the Nutrition Committee for the year 1948–49’, Council Papers, MS-1636/011, University of Otago Medical Library: Historical Collection; Appraisal of Rex Malthus, Medical Research Council Finance 1947–51, H 1 240/1/4, Department of Health, National Archives, Wellington.
30.John Malcolm to T.R. Ritchie, 21 March 1949, Medical Research Nutrition Appointment of Members of Committee 1949–51, YCBN 5977 60i 260/2/8, National Archives, Auckland.
31.Bell, ‘Report of Nutrition Committee for year ending 31 March 1948.’
32.Bell, Nutrition in the First Five Years, 40.
33.Minutes, Medical Research Council, 20 May 1948, Medical Research Council Minutes of meeting and agenda 1937–1950, H 1 240/1/7, Department of Health, National Archives, Wellington.
34.Muriel E. Bell to J.F. Tasker, secretary of the Medical Research Council, 20 June 1949, Medical Research Council Finance 1947–51, H 1 240/1/4.
Chapter Eight: affluence and fragmenting priorities in the 1950s
1.Tom Jaine, ‘Introduction’, in Sir Jack C. Drummond, Anne Wilbraham and Dorothy F. Hollingsworth, The Englishman’s Food: Five centuries of English diet (1957; repr., London: Pimlico, 1991), 10.
2.Dorothy Porter, ‘Introduction’, in Social Medicine and Medical Sociology in the Twentieth Century, ed. Dorothy Porter and Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1997), 15.
3.Simon Szreter, Health and Wealth: Studies in history and policy (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester, 2007), 24.
4.Virginia Berridge, Making Health Policy: Networks in research and policy after 1945 (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2005), 12.
5.A.W. Beasley, ‘Burns, Charles Ritchie, 1898–1985’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography: www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/5b50/burns-charles-ritchie
6.New Zealand Medical Research Council, ‘Nutrition Research Committee’, 1951, Dr Muriel Bell, AG-007-004/262, Royal New Zealand Plunket Society: Records, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
7.Celia Petty, ‘Primary research and public health: The prioritization of nutrition research in inter-war Britain’, in Historical Perspectives on the Role of the MRC, ed. Joan Austoker and Linda Bryder (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), 83–108.
8.T.R. Ritchie, acting director general of health, to Mabel Howard, minister of health, 8 July 1947, Medical Research Council Finance 1947–51, H 1 240/1/4, National Archives, Wellington.
9.‘Report: Nutrition Research Department of Medical Research Council New Zealand’, c. 1961, Papers and booklets relating to the history of Nutrition Research Department of MRCNZ, MS-1078/107, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
10.Kenneth J. Carpenter, ‘Nutritional diseases’, in Companion Encyclopedia of the History of Medicine, vol. 1, ed. W.F. Bynum and Roy Porter (London: Routledge, 1993), 480.
11.Muriel E. Bell to M. Abraham, 8 November 1949, Nutrition General 1946–49, H 1 31, National Archives, Wellington.
12.‘International Survey of Programmes of Social Development’, September 1953, Nutrition General 1950–53, H 1 31, National Archives, Wellington.
13.Lucy Wills and Muriel E. Bell, ‘The serum-protein levels of Samoans, Fijians and Indians in Fiji’, Lancet 257, no. 6659, 14 April 1951, 820.
14.‘Dr Muriel Bell returns after islands survey’, Evening Star, 14 March 1950.
15.Muriel E. Bell and Lucy Wills, ‘Racial differences in incidence of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia in Fiji’, Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the British Empire 62, no. 6, December 1955, 917–21.
16.Ibid., 920.
17.‘Report: Nutrition Research Department of Medical Research Council of New Zealand’.
18.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Report of nutritionist, 1950’, Nutrition Research Committee papers, MS-1078/070, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
19.Muriel E. Bell to C.W. Morrison, dominion secretary, Council of Organisations for Relief Services Overseas, n.d., Medical Adviser Number 27 – correspondence to Dr Muriel Bell, AG-007-004/035, Royal New Zealand Plunket Society: Records.
20.Muriel E. Bell and Lucy Wills, ‘Report on pilot survey on state of nutrition of Fijians and Indians in Fiji, January–February 1950’, International Affairs South Pacific Commission Work Programme Nutrition and Diet, 1949–1950, EA W2619 116/10/4/6 pt1, National Archives, Wellington.
21.‘Dr Muriel Bell returns’.
22.Muriel E. Bell, ‘A nutrition officer’s experiences visiting the southwest Pacific islands’, Nutrition Reviews 14, no. 2, February 1956, 33–36.
23.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Report of Nutritionist: Report on leave during 24 June 1952 to 16 March 1953’, Nutrition reports, MS-1078/007, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
24.Minutes of Central Milk Council, 16–17 July 1953, Minutes Central Milk Council 1952–53, AATJ W4100 9 2, National Archives, Wellington.
25.R.A. Paterson to Muriel E. Bell, 26 May 1952, Overseas study tour by Dr Bell looking at milk treatment stations, MS-1078/088, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
26.Bell, ‘Report of Nutritionist: Report on leave’.
27.Ibid.
28.Ibid.
29.Ibid.
30.Ibid.
31.Ibid.
32.‘Fatties Anon’, Evening Star, 8 May 1953.
33.Undated interview, Transcript of interviews with Dr Bell, MS-1078/003, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
34.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Report of Nutrition Research Committee for year ending 31 March 1953’, Nutrition reports, MS-1078/007.
35.Bell, ‘Report of Nutrition Research Committee for year ending 31 March 1953’.
36.Bell, ‘Report of nutritionist: Report on leave’.
37.Klaus Schwarz to Muriel E. Bell, 1 April 1959, Klaus Schwarz correspondence and reprints of his articles, MS-1078/080, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
38.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Mineral deficiencies in New Zealand’, Journal of the American Dental Association 40, no. 3, 1962, 207.
39.Schwarz to Bell, 1 April 1959.
40.‘Those animal fats … How much is the car, not the cow, to blame?’ Otago Daily Times, 29 January 1959.
41.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Report: Nutrition Research Committee 1956–57’, Correspondence, MS-1078/010, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
42.Muriel E. Bell to Endel Kask, 13 August 1957, Atherosclerosis papers, MS-1078/075, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
43.Muriel Livingstone, Muriel E. Bell, F.B. Shorland, T. Gerson and R.P. Hansen, ‘The metabolism in the rat of naturally occurring (+)-14-methylhexadecanoic acid’, Biochemical Journal 65, no. 3, 1957, 438–40.
44.‘Report of Nutrition Research Committee for year ending March 31st 1952’, Nutrition reports, MS-1078/007.
45.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Nutrition research: General speech’, Dr Bell’s radio talks and articles, MS-1078/058, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
46.Hugh M. Sinclair, ‘Food and health’, British Medical Journal, no. 2, 14 December 1957, 1424.
47.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Home Science refresher course, January 1959: Animal fat in the diet’, Notes and Articles on Nutrition, apparently collected by Dr Muriel Bell, University of Otago Medical Library: Historical Collection, MS-1682/007, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
48.‘The cause of obesity said to be over-eating’, Otago Daily Times, 26 January 1959.
49.Bell, ‘Nutrition research: General speech’.
50.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Some New Zealand research aspects of animal fats considered in relation to diet and cardiovascular disease’, New Zealand Dietetic Journal 11, no. 2, 1957, 13.
51.Bell to Kask, 13 August 1957.
52.Charles Burns to Muriel E. Bell, 2 July 1958, Nutrition Research Committee papers, MS-1078/070.
53.Ibid.
54.Hilda Ross, minister of social welfare, to Ralph Hanan, minister of health, 21 October 1957, Medical Research Council Nutrition Research Committee annual reports and estimated expenditure 1951–1967, YCBN 5977 16a 245/15/3, National Archives, Auckland.
55.Muriel E. Bell to Sir Edmund Hillary, 14 September 1955, MS-Papers 1342–83, Sir E. Marsden Papers, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.
56.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Rations for the New Zealand trans-Antarctic expedition’, New Zealand Medical Journal 61, no. 312, 1957, 289–304.
57.A.S. Helm, secretary, Ross Sea Committee, to Muriel E. Bell, 3 February 1958, Nutrition Research Committee papers, MS-1078/070.
58.‘Antarctic expedition food has ample calorie value’, Otago Daily Times, 23 January 1957.
59.Transcript of interview with Dr Muriel Bell, ‘Food and good health’, 1961, Biographical information on Dr Bell and notes relating to nutrition, MS-1078/108, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
60.Doctor Muriel Bell, ID 26100, Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision, Christchurch.
Chapter Nine: ‘battle-axe bell’
1.Minutes of Nutrition Research Committee, 7 February 1964, Nutrition Research Committee papers, MS-1078/070, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
2.Undated interview, Nutrition research reports and notes, MS-1078/100, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
3.J.R. Robinson, ‘Obituary: Muriel Emma Bell’, New Zealand Medical Journal 79, no. 518, June 1974, 1083.
4.Michael Belgrave, ‘Needs and the state: Evolving social policy in New Zealand history’, in Past Judgement: Social policy in New Zealand history, ed. Bronwyn Dalley and Margaret Tennant (Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 2004), 35.
5.Oliver Duff, Ourselves Today (Christchurch: Pegasus Press, 1959), 25–26.
6.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Report: Nutrition Research Committee 1956–1957’, Correspondence, MS-1078/010, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
7.Muriel E. Bell, ‘No. 196: Fluorine and teeth’; ‘No. 197: Fluorine and teeth (II)’; ‘No. 198: Fluorine and teeth (III)’, Correspondence and clippings relating to Dr Bell’s New Zealand Listener articles, MS-1078/063, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
8.‘Dr Muriel Bell’, New Zealand Dental Journal 60, October 1964, 333.
9.Quoted in C.N. Derek Taylor, ‘Fluoridation comes to Hastings’, New Zealand Medical Journal 54, no. 299, February 1955, 23.
10.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Mineral deficiencies in New Zealand’, Journal of the American Dental Association 40, no. 3, March 1962, 205.
11.Advertisement, 1959, Fluoridation clippings and related papers, MS-1078/072, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
12.C.N. Derek Taylor, ‘Health education aspects of fluoridation in New Zealand’, New Zealand Medical Journal 56, 1957, 321–25.
13.Taylor, ‘Fluoridation comes to Hastings’, 23.
14.Taylor, ‘Health education aspects of fluoridation in New Zealand’.
15.Jim Hefford, interview with author, 13 May 2005.
16.Ibid.
17.Alfred Hefford to Cicely Marks, 28 January 1955, Jim Hefford, private collection.
18.Alfred Hefford to Cicely Marks, 21 November 1953, Jim Hefford, private collection.
19.Alfred Hefford to Cicely Marks, 21 July 1954, Jim Hefford, private collection.
20.Alfred Hefford to Cicely Marks, 9 November 1954, Jim Hefford, private collection.
21.Alfred Hefford to Cicely Marks, 31 December 1956, Jim Hefford, private collection.
22.‘Dr Muriel Bell’, The best women I have known, MS-Papers-5433-26, Ruth Wilson: Personal papers, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.
23.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Report: Nutrition Research Committee 1956–1957’, Correspondence, MS-1078/010.
24.R.S. Malthus, ‘Report for 1956–57’, Nutrition Research Committee, 31 March 1957, Nutrition Research Committee papers, MS-1078/070.
25.New Zealand Commission of Inquiry on the Fluoridation of Public Water Supplies, Report of the Commission of Inquiry on the Fluoridation of Public Water Supplies (Wellington: R.E. Owen, Government Printer, 1957), 119.
26.Minutes of Nutrition Research Committee, 31 March 1957, Nutrition Research Committee papers, MS-1078/070.
27.New Zealand Commission of Inquiry, Report of the Commission of Inquiry, 58.
28.‘Commission of inquiry to investigate fluoridation: Evidence of Muriel Emma Bell’, Fluoridation clippings and related papers, MS-1078/072.
29.Ibid.
30.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Supplementary statement made at the Dunedin session of the commission of inquiry into the fluoridation of water’, Fluoridation clippings and related papers, MS-1078/072.
31.‘Dr Muriel Bell, advocate of fluoridation’, Otago Daily Times, 30 November 1956.
32.‘Commission of inquiry to investigate fluoridation: Evidence of Muriel Emma Bell’.
33.New Zealand Commission of Inquiry, Report of the Commission of Inquiry, 131, 75–76.
34.Kaj Roholm, Fluorine Intoxication: A clinical-hygienic study with a review of the literature and some experimental investigations (London: H.K. Lewis and Co., 1937).
35.Mira Louise, Fluoridation the Poisoner (Adelaide: Shipping Newspaper (SA) Ltd, 1954).
36.Alfred Hefford to Cicely Marks, 25 February 1954, Jim Hefford, private collection.
37.New Zealand Commission of Inquiry, Report of the Commission of Inquiry, 97.
38.Muriel E. Bell to Michael Watt, 3 November 1943, Medical Research Nutrition Research, H 1 240/2, National Archives, Wellington.
39.New Zealand Commission of Inquiry, Report of the Commission of Inquiry, 6–7.
40.Ibid., 15.
41.Southland Times, 28 November 1959, Fluoridation clippings and related papers, MS-1078/072.
42.Austin Mitchell, ‘Fluoridation in Dunedin: A study of pressure groups and public opinion’, Political Science 12, no. 1, March 1960, 73.
43.Taylor, ‘Fluoridation comes to Hastings’, 23.
44.Muriel E. Bell, letter to the editor, Evening Star, 7 November 1959.
45.Mitchell, ‘Fluoridation in Dunedin’, 72.
46.Marion Robinson, interview with Ruth Barton, Dunedin, 11–12 February 1994, OHA 2637, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.
47.D.M. Robinson to H.G.R. Mason, minister of health, 20 August 1958, H 1 31 Nutrition General 1958–61, National Archives, Wellington.
48.Mitchell, ‘Fluoridation in Dunedin’, 81.
49.T.W.H. Brooking, A History of Dentistry in New Zealand (Dunedin: New Zealand Dental Association, 1980), 184.
50.P.J. Scott, ‘Nutrition, science and social responsibility’, Proceedings of the Nutrition Society of New Zealand 8, 1983, 6.
51.Letter from Muriel E. Bell to Col. J. Ferris Fuller, director of dental services, (army, air, navy), 20 May 1958, Fluoridation, MS-Papers-6167-09, Fuller, James Ferris (Brigadier) 1913–2001: Papers, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.
52.Mitchell, ‘Fluoridation in Dunedin’, 75.
53.Otago Children’s Dental Health Association, The Reason Why? (Wellington: R.E. Owen, Government Printer, 1959).
54.T.G. Ludwig, ‘The Hastings fluoridation project: Dental effects between 1954 and 1957’, interim report, 4; subsequently published in New Zealand Dental Journal 65, 1961, 175–79.
55.Mitchell, ‘Fluoridation in Dunedin’, 76.
56.Evening Star, 23 November 1959.
57.‘The reason why’, Otago Daily Times, 23 November 1959.
58.Muriel E. Bell to J. Ferris Fuller, 29 May 1958, Fluoridation, MS-Papers-6167-09.
59.Barbara Smith, interview with author, 12 April 2005.
60.Minutes of Board of Health, 25 November 1959, Board of Health Meeting Minutes 1953–61, H 1 29/2/2, National Archives, Wellington.
61.Mitchell, ‘Fluoridation in Dunedin’, 92–93.
62.Evening Star, 23 November 1959.
63.Southland Times, 28 November 1959.
64.‘Report: Nutrition Research Department of the Medical Research Council of New Zealand’, c. 1961, Papers and booklets relating to the history of Nutrition Research Department of MRCNZ, MS-1078/107, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
65.Charles R. Burns to Muriel E. Bell, 17 January 1963, Dr Charles Burns correspondence, MS-1078/091, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
66.H.B. Turbott, ‘A letter to mothers re: fluoride tablets for better dental health’, n.d., cited in Derek Dow, Safeguarding the Public Health: A history of the New Zealand Department of Health (Wellington: Victoria University Press, 1995), 191.
67.‘Report: Nutrition Research Department of the Medical Research Council of New Zealand’.
68.Bell, ‘Mineral deficiencies in New Zealand’, 205.
69.Ibid.
70.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Reassuring evidence of fluorine homeostasis’, New Zealand Medical Journal 63, no. 378, February 1964, 68.
71.Ibid.
72.Dow, Safeguarding the Public Health, 172.
73.Muriel E. Bell to J.C. Lucas, town clerk, Dunedin City Corporation, 2 February 1966, Rex Malthus, personal collection.
74.Undated interview, Nutrition research reports and notes, MS-1078/100.
Chapter Ten: the final struggle
1.Newspaper clipping (including a photo of Muriel on her return to Dunedin in the regalia of FRACP), Nutrition research reports and notes, MS-1078/100, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
2.Joan Harris, New Zealand executive secretary, Otago University Association Home Science Alumnae, to Leonard Wright, mayor of Dunedin, 11 November 1958, Home Science Alumnae MS-1078/18, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
3.Ibid.
4.Charles R. Burns, ‘Review of Normal Nutrition’, New Zealand Medical Journal 59, August 1960, 405.
5.J.F. Copplestone, ‘Public health or the health of the public?’ Public Health 79, no. 3, 1964, 29.
6.J.H. Thomas, chair, Education Board of the District of South Auckland, ‘South Auckland Education Board: Submission on School Milk Scheme’, September 1960, Milk in Schools, MS-1078/001, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
7.‘Milk at school held necessary’, Otago Daily Times, n.d., Biographical information on Dr Bell and notes relating to nutrition, MS-1078/108, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
8.‘Napier doctors’ broadside’, New Zealand Medical Journal 58 (October 1959), Biographical information on Dr Bell and notes relating to nutrition, MS-1078/108.
9.‘ “Too much milk” attack “illogical” says nutritionist’, Dominion, 2 November 1957; ‘Dr Bell defends milk as food’, Otago Daily Times, 5 November 1957.
10.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Growth rates of children and adolescents in New Zealand and in Britain’, Journal of the Association of Home Science Alumnae (NZ) 30, July 1961, 4.
11.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Osteoporosis as a dietary problem’, Journal of the New Zealand Dietetic Association 15, no. 1, June 1961, 6.
12.‘Milk in schools: “Much unfounded talk about waste” ’, Otago Daily Times, 24 June 1955.
13.‘Milk at school held necessary’.
14.Muriel E. Bell, handwritten notes on overseas tour 1963, n.d., Nutritional fats, and cholesterol, notes and conference address, MS-1078/060, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
15.‘Milk in schools scheme must not be wrecked’, New Zealand Parent and Child 9, no. 1, March–April 1961, 31.
16.‘Some opinions on school milk’, National Education 42, December 1960, 506–07.
17.Undated interview, Nutrition research reports and notes, MS-1078/100.
18.‘Nutrition research to continue in city’, Otago Daily Times, 11 July 1962.
19.‘Nutrition Research Committee report for 1960’, n.d., Nutrition Research Committee papers, MS-1078/070.
20.H.G.R. Mason, minister of health, to cabinet, 25 July 1960, Nutrition Joint FAO WHO Expert Commission on Nutrition 1951–64, H 1 2045 31/7, National Archives, Wellington.
21.Bell, ‘Growth rates of children and adolescents’.
22.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Calories, corpulence, cholesterol, coronaries, cows, corn, cars, et cetera’, Public Health: Journal of the New Zealand Branch of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health 76, no. 3, 1961, 16.
23.‘Nutrition Research Committee report for 1960’. ‘Nutrition research to continue in city’.
24.Muriel E. Bell, handwritten notes, undated, Nutritional fats, and cholesterol, notes and conference address, MS-1078/060.
25.‘Nutrition Research Committee report’, n.d. [c. 1958], Nutrition Research Committee papers, MS-1078/070.
26.Ruth Wilson, ‘Dr Muriel Bell: The best women I have known’, MS-Papers-5433-26, Ruth Wilson: Personal papers, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.
27.Charles R. Burns to Muriel E. Bell, 18 April 1963, Dr Charles Burns Correspondence, MS-1078/091, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
28.Minutes of special meeting of Nutrition Research Committee, 10 April 1963, Nutrition Research Committee papers, MS-1078/070.
29.Ibid.
30.Transcript of interview with Dr Muriel Bell, ‘Food and good health’, 1961, Biographical information on Dr Bell and notes relating to nutrition, MS-1078/108.
31.‘Future of nutrition research and nutrition services, March 1962’, Nutrition Research Committee papers, MS-1078/070.
32.Ibid.
33.Charles R. Burns to Muriel E. Bell, 8 December 1962, Dr Charles Burns Correspondence, MS-1078/091.
34.Minutes of Nutrition Research Committee, 14 April 1962, Nutrition Research Committee Papers, MS-1078/070.
35.Burns to Bell, 8 December 1962.
36.Burns to Bell, 18 April 1963.
37.Prime minister Keith Holyoake to Muriel E. Bell, 30 April 1963, Medical Research Council Nutrition Research Committee staff 1951–66, YVBN 5977 16b 145/12/2, National Archives, Auckland.
38.Howard P. Himsworth, ‘Report to the New Zealand Medical Research Council on the present position and organisation for medical research in New Zealand’, 4 June 1963, Board of Health Minutes 1961–67, H 1 2148 29/2/2, National Archives, Wellington.
39.F.B. Shorland, ‘Vote of thanks’, in Charles R. Burns, Some Aspects of Alcohol Use and Human Nutrition, with Special Reference to the Acute Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome: Third Muriel Bell Memorial Lecture, 10 February 1977 (Palmerston North: Nutrition Society of New Zealand, 1977), 27.
40.Marion Robinson, interview with Ruth Barton, Dunedin, 11–12 February 1994, OHA 2637, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.
41.Derek A. Dow, ‘Turbott, Harold Bertram, 1899–1988’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography: www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/5t21/turbott-harold-bertram
42.‘Editorial: Shock for research’, Otago Daily Times, 16 August 1963.
43.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Report on overseas tour May 23rd to Sept 2nd 1961’, Dr Bell’s radio talks and articles, MS-1078/058, Dr Muriel Bell: Papers.
44.Burns, Some Aspects of Alcohol Use and Human Nutrition, 3.
45.‘Plunket protest at disbanding of nutrition unit’, Clutha Leader, 11 September 1963.
46.National Council of Women to Arnold Nordmeyer, minister of health, 22 November 1944, Miscellaneous medical research nutrition 1944–45, H 1 172/240/2, National Archives, Wellington.
47.Minutes of Consumer Council, 9 October 1963, Consumer Council meetings minutes 1959–64, AAFB 632 W2788 127 377/26/1, National Archives, Wellington.
48.Patricia Coleman, Proposed questions for Mrs McMillan, MP for Dunedin North, for parliament, Dr Muriel Bell, MS-1516/18, Home Science Alumnae, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago.
49.F.B. Shorland, Meeting of Nutrition Research Committee, 6 September 1963, Dr Bell’s radio talks and articles, MS-1078/058.
50.Ibid.
51.Margaret W. Rossiter, ‘The men move in: Home economics, 1950–1970’, in Rethinking Home Economics, ed. Sarah Stage and Virginia B. Vincenti (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997), 96–117.
52.Shorland, ‘Vote of thanks’.
53.E.G. Sayers, dean, Otago Medical School, to unknown recipient, 19 December 1963, Medical Research Council Nutrition Research Committee annual reports and estimated expenditure 1951–1967, YCBN 5977 16a 245/15/3, National Archives, Auckland.
54.Minutes of Nutrition Research Committee, 7 February 1964, Nutrition Research Committee papers, MS-1078/070.
55.‘Luncheon to honour Dr Bell’, Journal of the Association of Home Science Alumnae (NZ) 33, 1964, 42.
56.‘Citation by Professor Horsman, public orator, University of Otago, at Dunedin Town Hall, on occasion of graduation ceremony, December 5, 1968, at which Honorary Doctorate of Science was conferred on Dr Muriel E. Bell’, Robin McLaughlin, personal collection.
57.Shorland, ‘Vote of thanks’.
58.Philippa Mein Smith, ‘Bell, Muriel Emma, 1989–1974’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography: www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/4b21/bell-muriel-emma
59.Muriel E. Bell, ‘Toxicology of karaka kernel, karakin and β-nitropropionic acid’, New Zealand Journal of Science 13, 1974, 327–34.
60.Jean Caradus Williams, interview with author, April 2005.
61.Mona Randall, interview with author, August 2005.