Dear colleagues,

I’m very happy to announce that the first issue of the BJHS for 2024 will shortly be arriving!

Appropriately for spring, you’ll find that many of the articles in this issue discuss aspects of natural history, the environment and the biological sciences. Sean Nixon reflects on the development of the ‘ethological eye’ in 20th century natural history film-making and photography, as the techniques and practices of ethologists filtered into wider culture. Elliott Honeybun-Arnolda considers the role played by Sir Solly Zuckerman in emergence of the ‘environmental sciences’ as an intellectual space within UK academic culture in the l960s, while Svit Komel examines the role played by William Petty’s Down Survey in both the emergence of ‘territorial natural history’ and the history of statistics. The theme of governing landscapes is also pursued by Rachel Dishington in her analysis of how measurement, both as politics and practice, supported the wider claims of engineers to authoritative knowledge over river management.

The articles by Alexander Khramov and Eve Surawy Stepney, together with an essay review by Peter Bowler round out the issue. Khramov’s paper examines what the Russian translations of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation tell us about the politics of evolution in Russia in the late 19th century. Stepney investigates an episode in the history of ‘obsessive-compulsive disorder’, showing how a group of clinical psychologists privileged visible symptoms in the treatment of this category. Bowler reviews the last four volumes of the Darwin Correspondence project (led in its final stages by the BSHS’ current President, Jim Secord), closing with some thoughts on the relationship between historians and ‘heroic individuals’.

Our Book Review editors, Joseph Martin and Coreen McGuire, have re-organised that section of our journal, presenting the reviews now in a thematically organised format – we hope that readers will find this useful in helping them decide what to read next! Joseph and Coreen have other ideas on how we might develop the Book Review section to reflect changes in our field and within publishing – watch this space! – and remember, the reviews editor can be reached at reviews.editor@bshs.org.uk.

Best wishes,

Amanda