Médecine et colonisation: l'aventure indochinoise, 1860–1939

The history of colonial medicine is a rapidly but unevenly growing field: the British colonies are covered more extensively than Dutch, Italian, German or French ones. Monnais-Rousselot's study, focused on the French colonial experience in Indochina, and on its insertion in the framework of the French view of the "civilizing mission" of colonization, is therefore a welcome addition to a growing corpus of studies in this area. Her book, a published version of her doctoral thesis, is grounded in a careful reading of available archive sources, including the Vietnamese ones, and it provides many fascinating details of the French health services in Indochina. The interest of MonnaisRousselot's work is enhanced by her focus on interactions between locally elaborated knowledge and practices and Western medicine, and on the gradual development of the corpus of Westernized Khmer and Vietnamese doctors, nurses and technicians. Unfortunately, the rich material collected by Monnais-Rousselot does not serve well her proclaimed goal of providing the first comprehensive overview of the development of French medical services in Indochina. Part of the problem may be the organization of her book. MonnaisRousselot states in her introduction that she made important cuts in her thesis before its publication. Nevertheless, one has the impression that her study follows the structure of a doctoral thesis, that is, a work which aims to persuade a small group of experts, and not to inform a less specialized public. Specific segments of her book provide illuminating details and open intriguing avenues for further research, but readers who are not thoroughly familiar with the history of the French colonization of Indochina may find it difficult to grasp the articulations between individuals, events, institutions and policies. Moreover, in the absence of a comparative perspective (with politics of other colonial powers, and with medical services in other French colonies) it is difficult to perceive the specificity of the Indochina experience. The book does not follow a strict chronological order, but discusses selected topics: the role of the "transfer" model, the development of local medical practices, the advocates of medical science, and the role of laboratory sciences. The presentation of these issues relies on the readers' previous acquaintance with the main actors and main institutional developments. There is no chronological history of institutions such as the Pasteur Institute of Saigon or the Hanoi Medical School, and no well-organized debate on the role of Pharo (a school of tropical medicine in Marseilles) or of AMI (the Indochina Medical Corps). Key topics, such as the training of local doctors and technicians, the use of mobile sanitary units, the implementation of sanitary policies, the history of hospitals, the role of research laboratories, the organization of health campaigns, and the resistance to Western medicine are discussed in several chapters, and there is no coherent synthesis of the available information on each subject. Monnais-Rousselot's book could have become the standard reference work on French medicine in Indochina and a key resource for historians of colonial medicine interested in a comparative approach. As it stands, it is useful mainly for experts on South-Eastern Asia and for those who seek precise information on selected topics. One hopes that the author will publish another study on the same subject, one which will