Revista popular science 1931 pdf

‘Science to the Glory of God’. The Popular Science

Magazine Ibe

´rica and its Coverage of Radioactivity,

1914–1936

Ne

´stor Herran

Published online: 29 August 2010

Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010

Abstract This paper provides a first approach to the history of Ibe

´rica, one of the most

important popular science magazines published in Spain before the Civil War. Founded in

1914 by members of the Society of Jesus based at the Ebro Observatory, Ibe

´rica reached a

weekly circulation of about 10,000 in the mid 1920s, and was instrumental in extending

science education in Jesuit education facilities and in developing a ‘‘reactionary mod-

ernist’’ culture that embraced Catholicism and modernisation. By focusing on its coverage

of radioactivity and the radium industry, the article aims to examine the magazine’s

popularising style and ideology, and to determine its role in the debates regarding the

cultural value of science in the first decades of twentieth century Spain.

1 Introduction

The history of education in Spain in the first third of twentieth century has been generally

interpreted in terms of the confrontation of two educational models: on the one hand, the

traditional model, supported by Catholic institutions and the basis of most public and

private educational practices; on the other, the reformist approach, including liberal and

radical initiatives such as the pedagogical innovations of Francisco Giner de los Rios’

Institucio

´n Libre de Ensen

˜anza [ILE, Free Institution of Learning] and Francesc Ferrer i

Gua

`rdia’s Escuela Moderna [Modern School]. Liberal reformers had also been considered

as key players in the spread of science education. By establishing a positive synergy with

Regeneracionismo—a modernising and nationalist intellectual movement aimed at

reforming Spain to enable the country to ‘‘catch up’’ culturally, technologically and

N. Herran (&)

Institut de Recherches Interdisciplinaires sur les Sciences et la Technologie (IRIST),

Universite

´de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France

e-mail:

N. Herran

Maison Interuniversitaire des Sciences de l’Homme Alsace (MISHA),

5 alle

´eduGe

´ne

´ral Rouvillois, 67000 Strasbourg, France

123

Sci & Educ (2012) 21:335–353

DOI 10.1007/s11191-010-9291-6

economically with other Western European nations

1

—members of the ILE fostered edu-

cational reforms and institutions for the support of scientific research. The most important

example was the Junta para Ampliacio

´n de Estudios e Investigaciones Cientı

´ficas [JAE—

Board for the Extension of Scientific Studies and Research], which from 1907 onwards

established a consistent programme of travel grants, funded museums, laboratories and

observatories, and contributed critically to the fostering of scientific research in Spain.

2

However, the role of conservative and Catholic institutions in science education move-

ments is less well known. According to Thomas F. Glick, conservative intellectuals—most

of them members of the Catholic Church or closely related to it—participated in an

ecumenical consensus or ‘‘civil discourse’’ among Spanish elites aimed at isolating science

from the ideological struggle and consequently promoting the modernisation of the country

(Glick 1988; Glick 1993). This apparent ‘‘de-ideologisation’’ of science was, however, at

odds with the tensions existing at the end of the century (Gonza

´lez-Silva and Herran 2009)

or the totalitarian control of science during the first decades of the Franco dictatorship after

the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939).

The aim of this paper is to analyse the involvement of conservative forces in the

extension of science education (and the ideological tensions related to this action) by

focusing in science popularisation activities of members of the Society of Jesus based at

the Observatorio del Ebro [Ebro Observatory]. In particular, attention will be focused on

the popular science magazine Ibe

´rica: El Progreso de las Ciencias y de sus Aplicaciones

[Iberica: The Progress of the Sciences and their Applications]. This magazine, published

without interruption from 1914 to 1936, enjoyed a considerable circulation and influence,

which can be compared with those of its commercially focused or socialist counterparts.

3

By focusing on a magazine, I aim to connect the Spanish case with recent studies into the

history of science popularisation. For example, Peter Bowler has recently studied popular

science magazines in Britain in the early twentieth century, such as Discovery

(1920–1942), Conquest (1919–1927) and Armchair Science (1929–1942), and has argued

the case for recognising the important influence of these endeavours in the advancement of

science education (Bowler 2009). In addition, he has found many instances of a persisting

tension between the use of science as a provider of moral values or as a driving force for

economic (and social) improvement. Science popularisation was also the battleground for

opposing groups of scientists, some promoting agnosticism, others trying to reconcile

science and spirituality. These conflicts also seem to have been present in other national

contexts. In Germany, for example, ideologically divergent views of science popularisation

were held by the ‘‘bourgeois’’ magazine Kosmos (Decker 1990) and the socialist Urania

(Hopwood 1996). In Italy, the increase in the number of popular science magazines during

1

In the contemporary literature of the history of science, this period has been labelled as ‘‘la Edad de Plata’’

[‘‘the silver age’’] of science in Spain (Sa

´nchez-Ron 1984), a term connecting developments in sciences to

the contemporary cultural renaissance in Spain branded as la Edad de Plata de la Cultura Espan

˜ola’’ [‘‘the

Silver Age of Culture in Spain’’].

2

On the JAE, see Roca-Rosell and Sa

´nchez-Ron (1988). The archive of the JAE, with graphs and statistics

about the 3,000 plus grants awarded between 1907 and 1939 and its recipients can be accessed on line at

http://www.archivojae.edaddeplata.org/jae_app/jaemain.html.

3

Incomprehensibly overlooked by historians of Catalan and Spanish journalism, no comprehensive study of

Ibe

´rica exists to date. Garcı

´a-Doncel & Roca-Rosell’s history of the Ebro Observatory (Garcı

´a-Doncel and

Roca-Rosell 2007) provides the most up to date approach to the history of the magazine. Ibe

´rica also

features briefly in Alexandre Galı

´’s mammoth history of Catalan institutions in early twentieth century (Galı

´

1986), and has been subject of two commemorative papers (Bolufer 1995; Genesca

`2008). All this literature

is written in Spanish or Catalan.

336 N. Herran

123

Mussolini’s dictatorship (increasing from one title in 1924 to nine in 1944) reveals pop-

ularisation to be a key element of the fascist regime’s modernisation rhetoric (Battifoglia

2004). A similar exploitation can also be found in Japan, where initiatives such as Kagaku

gaho

¯(Science Illustrated, established in 1923) and Kodomo no kagaku (Children’s Sci-

ence, established in 1924) occupied an ‘‘important place in Japanese interwar mass con-

sumer culture’’ and contributed to the spread of technical education and to the construction

of Japan’s national identity (Mizuno 2009).

As a first approach to the Spanish case, this study examines the first period of the

magazine Ibe

´rica (1915–1936). My aim is to analyse the early history of this publication

and to define its popularising style by examining its coverage of the science and industry of

radioactivity. The choice of a discipline-bound approach is primarily justified by the desire

to cover the first period of the magazine fully without inspecting the whole series—the

complete records for the period 1915–1936 are estimated to consist of around 15,000

pages, with no digital version available. At the same time, the choice of radioactivity can

also be justified inasmuch as it provides a good testing field. Its interdisciplinary character

and its connections with ideologically-charged topics such as the question of the partici-

pation of women in research (especially conspicuous in radioactivity), controversies about

safety in laboratories and the industrial uses of science (in relation to the radium industry),

or scientific controversies—related to the use of radium in medicine or to the use of

radioactivity in assessing the age of the Earth—allow for wide-reaching conclusions

regarding the magazine’s aims in terms of popularisation and its underlying ideology.

Accordingly, this paper situates Ibe

´rica within a context of a growing interest in sci-

entific research, taking into consideration the political context, the changes in the Catalan

press and the inner transformations of the Society of Jesus’s educational structure in order

to accommodate science. I will argue specifically that Ibe

´rica was instrumental in pro-

viding Jesuit scientists with a showcase for reinforcing their discourse about the com-

patibility of science and faith. At the same time, I will show that Ibe

´rica contained an

underlying ideological agenda that was elitist and utilitarian, and which wished to play a

role in the political struggles regarding the cultural value of science in Spain before the

Civil War (1936–1939). These ideas are developed in four sections. In the first, I situate the

emergence of Ibe

´rica historically in the context of the debate within the Society of Jesus

regarding the Jesuits’ involvement in modern science, specially focusing on the estab-

lishment of its supporting institution, the Ebro Observatory. Secondly, I describe the

establishment of the magazine and situate it in the setting of popular Spanish science

magazines of the day. In the last part of the paper, I analyse Ibe

´rica’s representation of

radioactivity, and examine how the magazine’s popularisation style and ideology could be

inferred from this coverage. The conclusions reached in these latter sections provide the

basis for the final section, in which I analyse the role of Ibe

´rica as an instrument of cultural

hegemony, describe the closing of the magazine in the first year of the Spanish Civil War,

and consider the limitations of this study and the degree to which it challenges widespread

assumptions about the history of science in Spain in the first third of the twentieth century.

2 The Responses of Spanish Jesuits to Modernisation

Spain’s defeat in the Spanish–American War (1898), with the subsequent loss of its last

transoceanic colonies (Cuba and the Philippines), has been generally considered as a turning

point in Spain’s scientific policy. Technical and scientific backwardness was blamed for the

military defeat, and a number of reforms were gradually implemented. The ministry of

Science to the Glory of God 337

123

public education was established in 1900, implementing initiatives such as the reform of

secondary school curricula (1903) or free primary schooling (1910). However, economic

and structural constraints meant that these reforms had a limited effect, with illiteracy rates

only decreasing from 59% (47% men; 69% women) in 1900 to 44% (36% men; 52%

women) in 1920 (de Gabriel 1997). In 1907, the JAE was founded under directorship of

Santiago Ramo

´n y Cajal, who had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

the previous year. The JAE, backed by intellectuals and members of the Free Institution of

Learning, became the most important scientific institution in the country, establishing a

wide-reaching programme of travel grants (3,872 were awarded between 1907 and 1936)

and acting as the centre of an extensive network of scientific institutions.

4

In parallel to these developments, conservative elements associated with the Catholic

Church attempted to expand its pre-existing network of educational institutions and to

adapt it to the needs of a modern and industrialised society. These efforts were also aimed

at counteracting liberal and socialist discourses, which commonly associated religion with

superstition and backwardness. In reaction, some conservative intellectuals defended the

importance of appropriating science and keeping Catholicism in tune with the modern

world.

5

One of the most militant and influential Catholic institutions in this respect was the

Society of Jesus, which drew on a longstanding involvement in educational matters and in

science. After the Society’s restitution in Spain in early nineteenth century, the Jesuits had

established an extensive network of primary and secondary schools that provided Catholic-

grounded education for the offspring of the economic and political elites, often on a

boarding school basis.

6

The Society’s membership experienced a remarkable increase,

tripling its numbers in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. In early twentieth century,

the Society expanded its activities, establishing universities such as the Universidad de

Comillas [Comillas University, est. 1890] or the Universidad Comercial de Deusto [Deusto

Business University, est. 1916] and technical schools such as the Madrid’s Instituto

Cato

´lico de Artes e Industrias [Catholic Institute of Arts and Industry, est. 1908] or the

Centro Escolar y Mercantil de Valencia [Valencia Business School]. These institutions

provided the basis for numerous publications, such as the theological Razo

´nyFe

´[Faith

and Reason, est. 1901] and Sal Terrae (est. 1912), or the economics journals Estudios de

Deusto [Deusto Studies, est. 1904].

7

4

Among these institutions, the more prominent in natural sciences were the new Laboratorio de Investi-

gaciones Fı

´sicas [Laboratory of Physical Research] (established in 1910) and the Instituto de Material

Cientı

´fico [Institute of Scientific Material] (est. 1910), and the expanded Museo Nacional de Ciencias

Naturales [National Museum of Natural Sciences] (incorporated in 1913), Estacio

´n Biolo

´gica de Santander

[Marine Biological Station at Santander] and Jardı

´n Bota

´nico de Madrid [Madrid Botanical Garden]. JAE

also promoted studies in arts and humanities, with the establishment in 1910 of the Centro de Estudios

Histo

´ricos [Centre of Historical Studies] and the Residencia de Estudiantes [Students Residence], widely

known as the intellectual cradle for major intellectual figures such as the painter Salvador Dalı

´, the poet

Federico Garcı

´a Lorca, the film director Luis Bun

˜uel or the molecular biologist and Nobel Prize Severo

Ochoa.

5

For example Bartolome

´Feliu

´, professor of physics at the University of Madrid, addressed an assembly of

Jesuits gathered in Barcelona in 1904, encouraging its Catholic fellows to ‘‘respond to science with sci-

ence’’. Proceedings of the First Hispano-American Congress of Marian Congregations, pp. 203–213. Quoted

by Revuelta (2008), p. 597.

6

By the late nineteenth century, Jesuit schools were educating about 3,500 students a year. This is a small

number compared with students of other Catholic congregations like the Salesianos [Salesians] or Esco-

lapios [Pı

´arists], but important because of its specialisation in training political and professional classes.

7

On Spanish Jesuit publications in the twentieth century, see Sanz de Diego (1998). A more critical view,

which stresses the propaganda aspect of these publications, can be found in Oskam (1995).

338 N. Herran

123

Spanish Jesuits were credited with providing a sound education in humanities, but

(according to contemporary observers) their schools and colleges were ill-adapted to the

teaching of modern natural sciences. In particular, traditional Jesuit pedagogy based on the

Ratio Studiorum was at odds with the reforms in secondary education introduced by

Minister A

´lvaro de Figueroa y Torres, the Count of Romanones, whose aim was to promote

an education more closely related to technical and scientific matters.

8

These problems were

partially resolved by implementing two main strategies: the establishment of adequate

scientific facilities in schools (basically laboratories and natural science collections), and

the improvement of the scientific training of its teaching staff.

The Jesuits’ long tradition of involvement in science, which went back to the origin of

the Society in the sixteenth century, was without equal in the late nineteenth century. In the

early twentieth century, some members of the Society, mostly those based in the United

States, used seismology as a way of reinvigorating the Jesuits’ scientific networks,

establishing an extensive network of observatories, and leading to the creation of the

Seismological Service in 1911 and the Jesuit Seismological Association in 1925 (Gesch-

wind 1998). In Spain, a similar pattern emerged, with Jesuits founding research institutions

devoted to seismology. The first observatory, the Observatorio de la Cartuja [Cartuja

Observatory] was established in Granada in 1902, devoted to astronomical, meteorological

and seismic observations in a region particularly sensitive to earthquakes.

9

The second,

which was conceived as part of a complex of Jesuit scientific institutions in Catalonia, was

the Ebro Observatory.

Founded in 1905 near Tortosa (in southern Catalonia), the Ebro Observatory was part of

a complex including a Jesuit seminary (the ‘‘Colegio Ma

´ximo’’), a technical school, and

biology and chemistry laboratories. The aim in establishing such scientific facilities in

Tortosa was to raise the scientific profile of the Society of Jesus by focusing on topics

attracting popular appreciation and interest: chemistry, for its recognised utility and the

importance of the chemical industry in Catalonia; astronomy, for its long standing popu-

larity, also enhanced by the total eclipses of 1900 and 1905 in Spain;

10

meteorology, of

great practical interest in agrarian Spain and seismology, as it fitted in well with the Jesuits’

network of seismological stations, presented a neutral profile (being remote from contro-

versial topics like evolution), and could offer some clues to the practical problem of

predicting earthquakes. The choice of Tortosa as a site was scientifically justified by the

lack of light pollution in the region, but can also be politically explained by the presence in

the city of an Episcopal seat and the desire to isolate Jesuit seminarians from the uneasy

atmosphere of early twentieth century Barcelona.

11

Indeed, the city counted on the pres-

ence of a small local scientific community led by Jose

´Joaquı

´n Landerer (1841–1922), a

8

The modernising spirit of the Royal Decree in regulating secondary education (August 17th 1901) is

evident from its preface, in which Romanones states: ‘‘The spirit of other centuries was humanistic, and

education was based on the classics. In our times, the spirit is industrial, and education has to be technical’’.

9

The most recent earthquake had occurred near Granada in 1884, causing more than 800 fatalities. On the

history of the Cartuja Observatory, see Espinar et al. (2003).

10

On the public image of 1900 and 1905 eclipses in Spain, see Ruiz-Castell (2008a). On the history of

astronomy in early twentieth century Spain (including an updated approach to the creation of the Ebro

Observatory), see Ruiz-Castell (2008b). On the popularisation of astronomy in early twentieth century

Catalonia, see Nieto-Galan (2009).

11

In the 1900s, Barcelona was the stronghold for socialist and anarchist working class movements, while

Tortosa was a conservative city about 6 h by train from Barcelona. Bloody repression of radical movements

by the police and the army after the ‘Tragic Week’ of 1909—a working class revolt against forced con-

scription and social injustice—led to a calmer situation in the following decade.

Science to the Glory of God 339

123

wealthy amateur naturalist who had made important contributions in astronomy, palae-

ontology and meteorology. Landerer, a Catholic intellectual, was very close to the Jesuits,

and bequeathed his fortune to the observatory after his death in the late 1920s.

12

The call for the establishment of the Ebro Observatory was led by Ricard Cirera

(1864–1932), a Jesuit who had previously been based at the Manila Observatory and who

had conducted the first geomagnetic survey of the Philippines.

13

After returning to Europe,

Cirera became acquainted with members of the Catalan bourgeoisie, receiving important

donations from the heirs of the Catalan banker and philanthropist Pau Gil—who paid for

the observatory buildings—and other philanthropists, who purchased the instruments. The

Society of Jesus and Cirera also benefited from the wave of interest in astronomy inspired

by the total eclipses of the sun in 1900 and 1905, whose path of totality crossed the Iberian

Peninsula diagonally. Envisaging that the new observatory could make important mea-

surements in the second of such eclipses, construction was accelerated, and the buildings

were inaugurated—and blessed—in September 1904. One year later, in August 1905, the

facilities hosted an international delegation of seventy astronomers—many of them Jesu-

its—for the observation of the eclipse.

The event helped to integrate the Ebro Observatory into the network of observatories

devoted to meteorology, astronomy and geophysics, and increased the visibility of Cirera’s

scientific programme at home and abroad. Cirera participated in the 1905 Oxford Congress

of Solar Studies, where he outlined a research programme linking solar activity and ter-

restrial magnetism, and in the Conference of the Astronomical Society of Paris in 1907,

where he demonstrated the Observatory’s first observations linking solar activity and

magnetic storms. Cirera’s final speech at the first congress of the Asociacio

´n Espan

˜ola para

el Progreso de las Ciencias [Spanish Association for the Advancement of Science] in

Saragossa (October 22nd to 29th October, 1908) also reveals his rapid rise within the

closed ranks of Spanish science.

3 ‘Raising the Esteem for Our Studies’: Ibe

´rica Within the Panorama of Science

Popularisation in Spain

Cirera’s local prestige allowed him a certain degree of freedom in establishing the

observatory’s line of research, which he directed towards the study of solar activity,

establishing a long term research project to study the influence of solar activity on climate.

From January 1910 onwards, the results obtained were published in a monthly report,

which was sent to some 300 scientific institutions around the globe. The exchange links

with international journals resulting from this activity helped to build an important library

in the observatory. In 1911, aware of the possibilities offered by this wealth of information,

the Ebro Observatory Jesuits requested permission to higher-ranking officers to publish a

popular science magazine based on a selection of relevant pieces of scientific information

drawn from this material. After due consideration, the project was finally authorised.

Among the main supporting arguments put forward by the Jesuits to obtain this approval,

12

A correspondent of Flammarion, the Abbe

´Moigno

´, and the director of the Paris Observatory Pierre

Janssen, Landerer devoted a great deal of effort to science popularising, publishing in magazines such as the

French Les Mondes or the Spanish La Ilustracio

´n Espan

˜ola y Americana,orCro

´nica Cientifica. Interest-

ingly, his bequest was invested in the establishment of a new library, a museum devoted to astrophysics and

a photographical archive in the Ebro Observatory. On Landerer, see Gonzalo and Navarro (1995).

13

Biographies of Cirera and other members of the Society of Jesus are available at O’Neill and Domı

´nguez

(2001).

340 N. Herran

123

was the belief that the magazine would ‘‘increase the authority of the Observatory and the

glory of God, the Church and the Company’’, and the importance of the fact that no

magazine of this type was being published in Spanish and there was ‘‘an imminent danger

that such a magazine could be published by another, non-Catholic society, if we don’t do

so before’’.

14

At the same time, the magazine would help to publicise the scientific results

of the Observatory and other Jesuit institutions, adding visibility and raising support both

for the Observatory and the Society of Jesus. In his presentation of the magazine in

‘‘sample’’ issues published in October and November 1913 under the title Ecos Cientı

´

ficos

del Ebro [Scientific Echoes from the Ebro] Cirera is quite clear about these strategic

values:

It would be very convenient […] if, without interrupting the publication of our

Report, we could also address our message to the public by popularising the ideas

enclosed in it. On the one hand, this would raise the esteem for our studies and

increase the number of those with an enthusiasm for research. On the other, it would

contribute to the transformation of this admiration and sympathy into wide support.

15

In January 1914, the first issue of Ibe

´rica: el Progreso de de las Ciencias y de sus

Aplicaciones,Ibe

´rica was produced at the Ebro Observatory’s brand new printing facili-

ties, featuring on its cover an image of Pasteur, a scientist regularly mobilised by Catholic

apologists as a symbol of the compatibility of science and the Christian faith. The change

of title (from Ecos to Ibe

´rica) was conceivably due to the desire to broaden the ambitions

and scope of the magazine. A reference to its place of production was retained in the title,

but in a cryptic form (‘‘Iber’’ is the Latin name for the Ebro), and reference to ‘‘Iberia’’ was

justified by a Spanish nationalist agenda, appealing to its purpose of exciting Spanish

‘‘patriotic sentiment’’. On the other hand, its subtitle (The Progress of the Sciences and

their Applications) not only made it clear that the magazine would devote much attention

to technological developments, but might also be understood as a veiled reference to the

French science magazine Cosmos, Revue des sciences et de leurs applications, founded by

the Abbe

´Moigno in 1852 and still being published in France by the Catholic publishing

house ‘‘La Maison de la Bonne Presse’’.

Initially edited by Cirera, Ibe

´rica was conceived as a weekly popular science magazine,

16 pages long, heavily illustrated and providing good quality scientific information in a

popular form. It was structured into regular sections: ‘‘Cro

´nica cientı

´fica’’ [Science

Chronicle], aimed at presenting ‘‘scientific facts’’; ‘‘Boletı

´n Cientı

´fico’’ [Scientific Report],

including news about theoretical advances; articles based on particular scientific devel-

opments and a section devoted to book reviews. Articles were regularly written by the

Jesuits working at the Tortosa scientific facilities (around ten by 1916)

16

but also by Jesuits

working in other institutions in Spain, especially the Catholic Institute of Arts and

Industries in Madrid (which collaborated on engineering-related topics) or the Institute at

On

˜a (which collaborated on experimental physics). Later on, collaborations were also

14

Jose

´Barrachina (provincial superior) to Francisco Jose

´Wernz (general superior) in a letter dated

December 18th 1911. Jesuit archive. Quoted in Garcı

´a-Doncel and Roca-Rosell, pp. 69–70.

15

Cirera (1913). Presentation Ecos cientı

´

ficos del Ebro, Specimen A., p. 42. Also quoted in Galı

´(1986):

167–169.

16

Some of early Ibe

´rica collaborators were Pedro Trulla

´s (mathematical physics, astronomy and geology),

Eugenio Sanz and Eduardo Vitoria (chemistry and mineralogy), Jacobo Pujiula (biology and Natural his-

tory), Ricardo Cirera (the director of the Observatory), Jose

´Albin

˜ana (seismology and meteorology), Andre

´s

Linari (magnetism), Juan Garcı

´a Molla

´(meteorology, electricity), Joaquı

´n Pericas and Francisco Rubio

(astrophysics) and Jose

´Vallve

´.

Science to the Glory of God 341

123

provided by Jesuits working in foreign institutions such as the Ignatius College at Val-

kenbourg (Holland), Stonyhurst College (United Kingdom) or Georgetown (USA). In this

sense, the magazine can be considered more as a collective endeavour of the Society,

managed and produced at the Ebro Observatory facilities.

How did Ibe

´rica fit into the panorama of popular science publications in Spain?

Analysis of the library catalogues and contemporary statistical surveys of the day reveals

the existence of an incipient market for popular science in major Spanish cities at the

beginning of the twentieth century. In the early years of the century, anarchist intellectuals

led by Juan Montseny (alias Federico Urales) had successfully established in Barcelona La

Revista Blanca (1898–1905), a magazine devoted to ‘‘sociology, science and the arts’’ and

based on the model of the socialist French magazine La Revue Blanche. Until political

pressures terminated the project, the magazine had reached a circulation of 8,000 copies a

week, most of which were sold in Valencia, Catalonia and Andalusia, and was enjoyed and

appreciated both in intellectual circles and by workers (Seoane and Sa

´iz 1997: 155–156).

17

Other commercially-based magazines in Barcelona also seem to have enjoyed a wide

circulation, such as El Mundo Cientı

´

fico (established in 1903), which sold 10,000 copies

per issue in 1920.

18

In 1926, the first popular science magazine written in Catalan, Cie

`ncia

(1926–1933), was also launched in Barcelona (March 2002). In Madrid, magazines like

Alrededor del mundo (1899–1930)

19

or Por esos Mundos (1900–1926)

20

also seem to have

enjoyed high circulations. At this time (the 1910s and 1920s) many newspapers in Madrid

and Barcelona included sections devoted to science.

21

Thus, and in contrast to previous

historical accounts about the magazine, Ibe

´rica cannot be considered as being an isolated

venture, but rather as one forming a part of a highly dynamic scenario of expanding science

journalism similar to that to be found in other European countries and in America.

From the magazine’s beginning, the aim of Ibe

´rica’s publishers was to reach a broad

national audience of ‘‘learned people’’ interested in the advancement of science, and in

particular in developments in Spain. The publication’s educational aims were also evident

in the simple and unaffected style of language used, the didactical tone in the covering of

technical details and the extensive use of illustrations. Indeed, the magazine’s very sub-

heading, describing Ibe

´rica’s contents as a ‘‘living history of technical and practical

progress’’, and the efforts put into providing detailed tables of contents emphasised the

editor’s idea of building an Encyclopedia of scientific progress. Jesuit schools and other

religious learning institutions seem to have been among the magazine’s keenest

17

La Revista Blanca reappeared in 1923, and continued to be published until the onset of the Spanish Civil

War. In this second period, the magazine enjoyed a sustained growth, attaining a circulation of 40,000 by

1927.

18

Data on circulation of journals and newspapers comes from the three comprehensive surveys made by the

Spanish government, approximately in 1913, 1920 and 1927. References are: Ministerio de Instruccio

´n

Pu

´blica y Bellas Artes (1921) and Ministerio de Trabajo y previsio

´n(1930).

19

Alrededor del Mundo (1899–1930) was a weekly illustrated magazine founded by Manuel Alhama

Montes (alias the Wanderer). It featured stories on artistic topics and travel, also covering expeditions or

scientific and technical news.

20

Por esos mundos (1900–1926) was initially established by Jose

´del Perojo as a supplement of the

magazine Nuevo Mundo. It was an illustrated magazine devoted to travel and the popularisation of geog-

raphy, which also included articles on history, literature and science, most of them translated from foreign

sources.

21

In Barcelona, the most conspicuous example was La Vanguardia, which had a regular column written by

astronomer Jose

´Comas-Sola

´. In Madrid, El Sol and other newspapers featured science and technology

supplements. On Comas-Sola

`, see Roca-Rosell (2004). Cebrian (2002) has counted some 600 newspaper

articles published by Comas-Sola

`alone in La Vanguardia during the period 1901–1926.

342 N. Herran

123

subscribers, but these were also drawn from enlightened segments of the petite bour-

geoisie. A year’s subscription cost 10 pesetas in the normal paper issue (a luxury papier

couche

´issue was also offered, at a yearly cost of 20 pesetas). This price is within the same

range as the other magazines mentioned above, and demonstrates that the Jesuits were also

interested in reaching educated sectors of the working class.

22

As the Jesuit Rafael Martı

´y

La

´zaro had stated in the preceding decade, ‘‘the need for a popularising science with a

Catholic criteria among workers’’ was considered an important objective of the Society of

Jesus,

23

whose missions usually organised conferences on scientific issues with the aim of

spreading doctrine, projecting a favourable image of missioners as educated men, and

impressing working classes, who ‘‘come out of the church marvelling at so much

knowledge, even if they have understood nothing’’.

24

In some sense, Ibe

´rica can be

considered a new instrument of this kind of campaign.

Ibe

´rica’s early years were not easy, however. The establishment of the editorial

department and the press were expensive undertakings, and the loans acquired by the

Jesuits to finance them amounted to 114,000 pesetas (more than one million euros in

present-day currency). Indeed, the outbreak of the First World War led to an extraordinary

rise in the cost of paper (with prices increasing by about 80% in the period) because of the

disappearance of imports and the practical monopoly by the Spanish paper manufacturer

La Papelera Espan

˜ola.

25

The situation improved after 1917, but revenues from sales were

still not enough to sustain its publishers. The wealth of the Society of Jesus, however,

allowed Ibe

´rica to continue, even if pressure for including advertisements increased.

26

Cirera, the magazine’s editor since its inception, resigned however, in 1917, and Jose

´

Marı

´a Albin

˜ana become its new editor. This change, officially justified by the heavy work

load of the director of the Ebro Observatory, also reveals some of the inner tensions in the

Society of Jesus, where not everybody was convinced of the importance of increasing the

Jesuit’s scientific profile. According to Jesuit officials, Cirera’s ambition and the excessive

independence of the chemical laboratory called for a tighter control. The first changes

involved the decision to move the Jesuit seminar to Barcelona in 1914, and the suppression

of the short lived courses at Tortosa’s Philosophers School—including some scientific

content—in 1916. Important tensions developed in Tortosa, as Cirera had major dis-

agreements with his superior Juan Capell, leader of an inner current in the Society aimed at

the restoration of Ratio Studiorum and opposed to the teaching of modern science. As part

of this conflict, Cirera was accused of being a mediocre scientist and of having only a

superficial knowledge of scientific matters, and as compromising the prestige of the Jesuits

since he was regularly consulted by the king and members of high society on scientific

matters. As a result, Cirera’s scientific activity almost ceased in 1913. In 1919, Cirera was

22

The yearly income for a qualified industrial worker in the 1920s was about 2,000 pesetas (1,200 for an

unqualified worker). Subscription to the magazine would have then amounted to between 0.5 and 1% of a

working class family’s income.

23

The quote is part of Martı

´’s speech, reproduced on pages 214–276 of the proceedings of the Primer

Congreso Hispano-Americano de las Congregaciones Marianas. Quoted by Revuelta (2008), p. 597.

24

The aims of the conferences are described in the mission reports published in 1900 as Cartas Edificantes

de la Asistencia en Espan

˜a. Quoted in Revuelta (2008), p. 210.

25

In order to counteract this crisis, the Spanish government initiated a programme of loans to publishing

houses and newspapers, with some informal political compensations. The result of this was that the crisis

affected especially socialist and republican newspapers, which were not eligible for this kind of support.

26

Financial troubles were also relieved by means of Spanish Government aid, with the Observatory

receiving grants of approximately 20,000 pesetas per year.

Science to the Glory of God 343

123

removed as director of the Observatory, and in 1921 he was dispatched as head of a

mission in Bombay (Garcı

´a-Doncel and Roca-Rosell 2007, pp. 73–80).

His replacement was Luis Rode

´s (1881–1939), who had gained a degree in physics

(1906–1910) while teaching this subject in the Barcelona Jesuit seminary, and had com-

pleted his training in astronomy, first under Cirera, and then in the period 1916–1919 with

periods spent in American institutions such as Harvard University and the observatories at

Yerkes and Mount Wilson. Rode

´s continued the ongoing research lines at the Ebro

Observatory and initiated new research programmes to study the influence of the sun on the

Earth’s magnetic activity and the origin of earthquakes, and to evaluate the effect of the

Earth’s position on the number and extent of sun spots. According to his theories, the

presence of life (and rational life) on Earth was an important astronomical factor, also

revealing the privileged position of our planet in the Universe. The effects claimed by

Rode

´s were never considered seriously by the scientific community, and were later

explained by increases in visibility, but he succeeded in having data obtained at the Ebro

Observatory published frequently in international scientific journals. More importantly, he

also implemented wide-reaching popularisation initiatives, including books (El Firma-

mento, 1927) and a series of talks in Barcelona (the most famous being his performance

‘‘Harmonias del Firmamento’’ [Harmonies of the Firmament] together with a choral group

at the Palau de la Mu

´sica in Barcelona) and also in South America, where his efforts to

defend the harmony of science and religion were blessed by the Society’s officials and by

the Pope, interested in ‘‘counteracting the negative influence of anti-Catholics’’ (Garcı

´a-

Doncel and Roca-Rosell 2007, p. 104).

In 1917, a number of other important changes also affected the Tortosa facilities. The

Colegio Maximo and the chemical and biological laboratories were moved to Barcelona,

where they became the basis of the Instituto Quı

´mico de Sarria

`[Sarria

`Chemical Institute].

The resistance of theologically-oriented Jesuits to natural and mathematical sciences seems

to have delayed the movement of Ibe

´rica offices to Barcelona until 1925 (Garcı

´a-Doncel

and Roca-Rosell 2007, p. 73), but a political situation more favourable to conservative

forces can also be invoked: two years before, in 1923, a military coup lead by Miguel

Primo de Rivera and supported by the king had ended the parliamentary government. By

the time Ibe

´rica was installed in its new offices, it had a new editor, Andre

´s F. Linari

(Albin

˜ana had died in 1922), and occupied a new building near the city hall and the

telephone company headquarters. The new premises housed a brand new printing press, a

luxurious library and a conference room, and were designed to become a cultural centre in

the city. At its new location Ibe

´rica’s circulation rose to 10,000 (in 1927), occupying 27th

position in terms of sales among 373 periodicals published in Barcelona (or 16th if

newspapers are excluded).

27

4 Science Under Control: Ibe

´rica’s Coverage of Radioactivity

The transformation of Ibe

´rica into a widely-read magazine may have had some effect on

Spanish (and more particularly, Catalan) public perceptions of science and of the rela-

tionship between science and religion. With regard to this question, it seems of interest to

27

Ibid. In the 1927 survey we find four technology and scientific-based publications with a circulation of

more than 2,000 per issue: a radio magazine called El radiooyente (33,000); a journal devoted to the

advancement of chemical industry, Quı

´

mica e Industria (2800); and two electricity magazines, Electricidad

(4000) and Electricidad y meca

´nica (2000).

344 N. Herran

123

attempt to analyse what Ibe

´rica’s popularisation style was, and what kind of images and

ideologies were conveyed. In the following sections, I will provide a first attempt at

addressing this issue by analysing Ibe

´rica’s content in terms of its coverage of

radioactivity.

By the time Ibe

´rica was launched, radioactivity was not a new topic, but still attracted

wide public interest. Research carried out by the Curies, Rutherford and other researchers

into radioactivity had revealed new elements and established genealogic relationships,

challenging the previous views on the nature of chemical elements, providing a new

perspective of the structure of matter and endowing science with new tools to establish the

age of the Earth. At the same time, its medical and industrial applications gave rise to the

radioactive element industry, with radium becoming by the 1910 s the most coveted and

expensive substance in the world.

28

The period under study (1914–1936) was marked by

the expansion of the radium industry and by an important increase in public interest about

radioactivity, with a parallel growth of scientific journalism at the time. As a result,

radioactivity enjoyed a sustained presence in the public sphere: the subject was increas-

ingly popular from 1900 onwards, and after the disruption caused by World War 1,

references to radium seem to equal or even exceed pre-war levels.

29

In the interwar period there were important scientific developments in the field of

radioactivity, such as the establishment of the isotope concept, the development of radio-

active dating or the emergence of nuclear physics. On the other hand, safety issues began to

be acknowledged after the case of women working in radium dial painting factories who

were affected by cancer (in the late 1920s), the death of workers trained at the Marie Curie

laboratory and active in the French radium industry due to exposure to radiation (1920s–

1930s), or the Byers case (early 1930s), a scandal arising from the death of millionaire Eben

M. Byers in 1932 after regularly drinking the radioactive potion ‘‘Radithor’’.

30

How was radioactivity and these topics depicted in Ibe

´rica? An inspection of the

magazine’s contents between 1914 and 1936 reveals that there were 72 articles and 13

book reviews directly related to radioactivity or radium. Additionally, another 124 articles

were published about nuclear physics and isotopes in this same period, with these areas

becoming increasingly prominent in the public sphere in the late 1920s and 1930s to the

detriment of ‘‘classical’’ radioactivity (see Figs. 1,2), as might be expected given the

scientific dynamics of the field (Badash 1979). By comparing these numbers with the total

number of articles published (estimated at about 300 per year), we find that radioactivity

comprised about 1% of the total contents.

The topics covered in the radioactivity-related articles are highly varied (see Table 1).

Consistent with the didactical tone of the magazine, more than a quarter of them are

devoted to a generic popularisation of radioactivity, i.e. to a description of the radioactive

phenomena, explanations about its cause and a broad assessment of its applications. The

28

According to Lawrence Badash, by the early 1920s radioactivity was victim of its ‘‘suicidal success’’.

Having characterised all the radioactive elements, radioactivity’s main principles, it devoted itself exclu-

sively to refining existing techniques, and produced no significant innovation. However, his analysis does

not take into account the industrial side of radioactivity, nor its medical applications (Badash 1979).

29

Some evidence of this comes from the inspection of the number of articles related to radium in the British

newspaper The Times, which reveal about 60 references to this word per year in the period 1900–1914 and

about 90 references per year after the war (1920–1934) (Source: Times Digital Archive).

30

For a general perspective on radioactive risks in the early twentieth century, see Boudia and Fellinger

(2007). On the Byers’ case, see Macklis (1993). The most complete analysis of the ‘‘radium girls’’ case is

Clark (1997).

Science to the Glory of God 345

123

articles are evenly distributed over time, and take for granted Rutherford’s disintegration

hypothesis (the origin of radioactivity in the disintegration of atomic nuclei).

31

The anti-

Rutherfordian views of Jose

´Mun

˜oz del Castillo, director of the Madrid Institute of

Radioactivity and dean of the discipline in Spain, appear not to have had much impact on

the magazine’s approach.

32

This observation also reveals the relative openness of Ibe

´rica

to international developments, a result of the flow of magazines, scientific journals and

books reaching the Ebro Observatory library, and its scientific exchanges with other

institutions. In relation to this flow, the examination of book reviews on radioactivity topics

suggests that French publications may well have been the main source of information in the

first decade of the magazine. Of eight radioactivity-related books reviewed in the period,

Fig. 1 The first issue of Ibe

´rica,

January 1914. On the top,a

picture of the Observatorio del

Ebro facilities

31

See for example: Puig, Ignacio (1923). La desintegracio

´n de los elementos. Ibe

´rica, 506, pp. I–IV.

32

Mun

˜oz del Castillo founded the first Spanish radioactivity laboratory in Madrid in 1904. He attempted to

institutionalise the discipline by extolling the therapeutic virtues of radioactive waters and the promises of

radioactive materials as fertilizers. Munoz’s high academic status procured him the support of Spanish

authorities, which provided his laboratory (which became a research institute in 1911) with material and

human resources, but he remained at the periphery of the international community of radioactivity

researchers. Among the factors explaining the incapacity of the Madrid Institute of Radioactivity to connect

with international networks of radioactive research (and, to some extent, its decline in the 1920s) were the

limitation of its communication strategy to the national scale, the dependence on foreign instruments and

radioactive elements, and last but not least, the inexistence of a Spanish radium industry that might have

established synergies with the university laboratory and provided employment opportunities for its students.

On the Madrid Radioactivity Laboratory, see Herran (2008a) and (2008b).

346 N. Herran

123

seven were written in French and one in Spanish, with almost half of the French being

books that were translations of works originally written in German or English.

33

Refer-

ences to research conducted in the English-speaking world only increased from the late

1920s.

Faithful to its title, Ibe

´rica also devoted considerable attention to developments in the

science and industry of radioactivity in Spain. Short news items were regularly published

about courses and conferences, and institutional or technical developments in Spain. This

is the case, for example, of the radiotherapy courses offered by the university of Granada in

1921, the creation of the Spanish Society of Electrotherapy and Radiology, the estab-

lishment of a society for securing radium for Catalan physicians in Barcelona, the pro-

duction of electrometers in the Madrid Institute of Radioactivity, or the coverage of Marie

Curie in Madrid in April 1931.

34

Table 1 Main topics of articles

published on Ibe

´rica about

radioactivity, 1914–1936

Topic Articles Percent

Generic popularisation of radioactivity 20 28

Medical uses (including dangers of radium) 15 21

Production, prospecting, prices of radioactive

substances

11 15

Use of radioactivity in biology and agriculture 7 10

Instruments, standards and experiments 7 10

Institutions, obituary, social events 6 8

Industrial uses 3 4

Geochronology 3 4

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1914-18 1919-23 1924-28 1929-33 1934-36

Years

Articles, notes and reviews

Nuclear physics

Isotopes

Radioactivity

Fig. 2 Articles, notes and reviews published in Ibe

´rica, according to research field, 1914–1936

33

Interestingly, France was the main recipient of JAE’s fellows until the late 1920s, when Germany took

the lead.

34

Cro

´nica Cientı

´fica: Reconocimiento y determinacio

´n de los minerales de radio y torio. Ibe

´rica, 261

(January 18th 1919), p. 35; Cro

´nica Cientı

´fica: Nueva Sociedad Espan

˜ola de electrologı

´a y radiologı

´a.

Ibe

´rica, 90 (September 18th 1915), p. 178; Cro

´nica Cientı

´fica: Sociedad del Radio. Ibe

´rica, 32 (August 8th

1914), p. 82; Cro

´nica hispanoamericana: Cursillo de Radioterapia en la Universidad de Granada. Ibe

´rica,

399 (October 20th 1921), pp. 242–243; Cro

´nica hispanoamericana: Conferencias de Mme. Curie en Madrid.

Ibe

´rica, 884 (June 27th 1931), p. 2.

Science to the Glory of God 347

123

In any case, the magazine editors adapted the information received to suit their own

aims and ideology. This is especially noticeable in the case of evolution, since the Jesuits

were the leading opponents to this theory within the Catholic Church (Artigas et al. 2006).

For example, in April 1931 Ibe

´rica published a translation of Millikan’s speech at the

December congress of the AAAS in 1930, which had been published in Science 4 month

previously.

35

The translated version omitted the introduction, in which Millikan declared

evolution to be one of the most important scientific advances of the last century. In this

same vein, the use of radioactivity in dating the age of Earth was also regarded with

suspicion. For example, in 1916, Arthur Holmes’s attribution of 1,500 million years to the

age of the Earth age based on the rate of decay of radium was qualified as being

‘‘hypothetical’’ considering the ‘‘current state of science’’. In 1925 a more balanced

analysis of the issue can be seen in an article by Ignacio Puig, deputy director of the Ebro

Observatory. However, he still assumed that this knowledge was ‘‘imperfect’’ and

announced that we would have to wait a long time before knowing the real age of the

Earth.

36

In contrast, the role of women in radioactivity research did not seem to be greatly

affected by ideology. Even if some prominent female radioactivity researchers like Mar-

ietta Blau were assumed to be men in short news items,

37

Marie Curie’s pioneering role

was generally acknowledged and celebrated. In this respect, the awarding of Nobel Prizes

seemed then, as now, to provide an aura of legitimacy to authors and theories. An example

of this reaction is Ibe

´rica’s coverage of the concept of the isotope, with the term only being

used in the magazine after the award of the 1922 Nobel Prize for Chemistry to Francis

William Aston for the invention of the mass spectrograph. Developments prior to this

event, such as the formulation of the isotope hypothesis by Soddy in 1913 or Aston’s early

experiments in 1919–1920, were ignored by the magazine. This observation agrees with

Jeff Hughes’s recent assessment of Aston’s work, which argues for the importance of the

Nobel prize in the acceptance of the isotopic theory of matter (Hughes 2009).

The medical use of radium was a major topic in radioactivity-related articles in Ibe

´rica.

In this area, the journal provided a generally positive view of radium-based treatments,

reporting international and local initiatives for establishing Radium institutes and other

medical institutions. However, the magazine also gave voice to surgeons who criticised

radium therapy, such as Ricardo Lozano, who in the early 1920s argued against the use of

emanation therapy on the grounds of medical efficiency:

When a sudden frenzy to acquire radium for therapy affected Spain I felt sceptical

and even revolted by the idea of employing an element that is scientifically unknown,

and whose dosage it is impossible to control. It is not enough to read cases of healing

by radium in newspapers; before employing it, we need to have a basic scientific

understanding of its composition and how it affects the body, chemically and

physically, and we must consider the damage we might cause to our patients after an

imprudent application: ‘premium non nocere’. This is the reason why I refused to

35

Millikan, Robert A. (1931). Estado presente de la teorı

´a y de la experimentacio

´n en lo concerniente a

desintegracio

´nysı

´ntesis ato

´mica. Ibe

´rica 876 (April 2nd 1931), p. 285–287, and 877 (April 9th 931),

p. 302–304. The original version of the paper is by Millikan (1931).

36

Cro

´nica Cientı

´fica: La Edad de la Tierra valuada por los feno

´menos radioactivos. Ibe

´rica, 143 (23

September 1916), p. 197. Puig, Ignacio (1925). Determinacio

´n de la edad de los terrenos por la radioac-

tividad. Ibe

´rica, 608, p. 395–397.

37

Cro

´nica general: Los rayos H y la desintegracio

´n de los elementos. Ibe

´rica, 780 (1 June 1929), p. 343.

348 N. Herran

123

acquire radium and even to recommend it to my patients, with the exception of two

or three I considered incurable by other means.

38

Ibe

´rica also published two articles commenting on the possible dangers of radium, but

only in relation to the possible danger to physicians or researchers dealing with x-rays and

radium on a daily basis, and heroically portrayed as ‘‘victims of radiology’’.

39

Consumer

concerns, such as those expressed in relation to the Byers case, or work safety concerns,

such as those involved in the case of the radium dial painters, were not addressed by the

magazine.

After general popularisation and medicine, the third area where topics related to

radioactivity were given closest attention in the pages of Ibe

´rica was in describing the state

of the radium industry, especially focusing on prospecting and on the pricing of this

element. The discovery of new deposits in Colorado (1915) and the Belgian Congo (1923)

and their effects on prices, and the movements of the radium market, were routinely

commented on in the news section of the journal,

40

which provided a wealth of information

about prices. In contrast to critiques of the elitist character of radium treatments encoun-

tered in the anarchist and socialist press, they generally show a condescending view of the

radium market. The high price of radium is justified because of its extraction costs, and the

market would ultimately solve the supply problem by encouraging the discovery of new

deposits. Obsession with the wealth provided by radioactivity is also reflected in the

magazine’s constant interest in hypothetical transmutations (mostly of mercury into gold,

etc.), even if most of the news items generally ended up refuting this possibility.

41

In general Ibe

´rica adopted an optimistic view when dealing with any new application of

radioactivity. A popular topic was the application of radioactivity in agriculture, an area

where Spanish researchers were especially involved.

42

Several long reports on the question

were published, in which the activities of the Madrid Institute of Radioactivity were

described as being ‘‘unsurpassed by any foreign centre’’.

43

In fact, the research conducted

by foreign scientists in this field were also enthusiastically commented on. This is the case,

for example, of Nodon and Cuvier’s report to the Paris Academy of Science about the

content of radioactivity in wine (found to be of the same order as mineral water, and

inversely proportional to its alcohol content), which was supposed to be a good basis for

38

Lozano, Ricardo (1922). Impresio

´n de un viaje cientı

´fico. La radioterapia y la cirugı

´a en algunos casos de

tuberculosis – el radio. Ibe

´rica, 414, pp. 90–93.

39

Cro

´nica general: Los peligros del radio. Ibe

´rica 379 (21 May 1921), pp. 326–327; Vı

´ctimas de la

radiologı

´a. Ibe

´rica 974 (29 April 1933), pp. 269–272.

40

Cro

´nica Cientı

´fica: La produccio

´n de Radio en Colorado. Ibe

´rica, 91 (September 25th 1915), p. 196;

Cro

´nica general: Obtencio

´n de 100 mg. de bromuro de radio. Ibe

´rica, 327 (May 8th 1920), p. 294–295;

Cro

´nica general: Disminucio

´n del precio del radio. Ibe

´rica, 468 (March 10th 1923), p. 151; Cro

´nica general.

La industria del radio. Ibe

´rica, 631 (June 5th 1926), pp. 292–295; Cro

´nica general: La cuestio

´n del ra

´dium.

Ibe

´rica, 794 (September 21st 1929), p. 166; Existencia total y precios del radium. Ibe

´rica, 958 (7 January

1933), p. 5.

41

Cro

´nica general: El oro y los iso

´topos de mercurio. Ibe

´rica, 576 (May 2nd 1925), p. 280; Cro

´nica

general: Sobre la pretendida transmutacio

´n del mercurio en oro. Ibe

´rica, 602 (November 14th 1925),

pp. 292–295; Cro

´nica general: Ma

´s resultados negativos en experimentos de transmutacio

´n de elementos.

Ibe

´rica, 798 (October 19th 1929), pp. 231–232.

42

Ibe

´rica devoted several long articles to the topic, such as Gorria, Hermenegildo (1914). Radicultura.

Ibe

´rica, 32, 94–6, or Navarro, Benjamin (1917). De Radioactividad II. Ibe

´rica, 187, pp. 75–78.

43

Navarro, Benjamı

´n (1917). De radioactividad. Ibe

´rica, 178, pp. 345–350; 187, pp. 75–78, and 180,

pp. 109–111.

Science to the Glory of God 349

123

including ‘‘radioactivity content’’ as a standard wine feature.

44

Luminescent radioactive

paintings and other inventions, such as Robert John Strutt’s ‘‘radium clocks’’, were also

received positively by Ibe

´rica.

45

The Jesuits’ selective appropriation of science and the emphasis on technology and

science as a solution to economic and social problems—from agriculture to industry—is

characteristic of the conservative appropriation of science during the interwar period, and

bears a close resemblance to the ‘‘reactionary modernist’’ discourses that were typical of

the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany (Herf 1984) and were also present in other

European countries. It is not surprising therefore that the Jesuits’ activities were obvious

targets of anarchist and socialist forces during the Civil War, and that, in its aftermath, they

were called upon by Franco’s fascist regime to establish the basis of its new scientific and

technological policy (Malet 2008).

5 Conclusion

The fall of Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship and the advent of the Second Spanish Republic

in 1931 led to a sudden alteration of the Spanish political map and the beginning of a

troubled period for the Society of Jesus. The new Constitution included an article dis-

solving religious orders and limiting their educational activities. An official decree issued

in January 1932 dissolved the Society of Jesus and ended government subsidies to its

institutions.

46

The Jesuits reacted by transferring the ownership of its possessions to other

religious institutions, and in some cases, by mobilising support from private individuals. In

this way the Jesuits kept the Ebro Observatory in operation by transferring its property to

the bishop of Tortosa. Indeed, the new autonomous, left-leaning government of Catalonia

agreed to protect the Observatory because of its scientific interest, allowing the Jesuits to

live together, and even supporting its activities economically. As a result, Ibe

´rica’s

activities were practically unaffected. However, the troubled atmosphere of the period is

reflected in the incrising appearance of politically inspired articles, such as transcripts of

the speeches of the Jesuit Jose

´Agustı

´nPe

´rez del Pulgar, head of the Catholic Institute of

Arts and Industry, who argued for a professional education:

We do not need intelligence, capacity and energy […] We do not need men able to

organise and lead, but men able to be managed and to participate spontaneously and

productively as part of an organisation […] no soul is strong enough to control an

organism whose cells all have their own independent life.

47

Or Ibe

´rica’s analysis of the effects of the Bolshevik revolution on Russian science:

44

Cro

´nica general: Radioactividad de los vinos. Ibe

´rica, 757 (December 22nd 1928), pp. 375.

45

News about the applications of radioactivity may also offer some insight into the audience’s interests,

exemplified by at least one letter from a reader requesting information about shops selling luminescent

paintings in Barcelona. Ibe

´rica, Supplement (May 1927), p. 20. In general, the magazine did not publish the

correspondence it received, but in the 1920s it included a monthly supplement were readers could ask

questions about scientific and technical topics.

46

The confiscation process was opposed in several news items in Ibe

´rica, 917 (February 27th 1932),

pp. 130–132, and Ibe

´rica 923 (April 9th 1932), p. 226.

47

Aznar, Severino (1932). El padre Jose

´Pe

´rez del Pulgar y la ensen

˜anza profesional. Ibe

´rica, 923, 227.

Perez del Pulgar was the director of the Jesuit Instituto Cato

´lico de Artes e Industrias.

350 N. Herran

123

The worst disaster caused by Bolshevism is the wave of ignorance engulfing this

unfortunate country, which has over the last 13 years been deprived of any kind of

serious instruction, suffering the destruction of its laboratories, the dispossession of

its universities, and the misery of its wise men.

48

The Society of Jesus’ conservative profile earned it the animosity of the radical left.

With the outbreak of the Civil War in July 1936, Ibe

´rica’s offices were taken over by

anarchist activists, the publication was suspended and most of its collaborators went into

exile. In Tortosa, the Ebro Observatory facilities were spared after Rode

´s successfully

mediated with members of the anarchist militias, arguing that the Jesuits and the working

class movement shared a common respect for science. These negotiations helped to keep

the Observatory almost intact, but compromised its position after the war. In May 1939,

one month after the end of the war, Ignacio Roman

˜a

´was appointed director of the Ebro

Observatory, replacing Rode

´s, who died of a stroke one month later. Ibe

´rica reappeared in

January 1945 under the editorship of the Jesuit Ignacio Puig, who had been exiled in

Argentina during the war. However, the magazine’s new era was not as successful as the

first one, and Ibe

´rica never recovered the influence and the sales it had enjoyed during the

interwar period, and continued to languish until its final closure in 2004.

On presenting the first issue of Ibe

´rica, its first editor Ricardo Cirera claimed that the

magazine ‘‘will never deny scientific truth out of fear that it opposes revealed truth’’. As

shown in this paper, this pronouncement should be taken as more rhetorical than binding.

The examination of Ibe

´rica’s coverage of radioactivity reveals that, besides its instru-

mental value in improving the quality of scientific training at Jesuit schools, Ibe

´rica was

also instrumental in shaping a vision of science in harmony with religion, and most

importantly, in providing a space for designing a particular agenda for modernisation that

maintained the cultural hegemony of the Church and at the same time enshrined science as

a source of order and economic growth. Relying on selectively appropriated reports and

self-tailored news of local developments, Ibe

´rica formed a cordon sanitaire for potentially

disturbing findings—in the case of radioactivity these included geochronology and the

elitist character of radium therapy—and provided a top–down model of popularisation that

reinforced established hierarchies and experts (Hilgartner 1990).

Is this characterisation of Ibe

´rica compatible with Glick’s image of consensual ‘‘civil

discourse’’, in which ideologically confronted players shared a common appreciation for

science, or does it provide room for considering science as yet another ideological bat-

tlefield in the first decades of the twentieth century? In my opinion, both perspectives only

reveal a part of the picture. More than a contribution to a shared scientific appreciation or

an exploitation of science as a tool of cultural hegemony, we may consider Ibe

´rica as part

of an exercise in reconciling Catholic traditions with modern science and technology, and

also to a certain extent with modern culture and economic institutions. This process, which

closely resembles developments in other European countries, implied both a selective

appropriation of the products of modern technology and science and the ability to con-

tribute to the country’s modernisation. These characteristics would also prevail after the

Spanish Civil War, when a conservative and Catholic-centred discourse became hege-

monic, and would provide the basis for science policy during the Franco regime.

Acknowledgments This article has been produced under the project ‘‘Bases para una Historia de la Fı

´sica

en Espan

˜a en el Siglo XX’’ (HAR2008-05039), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation,

and with the support of a Marie Curie contract (IEF) in the 7th Framework Programme of the European

48

¡Si los sabios se tomasen diez an

˜os de vacaciones!. Ibe

´rica, 862 (January 24th 1931), pp. 63–64.

Science to the Glory of God 351

123

Commission. I thank Xavier Roque

´, Agustı

´Nieto-Galan and three anonymous referees for their helpful

comments.

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