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...specialist fungus), had lived in a cheap hotel for his entire career, and he had written a famous limerick. Twenty-five years later, now as a faculty member, I dug through Buller's voluminous papers (2) for the centennial of the University's Faculty of Science, in 2004. This caused me to improve dramatically my own understanding of Buller, and to winnow truth from fiction. My objective is, therefore, to provide a portrait of Professor Buller which is, perhaps, truer to the person than the many fawning biographies written after his death in 1944, and the subsequent hazy anecdotes repeated by those who never met the man. I will deal only in passing with his research accomplishments, as his large collection of books and articles speaks for itself. I will focus instead on aspects of his life and times that have eluded the story-tellers, collectively revealing a person who is more complex and human than our stereotype allows. In the process, we gain insight into the origins of the modern University of Manitoba and one of its earliest, and certainly most colorful, builders.
Germination
Like most Winnipeggers in the early 20th century, Buller had humble roots. The Bullers were tenant farmers, having resided in Oxfordshire, England since at least the 1600s. Alban Gardner Buller was the first member of the family to have an advanced education, in the legal profession, and he ultimately settled down in Moseley, a prosperous suburb of Birmingham, to a comfortable life as barrister, magistrate, and county councillor. He married Mary Jane Huggins in the late 1860s and had a family of seven children. His blue-eyed, brown-haired fifth child, Reginald, was born in August 1874 and seems to have enjoyed a childhood darkened only by occasional dizzy spells--treated by his mother with liberal doses of brandy (3)--and asthma exacerbated by pollen and spores during frequent outdoor forays. A career studying those very spores could have hardly seemed less likely.
Buller began his education at a boarding school near his home. Later, his interest in natural science was piqued by studies at Queen's College, Taunton, from which he moved (at age 18) to Mason College at Birmingham for further studies in Botany. Being an affiliate of the confederation of colleges known collectively as the University of London, he ultimately received his Bachelor of Science degree from there, in November 1896. His promise as a scholar was evident even at this early stage, as he won the Heslop Gold Medal and the "1851 Exhibition Scholarship," the latter of which enabled him to pursue postgraduate studies in Germany. At Leipzig, where he arrived to study in October 1897, he received the PhD degree in 1899 under the supervision of noted plant physiologist Wilhelm Pfeffer, working on fern reproduction among other projects, and producing a short dissertation entitled "Die Wirkung von Bakterien auf tote Zellen." In 1900, he moved to Munich to study for a year at the Forstbotanisches Institute under Professor Robert Hartig. The young scholar began to focus increasingly on the study of plants, and particularly the diseases that affect forest trees. Buller would later acknowledge the profound effect that his time in Germany had on his future career interests, and especially the influence of Hartig, who always insisted plants were best studied in their natural setting, as opposed to dried or preserved specimens as was the norm for the time. (4) Leaving Germany, Buller spent March and April of 1900 and 1901 at the International Marine Biological Station at Naples, studying the fertilization of sea urchin eggs.
Returning from the continent in 1901, Buller accepted an assistant lecturership in Botany from his alma mater Mason College, now renamed the University of Birmingham, where he settled in to what might have otherwise become a comfortable academic life. Although he was designated officially as a Botany lecturer, Buller's catholic interests resulted in, among other work, a published article on frog anatomy. In 1903, he offered a remarkable series of lectures on plant diseases at Birmingham, "illustrated by specimens, microscope, and lantern, and ... accompanied by laboratory work." (5) The course was apparently well received because he was later offered a special lecturership in plant pathology, which he refused in order to take up a professorship in Manitoba.
Why would Buller leave a stable job at a respected University in his home town to take a position at an unknown institution on the frontier of the Empire? Beside any sense of adventure the opportunity might have elicited, Buller's reasons for leaving Birmingham very likely included dissatisfaction with his salary and opportunities for advancement. For at least a year prior to Buller's departure, trouble had been brewing among the lowly "lecturers" and "demonstrators" of the Birmingham teaching staff. Many were paid from 150 [pounds sterling] to 175 [pounds sterling] per year, below what they considered to be a living wage (a range from 200 [pounds sterling] to 350 [pounds sterling] was thought more appropriate), and disparity existed between the salaries of those with similar duties. Buller's salary is unknown but it must not have been at the high end of the range; when he eventually left Birmingham, his replacement was offered an annual salary of 150 [pounds sterling]. (6) As a lecturer, Buller would have had limited opportunity for promotion. Under the system used in British universities, management decisions for a "department" (or specific discipline) were made by its Professor, the senior faculty member; lecturers were not much more than servants whose opinions were rarely solicited or, if offered, heeded. In January 1904, Buller was among 12 signatories to a petition seeking redress of these grievances by the University Council and Senate. (7) It is likely, therefore, that he was actively seeking employment elsewhere. But why did Buller select the University of Manitoba from among the many possible universities where his talents might be more appreciated? One reason was undoubtedly the tempting annual salary of $2,500: several times more than what he likely received at Birmingham, and high even by the standard of other professions in Winnipeg. And he leaped immediately into the rank of Professor, with the attendant prestige and responsibility. Beyond these benefits, he would later offer two explanations for his choice of Winnipeg. He noted, at public receptions held in his honor years later, that upon reading an advertisement for the Winnipeg job, he recalled the city having been described as "Mushroom City" in recognition of its explosive transformation from a sleepy fur trade post to a bustling metropolis to rival Chicago. Such a city was, he said, a logical destination for someone wishing to pursue studies on fungi. Buller gave a more probable explanation when, in a letter to fellow mycologist Elsie Wakefield in England, he claimed to have taken the job because it offered the longest period of summer holiday: essentially five months, from May through September annually, when classes were adjourned. (8) This permitted him to spend a considerable portion of each year at home in England, (9) pursuing his research interests using equipment and space made available to him by the Kew Herbarium and the University of Birmingham, living with his parents, and enjoying his beloved English countryside. (10) An additional benefit of life in Winnipeg was that the asthma that had plagued him since childhood subsided, perhaps because of the clean winter air of the prairies.
The process used to select university professors at that time was very different from today's practices. Open canvassing for candidates was considered distasteful. (11) The selection committee often based its decision on informal communication with mutual acquaintances of committee members and applicants and, more formally, on a submitted portfolio of "testimonials"--printed letters of reference by peers who would comment on the skills and assets of the applicant, usually accompanied by copies of the applicant's publications which demonstrated their ability to write and carry out independent research. An applicant would often be selected without an interview and without visiting the hiring institution. Under the circumstances, a stipulation that appointments were made ad vitam aut culpam ("to life or misdeed") was not surprising. Years later, Buller would recruit a new geologist for the University (and, in the process, off-load one of his two teaching chairs) in the person of Robert C. Wallace, when he was asked by the University Council to recruit a lecturer during his vacation in England. He would claim that hiring Wallace was one of the best things he had done for the University. (12)
Along with the seven copies of testimonials from scientific peers that were requested by the selection committee at the University of Manitoba, it is likely that Buller also included a poem or two. He was typical of urbane, middle class men of the late 19th century who considered a basic grounding in the arts, regardless of their career pursuits, an essential part of a well-rounded personality. He sketched, played the piano, sang, committed Shakespeare to memory, and wrote poetry and plays (13) Buller clearly felt that he had a particular aptitude for poetry; late in his life, he considered publishing a collection of his poems; (14) it is probably just as well that he did not. Some are mildly amusing and clever; many are wincingly awful. As a whole, they reflect the attitudes about strictly defined gender roles, noble valor, and sugary sentiment of a former time. Buller was a life-long advocate of that much maligned literary form, the limerick The rare occasions when he abandoned it were usually in favor of simple rhyming couplets. Also not surprisingly many reflect a biological theme. Excerpts from his "Pond Life", composed in December 1903 at the University Birmingham, (15) are typical:
Upon the slide, with best of light And lenses "5" or "7", I see a sight as wondrous as The Milky Way in heaven. A diatom in armour clad, Now glides into the scene; It seems to be in miniature A perfect submarine. A Paramecium hastens by With countless cilia beating. Its body is transparent; I Can see what it's been eating! To Spirogyra's restful threads My vision now is guided; Each segment is with spiral bands Of chlorophyll provided. How wondrous is a mighty sun, That lights a boundless chasm! More wondrous still I deem a speck Of living protoplasm.
Growth
The Winnipeg that Buller saw when he stepped off the train in 1904 must have been a rude shock compared to what he had experienced in earlier travels through England and continental Europe. Although the city fathers took great pains to portray Winnipeg as a model of civilization, (16) it nevertheless retained the crude vestiges of its recent founding and remote location. The streets around the train stations were crammed with cheap hotels and bars, and houses of "ill fame" in nearby Point Douglas catered to prurient interests. Police arrests for public drunkenness, petty theft, random acts of violence, and lewd behavior were numerous (17)--Winnipeg deserved its reputation as a center of vice and debauchery. (18) The more respectable hotels were hardly better; proprietors were as likely to advertise the quality of their liquors and cigars as the benefits of their accommodation and meals. Therefore, finding a place for the young, impressionable professors to live amidst the many temptations must have weighed heavily on the minds of the clergymen on the selection committee who would have greeted their arriving train in September 1904. It was not a surprise that Buller and Swale Vincent were conducted to the Metropolitan Hotel, (19) a quiet hotel that had, until the year before, housed the St. Mary's Academy for girls (20) then the Winnipeg College of Music. (21) Purchased by entrepreneurs Pratt and Dixon in 1904, and converted to a 65-room hotel, the Metropolitan operated on the American Plan, providing accommodation and meals for $2 to $3 per day. (22) This amount, compared to $1.00 or $1.50 per day offered by other nearby hotels, probably helped to keep out the rift-raft. Buller would remain at the Metropolitan for his first year in Winnipeg before moving on to the Vendome Hotel a few blocks away on Fort Street for the next seven years. The Vendome claimed in its advertisements to be the most "homelike" of the Winnipeg hotels, (23) which might have drawn Buller's interest. In 1910, the McLaren brothers completed a grand new, 165-room hotel at the corner of Main Street and Rupert Avenue. It featured "a ceramic mosaic tile floor in the rotunda with Spanish mottled leather accenting. A writing room, bar, dining room and kitchen were also located on the ground floor. The bar included a mahogany and marble counter, high ceilings with blue paneling and burlap-covered walls." (24) Buller moved there in 1913, perhaps attracted by suites featuring the rare luxury of a private bathroom. Aside from a year spent at the Empire, another grand Main Street hotel, in 1915, Buller would remain loyal to the McLaren for the remainder of his life, staying there 28 years, long after the neighborhood had decayed and the McLaren lost its luster.
Much has been read into Buller's insistence on living in a hotel for the entire duration of his life in Winnipeg. From a practical perspective, especially one of an unmarried workaholic like Buller, it made sense. (25) He typically spent only seven months per year in Winnipeg so the cost of maintaining a home year-round, with the associated risks during his long absences, was a disincentive. Having no family obligations in Winnipeg, Buller could be content in the knowledge that someone would keep his hotel room clean and cook his meals. He could devote all his attention to his university responsibilities and social interests. He could come and go when he wanted, waking early in the morning so he could spend several uninterrupted hours in his office, or staying up late to watch the gradual development of a fungal spore under his microscope. (26) Why Buller remained at the McLaren Hotel long after it became unfashionable, however, is harder to explain. One story maintains that he was attracted by the quality of its billiards tables; another that the proprietors provided him a double suite to accommodate his own table. Yet there are several indications, most notably his insistence on wearing clothes long after they had become unfashionable and threadbare, (27) that Buller had lapsed into a state of comfortable stasis in his latter years in Winnipeg, and may have stayed at the McLaren merely because it was familiar.
Buller saw himself as a member of the Province's intellectual elite, responsible for raising the level of public knowledge generally. He would use this explanation repeatedly over his career to rationalize his remaining in Winnipeg, despite tempting offers to move to better endowed universities in more culturally sophisticated cities. Prior to 1904, postsecondary science education in Manitoba had been almost entirely in the hands of clergymen, most notably George Bryce of Manitoba College. (28) In the absence of specifically trained scientists, this was a reasonable solution but it meant that subjects that were perceived to challenge theological doctrine were marginalized or not covered at all. Almost immediately upon arrival, Buller signaled a new state of affairs when he challenged Lewis Drummond--an Irish-French Jesuit priest from Quebec, a philosophy professor at St. Boniface College, member of the University Council and member of the committee that hired Buller--via the pages of the Manitoba Free Press. The professors of St. Boniface College had been ambivalent in permitting the University to undertake its own teaching, (29) partly because they feared exposing impressionable, young minds to the views of non-Catholic, or worse, agnostic professors. Buller must have confirmed their worst fears by showing he was fully prepared to challenge the views of Catholic professors when warranted. Drummond had ventured remarks during a sermon that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, which implied that humans are subject to the same gradual changes over time as other animals and plants, were "at variance with Christianity." Drummond would claim that:
"... it still remained absolutely impossible to prove that man had arisen from an animal. There were no scientific proofs against it and besides it was not consistent with the Christian faith. Whatever may be the limits of evolution established by science in the future there will always be overwhelming evidence against the theory of the progress of man." (30)
Buller might have tolerated the remarks if not for the characterization of his hero Darwin as a man who "pretended to great learning." Buller responded that he had been "a student of biology during the last ten years in various parts of Europe and having a considerable interest in the subject of evolution I venture to affirm that the position taken by Father Drummond is not one that can be maintained by any sound arguments." (31) Buller was careful to note that he bore Drummond in particular, and Catholics in general, no personal malice. But his words were sufficiently inflammatory that Edgar Kenrick, one of the former university science professors, felt compelled to send Buller a letter of warning:
"A friend once persuaded me to hear him [Drummond] preach when I was startled to hear the following pronouncement: "An Italian bandit who has spent his life cursing God has a better chance of Heaven than a clergyman of the Church of England. And in all seriousness he announced to the University Council: "Chemistry is purely a matter of memory". But don't quarrel with your bread-and-butter. It was through your antievolutionist more than anyone else that I lost my position in the University--though as far as I know I never did anything to offend him. Possibly some day he may turn and rend you!"(32)
Buller responded that: "The object of my letter was not to help the enlightenment but to demonstrate to the half-educated younger people, who only hear of evolution of its negative from the pulpit, that evolution is considered to be a fact of responsible scientific men. I meant the letter to have an educative value, if possible, setting people to thinking about one of the most important conclusions of modern science. I also intended the letter to warn ministers of religion that they are not at liberty to talk at random on scientific subjects. I also wanted to make the University more interesting to outside folks ..." (33)
Combined with the public lectures that were initiated by the "Original Six" in 1907, which presented current scientific topics to a wide general audience, 1904 can be viewed as a turning point in the secularization of Manitoba science. Science professors, and especially Buller whose advanced biological training gave him the credentials to counter religious interpretations of such weighty questions as the nature of human consciousness, personality and evolution, were increasingly viewed as authoritative sources of scientific knowledge while the clergy were confined to the arts and humanities--an emphasis that persists today in the curricula of the religious colleges at the University of Manitoba.
Buller took to communicating farther afield about his experiences on the Canadian prairies, writing for example to the prestigious British journal Nature on the dryness of the local air and the resulting effects on static electricity. (34) Buller was also amazed by the cleanness of the local air, which might have been a factor in alleviating his asthma. He wrote a paper, with his assistant Charles Lowe, on the number of microorganisms in Winnipeg air, noting that "the climate of Central Canada during the winter must be one of the best in any civilized country in the world." (35) Following the 1909 British Association meeting in Winnipeg, Buller accompanied a group of conference attendees in a railway excursion through Western Canada, after which he remarked:
"We were all much impressed with the extent of the territory and by the vastness of the resources of the country. No wonder that folks here are so optimistic and live so largely in the future. One of the deepest impressions left on my mind was given by the great treeless, perfectly flat, bright yellow prairie in Alberta ..." (36)
Bullet's religious views have been the subject of speculation, with the consensus being that he retained fondness for the general religious principle as it benefited social and moral development. But he contended that "... the truest religion is not bound up with any definite historical records like those of the Bible, and my best friends have given up the belief in the supernatural parts of Christianity. In my own struggle for freedom several well-meaning but misguided persons did their best to cloud my judgement and caused me a good deal of suffering--but that is past. I simply...
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