British Society for the History of Medicine

Poynter lecture - Congresses - Officers - International Society - Affiliated societies - Constitution
Newsletters - John Blair Trust - Book reviews and notices - Medical history journals Links and information

2012 Poynter Lecture: Shocking Bodies, by Dr Iwan Rhys Morus
6 pm on 21 March 2012 at the Wellcome Building, 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE.

We enjoyed an excellent lecture. A report has been added to our Poynter lecture page.

2011 Web newsletter

The 2011 newsletter is available as a collection of files.

British Society for the History of Medicine Congresses

The 24th Congress was held at the University of Surrey in Agust/September 2011. We have a Guildford Congress Report with photographs.
See Congress page for information on future and past congresses. It includes preliminary information including topics for the 25th Congress in Canterbury, Kent in September 2013.

British Society for the History of Radiology

The society has advised us of the President's Conference of the British Institute of Radiology
CT in Clinical Practice - Past, Present and Future - A tribute to Sir Godfrey Hounsfield
25 - 26 April 2012, Wellcome Collection, London

Conference - Retelling familiar tales of pregnancy and birth in European cultures

Tues 3rd-Weds 4th July 2012, Oxford
See De Partu - History of Childbirth Research Group for Call for Papers.
Please email all proposals for papers to Professor Helen King (h.king@open.ac.uk) by 3 April 2012

Wellcome Witness Statements - History of British Intensive Care

Queen Mary College, University of London has announced a new volume: History of British Intensive Care, c. 1950 - c. 2000 edited by Lois Reynolds and Tilli Tansey.

Christie of Zanzibar - Medical Pathfinder

We have a review of this book by Edna Robertson. An interesting account of the life of the Scot James Christie (1829-1892) who went as a doctor to Zanzibar. When there was a cholera epidemic in 1869 he both cared for patients and analysed the source. His report was significant in establishing contagion and water borne infection in the spread of cholera. Later he became Medical Officer of Health in Hillhead, Glasgow, and was influential in improving sanitary conditions.

Scottish Medicine - An Illustrated History

Scottish Medicine - An Illustrated History by Helen Dingwall, David Hamilton, Iain MacIntyre, Morrice McCrae and David Wright. ISBN: 9781780270180. Hardback. Published Oct 2011 by Birlinn.
This is the first fully illustrated history of Scottish medicine to be published for many years. The authors are well known in medical history circles as University, Wellcome and Apothecaries' lecturers, leading members of the Scottish Royal Colleges and of history of medicine societies including BSHM.

Godfrey Hounsfield: Intuitive Genius of CT

This book by Stephen Bates, Liz Beckman, Adrian Thomas and Richard Waltham will be published by the British Institute of Radiology in paperback and hardback on 20th April 2012. (ISBN 978-0-905749-75-4)
Godfrey Hounsfield made a great breakthrough in CT scans in 1972 and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1979 with Allan M. Cormack.

Food and Hospitals: an historical perspective. Brussels, Belgium, 26-27 April 2013.

This conference will be Hosted by the University of Birmingham (Brussels campus) and the Free University of Brussels (VUB), Sponsored by the Society For Social History of Medicine. See call for papers and poster. The History of Medicine Unit of the University of Birmingham has a variety of general news items on its web pages, as well as details of courses.

The Rose Prize for History of General Practice

The Royal College of General Practitioners and the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London award a prize every two years for original work in the History of General Practice from non-professional historians who are or have been involved in primary health care in the British Isles, See Apothecaries Rose Prize web page (but note closing date for next award is 9 January 2013) or RCGP Rose prize current criteria.

John Blair Trust - maximum grant increased

The John Blair Trust provides grants for students' research in the history of medicine and allied fields. The maximum available for these grants has recently risen to £150. The Trustees welcome applications for funding, up to this amount, for such things as necessary travel, photocopying, research fees and any other incidental or enabling expenses. See Report in 2011 newsletter (Word file) for report.
To apply send application form with brief details by post or email.

The British Society for the History of Medicine was formed in 1965, by representatives of the Section of the History of Medicine of the Royal Society of Medicine, the Faculty of the History and Philosophy of Medicine and Pharmacy of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London, The Scottish Society for the History of Medicine and the Osler Club of London. It now has a number of other Affiliated societies. Its objectives are to hold a biennial congress, to arrange the biennial Poynter Lecture in alternate years with the congress, to represent the United Kingdom in the affairs of the International Society for the History of Medicine and to encourage study, teaching and research in medical history. The archives of the Society are held in the archives of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London; please contact the BSHM secretary if you wish to see them.

The Society has no direct individual membership, membership of an affiliated society automatically makes one a member. It is not necessary to be a member to attend the Poynter Lecture or Congress. It is governed by an Officers and Representatives Committee, which meets annually and is comprised of the officers and one representative of each affiliated society or two if its membership exceeds one hundred. The Society publishes the annual BSHM News, which provides a link between its affiliated societies and a forum for the exchange of ideas, a noticeboard for meetings and queries, and the occasional book review. From 2007 the BSHM News will be on this website.

The Society would be glad to have more affiliated societies - please contact the secretary for details of affiliation (see Officers for contact details).

Web pages up to 2002 were held at University of Birmingham Centre for the History of Medicine. Pages were then held at http://www.hawgood.co.uk/bshm/ but are now all on www.bshm.org.uk.

This page by David Hawgood was amended 24 Mar 2012