[Below are links to reports in this BSHM 2007 Web News. Note that some items are taken from advance notices of societies' events, rather than reports after the meetings. We have a separate page of current contacts and web links for Affiliated Societies]
The past year has been very busy for the museum including staff changes and the running of a three day conference on the History of Military Medicine and Health Care.
Archives
Donations to the archives come in on a regular basis, be they personal diaries and papers, medical reports or books.
The library is ever growing and there is presently a project ongoing to re-catalogue all the books in line with the Army
Library Service guidelines.
Towards the end of 2006 we obtained a large quantity of bound volumes of both the Lancet and the British Medical Journal
which along with those already held has resulted in the museum having a very good run of both journals.
Schools and Education
Our list of schools who visit the museum continues to grow. In the main they come to study Florence Nightingale but
there have been several who wanted to learn about the influence of war on medicine through the ages.
For those in uniform we continue to try to interest them in the history of medicine and award two annual prizes for original papers covering some aspect of the history of British Military Medicine.
Visitors
Our visitors remain steady but there has been an increase in the number of academic visitors conducting some form of
undergraduate or post graduate research. There have also been visits from authors and TV companies using the museum
resources.
Although the Army Medical Services Historical Society no longer exists our aim to perpetuate the history of the AMS and military medicine and health care continues.
Pete Starling, Curator
The Bristol Medico-Historical Society continues to flourish as a small society with 45 members, under the presidency of Dr Jonathan Bird. It meets four times a year for a convivial dinner and two talks given by members. This year we are planning to have two medical students present their theses at Christmas. This year talks included "Nostalgia, a lost medical diagnosis"; Professor Sir John McNee; Hans Steck, and a series of talks to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Bristol Medical Reading Society. We have just published the fourth volume of our proceedings due to the work of Dr McMinn our editor.
We are pleased to relate that the Glenside Hospital Museum is now blossoming with a new sense of purpose and we hope will consider joining the BSHM.
The British Society for the History of ENT has two officers, a secretary, Mr Richard Irving and a President, Mr Neil Weir. The Society holds one meeting a year which in recent years has been held in conjunction with a major national ENT meeting in the UK. Our annual meeting this year was held in Westminster jointly with ENT/UK and the RSM. There were presentations from invited speakers and from trainees.
Each year we award a registrar prize which is currently a free annual subscription to an ENT Journal the JLO. We had two joint winners of the Registrar's Prize this year. They were Jonathan Hughes for a paper on Morrell Mackenzie, a pioneer of laryngology, and to Olivier Whiteside for a paper on Esme Hadfield, who discovered the link between adenocarcinoma of the nose and working in the hard wood industry.
Our meeting next year will be held in Dublin in early July.
Richard Irving, Secretary
Founded in 2002, the BSHPCH is now a well established and thriving society dedicated to the history of paediatrics and child health. Recognised as a specialist section of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, it has a session annually at the College Meeting at York in the spring.
In 2007, in addition to four papers by members and guests, the first George Armstrong lecture was delivered by Professor John Pearn from the University of Queensland, Australia. He spoke about Armstrong's struggle to establish the first dispensary for children in London in 1769, and drew attention to the parallels between this achievement and modern medical services for sick children.
Autumn Meeting of the BSHPCH at the College of Surgeons in Dublin on 14th and 15th September 2007.
This includes the first William Cadogan Prize lecture, given by Matthew Smith of the Centre for Medical
History of the University of Exeter. The title of his talk is 'The Politics of Behaviour: Sputnik, the Cold War and
the Origins of Hyperactivity in the United States 1957-1968'.
Spring Meeting 2008: Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Annual Meeting at the University of York,
17th April 2008
Armstrong Lecture: Dr Morrice McCrae: "Childhood Rickets - two medical traditions".
WILLIAM CADOGAN PRIZE: The BSHPCH is offering a £250 prize for an original essay of up to 3000 words, on any aspect of the history of paediatrics and child health, in any period of time or place. The prize has been established in memory of Dr William Cadogan of Bristol (1711 - 1797) an eminent pioneer of child health care and father of infant care in Britain. As well as the prize, the winner will be expected to give a presentation to the autumn meeting of the Society, in London on 12th and 13th September 2008. The closing date for submission of the essay is 1st April 2008 and the winner will be notified in May of that year. Further enquiries (and submissions) should be directed to the Hon. Secretary: Professor Lawrence Weaver, Department of Child Health, University of Glasgow, Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Yorkhill, Glasgow G3 8SJ, UK (lweaver@clinmed.gla.ac.uk).
President: Emeritus Professor Dan Young. Hon Treasurer: Dr Judith Darmady.
Those who wish to join the BSCPCH or learn more about it, should contact its honorary secretary,
Professor Lawrence Weaver at lweaver@clinmed.gla.ac.uk
The Society organised another full programme of events during 2006. In February Dr A E Theobald presented a paper entitled 'Pharmacy at Chelsea: a century of change at Manresa Road'. In April BSHP held a joint meeting with Hull Branch, RPSGB, at the Beverley Arms Hotel, Beverley where Dr Stuart Anderson presented a paper entitled 'Keep Taking the Medicine: a brief history of pharmaceutical disasters'. In May, Dr Ann Ferguson presented a paper entitled 'Arrow Poison to Anaesthesia'.
The Society's Annual Spring Conference was held in Bath. Papers presented included Mr Ainley Wade: 'Bath Spa Waters'; Prof Anthony Smith: 'The Bath Schools of Pharmacy'; and Mr Renzo Console: "The 'Diseases' and 'Comforts' of Bath: Apothecaries and Their Clients in 18th Century Satire, Panegyric and Caricature". The conference excursion was to the Roman Baths.
In June there was a joint afternoon meeting with the Society of Apothecaries at the Museum of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain to view the museum's displays.
An evening meeting in September featured a joint meeting with both the National Association of Women Pharmacists and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain when Captain Pete Starling presented a paper entitled 'Women in the Army Medical Services since the English Civil War'. At the final meeting of the year in November, Mr Kevin Brown presented a paper entitled 'A Night with Venus, A Lifetime with Mercury: The History of Syphilis and its Treatments'.
Unless otherwise stated, meetings are held jointly with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society at 1 Lambeth High Street, London SE1 7JN. Details of future events are available on the Society's website www.bshp.org
The British Society for the History of Radiology, formerly the Radiology History and Heritage Charitable Trust (RHHCT) continues to flourish.
We produce our journal 'The Invisible Light' twice a year and we organise a radiology history session at the annual UK Radiology Congress 'UKRC' www.ukrc.org.uk which this year was held in Manchester (UK Radiological Congress 2007, Manchester Central, Manchester UK 12th June 07). The theme of the display on our stand in the technical exhibition was "Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen as illustrated in paper ephemera".
The History Special Focus Group at UKRC was well attended. I spoke on 'The current state of radiology history.' Mrs Geraldine Hunwick from the newly re-opened John Rylands University Library in Manchester spoke on 'Archiving clinical radiology in Manchester in the 20th century.' Dr Uwe Busch, Deputy Director of the Deutsches Röntgen Museum, Remscheid, Germany spoke on 'The German Röntgen Museum.' Dr Alfredo Buzzi, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina spoke on 'Dr Samuel Stuart Pennington and the Battle of the River Plate' and finally Dr John Kotre, Newcastle General Hospital, Newcastle-upon-Tyne spoke on 'Patient and staff radiation doses from early radiography (1899-1902).'
In March 2007 I was very pleased to represent the UK at the Official Re-Opening of the Deutsches Röntgen-Museum at Schwelmer Strasse 41, D-42897 Remscheid (Lennep), Germany. The Deutsches Röntgen-Museum in Remscheid-Lennep, Germany is undergoing extensive regeneration and is well worth a visit. It was a great pleasure to have been allowed to sleep in the house in Remscheid-Lennep in which Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was born in 1845.
Further information about the BSHR can be obtained from either myself or our honorary secretary Jean Barrett (103 Slaithwaite Road, Meltham, Holmfirth, West Yorkshire HD9 5PW jean.barrett@ntlworld.com). Our website is www.bshr.org.uk/.
Adrian M K Thomas
The Historical Medical Equipment Society was founded in 1996. It aims to promote education and research into the history and evolution of instruments, apparatus and equipment employed in medicine and related health care professions. Membership is £15 per year and is open to anyone with an interest in medical, surgical, pharmaceutical and dental instruments and equipment.
Activities of the Society include twice yearly meetings with discussion papers, visits to collections and equipment identification sessions. Two bulletins are published each year.
The Society's autumn meeting of 2006 was held at the Association of Anaesthetists in London. The spring meeting of 2007 was held at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, Exeter. The autumn meeting of 2007 was held at the Jenner Museum, Berkeley, Gloucestershire.
Dr John Prosser is Chairman, Mr John Kirkup is Bulletin Editor and Dr Tim Smith is Honorary Secretary. For membership application or further information please apply to Dr Tim Smith tel: 01249 782218 e-mail drtgcsmith@aol.com
The Society continues to flourish under the guidance of the President, Dr David Wilkinson. At present there are 395 members including 83 overseas members and 10 Honorary members.
An extremely successful Annual Summer and Annual General Meeting were held on the 29th and 30th June 2007. Organized by Professor J Anthony W Wildsmith 63 members attended with 31 accompanying guests. Members submitted 14 papers covering a wide variety of topics; there were two guest lectures and Dr Stuart McGowan was invited to open the meeting by presenting a brief history of Dundee Royal Infirmary. As Dundee is the home of Scott's Discovery, Antartica played a prominent role at the meeting. Talks by both Dr Adams and Dr Wikinson set the score for our visit to Discovery and the multimedia Heritage Museum and the following day in his guest lecture the Curator of the Museum regaled us with the story of the expedition. Our evening visit to Discovery and the Museum formed an important part of the Social Programme. Earlier the accompanying ladies had visited Glamis Castle.
The Museum of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineeringin Newcastle-upon-Tyne is the venue for the Society's Autumn Meeting on the 9th November 2007.
In 2008 the Annual Summer and Annual General Meeting will be held in York on the 27th and 28th June to mark the 150th anniversary of the death of John Snow, a good son of York. At this meeting Dr David Zuck will deliver the third Blessed Chloroform Lecture.
While it does have a significant number of faithful members the Society is eager to attract younger members from among the trainees and, in particular, to attract papers from this group. Four presented papers at the 2006 Annual Summer Meeting in Malvern but, alas no one came forward this year. Council has agreed and the motion has been ratified by the Membership that the conference fee, annual dinner and one year's subscription to the Society would be covered for all trainees submitting papers.
Anne M Florence, Honorary Secretary
Secretary. Dr Margaret R Jones, FRCR, 7 Windsor Avenue, Radyr, Cardiff CF15 8BW.
Telephone (0)2920419121; e-mail: margaretjones80@ntlworld.com
Spring Meeting at The Chepstow Hotel Chepstow Monmouthshire on Saturday 24th March 2007
Celebrating the Life of Sir Isambard Owen
Professor Neil McIntyre: Childhood, University, St. George's and Newcastle
Professor Prys Morgan: Sir Isambard and the University of Wales
Dr. Alun Roberts: Isambard Owen and the School of Medicine in Cardiff
Professor H Gethin Morgan: Sir Isambard Owen, Vice Chancellor of Bristol University
Visit to 'HIGH TREES' - Sir Isambard Owen's birthplace (5 mins walk from the hotel)
Summer Meeting at The National Library of Wales Aberystwyth on Saturday 23rd June 2007
Celebrating the Centenary of the NLW
Dr Robert Brinley Jones CBE, The President of the NLW: "Sir John Williams"
Dr Andrew Green, The Librarian and Chief Executive of the NLW: "The Story of the National Library of Wales"
Mr Robin Odell, International Author and Lecturer: "Jack in the Box"
Autumn Meeting at The Plas Hyfryd Hotel Narbeth Dyfed SA67 7AB on Friday 21st September 2007
Celebrating the History of Pembrokeshire
Mr Wyn Calvin CBE: "Historical Aspects of Narbeth"
Dr Christopher Gardner-Thorpe: "Death in the Cathedral"
Dr Neville Evans: "Famous Welsh Scientists"
Dr Tom Davies: "Devils down in Dyfed - a family of 19th century witches"
Winter Meeting at DeCourceys Manor Pentyrch Cardiff on Saturday 20th October 2007
Celebrating the History of "The Society"
Dr John Cule: The History of Medicine Society of Wales"
Dr John Ward: "The Medical Links with the Royal Automobile Club"
Professor Gareth Jones: "Self Experimentation"
Annual General Meeting
Congratulations to Professor Neil McIntyre for a successful year as President . All meetings were well attended. We are pleased to note that from our society John Ward is the BSHM's recent president, and that John Cule was one of the founder members of both societies.
Saturday morning 12th April 2008 at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth
with Executive Committee meeting
All day Friday 6th June 2008 at the Liverpool Medical Institute
Joint meeting with Liverpool HOM - more details below
Saturday Morning 13th September 2008 at the Royal Welsh Showground, Builth Wells
Saturday morning 25th October 2008 at De Courceys Manor, Cardiff
with Annual General Meeting
There will be a Joint Meeting of HOMSW with The Liverpool History of Medicine Society in the magnificent and historical
Liverpool Medical Institute (see www.lmi.org.uk) on 6th of June 2008.
This will be an all day meeting to include morning coffee, lunch and tea at £30.00 per head.
There will be at least 3 speakers from HOMSW and 3 from Liverpool.
Accommodation is available on the 5th & 6th June 2008 @ £85 per room (Twin or Double) at The Holiday Inn Express,
Britannia Pavilion, Albert Dock, Liverpool L3 4AD. Tel: +44(0)151 709 1133 or 0800 43 40 40,
e-mail: reservations@exliverpool.com, see www.exliverpool.com for Map.
There are Bicentenary Celebrations in Liverpool next year, so if you decide to attend, please reserve rooms ASAP at the
hotel. A coach will be hired to take us from the hotel to the institute and some sightseeing will be arranged.
A dinner has been arranged for the evening at the LMI at £25.00 per head exclusive of wines.
Hoping you would like to share this opportunity to meet our colleagues in Liverpool.
It should be a good meeting - do come,
Dr Margaret R Jones, Hon. Secretary
(This is from the advance notice of 2007 meetings on the Lindsay Society website)
Lilian Lindsay Memorial Lecture
The Society is delighted to welcome Stephen Challacombe, Professor of Oral Medicine , Kings College Dental Institute,
London and the 181st President of the Hunterian Society to present the Lindsay Memorial Lecture. Delegates can look
forward to a fascinating talk by a excellent speaker on the topic of John Hunter - Father of Odontology.
The lecture is part of the BDA Conference 2007 and will be held on Saturday 26th May 2007.
Autumn Conference
The Society is delighted to announce the location for the next Annual Conference as Stratford upon Avon,
Warwickshire on Friday 5-7th October 2007. Speakers and topics to be announced. The conference will close with the
AGM of the Society.
2006-07 was successful for the Liverpool Medical History Society. In October 2006, generously supported by a substantial donation from the Friends of the University of Liverpool, the Society in collaboration with the University of Liverpool Department of Physics hosted a one day conference to celebrate the life and works of Sir Joseph Rodblat who had played a prominent role in Professor Chadwick's Department of Physics. Speakers were drawn from both aspects of his life and work. The hard-back conference manual "War and Peace: the life and work of Sir Joseph Rodblat" edited by Peter Rowlands and Vincent Attwood is available for purchase from Adrian Allan, Archivist, University of Liverpool who can be contacted at ara@liv.ac.uk.
The regular series of five meetings was equally successful providing a variety of subjects. These ranged from a History of the Liverpool Children's Hospital; the development of the anaesthetic agent Halothane in a Widnes laboratory; the role of statistics from Warrington in the development of Medicine as an Evidence Based Science; old Obstetric instruments and their uses and, finally, Chief Medical Officers of Health.
The first talk of the 2007-08 session, Moments of Madness by Dr Richard Barnes was a fascinating account of the history of the, now demolished, Rainhill Hospital, the Lancashire Asylum.
The programme for the remainder of the Session is as follows:
2007
All meetings are held in the Liverpool Medical Institution, Mount Pleasant, Liverpool at 5.30pm. Tea, coffee and biscuits are available from 5.00pm.
The Society continues to support the Annual Student Medical History Prize presentation of the Liverpool Medical Institution, a very successful venture now in its third year.
Addition Jan 2008 - officers
Chairman ; Dr Anne Florence gasflo@btinternet.com
Hon. Secretary: Dr Sally Sheard : s.b.sheard@liverpool.ac.uk
Hon. Editor: Dr Andrew Larner : a.larner@thewaltoncentre.nhs.uk
Hon. Treasurer: Dr Anne Florence
Programme Secretary: Dr Peter Drury: PMEDrury@hotmail.com
BSHM representative. Dr Anne Florence
Chairman: Dr. Derwent Swaine
Hon. Secretary: Miss Hilda Taylor, 117 Woodland Drive, Cassiobury, Watford, Herts. WD17 3DA. Tel: 01923 231704
The Society was established in 1981 as a forum for everyone with an interest in the history of the medical laboratory. Ten years later the interests of the MSHS widened to encompass the lives and times of medical pioneers involved in the diagnosis of disease, from Hippocrates onwards. The objective of the Society was then enlarged to further public education in the history of diagnostic medical sciences by meetings, publications and other appropriate means.
2007 Session Programme
17 March 2007 Annual General Meeting and Spring Meeting.
21 May 2007 Joint Meeting with The Society of Apothecaries of London, Faculty of the History and Philosophy of Medicine and Pharmacy.
8 and 15 Aug 2007 Guided visits to the exhibition 'The Heart' at the Wellcome Collection, London.
6 October 2007 Autumn Meeting
The Society publishes a journal 'Medical Sciences History' (Editor, Dr. David Petts) and two editions a year of a Newsletter to members (Editor, Mr. John Mercer).
Guests are most welcome to attend meetings and membership details may be obtained from the Hon. Secretary
The annual programme of the Osler Club of London continues to be full. The Osler Club of London was founded in 1928 (the year of Lady Osler's death) to encourage the study of the history of medicine, and to keep fresh the memory of Sir William Osler (born July 12th 1849 and died December 29th 1919).
The members of the Club, either medical or those engaged in some activity related to medicine, are devoted to the humanistic approach to medicine, as exemplified in the life and works of Sir William Osler. Membership of the Osler Club is open to medical men and women, medical students, and persons associated with the history of medicine and in allied sciences. The Club's Thomas Cotton room is now transferred to the main building of the Royal College of Physicians of London.
For our first meeting in the 2006/7 session in November 2006, Dr Marjorie Perlman Lorch spoke on Sir William Osler's contribution to the study of cerebral palsy. Of the approximately 1200 titles in the bibliography of Sir William Osler there are about 100 titles with a paediatric topic. Sir William Osler was the fourth President of the American Pediatric Association and his study 'The Cerebral Palsies of Children' was published in 1889. Marjorie Perlman Lorch is a Senior Lecturer at Birkbeck College and presented an interesting paper on Osler's contribution to the study of cerebral palsy at the International Society for the History of Neurosciences meeting in Scotland.
For the second meeting in December 2006, Professor John Wass spoke on Osler and Endocrinology. John Wass is Professor of Endocrinology at Oxford University and a Consultant in Endocrinology at the Churchill Hospital and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Oxford. He is editor of the Oxford Textbook of Endocrinology and of the Oxford Handbook of Endocrinology. John Wass lectured on 'Osler and Endocrinology' at the recent Oxford Osler centenary.
In January 2007, Dr. Andrew Williams spoke on Thomas Willis' Practice of Paediatric Neurology and Neurodisability. Andrew Williams is a Consultant Community Paediatrician in Northampton and has published in the history of paediatrics and paediatric neurodisability. He is currently working on the history of paediatric neurology since the seventeenth century.
In February 2007 Professor Michael A. E. Ramsay spoke on John Snow MD, Anaesthetist to a Queen, Epidemiologist to a Nation . Prof. Michael A. E. Ramsay, MD, FRCA is Chair, Department of Anesthesiology at President Baylor Research Institute and Baylor University Medical Center. In a March 2003 survey by Hospital Doctor magazine, John Snow was voted the "greatest doctor" of all time, with Hippocrates (460-370 BC) coming in second. While the poll was likely biased with over-representation of John Snow supporters, the findings do point to the increased prominence of Dr. Snow among contemporary physicians.
For our April meeting Professor Brian Harvey and Carol Fitzgerald spoke on Elgar: Music, Medicine and Magic. The year 2007 is designated 'The Year of Elgar' and is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sir Edward Elgar. Elgar was born on the 2nd June 1857 at Broadheath, a village close to Worcester in the West Midlands. This talk looked at the period between 1917 and 1921 when Elgar wrote his mature chamber works and the Cello Concerto.
For our members' papers evening in May 2007 we had three talks. These were Daniel Sokol on Ethics and Osler, Ted Howard on Florence Nightingale and George Lawson FRCS - an illness in common, and Terence Ryan on Sir William Osler in Oxford today!
Our last meeting for the session in July 2007 was brought to a fine conclusion when Dr John Blair OBE gave our Oslerian Oration on the subject of Osler's Unfilled Slot. This reviewed Sir Williams Osler's essay on military surgery.
Please visit our web site www.osler.org.uk for our current programme. The 2008 Oration will be given on the 17th July by Ian Gilmore PRCP with the title of The New Physician.
Adrian M K Thomas, Honorary Secretary and President-elect. adrian.thomas@btinternet.com
The Club's postal address is c/o The Library, Royal College of Physicians, 11 St Andrews Place, London NW1 4LE.
Wednesday 10th October 2007 at Frederick House, 19 Frederick Street, Dublin 2.
Dr. Edward Martin MD: Medical Travel Authors: an International Selection
Wednesday 14th November 2007 at Frederick House, 19 Frederick Street, Dublin 2.
Dr. Brendan Kelly: "Forensic psychiatry in nineteenth century Ireland."
For 2006-07, President: Dr John Harcup; Secretary: Dr Tina Matthews
The theme for this full and interesting year was the history of specialties.
History of medicine Australian style kicked off the year in October with a symposium and wine tasting, based on its medicinal properties.
In November we welcomed Professor Rosalie David with an update on ancient Egyptian mummies as a resource for studying past and present disease. Prof Ralph Marshall delivered a witty lecture on the history of medical photography in which he himself played no small role.
The Nora Schuster essay prize evening comprised oral presentations of essays selected from many high quality entrants. They covered topics such as general paralysis of the insane, maritime clinical trials and the events surrounding the discovery of DNA. February also saw a joint meeting with the Pharmaceutical Medicine and Research section; a thought provoking and lively discussion of the history and future of aspirin, insulin and streptomycin.
March brought some insight into the life and works of Jan van Rymsdyk, the 18th century artist well known for his work for the Hunter brothers, and images of his illustrations for several others, and his own book, delivered by Dr Tina Matthews. Robert Greenwood put on a display of RSM books with Rymsdyk illustrations to accompany the lecture and Mr Wayne Sime, Director of Library Services, presented the plans for the Heritage room.
Professor Peter Dunn shared his expertise on the history of perinatal medicine in the UK as our April offering and the presidential address focussed on Charles Hastings, the provincial physician who began what became the British Medical Association. Dr Harcup described him as Medical Man of the Moment.
A packed May continued with a joint meeting with the Obstetrics and Gynaecology section entitled 'Where have we come from and where are we going?' A joint meeting with the Dermatology section celebrated the centenary of their first meeting recreating the cases discussed.
Two medical walks along the South Bank and around Soho slipped into the year which was crowned in June by a two day outing to Malvern and Worcester, where the group attended the unveiling of a blue plaque to mark the final home and place of death of Charles Hastings. We toured the Malvern Hills discussing the waters and the water cure, passing various venues associated with our hero of the day, Edward Elgar, and then settling at his birthplace and family home. Here Dr Harcup presented a consideration of the many and varied illnesses that beset Elgar throughout his life until his eventual death with colonic cancer. Day two saw the party transfer to Worcester, and informative visits and talks at the Porcelain Museum, the remnant of the works set up by Dr John Wall. He founded a new hospital in Worcester, but not the first as we were also privileged to tour the recently opened Commandery, or medical establishment, the earliest record of which is 1203 at the canonisation of Bishop Walston.
This year we look forward to an equally ambitious programme arranged by Mr Adrian Marston which will culminate in a trip to Antwerp in Summer 2008.
A major event was the 22nd Congress of the British Society for the History of Medicine, organised by the Scottish Society and the BSHM in Dundee in September 2007. See the BSHM's full report with programme.
The Haldane Tait Lecture was held on Wednesday 2nd May 2007. Professor Martin Kemp of the University of Oxford lectured on 'Leonardo's Philosophical Anatomies' at St Leonards House, Pollock Halls, Edinburgh
Membership has fallen slightly in the past year but we still have 35 names on the books.
On 20 October 2006 Philip Evans gave a short talk entitled Classical Medicine, its Relevance Today. Despite the rather low attendance a lively debate ensued and this continued over our evening meal.
Then on 23 February 2007 we had another lecture-supper. Mitzi Tyler gave an illustrated lecture derived from her father's wartime journals. She called it Medical Services Under Fire: Malta 1940-42. The subject matter was very interesting indeed.
On Friday 8 June 2007, 9 members of the SMHS went on a summer outing to London. We had an excellent lunch at a Turkish Restaurant called Sarastro, followed by a very successful guided tour of the Museum of the Order of St John and Grand Priory Church.
The Society continues to support the Suffolk Medical Biographies website http://suffolkmedicalbiographies.co.uk, which contains biographical details of any medical man or woman who worked in Suffolk before 1900.
Ted Cockayne, Secretary, Suffolk Medical History Society
Office of Archives, King Edward Building, Royal Victoria Hospital, Grosvenor Road, Belfast BT12 6BL.
Tel: 028 9024 0503 Ext 3686
On 25th January 2007, our Society in association with the Ulster Medical Society, held its annual Professor Gary Love Lecture. Speaking to a large and appreciative audience on the topic 'Two Sons of the first Congregation', Mr Hume Logan FRCS, described the lives and work of Dr Alexander Henry Halliday (1728-1802) and Dr William Drennan (1754-1820). Dr Halliday started the Belfast Reading Society, later the Belfast Society for Promoting Knowledge and thereafter the Linenhall Library. He also founded the Belfast Academy now the Belfast Royal Academy and was active in the Charitable Society, now Clifton House. Dr Drennan was an early advocate of Smallpox Vaccination, was one of the founders of the Academical Institution, now the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, which, from 1835, accommodated the fledgling Belfast Medical School. So their legacy lives on in the 21st Century.
During the year our Society provided the Student Selection Component in the History of Medicine to third year Medical Students in the Autumn and Spring terms.
We are now setting up a prize to encourage writing in the History of Medicine in Ireland. This will be sponsored jointly by the Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland (CHOMI) and ourselves. Details will shortly be available on the CHOMI website, which can be accessed at the University of Ulster website via the Department of History and International Affairs in the faculty of Arts. www.ulster.co.uk
Saturday 29th September
Dr David Daniel Davis, Physician Acoucheur 1777-1841 Dr Barbara Ely MB BS DHMSA
The History of the Hospice Movement Reverend Christine Gardiner SRN SCM HVCert
Saturday 13th October
The Plague of Athens 430-427BC Professor Robert Arnott BA MA FRHistS ,
Military militants: suffragists and the Endell Street Hospital (1915-19) Jennian Geddes
Saturday 27th October
History of Joint Replacement Mr James Antrobus MB BS FRCS
Marcus Aurelius Dr Robert Richardson BM BCh LMSSA
Saturday 10th November
Mistaken Gallantry - The Medical Victoria Crosses Capt(Retd) Peter Starling DHMSA FRSH
The History of Military Dentistry Air Commodore Freddie Hulm BDS
Saturday 24th November
Professor Hans Krebs Pioneer of Modern Medicine Dr Winston Leigh BA MB ChB MRCGP
Surgical Firsts Professor Harold Ellis CBE MA DM MCh FRCS FACS FRCOG
All meeting will start at 1000hrs on Saturday mornings at the Chichester Medical Education Centre, of St Richards Hospital, Chichester. Further details from Prof John Richardson 01243-780786 via e-mail at RichardsonDrJ@aol.com
The programme of excellent eponymous lectures has continued throughout the academic year. We started with a fascinating guided visit to the Army Medical Service Museum, hosted by Capt Peter Starling, a Diplomate and member of the Executive Committee. Dr Arthur Hollman gave a masterly Geoffrey Flavell Lecture on the history of cardiac diagnosis. Professor Mark Jackson followed with a Sydenham Lecture on the impact of civilisation on allergy in modern times. The John Locke Lecture was given by Dr Christopher Hodges who addressed the issues around balancing risk and advancing therapies, especially in the context of the pharmaceutical and medical devices fields. The Osler Lecture was given by Dr Elizabeth Hardy, a new Diplomate in the history of medicine, with style and panache on a fascinating and new topic about the wartime efforts to support the Home Front entitled, 'Conkers to conquer Hitler'. Colonel Martin Bricknell counterbalanced this with some disturbing thoughts and images about the Red Sword and the Red Cross in Afghanistan, based very much on his personal experience. The Gideon de Laune Lecture was also on a military related topic, given by one of our Apothecaries' Lecturers, Professor Edgar Jones, on the psychological effects of war 1914-1945. The final eponymous lecture, the Sir Hans Sloane, was given by Professor Michael Heinrich at the Chelsea Physic Garden on the discovery of drugs in different cultures, climates and environments, the understanding of them, and much more besides. This was followed by a delicious English summer tea.
The biennial Keats' Lecture is hosted in rotation by the Society and the Faculty, by the Royal College of Surgeons and by Guy's Hospital Medical School. This year it was held at the RCS on 22nd February 2007 as close as possible to the anniversary of Keats' death on 23rd February in 1821. Dr Tim Carter gave the lecture on 'Diseases of the Arts - Charles Turner Thackrah and the Condition of England', which was an intriguing and fascinating lecture on this exact contemporary of Keats at Guy's. The lecturer for 2009 has been nominated and will give the lecture at Guy's Hospital Medical School on 23rd February 2009.
This year was the year for the award of the biennial Rose Prize, awarded jointly with the Royal College of General Practitioners, for a contribution in any appropriate medium on the history of general practice in the British Isles. There was appreciable interest in the competition and again a variety of submissions. The winner was Professor John Macfarlane for his essay on 'The use and overuse of antibiotics: the impact of the changing management of acute bronchitis by General Practitioners, 1940s-1960s'. The prize was presented by the Master of the Society of Apothecaries and the President of the Royal College of General Practitioners at the Royal Geographical Society on 18th May 2007.
Our courses in the history and the philosophy of medicine go from strength to strength, under the directorship of John Walker-Smith and Don Hill respectively. The two directors have also acted as Convenors of Examiners. There are new topics and new teachers adding to the varied content. The numbers of students are well maintained and attendance figures are good. The Easter mini-course in the history of medicine was once again highly popular and a resounding success, thanks to the hard work of Sue Weir and John Walker- Smith.
The numbers taking the Society's examinations for the two diplomas have been well maintained. The calibre of candidates is very good and the success rate is high. Currently there are 77 members of the Faculty who hold the DHMSA, 13 who hold the DPMSA, and 11 who hold both!
The Faculty held a symposium on 'Does the History of Medicine Matter?' in November 2006 in which the Apothecaries' Lecturers in the History of Medicine and all those who lecture on the History Diploma course came together to discuss this important topic. This was the first time that those who lecture on the Diploma course had all met together, which was a wonderful first, and it also replaced the annual meeting of Apothecaries' Lecturers.
The Apothecaries' Lecturers in the History of Medicine continue to teach within their universities and medical schools. The Faculty is keen to recruit more from amongst those who are involved in the teaching of the history of medicine. The Executive also considered whether we might also appoint Apothecaries' Lecturers in the Philosophy of Medicine, especially as bioethical issues are increasingly a part of the medical curriculum.
The programme for the coming year is to be found on the website at www.apothecaries.org under the Faculty heading, along with details of the courses and other activities. New members with an interest in the history and philosophy of medicine and pharmacy are always welcome, so please do join and encourage others to do so. The annual subscription is extremely modest at £20 (£10 for students in full time education). Application forms can be obtained from the Faculty Office at the Hall. Please write or e-mail: facultyHP@apothecaries.org
Rodney Taylor, President of the Faculty 2006-07
(Information from YMDHS website)
The website gives details of events in 2008, with nine meetings from February to November.
The website says that enquiries about the Society should be addressed to Dr John Turney, 35 The Avenue, Leeds LS8 1JG. (Tel: 0113 2665882 Email: john.turney35@googlemail.com).
[BSHM Home Page]. Web newsletter 2007
Copyright 2007 British Society for the History of Medicine,
prepared by David Hawgood,
29 Nov 2007, amended 30 Jan 2008.