Edgar Ashworth Underwood (1899-1980) was a medical man specialising in public health before making a second career in medical history. Born, 1899; Schooling in Glasgow/Dumfries Academy; Served with Cameron Highlanders in France, 1917-1919; University of Glasgow MA, MB,Ch B,BSc, 1924; Physician at Western Infirmary, Glasgow, 1924; Diploma in Public Health (DPH), 1926; Assistant M O H in Glasgow and County of Lanark, 1926; Deputy M O H County of Rotherham, 1929; Medical Superintendant of Oakwood Sanitarium, Rotherham, 1929-1931; Deputy M O H, City of Leeds, 1932-1934; Lecturer in Public Health, University of Leeds; M O H, Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch, 1934-1937; M O H, Chief School Medical Officer, County Borough of West Ham, 1937-1945; MD, 1936; Fellow of Royal Society of Medicine, 1933; Honorary Secretary of Royal Society of Medicine, 1942-1948; President of Royal Society of Medicine, 1948-1950; Director, Wellcome Historical Medical Museum and Library, 1946-1964; President of the History Section, RSM, 1948-1950; retired, 1964; died, 1980.
Chain was born in 1906 in Berlin where his Russian-born father, an industrial chemist, had settled. Both his parents were Jewish. He graduated in chemistry and physiology from the Friedrich-Wilhelm University, Berlin, Germany in 1930 and undertook research in the chemical department of the Institute of Pathology at the Charité Hospital, Berlin, 1930-1933. He was a talented pianist and music competed with chemistry in his thoughts about a career. In 1933 Chain became one of the many refugees from Nazi Germany, finding refuge in Britain. From 1933 to 1935 he worked in Cambridge at the School of Biochemistry under Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, moving in 1935 to the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, Oxford. Here he took part in the research and development of penicillin for which he shared with A. Fleming and H.W. Florey the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945. In 1948 he moved to the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy as Scientific Director of the International Research Centre for Chemical Microbiology, remaining there until 1964 when, after protracted negotiations, he took up the Chair of Biochemistry at Imperial College, London. He retired in 1973 but retained Research Fellowships until his death in 1979. He was elected FRS in 1949 and knighted in 1969.
Sir Ernest Laurence Kennaway (1881-1958) M.A., M.D., D.S.C., F.R.C.P., F.R.S, was Professor of Experimental Pathology at the Royal Cancer Hospital (Royal Marsden Hospital) and Director of the Chester Beatty Institute from 1928 to 1946.
Career summary: Born 6 June 1850, at Hornsey, son of J W Schäfer of Highgate and Hamburg; educated University College London (medal for Physiology). 1871 first Sharpey Scholar, University College London. 1874 Assistant Professor of Physiology, University College London. 1877 published A course of practical Histology. 1878 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society; married Maud Dixey. 1878-1881 Fullerian Professor, Royal Institution. 1883 Jodrell Professor, University College London; published his first researches in cerebral localisation. 1885 published Essentials of Histology. 1894 discovery with George Oliver of the effect of extract of the suprarenal gland. 1895-1900 General Secretary, British Association for the Advancement of Science. 1896 death of Maud Schafer, his first wife. 1897 awarded the Baly Medal by the Royal College of Physicians. 1898-1902 edited Advanced textbook of Physiology, to which he also contributed. 1899 elected to the Edinburgh Chair of Physiology. 1900 married Ethel Maude Roberts. 1902 awarded the Royal Medal by the Royal Society. 1903 gave papers on artificial respiration to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 1908 founded the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology and edited it until 1933. 1909 awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by the Royal Life-Saving Society (for the Schafer method' of artificial respiration). 1911 awarded the De Cyon Prize by the Accademia della Scienza, Bologna. 1912 President, British Association for the Advancement of Science: gave a controversial address onLife, its nature, origin and maintenance'; published Quain's Elements of Anatomy Vol II Pt I and Experimental Physiology. 1913 knighted; Lane Medical Lecturer, Stanford. 1915 death in action of his younger son Tom. 1916 published The endocrine organs; death of his elder son Jack at Jutland. c. 1916 death of elder daughter Marjory. 1918 added Sharpey to his name in memory of Professor William Sharpey. 1922 awarded the Neill Medal by the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 1923 President, International Congress of Physiology. 1924 awarded the Copley Medal by the Royal Society. 1927 published History of the Physiological Society; resigned his Chair at Edinburgh: became Emeritus Professor; Volume 23 of Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology produced in his honour with papers by his former pupils worldwide. Died 29 March 1935, aged 85.
Dr Henry Foy was born in July 1900, and went to Oxford in 1918 to study physiology under Julian Huxley. After graduation he taught biology at Gresham's School, Holt and Malvern College. In 1925 he took up a teaching post at Imperial College, Trinidad, where he became involved in a leper colony in Manaus on the Upper Amazon and developed a keen interest in tropical diseases. In 1932 he was appointed to run the League of Nations Malaria Research Laboratory in Salonika, where Dr Athena Kondi was his laboratory assistant. She had gained her MB from Athens University in 1930, and her MD in 1933.
The League of Nations Research Laboratory was funded initially by the Rockefeller Foundation, and when funding ended in 1937, Foy gained Wellcome Trust funds via Sir Henry Dale. The laboratory was extended, with beds provided for clinical research on patients, under the care of Kondi. Foy and Kondi were to work together for the rest of their lives, so closely that they were known as 'Foyandkondi' by the local people in Nairobi. When Greece was invaded in 1941, they left to work first at the South Africa Institute for Medical Research in Johannesburg and then, after a brief return to Greece, their laboratory was established in Nairobi in 1948. Foy believed Nairobi provided excellent opportunities for the study of malaria and sickle cell anaemia - a condition they had begun to study in Greece at the end of the war. Despite being based in Nairobi, Foy and Kondi made lengthy visits to Assam, the Seychelles and Mauritius to carry out survey projects, and it was after observing the connection between hookworm infection and anaemia in the Seychelles that Foy decided to establish a colony of baboons at Nairobi to undertake more sytematic study of the phenomenon. In 1961 accomodation was built for 150 baboons and a breeding nucleus. The colony was subsequently employed in several research projects, chiefly into the various effects of B vitamin deficiencies, and research continued after the official retirement of Foy in 1970.
In addition to laboratory-based research with the baboons, Foy and Kondi also took part in large scale projects, including investigations of anaemias in children with kwashiorkor and marasmus, survey of the incidence of tropical sprue in East Africa and surveys of anaemias in India, Mauritius and the Seychelles. The achievements of Foy's laboratories in Salonika and Nairobi were praised by Sir Henry Dale, and the idea of a small expert team working on well defined projects using locally gathered data and with secure financial support was used as a model for planning research facilities in other tropical countries.
Frederick Parkes Weber (1863-1962): born in London, son of Sir Hermann Weber MD FRCP and his wife Matilda, May 8 1863; attends Temple Grove School, East Sheen, 1874-1877; educated at Charterhouse School, 1877-1881; enters Trinity College Cambridge, 1882; BA (Cantab) Medical education at St Bartholomew's, 1886; MB BCh (Cantab), 1889; MRCP, 1890; MD (Cantab), 1892; Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, 1891; Appointed Physician at the German Hospital, Dalston Becomes member of Pathological Society of London, 1894; FRCP, 1898; Physician to Mount Vernon Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, 1899-1911; First edition of Aspects of Death and correlated aspects of life in art, epigram and poetry, 1910; First Mitchell Lecturer, RCP, 1921; Marries Dr Hedwig Unger-Laissle; Fourth edition of Aspects of Death, 1933; Awarded the Moxon Gold Medal of the RCP for 'distinguished observation and research in clinical medicine', 1930; Some thoughts of a doctor, 1935; More thoughts of a doctor, 1938-1947; Gives his papers to the Wellcome Historical Medical Library, 1958; Elected to the Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Society of Medicine; Gives £5000 to the Royal College of Physicians to promote advance in dermatology, 1959; dies aged 99 on 2 June 1962.
There are obituaries in the British Medical Journal, 1962, i, 1630-1, and The Lancet, 1962, i, 1308-9, and an entry in Munk's Roll of Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians. Frederick Parkes Weber's collected writings in celebration of his 80th birthday and 50th anniversary as physician to the German Hospital London, edited by the Medical Staff, 1943, is held in the Wellcome Library and includes a complete bibliography of his publications to that date (update to 1958 in PP/FPW/D.10), a list of the societies and organisations of which he was a member, and tributes from colleagues.
Grantly Dick Read is primarily famous for his work as a propagandist for 'natural childbirth'. This is the belief that in all but a small minority of cases labour is a normal physiological event, which in the case of properly instructed women can be carried out with a minimum of obstetric intervention. It includes the methods by which women can be trained to conduct labour as a conscious participant rather than a drugged patient. Dick Read's teachings were a matter of some controversy among the medical profession, as he was not a qualified obstetrician and even after his teachings had become widespread and his methods employed, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists refused to admit him to membership. However he gained considerable support from among women themselves.
Born 7 February 1858 in New South Wales, brought to the United Kingdom in 1860; educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College under Dorothea Beale; studied painting and music in Germany; trained as nurse in Liverpool Infirmary; studied medicine in London, Glasgow and Brussels; LRCP and LRCS(Edinburgh); MD (Brux) 1890; practiced in Calcutta for some years; went to Afghanistan to recoup her health and became personal physician to the Amir; visited England 1895 in the retinue of his son the Shahzada Nasrullah; returned to England 1896 and did settlement work in Liverpool; practiced medicine in England until her health broke down; went to South Africa (where her brother Dundas became a farmer); became Warden of Studley College, Warwickshire (established to train women for careers in horticulture and agriculture and allied professions); was a member of the Women's Freedom League; c 1915 went to Montenegro under the auspices of the Wounded Allies Relief Committee and ran a hospital there: returned to Studley where her health became progressively poorer and died at Nice in January 1925.
Helena Wright was born in 1887. She trained at the London School of Medicine for Women, qualifying as MRCS (Eng.) and LRCP (Lond.) in 1914, and MB, BS in 1915. She subsequently worked at the Bethnal Green Hospital, where she met her husband Peter Wright, a Royal Army Medical Corps surgeon. After the First World War she and her husband decided to become medical missionaries in China, working at the Shantung Christian University in Tsinan until 1927. Following her return to England, Wright became an influential figure in the National Birth Control Association, later the Family Planning Association. She wrote several much reprinted works of popular sex instruction, including The Sex Factor in Marriage (1930). During her later years she became interested in alternative medicine and the paranormal, and there is a small amount of material in this collection which reflects this interest. She died in 1982.
James Randal Hutchinson (c.1880-1955) was a Medical Officer at the Ministry of Health, 1919-1947.
William Henry Bradley (1898-1975) was a Senior and Principal Medical Officer at the Ministry of Health, 1939-1963.
Marthe Louise Vogt was born on 8th September 1903. Her parents, Oskar (German-Danish) and Cécile (French) Vogt (née Mugnier) were distinguished neuro-anatomists, living in turn of the century Berlin. Marthe was educated in a liberal and intellectual environment. She received her schooling at Auguste Viktoria-Schule, Berlin. She then studied medicine and chemistry at Berlin University 1922-1927 and obtained her Doctor of Medicine degree on account of some research on the microscopical anatomy of the human brain, carried out in Berlin at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut für Hirnforschung (Kaiser William Institute for Brain Research - aka "Brain Science" although Marthe herself translates it as 'Brain Research'). Shortly afterwards she became involved in research in biochemistry under Professor Neuberg at the Kaiser William Institute (1927-1929) and then took the degree of Dr. phil. in chemistry.
For a short time Vogt worked in histological research on the normal and pathological brain. In October 1929 she started work under Professor Paul Trendelenburg at the Pharmacological Institute of Berlin University on pharmacology and endocrinology. She left the Pharmacological Institute in December 1930 for a post as research assistant at the Kaiser William Institute for Brain Research. In 1931, at age 28, she became head of its Chemical Department. Her main work there was on the pharmacology of the central nervous system, i.e. on the distribution, within the brain, of various drugs with specific central effects. Her work was made possible by the Rockefeller Foundation which equipped the new Chemical Department of the Institute where she worked until March 1935. By the early 1930s Marthe Vogt was a well established pharmacologist. However, like many other scientists of her generation she left Germany at that time and came to Britain. Departing in April 1935 on a one-year Rockefeller Travelling Fellowship, Vogt had no intention of returning to a Germany ruled by the Nazis whom she detested. She joined the British Pharmacological Society (established in 1931), along with several other German pharmacologist 'refugee scientists' such as Otto Krayer, William Feldberg, Edith Bülbring and Phillip Ellinger. Once in England Vogt worked for 6 months under leading pharmacologist Sir Henry Dale, at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, on humoral transmission of nerve impulses. This led to her co-authoring a paper with Dale and Feldberg, 'Release of Acetylcholine at Voluntary Motor Nerve Endings' published 1936 in the Journal of Physiology (Vol.86, pp.353-379). This classic paper contains the first description of release of acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction following stimulation of motor nerve fibres (i.e. proving that acetylcholine from nerves originating in the spinal cord triggers movement in muscles - the chemical basis of movement) The effects of denervation, transmitter depletion and the post-synaptic actions of curarine are all described. The work described in this paper contributed to Sir Henry Dale winning the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1936.
In Oct 1935 Marthe Vogt went to Cambridge and, as a Fellow of Girton, began working with Professor E B Verney, mainly on the rise in general blood pressure caused by substances liberated from the ischaemic kidney. She continued this research until 1940 with the aid of grants to Verney from the Royal Society and the Rockefeller Foundation and then the award of the Alfred Yarrow Research Fellowship of Girton College. Some experimental work during that time was concerned with the problem of the innervation of the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland. In 1938 she was awarded the degree of PhD (Cambridge). While at Cambridge Vogt acted as a demonstrator in the Pharmacology classes, the Physiology classes and in the Pharmacology lecture demonstrations. From 1939-1943 she was examining in the Cambridge Pharmacology examinations of medical students. From June 1941 to the end of 1946 (most of the Second World War) she was a member of staff of the College of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. In the Pharmacological Research Laboratories of the Society in London she did routine work concerned with the biological standardisation of drugs and hormones, plus research on the physiology of the suprarenal gland. Teaching activities were concerned with the supervision of post-graduate students. During this time she was also working with J H Gaddum who was also on the staff of the College. There she produced the seminal paper with William Feldberg on 'Acetylcholine Synthesis in Different Regions of the Central Nervous System' which was eventually published in 1948 in the Journal of Physiology (Vol.107, pp.372-381). The paper demonstrated the regional distribution of cholinergic systems in the brain. It provided strong evidence that acetylcholine was a transmitter in the brain and presented a chemical basis upon which drugs to combat disorders of the brain could be designed.
In January 1947 Marthe Vogt was appointed lecturer, later reader, in Pharmacology, Edinburgh University. There she also carried on with research on the suprarenal cortex as well as taking part in the teaching and research activities of the Pharmacology Laboratory. She worked there for the next 13 years. During 1949 she spent time at Columbia University, New York, as a Visiting Associate Professor (see file PP/MLV/C/21/4). In 1952, only 5 years after her appointment she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, a distinction awarded previously to only eight other women. In 1954 Vogt published what is viewed as her most important paper, 'The concentration of sympathin in different parts of the nervous system under normal conditions and after the administration of drugs' Journal of Physiology 1954 (Vol.123, pp.451-481). This was a milestone on the mechanism of neural transmission. She observed that adrenaline and noradrenaline are heterogeneously distributed in the brain and concluded that cerebral sympathin (adrenaline and noradrenaline) was yet another chemical in the brain involved as a transmitter in the communication between brain cells. She went on to show that levels of noradrenaline in the brain could be manipulated pharmacologically, i.e. influenced by drugs that are used to treat mental illness. This fundamental discovery was the beginning of studies in the field of catecholamines (including sympathin) as transmitters in the brain. Marthe Vogt continued to make a substantial contribution to this area for many years, for example, in 1956 she published another important paper on neural transmission by demonstrating the effects of reserpine on catecholamine storage (see Journal of Neurochemistry 1956, Vol.1, pp.8-11).
Much of Vogt's work helped pave the way to transforming the lives of Parkinson's Disease sufferers and the mentally ill. Modern drug therapy for Parkinson's Disease, depression and schizophrenia has developed from the basic premise that the chemical systems at which the drugs are targeted - catecholamines - are present and active in the CNS in the first place. This is something which Vogt did much to establish. In 1960 Marthe Vogt moved back to Cambridge, appointed Head of the Pharmacology Unit of the Agricultural Research Council Institute of Animal Physiology at Babraham - a post she held until 1968. During this period she was also visiting Professor at Sydney, 1965, and Montreal, 1968. Despite heavy administrative duties, Vogt continued experimenting and was the first to demonstrate the actual release of diverse transmitters from the brain in vivo (in living animals), and their sensitivity to acute events such as electrical stimulation and changes in anaesthesia. Although she retired from administrative work in 1968 her experimental scientific work at Babraham diversified and she gained expertise with central serotonergic (5-HT) systems, constantly keeping up to date with new techniques and concepts. Marthe Vogt received many honours during her career; she was made an Honorary Member of the British Pharmacological Society (1971); Physiological Society (1974); German Physiological Society (1976); American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1977); Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1981); British Association of Psychopharmacology (1983). She was made a Life Fellow of Girton College Cambridge in 1970, elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1980, won the Royal Medal of the Royal Society in 1981 and the Wellcome Gold Medal in 1983 which was awarded for outstanding contributions to pharmacology. The Universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge bestowed the Honorary DSc in 1974 and 1983 respectively. Vogt published around 200 scientific papers in physiological, pharmacological and neurological journals during her long career, c.1927-1984, as author or co-author. In the late 1980s [c.1988] Marthe Vogt went to live with her sister Marguerite in La Jolla, California, USA. She died on 9th September 2003, the day after her 100th birthday.
Noel Gordon Harris, MD (1897-1963) was a psychiatrist: he was a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and biographical information is therefore available in Munk's Roll.
Philip Rainsford Evans was born, 1910; Educated Sidcup School, Somerset and Leighton Park School; graduated BSc, Manchester University, 1930; MB, ChB, 1933; married Barbara Hay-Cooper, 1935; children's registrar, King's College Hospital, 1935-1937, Rockefeller Travelling Research Fellow, 1937-1938; Asst Paediatrician, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, 1938-1939; Asst Physician to Children's Dept., King's College Hospital, 1939; Served with RAMC in North Africa and Italy, mentioned in despatches, Advisor in Medicine, Central Mediterranean Forces received rank of honorary Lt-Col, 1942-1946; MSc MD, 1941; FRCP, 1945; Physician, The Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, 1946-1975; Director, Dept. of Paediatrics, Guy's Hospital, 1946-1971; Editor, Archives of Disease in Childhood,1947-1954; Honorary Secretary, British Paediatric Association, 1954-1959; Honorary consultant on paediatrics to the Army, 1962-1966; Leader of the medical team sent out to the Children's Hospital, Saigon, 1966-1969; President of the section of paediatrics, Royal Society of Medicine, 1968-1969, CBE, 1968; Director, Tay-Sachs Foundation, 1971-1974; Physician-Paediatrician to the Queen, 1972-1976 , died, 1990.
Barbara Evans was born, 1909; Qualified in medicine at the Royal Free Hospital, 1934; married Philip Rainsford Evans, 1935; did important pathological research in connection with Sir Archibald McIndoe's plastic surgery team at Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, 1939-1945; Became a freelance journalist on medical matters, including being Medical Correspondent of the Sunday Times , 1950s; Went to Saigon with Philip Rainsford Evans, 1966; Published Caduceus in Saigon on the work of the paediatric team in Vietnam, 1968; Became Associate Editor of World Medicine, 1973; Consultant Editor of World Medicine, 1978-1980; Published Life Change, a popular manual on the menopause, 1979; Published Freedom to Choose: the Life and Work of Dr Helena Wright, Pioneer of Contraception, 1984; died, 1995.
Originally set up to consider the duties, responsibilities and interests of Masters and Matrons of Poor Law Institutions (at the time a joint post held by a married couple resident on the premises), the Association underwent various alterations in structure, organisation and title as a result of changing attitudes and legislation. The names held by the organisation were as follows: National Association of Workhouse Masters and Matrons (to c 1915) National Association of Masters and Matrons of Poor Law Institutions (c 1915-1932) National Association of Administrators of Local Government Institutions/Establishments (1932-1948) Association of Health and Welfare Administrators (1948-1970) Association of Hospital and Residential Care Officers (1970-1982) Association of Health and Residential Care Officers (1982-1984). Its members were involved in residential care (mostly of children and the aged), and in hospital administration, throughout its existence. In 1944 the Association established a closer relationship with National Association of Local Government Officers (NALGO), the trade union representing local government officers, in order to have the resources of this larger body at their disposal. The differences in approach, and the fact that AHRCO was a small interest group within this much larger organisation, led to inevitable tensions, in particular over the question of industrial action. Membership, once over 2000, declined to 400 by 1979, as a result of structural changes within the health and caring professions and changes in attitudes generally. It was thus decided to dissolve the Association as a formally constituted body in 1984. Further details of the history of this Association can be found in Lionel Lewis, Association of Health and Residential Care Officers: A Short History (1898-1984) (L. Lewis, Faversham, [n.d.]), a copy of which may be found at SA/AHR/C.55.
The Abortion Law Reform Association (ALRA) was founded in 1935 for the legalisation of abortion in certain circumstances. This was achieved by the 1967 Abortion Act: the Association continues to combat attempts to restrict the availability of legal abortions and to ensure that the intentions of the Act are being carried out.
The Association of Area Medical Officers of Health was set up as a result of local government reorganisation, as a successor to the Association of County Medical Officers of Health, when Medical Officers employed by local government for each county were replaced by Medical Officers based on the new Area Health Authorities within the National Health Service. Many former County Medical Officers of Health were re-employed by Area Health Authorities. The Association came into being early in 1974, and was dissolved in 1981 in anticipation of the abolition of Area Health Authorities in April 1982.
ASH serves to educate the public about the dangers of smoking, to support cessation campaigns - including an annual No Smoking Day - and to campaign for legislation limiting the marketing of tobacco products. Since its foundation in 1971, it has been active in publicising the dangers of passive smoking, worked to discourage smoking by children and campaigned against tobacco marketing in the developing countries.
The Birth Control Campaign was the pressure group of the Birth Control Trust (a registered charity), although it was set up before the Trust in 1971. It took political action in the form of lobbying for National Health Services in this field, and defended and promoted existing legislation, such as the 1967 Abortion Act. The Trust, however, published pamphlets on aspects of birth control, abortion and population and acted as an information resource centre: being a charity it could defend existing law but not campaign for changes.
From 1971 to 1974 the Birth Control Campaign campaigned for the wider provision of male sterilisation (vasectomy) and for completely free provision of contraception under the NHS. After 1974, when legislation was passed on these matters, the BCC turned its attention to campaigning for improved NHS facilities for contraception, abortion and sterilisation and for these services to be advertised and promoted. The Campaign was also been actively involved in opposing attempts to restrict the terms of the 1967 Abortion Act.
The MRC Blood Group Unit succeeded the Galton Laboratory Serum Unit set up in 1935 under the direction of Professor (later Sir) Ronald Fisher and financed through the Medical Research Council by the Rockefeller Foundation. The Serum Unit was based at University College, London, and re-located to Cambridge during the Second World War. In 1946, the Unit was reconstituted at the Lister Institute for Preventive Medicine as the Blood Group Research Unit, under the directorship of Dr Robert Race.
The need for safe transfusion therapy intensified blood group research in the run-up to the Second World War, and in 1940 Landsteiner and Wiener discovered the Rh factor, building on foundations laid by Levine and Stetson in 1939. From 1946 the MRC Blood Group Unit acquired an international reputation in the highly specialised field of haematology, extending its work in 1965 into the genetics of blood groups. Upon the retirement of Dr Race in 1973, Dr Ruth Sanger became director of the Unit. Under Dr Sanger's direction, the Unit continued to make a unique contribution to the identification of blood groups, and to the applications of the blood group systems to the problems of human genetics. In 1983, upon the retirement of Dr Sanger, Dr Patricia Tippett became director. The MRC Blood Group Unit moved from the Lister Institute to premises at University College, London in 1975. It was disbanded in September 1995, although its work continues in other research centres.
Following the launch of the British Holistic Medical Association in September 1983, which restricted membership to doctors, a number of health care practitioners from other disciplines, including nursing, social work and physiotherapy as well as other forms of alternative practice such as osteopathy, acupuncture and homeopathy, interested in and seeking to work with a more holistic approach, proposed to set up an association representing these groups, to work in partnership with the BHMA. A working party of health care practitioners organised a founding conference in November 1984, at which the British Holistic Health Association was established.
In 1931 the British Pharmacological Society was founded in Oxford by group of c 20 pharmacologists, and brought together by J.A. Gunn, H.H. Dale and W.E. Dixon. It aimed to meet once a year for the reading of papers on pharmacological subjects and the discussion of questions of teaching and publication to promote friendly relations between workers in pharmacology.
The Brain Research Association (BRA) was set up in 1968 on the initiative of Derek Richter and Donald MacKay, UK representatives on the Central Council of the International Brain Research Organization. It was renamed the British Neuroscience Association in 1997. The Association acts as an informal discussion forum for all those interested in brain research, and aims in particular to foster the exchange of ideas between young and established scientists. Its objects as stated in the BRA rules c.1977 include:
*Promoting multi-disciplinary study of the structure and functions of the nervous system
*Correlating such studies as far as possible
*Making available information to all research workers in the brain and related sciences and to members and student members of the medical and related professions by means of lectures, discussion, meetings and reports
*Advising on problems concerning the structure and functions of the nervous system
In due course several local groups were established throughout the UK, which in conjunction with the BRA committee organise an active programme of local and national events. The BRA has also contributed to discussions on issues of relevance to neuroscientists such as legislation on the use of animals in research, and the proposed registration of psychologists.
The British Society of Gastroenterology was founded in 1937.
The National Council for Combatting Venereal Diseases was established as a result of the appointment of a Royal Commission on Venereal Diseases in 1913. A number of members of the commission and others concerned about the problem of sexually transmitted diseases came together to set up this Council, which was concerned with propaganda and education as well as the investigation of the problem. A leading motivating figure who continued to be a major figure in the Council's activities was Mrs Sybil Neville Rolfe (formerly Gotto). In 1917 as a result of the recommendations of the Royal Commission the NCCVD was given the task of conducting the educational and propaganda work deemed desirable by the Commission, with funding from central government. In 1929 this funding was devolved to local authorities by the Local Government Act of that year, but although local authorities were supposed to undertake educational work as well as the treatment of venereal diseases not all of them contributed to the work of the British Social Hygiene Council as it had become known. The resulting financial stringency had a serious effect on the Council and its work and it does not seem to have managed to find sources of funding equivalent to the amounts it received from the Ministry during the 1920s.
The archive is very far from being complete. It is predominantly the minutes which survive, with a little correspondence and other papers which had been inserted into the volumes, a few financial records from the later period of the Council's activities, and an incomplete set of the new series of the journal Health and Empire, 1926-1940. There are some noticeable gaps even among the surviving minutes: no minutes of the Financial Comittee survive, there are no records of the early Civilian Committee which was the counterpart of the Military Committee, and there were over one hundred branches of which only the records of the London and Home Counties Branch are represented here, probably because it was reconstituted as a Committee of the Council in 1922.
In spite of its lacunae this is an important collection of a body which played a significant public role in the determination of policy on venereal disease control, the provision of facilities for its treatment, and in particular for the dissemination of propaganda and public health education in this field. As a concomitant of the latter task it became a leading provider of sex education and the teaching of biology, and training for teachers and others for this purpose. The change of name in 1925 reflected the Council's perception of its wider remit in the promotion of 'social hygiene' in the broader sense. There was a strong overseas and imperial dimension to its work, and port welfare and the Mercantile Marine were particular objects of concern. A glance at the various committees, subcommittees, advisory boards, joint standing committees, etc, indicates the range of interests of the Council.
The initial meeting of County Medical Officers of Health took place in Birmingham on 31st October 1902 at the instigation of Dr. Robert Kaye. Periodic meetings were held for several years after this until 1911, when the Conference of County Medical Officers of Health was placed on a more formal basis with the drawing up of a constitution. By then 40 English and 8 Welsh counties were represented, officers and an executive committee were appointed, an annual subscription introduced and three meetings held per year. Dr Kaye was secretary until 1925 when he became the Association's first President. Subsequent Secretaries were: Dr. Holden, 1925-1934, Dr. Ruddock West, 1934-1954, Dr. G. Ramage, 1954-1972, and Dr. P C Moore, 1972-1974.
In 1945 it was agreed that the Association should also be constituted as the County Medical Officers' Group of the Society of Medical Officers of Health, which it did while retaining its existing identity as an Association, in 1946. Joint General meetings were held until 1956 when separate Group and Association meetings were held and in 1962 separate constitutions for Group and Association were drawn up and approved. There was always a joint Executive Committee.
The Association had representatives and advisors on many other bodies medical and non-medical, including the Society of Medical Officers of Health, the British Medical Association, and the County Councils Association.
The Association was wound up in 1974 as a result of local government reorganisation.
At an informal dinner held in January 1942 a group of eminent professors decided to form a small club composed of those holding university chairs in medicine, surgery or obstetrics and who were interested in the future of clinical teaching and academic medicine, particularly in light of the inception of the NHS. The limited membership club thus founded began as a small group of 14, but membership steadily increased, reaching 184 in 1992. Originally membership was limited to heads of strictly clinical departments but has since been extended to professors of paraclinical disciplines. Each meeting of the Club is devoted, after general business has been dealt with, to the discussion of a particular topic of current medico-political or medico-academic importance, ranging from the foundation and operation of the National Health Service and the Royal Commission on Medical Education to issues in the funding of research, the undergraduate curriculum, examination procedures, postgraduate training, medicine and the media, etc. The Club has periodically made reports and recommendations, eg. to Royal Commissions, but has consistently avoided becoming involved in salary negotiations. Further details of the history of the Club can be found in Section A. of the collection.
The Graves Medical Audiovisual Library (formerly the Medical Recording Service Foundation) was a non-profit educational charity whose aims were to make available all kinds of audiovisual materials by hire and sale and also to encourage new developments in medical and paramedical education. The Library was started by husband and wife team Drs John and Valerie Graves in 1957 as an educational activity of the College of General Practitioners (from 1972 the Royal College of General Practitioners). It soon became the premier organisation supplying audiovisual materials for all the medical and paramedical professions in the U.K. Users became world wide and the range of topics covered all areas of healthcare education. Initially it was mainly associated with tape-slide programmes, but by the mid-1980s video programmes became a major medium and they included videotapes on a wide range of subjects in their lists.
The Graves' original aim was to promote a new method of medical teaching, using the tape recorder to communicate with the general practitioner, and ultimately to build up a medical recordings library. The service began in Winter 1957 with tapes sent to 27 listeners. It came under the remit of the Post-Graduate Education Committee of the College of General Practitioners and was supported by a grant from Smith, Kline and French Laboratories Ltd.
At first it was a very personal service to keep GPs who could not easily attend courses and lectures in touch with new developments and did most of the recording. In 1961 it became known as the Medical Recording Service and Sound Library (MRS). It grew rapidly and by the late-1960s the MRS made tapes for the College and other organisations; it also had reciprocal arrangements with other organisations making their own recordings and tapes. The MRS continued its own recordings but primarily functioned to administer the loan service, offering a wide range of teaching aids: cassette tapes, tape-slide packages, programmed slide sets, question-and-answer tapes and LP discs, covering many aspects of medicine. The service paid especial reference to self-instruction and small group teaching, with the emphasis on low cost, ready availability and ease of use with simple equipment. It also functioned as an advisory and co-ordinating service on audiovisual teaching and supported research into the effectiveness and use of such material.
In April 1969 it became the Medical Recording Service Foundation Board of the College of Practitioners (MRSF). All funds were transferred to the Board which managed them. The fund formed part of the assets of the College but was kept separate from other funds of the College and used only for audio-visual purposes. Both John and Valerie Graves were on the Foundation Board. The reasons behind this were financial and legal: to have its own spending powers and accounts, to clarify its financial position and keep its independence but stay within the College and keep the Ministry of Health happy that it was not going outside of the College remit. By then the grant from Smith Kline French had ceased (in 1968) and the service was receiving grants from a number of organisations, including the College and a large one from DHSS, and doing recording work for other people than the College.
By 1975 the MRSF had become a central clearing-house for all medical tape-slides in the UK, with an annual issuing rate of over 25,000. It's activities were far outside the scope of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), producing and providing material of general use to the whole NHS (post-graduate doctors, dentists, nurses and midwives, physiotherapists, health visitors, social workers, etc.) and colleges in the U.K. and abroad.
In 1976 the MRSF decided to sever links from the RCGP, setting up a new and independent company and charity, The Graves Medical Audiovisual Library (GMAL), to continue the work of the Service separate from the College. The fund was transferred from the RCGP to the new GMAL. The official name change took effect on 25th Oct 1977.
The service had originally been run from the Graves' home, Kitts Croft in Chelmsford, and had spread through the house and expanded into an annex built in their garden in 1972. In May 1978 the GMAL moved into new, bigger premises at Holly House, Chelmsford. The staff were all local
In 1980, John Graves, OBE, died and Valerie Graves, OBE, stayed on as Honorary Medical Director and Honorary Secretary. In Oct 1984 Richard Morton MSc, FRPS, was appointed Director of the GMAL becoming responsible for the overall direction of the Library and initiation and development of new projects (Valerie Graves continued as Honorary Director).
In 1986 the GMAL's separate London base at the Hospital Equipment Display Centre in Newman Street moved to the British Life Assurance Trust (BLAT) Centre for Health and Medical Education, at BMA House, Tavistock Square, London. There the latest programmes could be viewed.
To reflect its expanding sphere of activity in supplying all kinds of audiovisual materials for the medical and paramedical professions, in Dec 1990 the name 'Graves Educational Resources' was adopted.
In Apr 1993 Graves Educational Resources transferred its audiovisual distribution services to Concord Video and Film Council, based in Ipswich, from where the Graves medical audiovisual programmes are still available. The savings from winding up the base in Chelmsford were placed by the University of Wales College of Medicine in a special fund known as the Graves Educational Resources Development Fund, to be used to support pioneering work in computer based learning in medicine.
The International Academy of the History of Medicine was founded in 1962.
Dr Noel Poynter was born, 1906; Librarian, 1954-1964; Director of the Wellcome Institute, 1964-1973; founder member and president of the International Academy of the History of Medicine; died, 1979.
The UK Umbrella Group began as fairly informal meetings of members of the Association of Jungian Analysts (AJA), Jungian Section of the British Association of Psychotherapists (BAP), Independent Group of Analytical Psychologists (IGAP) and the Society of Analytical Psychologists (SAP) late in 1986, which gradually became more formal and generated joint conferences and workshops as well as a working group on archives. The Umbrella Group Newsletter was published by the London Umbrella Group from 1997 and produced by a group of people from the four UK Jungian training organisations, and the editorship rotated around the team.
In 1891 the British Institute for Preventive Medicine (BIPM) was incorporated. In 1893 the BIPM amalgamated with the College of State Medicine. In 1898 Lord Lister became Chairman of the Governing Body of the BIPM. In 1899 the BIPM became the Jenner Institute of Preventive Medicine. In 1903 the Institute became the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine (LIPM). From 1904-1911 Lord Lister was President of LIPM. In 1905 LIPM became a school of the University of London. In 1912 Lord Lister died. In 1919 the National Collection of Type Cultures was established at LIPM. In 1944 the Medical Research Council Blood Research Unit was established at LIPM. In the 1970s the LIPM laboratories for conducting research, and producing vaccine and sera, were closed. In 1981 the LIPM became a grantmaking body. A Scientific Advisory Committee was set up to consider applications to provide support for research in biomedical sciences. In 1982 the Council disbanded and the Memorandum and Articles of Association were amended.
The National Association for the Prevention of Consumption and other forms of Tuberculosis (NAPC) was founded in 1899. The aims were the education of public opinion and the stimulation of individual initiative, influencing central and local government, and the establishment of local branches. The name changed to the National Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis (NAPT) in 1919. The Association's activities included propaganda, health education, training, funding research, conferences, lectures, exhibitions, touring caravans, and producing publications. It also supported the establishment of sanatoria, dispensaries and care committees around the UK and abroad.
The Association offered grants to individual sufferers from 1928. Individual committees examined issues such as mass radiography, and sanatorium design and construction. An appeal to establish a Farm Colony for discharged tuberculous servicemen, started in 1917, and Burrow Hill Colony was established at Frimley in Surrey in 1918 and closed in 1943; the Burrow Hill Training Fund to train men and boys in suitable occupations was inaugurated in the 1950s. The Queen Alexandra Sanatorium Fund and allied Funds were transferred to the NAPT in 1954. The Spero Fund (previously the Central Fund for the Industrial Welfare of Tuberculous Persons) appointed the NAPT to take over administration in the early 1950s. Due to a decline in Tuberculosis, the words 'and Diseases of the Chest and Heart' were added to the Association's name in 1956. The name changed again to the Chest and Heart Association for the Conquest of Chest and Heart Diseases through Research, Education and Treatment, commonly known as the Chest and Heart Association (CHA) in 1958. The Volunteer Stroke Service was established by the Association in the 1970s. The name changed to The Chest, Heart and Stroke Association in 1975. The Association decided to focus exclusively on the area of stroke, working to reduce the effect of stroke on patients, their families, carers and the community, and changed its name to The Stroke Association in 1992.
George Scott Williamson:
1884 born, Ladybank Scotland; 1904 goes to Edinburgh School of Medicine; 1906 qualifies MB ChB; 1908-1910 working at Research Laboratory, West Riding Asylums Board; 1910-1919 working in Department of Pathology, University of Bristol; 1914-1918 serving in France with RAMC : Lt-Col in charge of field ambulances; mention in despatches, MC; POW in Germany for 9 months; 1919 awarded MD and Gold Medal; 1920-1926 Pathologist and Director of Pathological Studies, Royal Free Hospital; 1921 onwards engaged in thyroid and goitre work at Royal Free; 1925 gives Arris and Gale lectures, Royal College of Surgeons; 1926-1935 pathologist at Ear Nose and Throat Hospital; continues Thyroid research at St Bartholomew's with Royal College of Surgeons grant; 1950 marries Innes Pearse; 1953 Jun dies; 1969 Science Synthesis and Sanity published posthumously.
Innes Hope Pearse:
1889 born; 1916 receives LMSSA; appointment at Bristol Royal Hospital for Women and Children; 1918 House Surgeon Great Northern Hospital London; 1919 House Physician London Hospital; 1920 Demonstrator, Anatomical Department, St Thomas's Hospital; 1921 onwards engaged in thyroid and goitre work at Royal Free with Scott Williamson; 1950 marries Scott Williamson; 1969 Science Synthesis and Sanity published; 1978 28 Dec dies; 1979 The Quality of Life published
Pioneer Health Centre:
1926 Apr Founding of the first Health Centre, Peckham, at Queen's Road SE5; 1926-1929 115 families join the Centre; 1929 First Centre closed; 1931 Publication of The Case for Action, Pioneer Health Centre registered with Charity Commissioners, £10,000 subscribed by Jack Donaldson followed by another £10,000 from other sources, site on St Mary's Road Peckham chosen for purpose-designed building; 1935 May New Pioneer Health Centre opens; 1938 Publication of Biologists in Search of Material; 1939 Visit by HM Queen Mary, Centre closes for the war; 1943 Publication of The Peckham Experiment; 1945 Publication of Physician Heal Thyself; 1946 Mar Re-opening of Centre; 1948 Premiere of film about Centre; 1950 Centre closes, Williamson and Pearse marry; 1953 Jun death of Williamson; 1969 Science, Synthesis and Sanity published; 1978 Dec 28 Pearse dies; 1979 The Quality of Life published.
The Medical Pilgrims were founded by Sir Arthur Hurst in 1928. There was a chosen membership of 20 and annual pilgramages were made to foreign and British cities.
The Association for the Advancement of Medicine by Research (AAMR) was founded by James Paget to promote a positive image of experimenting on animals for medical research and to resist harassment by anti-vivisectionists, 1882; the AAMR developed a quasi-official role with the Home Office, scrutinising applications made to conduct medical research involving animals; the Research Defence Society (RDS) was founded as a separate body with similar aims to the AAMR but also to publish and distribute literature on the importance and necessity of experiments on animals, 1908; the RDS was granted charitable status for its educational work, 1980.
The Association for Research into Restricted Growth was co-founded by Dr Sir William Geoffrey Shakespeare, 2nd Baronet, (1927-1996), a general practitioner who took an interest in the conditions causing restricted growth. He had achondroplasia, a genetic disorder that causes dwarfism or restricted growth. His son Sir Thomas William Shakespeare, 3rd Baronet (b 1966) also has achondroplasia. The Association became a registered charity in 1970.
Founded 1856 as The Association of Metropolitan Medical Officers of Health.
In 1871 the report of the Royal Sanitary Commission (appointed 1869) recommended consolidation of public health measures under one sanitary law and proposed a Minister of Health.
In 1873 the name changed to The Society of Medical Officers of Health. The aims of the Society were to promote public health and increase the education and knowledge of Medical Officers of Health (MOHs), the medical profession and the general public in this field. Its main activities were holding meetings, lectures and conferences; organising training courses; publishing the journal Public Health; promoting research and the publication of books, pamphlets and papers relating to public health; acting as an advisory body to Government and other organisations; and awarding prizes for work and study in public health.
In 1891 the Society was incorporated under the Companies Act and the name changed to The Incorporated Society of Medical Officers of Health.
In 1929 the Local Government Act meant that MOHs were responsible for water supply; sewage disposal; food control and hygiene; public health aspects of housing; control and prevention of infectious diseases; maternity and child welfare clinics; midwives and health visitors; tuberculosis clinics and venereal disease clinics; and school health services and local hospitals.
In 1969 the Society registered as a Charity.
In 1973 the name changed to The Society of Community Medicine.
In 1974 the National Health Service Reorganisation Act meant that the role of MOHs no longer existed.
In 1976 internal administrative and financial problems almost resulted in the end of the Society.
In 1989 the name changed to The Society of Public Health Limited.
In 1993 the name changed to The Society of Public Health.
In 1997 the name changed to The Royal Institute of Public Health and Hygiene and Society of Public Health following a merger.
The Society for Social Medicine was founded in 1956 for the advancement of academic social medicine primarily in the research field.
Catherine Kearsley and her husband were printers and booksellers in London in the late eighteenth century. They began the commercial production of Widow Welch's Female Pills, which they claimed to have as a family recipe, in 1787. There seems to have been some contention over who was manufacturing the true Widow Welch's Recipe, since the collection includes a handbill claiming that Mrs Smithers, as the granddaughter of the Widow Welch was the only person entitled to the preparation. It continued to be a popular patent medicine until the company ceased trading in the late 1960s.
In 1913 the Wellcome Bureau of Scientific Research (WBSR) was established and Andrew Balfour appointed as Director-in-Chief.
Balfour was also President of the Medical Advisory Committee of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, and from 1914-1918 the WBSR co-operated with the Army Medical Department.
In 1920 the WBSR moved to Endsleigh Gardens, Euston Road and in 1923 Charles Morley Wenyon was appointed Director after Balfour left to become Director of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
In 1944 Wenyon retired and Charles Halliley Kellaway was appointed as Director. WBSR and Wellcome Chemical Research Laboritories (WCRL) combine to form the Wellcome Laboratories of Tropical Medicine (WLTM).
In 1897 C J S Thompson (CJST) began to collect books and manuscripts for Henry Solomon Wellcome's library.
In 1898 CJST became an employee of Burrough Wellcome and Co.
In 1903-1904 an Historical Medical Exhibition was planned.
In 1911 the Historical Medical Museum was established at 54a Wigmore Street, which in 1914 became the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum (WHMM).
In 1931 the Wellcome Research Institution opened in 183 Euston Road and in 1932 the WHMM moved into the new building.
In 1960 the ownership of the historical collections transferred from the Company to the Trustees; although administration was still carried on by the Company.
In 1966 the Trust established a sub-department of the History of Medicine in the Department of Anatomy, at University College London (UCL).
In 1968 the WHMM and Library were renamed the Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine.
Born Wisconsin, USA, 1853; educated College of Pharmacy, Chicago, 1872; graduated Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, 1873; pharmaceutical representative for Caswell, Hazard and Co, New York; pharmaceutical representative for McKesson and Robins, New York, 1876; expedition to Ecuador and Peru to study the cinchona forests, 1878; partnership offer from Silas Burroughs, London, 1879; Burroughs Wellcome and Co head quarters open in London, 1881; Burroughs launched unsuccessful legal action to dissolve the partnership, 1888; Burroughs died and Wellcome gained sole control of the company, 1895; awarded an honorary degree from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy; awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree (LLD) by Edinburgh University,1928; naturalised as a British subject, 1910; received knighthood, 1932; awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the Royal College of Surgeons; awarded a Fellowship by the Royal Society; died in London, 1936; memorial plaque erected in St Paul's Cathedral by Wellcome Trustees and ashes interred in St Paul's churchyard, 1987.
In 1900 Henry Solomon Wellcome visited the Sudan and as a result proposed to establish a tropical research laboratory at Khartoum, which would aim at the reduction of disease by using known preventive methods and treatments and also conduct serious scientific research into diseases of the area. Wellcome would equip the laboratory but the Sudan Government was to maintain it and meet staffing costs. In 1903 he founded the Wellcome Tropical Research Laboratories (WTRL) at Gordon Memorial College, Khartoum which was set up by Andrew Balfour who was also appointed Chief Health Officer.
Wellcome was appointed a member of the General Council of Gordon College, c 1905.
Charles Wenyon was seconded to WTRL from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for a year to join the floating laboratory the 'Culex' to carry research to river settlements, 1907.
The Laboratories were destroyed by fire, 1908, Wellcome financed their rebuilding.
Balfour returned to London to head the Wellcome Bureau of Scientific Research (WBSR), 1913.
Succeeded by A J Chalmers, 1913-1929 and R G Archibald, 1920-1935, and closed by the Sudan Government in 1935.
After Wellcome's death in 1936, the Wellcome Trustees decided not to support the Khartoum laboratories as the Wellcome name had been allowed to disappear (Hall and Bembridge, 1986).
Antonio Carbajal filled various posts in the Mexican medical establishment and latterly taught at the Institutio Bacteriológico. An obituary of him is to be found in the Boletín de Ciencas Médicas, 1914, 5(2), pp.49-50.
The Hospital de San Andrés was founded in the city of Mexico in 1779. During the nineteenth century it was the most important hospital in the city.
The East African Trypanosomiasis Research Organization (formerly called the East African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Research and Reclamation Organization) was based in Tororo, Uganda. Its Director, from 1957 to 1963 was William Hepburn Russell Lumsden, MD, FRSE, FRCP(Ed) (b 1914).
Professor Leonard Jan Bruce-Chwatt CMG, OBE, MD, FRCP, DTM and H (1907-1989) was a malariologist and was Director of the Ross Institute from 1969 to 1974.