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These Council Minutes were created at the end of the eighteenth century at the same time as the Journal Books Copy and continued to the early nineteenth century for security reasons.

The Council for Science and Society was established in 1972 as an independent organization with the stated objectives 'to promote the study of and research into the social effects of science and technology: and to disseminate the results thereof to the public'.

Certificates of Election were created as a result of a meeting of Council on 7 December 1730 when a draft of a new statute was proposed with the intention of limiting membership of the Society. The Statute proposed that each candidate for election should be recommended by three existing Fellows, 'who shall deliver to one of the Secretaries a paper signed by themselves, signifying the name, addition, profession, occupation, and chief qualifications of the Candidate for election, as also notifying the usual place of habitation'. Such certificates were dated and hung in the meeting room for ten gatherings of Fellows before being balloted, and bear the signatures of those Fellows supporting the candidate, with the date of election. Certificates were not made compulsory until 1847 when new statutes were enacted. Therefore there may not be a certificate for every Fellow elected in the period 1731 to 1849.

The number of Fellows elected annually varies, and the Statutes have to be changed to accommodate the changed numbers. In 2006 the numbers of Foreign Fellows were raised from 6 to 8, to take effect in 2007 (require amendment of Statute 3 (c) and Standing Orders 22 c) and 26.)

The number of new nominations made in any year is unlimited. Once nominated, candidates remain eligible for election for seven years. If not elected within this period, an individual may be proposed as a candidate again after a break of three years and then remains eligible for election for a period of three years. This three year cycle may be repeated without limit eg there were 564 candidates for election as Fellows in 2005. The Society does not provide details of the identities of nominated candidates to anybody outside the Fellowship, except those individuals consulted in confidence during the refereeing process.

The nominations process was made easier in 2001 by reducing from six to two the number of Fellows signatures required on a certificate of proposal. This change was introduced because it was felt that the larger number of signatures might discriminate against minorities in science, such as women, those in new and emerging subjects or those in institutions and organisations with few existing Fellows.

In addition, the President of the Royal Society periodically writes to Vice-Chancellors, and Chairs and Chief Executives of Research Councils, to encourage them to put forward names of potential candidates. Any suggestions generated through this route are considered before 30 September by the President, Vice-Presidents and one or more members of the Council of the Royal Society. These suggestions, if thought suitable, then follow the normal nomination process, with the proposing and seconding of a candidate by existing Fellows.

The Society has also broadened the scope of candidates to encourage nomination and election of scientists, technologists and engineers whose major contribution to their subject has been other than through original research, for example by leadership, inspiration or furtherance of science in a senior managerial or administrative capacity, or through science communication.

The proposing Fellow is responsible for informing the candidate that he or she has been nominated. The proposer must ensure, in consultation with the candidate, that all information relevant to the nomination is up to date.

Francis (Franz) Simon received a classical education, but developed a strong interest in science and went to Munich in 1912 to read physics. He was called up for military service in 1913, and from 1914-1918 served as lieutenant in field artillery. He resumed his studies at University of Berlin in 1919, and in 1920 started work for his Ph.D under Nernst who is known for his heat theorem or third law of themodynamics. Simon's research concerned measurement of specific heats at low temperatures, which remained the basis of his scientific interest throughout his life. He received his doctorate in 1921 and in 1924 became 'Privatdozent', then associate professor in 1927. In 1931 he was appointed to the chair of Physical Chemistry at the Technical University of Breslau, and spent part of 1932 as visiting professor at Berkeley. In June 1933 he resigned and accepted the invitation of FA Lindemann (later Lord Cherwell) (1886-1957) to work at the Clarendon Laboratory in Oxford, where KAG Mendelssohn (1906-1980), one of his former co-workers, had set up a helium liquefaction plant. He was accompanied by Nicholas Kurti (1908-1998), another member of his Berlin School. In 1935 he was appointed Reader in Thermodynamics, and Professor, 1945-1956. He succeeded Lindemann as Lee Professor of Experimental Philosophy, but died only a few weeks after his appointment. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1941, and received the Rumford Medal in 1948; received the first Kamerlingh Onnes Medal of the Dutch Institute of Refrigeration in 1950; and the Linde Medal in 1952. Also in 1952 he was elected a honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. For his war work on atomic energy he received the CBE in 1946. He was knighted in 1955.

Maskeylyne was educated at Westminster school with a good grounding in classics, and tutored in his vacations in writing and arithmetic. His interest in optics and astronomy led to his study of mathematics as the essential tool for their proper study. He applied his knowledge to other aspects of natural philosophy, especially mechanics, pneumatics, and hydrostatics, first at Catherine Hall and then Trinity College Cambridge, graduating in 1754 as Seventh Wrangler. He was ordained in 1755 and accepted a curacy at Barnet in Hertfordshire, devoting his leisure hours to assisting the Astronomer Royal, James Bradley, in computing tables of refraction. Bradley's influence with the Royal Society sent Maskelyne in 1761 to the island of St Helena to observe the Transit of Venus. This was unsuccessful because of cloud cover. However, he kept tidal records and determined the altered rate of one of Shelton's clocks. His observations regarding the method of determining longitude at sea made on the voyage were more successful. He used the lunar tables of Tobias Mayer which had been submitted in 1755 to support his application for a parliamentary bounty offered for discovery of longitude at sea. The instrument used was a reflecting quadrant of the type invented by John Hadley in 1731. Maskelyne's second voyage, to Bridgetown in Barbados in 1764, was to assess the accuracy of the rival chronometer method of longitude determination championed by John Harrison, and two other methods based on observations of the satellites of Jupiter and on occultations of stars by the moon. He attended the Board of Longitude meeting of 9 February 1765 where the sums to be awarded to Harrison and Mayer were specified, where he testified to the usefulness of the lunar-distance method for finding longitude at sea to within one degree or 60 miles, and proposed the practical application of this method by a nautical ephemeris with auxiliary tables and explanations. This last resulted in the publication of the Nautical Almanac for 1767, which Maskelyne continued to supervise until his death and was his major contribution to astronomical science. He was responsible for the publication of Mayer's lunar theory (1767), his solar and lunar tables (1770) and the preparation of 'Requisite Tables' (1767) for eliminating the effects of astronomical refraction and parallax from the observed lunar distances. As Astronomer Royal he also assessed the large numbers of chronometers submitted for official trial by such pioneers of watchmaking as John Arnold, Thomas Mudge and Thomas Earnshaw. This led to the establishment of a consistent system of rating and the introduction in 1823 of trial or test numbers, modified by George Airy in 1840 to a system which is still used. In 1774 with the aid of Charles Hutton and John Playfair he determined the earth's density in a famous experiment on Mt Schiehallion in Scotland, the first convincing experiment demonstrating the universality of gravitation, meaning it not only operates between the bodies of the solar system but also between the elements of matter of which each body is composed. For this he was awarded the Copley Medal of the Royal Society in 1775. He was elected in 1802 one of eight foreign members of the French Institute. He died while working at the Observatory in 1811.

Founder member of the Royal Society, and one of the earliest Freemasons, Moray was devoted to the causes of the welfare of Scotland, loyalty to his monarch, and in promoting the new experimental philosophy. He was experienced in negotiating affairs of state, and an intimate friend of King Charles II. The son of Sir Mungo Moray of Craigie in Perthshire, he was educated in Scotland and in France, probably a member of the Scottish regiment which joined the French army in 1633. He made a considerable reputation for himself and was favoured by Cardinal Richelieu. In 1641 he was recruiting Scots soldiers for the French, later becoming Colonel of the Scots Guards at the French court. He was knighted in 1643 by Charles I. He was captured by the Duke of Bavaria in November 1643 whilst leading his regiment into battle for the French, and whilst in prison until 1645 was lent a book on magnetism by Kircherus, with whom he entered into correspondence. He tried unsuccessfully to arrange the escape of Charles I in 1646, and in 1651 was engaged in negotiations with the Prince of Wales to persuade him to come to Scotland, thus beginning his long friendship with the future Charles II. After a failed Scottish rising in the Highlands in 1653, his military career was over and he went into exile, in Bruges in 1656, then Maastricht until 1659, where he led the life of a recluse but spent his time in scientific pursuits. It was at this time that many of his letters to Alexander Bruce were written. Late in 1659 he went to Paris and did much, by correspondence, to help prepare for the return of the King to England, especially in relation to religious matters. After the return he was active in promoting the best interests of Scotland and was given high office. He was also provided with rooms at Whitehall Palace, the King's London residence, which included a laboratory, as the King shared his scientific interests. It was Moray who was the chief intermediary between the Royal Society and the King, and other highly placed persons at the Court such as Prince Rupert and the Duke of York. More important than his scientific work for the Society were his powers of organisation and firmness of purpose in establishing it on a sound and lasting basis, including his efforts in obtaining the three founding Royal Charters and his attempts to put the Society on a sound financial footing. In 1670 he and Lauderdale quarrelled, leading to Moray withdrawing from politics. On his death in 1673 he was buried in Westminster Abbey by personal order and expense of the king.

Sir William Herschel (1738-1822) was born in Hanover and came to England in 1757, where he taught music in Leeds, Halifax and Bath. He devoted himself to the study of mathematics and astronomy, built his own telescope in c.1773, and with it discovered the planet Uranus in 1781 (which he named 'Georgium Sidus' in honour of George III). He was appointed private astronomer to George III in 1782 and knighted in 1816, and is regarded as the virtual founder of sidereal science.

Born, 1845; Education: Owens College, Manchester; Heidelberg University, Bonn University. PhD (Heidelberg); Career: Professor of Chemistry, Andersonian Insitute, Glasgow (1870); Professor of Chemistry, Yorkshire College of Science, Leeds (1874-1885); Professor of Chemistry, Royal College of Science, London (1885); Director, Government Laboratories, London (1894); President, British Association (1921); keen yachtsman; FCS; FRSE; FChemSoc, FRS, 1876; Royal Medal, 1889; Secretary of the Royal Society, 1899-1903; Vice President of the Royal Society, 1894-1895; died, 1925.

The bonds which for many years were demanded of Fellows as an assurance for the regular payment of their fees to the Royal Society.

Originally set to the family trade of broadcloth weaving, Canton's learning and mechanical talent, as shown by his creation of an accurate sundial proudly displayed outside the house by his father, brought him to the attention of Dr Henry Miles (Fellow of the Royal Society, 1843). Miles persuaded Canton's father to allow John to reside with him in Tooting, Surrey, until 1738, when John articled himself to Samuel Watkins, master of a school in Spital Square, London, whom he succeeded as master and owner of the school until his death in 1772. Canton's first contributions to science were routine calculations of the times of lunar eclispes, published in the Ladies Diary for 1739 and 1740. Through Miles he met London's best 'experimental philosophers' such as the apothecary William Watson and clockmaker John Ellicott. He rapidly acquired the same reputation, largely for his invention of a new method of making strong artificial magnets. He kept the method secret, hoping to make some income from it, until the publication of John Mitchell's A Treatise of Artificial Magnets (1750). His procedure appeared very similar to Mitchell's, who immediately accused him of plagiarism. This did not prevent the Royal Society from awarding him the Copley Medal for 1751; Canton had a method before Mitchell's publication, and from what is known of his character testifies to his innocence. In 1752 Canton learned of the French experiments confirming Franklin's conjecture about lightning. He was the first in England to repeat the experiments successfully, and in the process discovered independently that clouds came electrified both positively (as theory suggested) and negatively. His work on determining the sign of a cloud's charge led Canton to design the well known experiments on electrostatic induction which have earned him a place in the history of electricity. He also made the notable discovery that glass does not always charge positively by friction; the sign of the electricity developed depends upon the nature of the substance rubbed over it and the condition of the surface of the glass. Other contributions to the subject were a portable pith-ball electroscope (1754), a method for electifying the air by communication (1754), a careful account of that bewildering stone the tourmaline (1759) and an improvement in the electrical machine, coating its cushion with an amalgam of mercury and tin (1762). As a gifted amateur physicist of his time, Canton displayed interest in other topics, such as identifying the cause of the luminosity of seawater (putrefying organic matter); invented a strongly phosphorescent compound 'Canton's phosphor' made of sulphur and calcined oyster shells (CaS); kept a meteorological journal; recorded the diurnal variations of the compass; and demonstrated the compressibility of water, a notable achievement, which depended on measurements so minute he was challenged on his revolutionary interpretation of them, although they stood the scrutiny of a special committee of the Royal Society and earned him a second Copley Medal in 1765. He was a frequenter of the Club of Honest Whigs in the company of Franklin and Dissenting Ministers like Joseph Priestley, whose History and Present State of Electricity owed much to his patient assistance. Canton was one of the most distinguished of the group of self-made, self-educated men who were the best representatives of English physics in the mid-eighteenth century.

Born in Birstall, Yorkshire, the eldest of six children. From 1742 adopted by his father's eldest sister, Sarah, wife of John Keighley. At Batley Grammar School from 1745, where learnt Latin and Greek; subsequently pupil of John Kirkby (1677-1754) congregational minister who had taught him Hebrew. Health initially not good enough to be a minister, so taught himself French German and Italian, and sought instruction in algebra and mathematics from George Haggerston (d. 1792) When health improved went to a dissenting academy, the Daventry Academy, where he was the first theological student under Caleb Ashworth, although Samuel Clarke (1727-1769) had more influence. His first post was as presbyterian minister at Needham Market, Suffolk, where his preaching was uncontroversial, though he did not hide his Arianism. In 1758 he became minister at Nantwich, Cheshire, where he established a flourishing school, and formed friendships with Edward Harwood and Joseh Brereton, vicar of Acton. In 1761 he became tutor at Warrington Academy, followed in 1762 by becoming ordained and marrying Mary, daughter of Isaac Wilkinson of Plas Grono, ironmaster at Bersham. The marriage led him to found a 'widows fund' for protestant dissenters of Lancashire and Cheshire in 1764, which became a valuable benefit society. Priestley spent a part of every year in London, where he met Benjamin Franklin. He was happy at Warrington, but it was not well paid, and his wife's health failed, so he took a post at Mill Hill Chapel, Leeds in 1767, where his ecclesiastical views underwent a change, and his printed tracts aroused criticism. In 1770 he founded the Leeds circulating library, and in 1771 received the offer of the post of astronomer on Captain Cook's second expedition by Sir Joseph Banks which he was unable to take up. Instead, in 1772 he took up the post of librarian or 'literary companion' with William Fitzmaurice-Pettty, second earl of Sherburne, afterwards first marquis of Lansdowne, at Calne. The books he catalogued are now the Lansdowne MSS in the British Museum, and he was given an extra £40 a year for his scientific experiments. He made his major discovery of 'dephlogisticated air' on 1 August 1774, just before accompanying his patron on a continental tour. His winters were spent in London, where he frequented the Whig Club at the London coffee-house of which Franklin and Canton were members. In 1780 he and Shelbourne parted amicably, and he moved to Birmingham to be nearer his brother-in-law John Wilkinson, who provided him with a house. His income was augmented by gifts from a wealthy widow, Elizabeth Rayner, and by annual subscriptions from his friends, such as Josiah Wedgwood the potter, and Samuel Parker a London optician, who also supplied him with every instrument he needed in glass. He became engaged for pastoral Sunday duty at the New Meeting in Birminghan in 1780. He dined once a month with the 'Lunar Society', meeting Matthew Boulton, James Keir, James Watt, William Withering the botanist and Erasmus Darwin. Politically he was never a member of a political party, but supported the reforming measures of the ablition of the slave trade and the repeal of the test and corporation acts. Popular feeling was against him after he vindicated the principles of the French revolution. In 1791 the Constitutional Society of Birmingham held a meeting, to which Priesltley did not go, but which led to riots; finding the guests had left the Dudley Hotel, the mob attacked the residences of the organisers, including Priestley's house at Fairhill. therafter he took up residence in London, becoming minister at the Gravel Pit Chapel in Hackney, where his friends more than made up his financial losses. However, he considered emigration to America for the sake of his children, a move supported by his wife, and in 1793 his three sons emigrated, followed in 1794 by Priestley and his wife.He settled in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, and after the death of his wife in 1796 went to live with his eldest son. He was never naturalized as an American citizen. He considered returning to Europe, especially France where he had property, but developing a fever while visiting Philadelphia in 1801 enfeebled him, and he died in Northumberland in 1804, and was buried in the Quakers burial ground there with William Chrisite giving a funeral address.

George Lindsay Johnson, MD, FRCS.

James Sowerby trained as an artist and studied at the Royal Academy of Arts. He was best known for his illustrations to English Botany: or Coloured Figures of British Plants, With Their Essential Characters, Synonyms, and Places of Growth (1790-1814). This subsequently became known as 'Sowerby's Botany', although the text was supplied by James Edward Smith, whose name was at first withheld at his own request. His accurate descriptions and Sowerby's skilful drawings, beautifully coloured, made it a highly esteemed work which was frequently re-issued. Sowerby then published British Mineralogy in parts beginning in 1802, and his more important Mineral Conchology of Great Britain, again issued in parts from 1812. Sowerby also provided illustrations for other natural history works, such as that of Strata Identified by Organized Fossils by William Smith. His major contribution to natural history was his vast correspondence with naturalists in Britain and abroad, illustrating the advice he gave and his encouragement to collectors of plants, birds, insects, fossils and minerals. Many specimens were sent to him for identification. He too sent others in return, together with copies of parts of his publications, stimulating further research. He had his own museum at 2 Mead Place Lambeth, which was regularly visited by other naturalists. He married Anne de Carle of Norwich. His eldest son James de Carle Sowerby (1787-1871) and second son George Brettingham Sowerby (1788-1854) assisted him in his work. Their children too were artists and naturalists.

Robert Were Fox was the son of Robert Were Fox, a shipping agent, and Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph Tregellen of Falmouth. Educated privately, he showed a special aptitude in mathematics, and was taught to study natural phenomena by his mother. In 1814, during his wedding trip on the continent, he formed lasting friendships with F W H A von Humboldt and other foreign scientists. His researches began in 1812 with Joel Lean, when they performed a series of experiments hoping to improve Watt's engines which were used in Cornish mines. In 1815 Fox began his researches into the internal temperature of the earth, which continued throughout his life. Facilities were provided for this by his lifelong connection with Cornish mines. Fox was the first to prove definitively that heat increased with depth, and that this increase was in diminishing ratio as depth increased. Fox was also interested in magnetic phenomena, especially relating to the earth's magnetism, and constructed a new dipping needle of great sensitivity and accuracy which was later used by Sir James Clark Ross in his voyage to the Antarctic in 1837 and by Captain Nares in the expedition to the North Pole in 1875-1877. Fox was one of the founders of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society in 1833, and was Vice President several times. He died at his house near Falmouth in 1877 and was buried at the Friends' burial ground at Budock.

George Lindor Brown was born in Liverpool on 9 February 1903, son of George William Arthur Brown, schoolmaster in Warrington, and Helen Wharram. He attended Boteler Grammar School in Warrington, and entered the University of Manchester on a scholarship to study medicine, where A V Hill, the Nobel Prize winner, was his Professor of Physiology. He took an honours B.Sc. in physiology in 1924, then won the Platt Physiological Scholarship which enabled him to do research with B A McSwiney, earning an M.Sc. (1925). He qualified in Medicine in 1928 (MB, Ch.B Manch.), winning the Bradley Prize and medal for operative surgery. He joined McSwiney as lecturer in physiology at Leeds University in 1928, taking six months' leave to work in Sir C S Sherrington's laboratory at Oxford, and collaborating with J C Eccles. In 1934 Sir Henry Dale offered, and Brown accepted, a post at the National Institute for Medical Research in Hampstead, where he worked with (Sir) John Gaddum and W S Feldberg establishing the cholinergic theory of chemical transmission. In 1942 the Royal Naval Personnel Research Committee was established, and he became involved very successfully with diving and underwater operations, remaining Secretary to the RNPRC until 1949, and then its chairman until 1969. In 1949 he accepted the Jodrell Chair of Physiology at University College London, where he strenghthened the physiology and biophysics departments under (Sir) Bernard Katz and worked with J S Gillespie on adrenergic transmission. He served on various Royal Society committees, becoming Biological Secretary, 1955-1963. In 1960 he accepted the Waynflete chair of physiology in Oxford, becoming a Fellow of Magdalen. He also became a member of the Franks Commission of Inquiry into the working of Oxford University. In 1967 he resigned his chair to be elected Principal of Hertford College Oxford, although he continued with his research group in the pharmacology department. He was responsible for inaugurating the College's major apeal, negotiated two senior research fellowships, and dealt lightly with student restiveness. He married in 1930 Jane Rosamond, daughter of Charles Herbert Lees, FRS, Professor of Physics in the University of London and Vice-Principal of Queen Mary College, and had one daughter and three sons.

Born, 1844; Education: LLD; MA; Honours: CMG 1901; Kt 1915; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1900; died, 1934.

The son of a physician, Edward George Tandy Liddell was born on 25 March 1895 in Harrogate. Suffering from pneumonia bouts during his first years, Liddell was to remain in poor health throughout his life, but completed a vast amount of experimental work on the nature of the nervous system.

As an undergraduate reading medicine at Trinity College, Oxford, Liddell was greatly influenced by Sir Charles Scott Sherrington, who at that time held the position of Waynflete Professor of Physiology at Oxford. Sherrington had already made significant contributions to the study of the nervous system and reflexes with finely-tuned experiments on cats and dogs. His results demonstrated 'Sherrington's Law,' the principle that when one muscle is stimulated, muscles that work in opposition are simultaneously inhibited, a turning point in the understanding of co-ordinated motion. Liddell was to be Sherrington's sole assistant in research until 1926. Much of their collaboration appears in Liddell's dissertation, which provided concrete experimental evidence of Sherrington's theories of inhibition.

Liddell continued to refine his experimental techniques in recording reflexes and contributed many details to the emerging picture of the integrated nervous system, often collaborating with pioneers of neurology such as D Denny-Brown and J C Eccles. He conducted several experiments concerning postural reflexes and their origin of control in the brain, work which proved crucial in understanding spinal cord injuries. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1939 and Waynflete Professor of Physiology in 1940, he was increasingly active in administration and the rebuilding of laboratories at Oxford after the war.

In 1960 Liddell published a book/memoir, 'The Discovery of Reflexes,' detailing the history of ideas about the nervous system up through the exciting time of Sherrington's laboratory work.

The collection of Liddell's papers includes his unpublished degree thesis, 'The excitatory and inhibitory states in reflex activity,' as well as notebooks from his early school years through university. A later notebook contains Liddell's own detailed instructions for cat dissection with an emphasis on features of the nervous system. The collection also includes correspondence relating to the publication of his book 'The Discovery of Reflexes,' with notes and reminiscing from Sherrington's son Carr, D Denny-Brown, R S Creed, R Granit and other well-known names in the history of neurophysiology.

Born, 1903; CBE 1956; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1948; Rumford Medal, 1956; died, 1968.

The International Association of Academies (1899-1913) was an association designed for the purpose of linking the various Academies around the world, of which the first meeting was held in Paris, France, in 1900.

Thomas Henry Holland was born on 22 November 1868 at Helston, Cornwall, of John Holland and Grace Treloar Roberts, one of eight children. Educated first at a dame's school at Helston, he later studied under John Gill, a schoolmaster at Helston, who, recognising his promise, prepared him for a scholarship to the Royal College of Science at South Kensington which he won at the age of sixteen. He won a London Associate 1st Class with Honours in Geology in 1888, and the Murchison Medal and Prize. Thomas Henry Huxley was then the Dean, and Holland became a lifelong admirer. After a period as assistant to Professor Judd at the Royal College of Science, he became a Berkeley Fellow at Owens College Manchester in 1889. In 1890, at the age of twenty one, he was appointed Assistant Superintendent in the Geological Survey of India. He travelled there via the United States, Canada and the Far East, arriving in Calcutta in October 1890 where he was made Curator of the Geological Museum and Laboratory, holding the post until 1896. He soon established a reputation as a petrographer and one interested in the economic side of geology, his energy and organizing ability soon becoming evident to the Government of India, being appointed Director of the Geological Survey of India 1903-1909. His work put the Geological Survey into a position of prestige in India, both with the Government and public, which it never lost. His outstanding service in India was recognized by the award of KCIE in 1908. He was appointed to the Chair of Geology and Mineralogy at Manchester University in 1909, taking it up in 1910. With Rutherford and Elliot Smith he formed the dominant trio, while influencing heavily the interest in petrology, geodesy and mineral deposits, and revifying the rather moribund mining department. He returned to India in 1916 as President of the Indian Munitions Board, resigning his professorship in favour of membership of the Advisory Council of the University. He married Frances Maud Chapman (died 1942), daughter of Charles Chapman, Deputy Commisisoner in Oudh, on 23 December 1896, and had one son, Major General John F C Holland, and one daughter, Margaretta, widow of Colonel A G Shea. In 1946 he married Helen Eileen, daughter of Frank Verrall, of Bramley, near Guildford, with whom he took a house in Surbiton in Surrey. She survived him and was, from 1948 until 1954, an active member of Surrey County Council. Holland was awarded KCIE for scientific services in 1908; KCSI for war services in 1918; and elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1904.

Henri Victor Regnault was born in Germany, 1810; Foreign Member of the Royal Society, 1852; Copley Medal, 1869; Rumford Medal, 1848; died in Paris, 1878.

Born, 1892; Education: Eton; Career: Sir William Dunn Reader in Biochemistry, Cambridge University (to 1933); Head of Genetical Department, John Innes Horticultural Institution; Fullerian Professor of Physiology, Royal Institution; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1932; Croonian Lecture, 1946; Darwin Medal, 1952; died, 1964.

Born, 1653; assistant to the Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed, at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, 1684-1685, 1688 and 1690; clerkship in the King's shipyard at Portsmouth, 1691; returned to Little Horton, 1694, here he pursued mathematics, astronomy, and instrument making; died, 1742.

Born, 1834; Education: King's College, London; Royal College of Chemistry; Lincoln College, Oxford. MA (Oxon); Career: Professor of Chemistry, Agricultural College, Cirencester (1863-1879); Professor of Chemistry, Royal Academy of Arts (1879-1911); wrote on organic, physiological and mineralogical chemistry; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1888; died, 1915.

David Davies (1760-1844) MD St Andrew's, Extra-Licentiate, surgeon to St Peter's Hospital, Bristol.

Deptford Hospital, Avonley Road, Deptford, was opened on 17 March 1877, by the Metropolitan Asylums Board for admission of pauper patients with smallpox. By 1881, the epidemic was over, but it remained a fever hospital up until 1941. It became the South Eastern Fever Hospital in 1885 and then New Cross General Hospital in 1949. Since c 1964 it was known as New Cross Hospital. It closed c 1991.

Frederick George Dawtrey Drewitt was born at Burpham, Surrey, on the 29 February 1848. He was educated at Winchester College before entering Christ Church College, Oxford. He graduated with a natural science degree in 1871, and then began his medical studies at St George's Hospital, London. He became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1876, and took house appointments at St George's, the Hospital for Sick Children at Great Ormond Street, London, and the Belgrave Hospital for Children.

He graduated MA and BM from Oxford in 1878, and the following year became a member of the Royal College of Physicians. Drewitt held honorary appointments at the Victoria Hospital for Children, 1881-87, and the West London Hospital, 1882-1902. He qualified MD from Oxford in 1883. In 1888 he became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.

Drewitt's private income enabled him to retire early. He then devoted himself chiefly to the study of birds and flowers. He had a range of interests however, which were reflected in his publications. In 1907 he wrote Bombay in the Days of George IV, and in 1922 The Romance of the Apothecaries' Garden, which reached a third edition. His other publications included The Latin Names of Common Flowers: Their Pronunciation and History (1927), and The Life of Edward Jenner (1931). He was also a fine water-colour painter and exhibited at the Royal Academy.

Drewitt sat on the governing bodies of the Ornithological Society, the Zoological Society, and the National Trust, and represented the Royal College of Physicians in the management of the Chelsea Physic Garden until 1941.

He had married in 1897 the Hon. Caroline Mary, daughter of the third Baron Lilford. Drewitt died on 29 July 1942, at the age of 94.

Publications:
Bombay in the Days of George IV: Memoirs of Sir Edward West, Chief Justice of the King's Court during its Conflict with the East India Company (London, 1907)
The Romance of the Apothecaries' Garden at Chelsea (London, 1922)
The Latin Names of Common Flowers: Their Pronunciation and History (London, 1927)
The Life of Edward Jenner, MD, FRS, Naturalist and Discoverer of Vaccination (London, 1931).
The Notebook of Edward Jenner in the possession of the Royal College of Physicians of London, with an introduction on Jenner's work as a naturalist by F. Dawtrey Drewitt, Edward Jenner (London, 1931)

Sir George Ent was born at Sandwich, Kent, on 6 November 1604, the son of Josias Ent, a Belgium merchant whose religion had forced him to flee the Netherlands and settle in England. He was educated at a school in Rotterdam. In 1624 he entered at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, graduating BA in 1627, and MA in 1631. Ent then went to Padua University, at the time the most celebrated school of medicine. He studied there for five years, graduating MD in April 1636. As was the custom of the time, congratulatory poems addressed to him by his friends were published in Padua, entitled Laureae Apollinani, with Ent's coat of arms endorsed on the title page. He was incorporated MD at Oxford in November 1638.

In 1639 he was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. Ent's major work was his Apologia pro Circuitione Sanguinis, contra Aemilium Parisanum (1641; 2nd edition 1683). The book defends William Harvey's doctrine of the circulation of the blood, and is a particular reply to a Venetian physician Aemylius Parisanus. It also gives a `rational account' of the operation of purgative medicines (Munk's Roll, 1878, p.226). Both editions were dedicated to Sir Theophilus Clinton, Earl of Lincoln, and were preceded by an address to Harvey. In 1642 Ent delivered the Goulstonian Lectures at the Royal College of Physicians. He was censor of the College for twenty-two years, between 1645 and 1669.

In 1651 Ent published Harvey's De Generatione Animalium, with a dedicatory letter to the celebrated anatomist. Ent had persuaded Harvey to give him the manuscript, which Harvey had up to that point delayed publishing as he felt he might have made further observations. Ent then published the work, with the author's permission. He dedicated the book to the president and fellows of the Royal College of Physicians. Ent was a close friend of Harvey's, and when Harvey died, in 1657, he left Ent five pounds with which to buy a ring. Their friendship was immortalised by the poet John Dryden, in his Epistle to Dr Charleton.

Ent was registrar of the Royal College of Physicians for fifteen years, 1655-70, and became an elect in 1657. In 1665 Ent delivered the anatomy lectures at the College. After the last lecture Charles II, who was present at the lecture, knighted Ent in the Harveian Museum, an unprecedented event. Ent was subsequently consiliarius, advisor to the president, from 1667-69, and again from 1676-86. Ent became president of the College from 1670-75, and served again in 1682 and 1684.

He was one of the original fellows of the Royal Society, and is named in the charter as one of the first council. A collection of Ent's works, Opera Omnia Medico-Physica, was published in Leiden in 1687. It has been said of him that he was `a man of very considerable scholarship speaking and writing Latin with ease and elegance' (Whitfield, [1981], p.51).

Ent had married Sarah, daughter of the physician Othowell Meverall, treasurer of the Royal College of Physicians, in February 1645-6. Ent died at his house in the parish of St Giles-in-the-Fields, on 13 October 1689, at the age of 84. He had resigned from his position as elect at the College just a few days before his death. He was buried in the church of St Lawrence Jewry, near the Guildhall of London.

Publications:
Apologia pro Circuitione Sanguinis, contra Aemilium Parisanum (London, 1641; 2nd ed. 1683)
De Generatione Animalium, William Harvey (London, 1651, published by Ent)
Animadversiones in Malachiae Thrustoni, MD, Diatribam de Respirationis usu Primario (London, 1672)
Opera Omnia Medico-Physica... Nunc Primum Junctim Edita... (Leiden, 1687)
A Collection for Improvement of Husbandry and Trade, Olof Rudbeck, Philip Stansfield, & Sir George Ent, ed. by John Houghton (London, 1692)

Robert Ferguson was born in India on 15 November 1799, the son of Robert Ferguson of the Indian Civil Service, originally from Glen Islay, Perthshire, and grand-nephew of the historian Adam Ferguson. Ferguson's early education was at a school in Croydon. He then began to study medicine as a pupil of his relative George Ricketts Nuttall, a practitioner in Soho, whilst attending lectures at the Great Windmill Street School of Anatomy. He studied for a time in Heidelberg, where he acquired a thorough knowledge of German literature, before entering the University of Edinburgh to study medicine. During his time at Edinburgh he became friends with the novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott, and Scott's son-in-law John Gibson Lockhart, novelist and biographer. Ferguson graduated MD in 1823.

In 1824 he became a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, and began to practice midwifery in London. He became great friends with the eminent physician Robert Gooch, and obtained his patronage, succeeding to a large portion of Gooch's practice. Ferguson's first publication was a letter to Sir Henry Halford, president of the Royal College of Physicians, in 1825, proposing a combination of the old inoculation of smallpox with vaccination. After travelling abroad for a time as a medical attendant to various high societal families, he took the post of resident medical officer at the Marylebone Infirmary.

In 1827 he was active in founding the London Medical Gazette, an opportunity for conservative opinion in medical politics and academic views in medical science to be expressed. He was also a frequent contributor to the Quarterly Review. Most of his articles were on medicine, although one or two were of a philosophico-religious kind. Ferguson had a number of close literary friends, the novelists and poets William Wordsworth, Washington Irving, and Sir Henry Taylor. Ferguson anonymously authored a `History of Insects' for Murray's Family Library(1829-47).

With the support of Gooch he continued to specialise in obstetric practice, was appointed physician to the Westminster Lying-in Hospital, and became professor of obstetrics at King's College, when the medical department was opened in 1831. Ferguson became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1837. In 1840 he was appointed physician-accoucheur to Queen Victoria, during which appointment he attended the births of all her children. In 1844 and 1845 he was censor at the College, and between 1857 and 1859 a member of the council.

From 1857 he gradually withdrew from his extensive obstetric practice and became a general medical practitioner. He resigned his appointment as physician-accoucheur to the Queen, and was made her physician extraordinary. His success as a general practitioner was remarkable considering he had not served as physician to one of the large general hospitals. Indeed so successful did he become that it has been said that, at the time, `no physician was so well known' (Medical Times, 1865, p.14). Among his patients were distinguished leaders in politics and literature, such as Sir Walter Scott, with whom he had maintained friendships throughout his career.

He was twice married, first in 1830 to a lady of the noble French family of Labalmondiere, and then in 1846 to Mary Macleod, with whom he had five children. Ferguson died at his country cottage at Winkfield, Berkshire, on 25 June 1865, at the age of 65.

Publications:
Essay on the Most Important Diseases of Women. Part 1, Puerperal Fever; On the Method of Induction and its Results in Medical Science (London, 1839)
On Some of the Most Important Diseases of Women; Prefatory Essay by Robert Ferguson, Robert Gooch; Robert Ferguson (London, 1859)

James Gregory was born in January 1753 in Aberdeen, the son of John Gregory, professor of medicine at Edinburgh University. He was educated at Aberdeen and Edinburgh, and studied for a short time at Christ Church, Oxford. During the winter of 1773-74 he studied at St George's Hospital, London. His father died suddenly in the winter of 1773 whilst he was still a medical student, and he completed his father's course of lectures at Edinburgh University. He did this with such success that his father's chair, the professorship of practice of medicine, was left open to Gregory. He graduated MD in 1774 and spent the following two years studying medicine abroad.

In 1776, at the age of 23, he was appointed professor at Edinburgh University. The following year he began giving clinical lectures at the Royal Infirmary. In 1780-82 he published his Conspectus Medicinae Theoreticae, which established his position in medicine. Although there was little original work in his Conspectus, it was valuable for what he wrote on therapeutics. In 1790 he succeeded to the chair of the practice of medicine at the university. From this point he was chief of the Edinburgh Medical School. Gregory attained a high reputation and had the leading consulting practice in Scotland, until his death. He was a friend of the poet Robert Burns.

He was widely popular as a teacher, particularly for his command of language, his excellent recollection of cases, his outspokenness, energy and humour. He was very practical in his approach, and advocated temperance, bodily exertion without fatigue, and mental occupation without anxiety, although he `by no means followed his own prescription' (DNB, 1890, p.100).

Gregory was a keen controversialist, and was keen-witted and sarcastic, but wasted his great powers on temporary and irritating controversies' (ibid). His controversy with the physician James Hamilton led to him severely beating Hamilton with a stick, for which he was fined £100 and costs for defamation. He then attacked, in hisMemorial to the Managers' of 1800, the practice of allowing all surgeons in Edinburgh to officiate at the Royal Infirmary in turn.

Gregory spoke out vehemently in opposition to the Edinburgh College of Physicians' recommendation to relax its regulations against the dispensing of medicines by members. The College charged him with violating his oath not to divulge its proceedings and having made false statements. He was found guilty by the College in September 1803, and was suspended from the rights and privileges of the fellowship in May 1809.

Gregory died on 2 April 1823, and was buried in Canongate churchyard, Edinburgh. Five sons and two daughters, by his second wife a Miss McLeod, survived him.

Publications:
De Morbis Coeli Mutatione Medendis (Edinburgh, 1774)
Conspectus Medicinae Theoreticae (Edinburgh, 1780-82)
Philosophical and Literary Essays (2 vols; Edinburgh, 1792)
Additional Memorial to the Managers of the Royal Infirmary (Edinburgh, 1803)
First Lines on the Practice of Physic, William Cullen, edited by James Gregory (Edinburgh, 1812)
Letter from Dr James Gregory in Defence of his Essay on the Difference of the Relation between Motive and Action and that of Cause and Effect in Physics, with replies by A. Crombie, Alexander Crombie and James Gregory (London, 1819)

Publications by others about Gregory:
Answer for the Junior Members of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh to the Memorial of Dr James Gregory, John Bell (Edinburgh, 1800)
Narrative of the Conduct of Dr James Gregory towards the RCPE, Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1809)
Letters on Professional Character and Manners: On the Education of a Surgeon, and the Duties and Qualifications of a Physician: Addressed to James Gregory, MD, John Bell (Edinburgh, 1812)

Reginald Hale-White (1895-1967), general practitioner in London and Principal Medical Officer to the Alliance Assurance Company and the Imperial Life Assurance Company of Canada: Chairman of the Fellowship for Freedom in Medicine from 1955 to 1967.

The Fellowship was founded by Lord Horder in 1948 as a right-wing pressure group to support the interests of private practitioners in medicine and to oppose further extension of state intervention following the establishmernt of the National Health Service.

Sir Henry Halford was born Henry Vaughan in Leicester on 2 October 1766, the second son of James Vaughan, a successful physician in Leicester. Halford's father devoted his entire income to the education of his seven sons. Halford was educated at Rugby from 1774 before he entered Christ Church, Oxford, in 1781, where he graduated BA and MA in 1788. He spent some months in Edinburgh and practiced for a short time with his father in Leicester, before graduating MB in 1790 and MD in 1791. In 1792, after a few months practice at the fashionable resort of Scarborough, he settled in Mayfair in London. He had borrowed £1,000 on his own security on the advice of Sir George Baker, President of the Royal College of Physicians and recognised head of the medical profession in England.

He was elected physician to the Middlesex Hospital in 1793. In the same year, before he was 27 years old, he was appointed physician extraordinary to King George III. In 1794 he was made Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and served in the office of censor in 1795, 1801, and 1815. In 1800 he delivered the Harveian Oration at the College. In the same year, as a result of his practice having become so large, he relinquished his hospital appointment. In 1802 he moved to Curzon Street, where he remained throughout his life. By 1805 his income exceeded £7,000 a year. His patients included the statesmen Charles James Fox, William Pitt and George Canning, and several members of the Royal Family including the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, and three of the King's sons, the Dukes of York, Kent and Cumberland.

Halford inherited a large estate on the death of Lady Denbigh, widow of his mother's cousin, Sir Charles Halford. Consequently he changed his name by Act of Parliament from Vaughan to Halford in 1809. In the same year George III created him baronet. Halford attended the King during his illness, and the Prince Regent made him physician in ordinary to the King in 1812. In 1813 he attended, with the Prince Regent, the opening of the coffin of Charles I, undertaken to identify the former King's remains. On the ascension of George IV he was again made physician in ordinary, and subsequently performed the same duty to William IV and Queen Victoria.

It has been said that he was an eminent physician with good perception and sound judgment, wielding the resources of his art with a confidence, precision, and success, which was unapproached by any of his contemporaries' (Munk's Roll, 1878, p.430). However it is recognised that his knowledge of pathology and accuracy of diagnosis were inferior to Matthew Baillie's, his eminent colleague, and it is said that he disliked innovation. Many of his contemporaries criticised him for behaving as a courtier outside of his role as royal physician. James Wardrop, who had been appointed surgeon to the King in 1828, referred to him as 'the eel-backed baronet'. Ultimately thoughfor many years after Dr Matthew Baillie's death he was indisputably at the head of London practice' (DNB, 1890, p.39).

From 1820 Halford served as president of the Royal College of Physicians, to which office he was unanimously re-elected every year for 24 years until his death. During his presidency one of the most significant changes in the College's history occurred, the ending of the restriction of the Fellowship to Oxbridge graduates alone. He also inaugurated a series of monthly evening meetings, the audiences of which came from all walks of life. Halford was largely instrumental in securing the removal of the College from Warwick Lane to Pall Mall East in 1825, and officially opened the new premises. To mark the occasion the King conferred on him the Star of a Knight Commander of the Guelphic Order (KCH). William IV subsequently promoted him to a Grand Cross of Hanover (GCH).

In 1831 Halford published Essays and Orations Delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, which included papers on 'Tic Douloureux', 'The Treatment of Gout', and 'The Climacteric Disease'. However he made neither significant nor extensive contributions to medical literature. In 1835 he again delivered the Harveian Oration at the College. Due to his office as president of the Royal College of Physicians he became a trustee of the British Museum and president of the National Vaccine Establishment. He had been a keen advocate of vaccination since its introduction by Edward Jenner in 1798. He also became a fellow of the Royal Antiquarian Societies and a trustee of Rugby School.

Halford spent much time in his latter years composing Latin poetry. He continued in practice to within a few months of his death. He had married Elizabeth Barbara St John, daughter of Lord St John of Bletsoe, in 1795. His wife died in 1833, whilst their son and daughter both survived Halford.

Halford died at his home on 9 March 1844, at the age of 77. He was buried in the parish church of Wistow, Leicestershire, where a monument was erected in his memory.

Publications:
An Account of What Appeared on Opening the Coffin of King Charles I, in the vault of King Henry Eighth in St George's Chapel at Windsor (London, 1813)
Oratio in Collegii Regalis Medicorum Londinensis, aedibus novis, habita die dedicationis, Junii XXV, MDCCCXXV (London, 1825)
Essays and Orations Delivered at the Royal College of Physicians; to which is added an Account of the Opening of the Tomb of Charles I (London, 1831; 1842)
On the Education and Conduct of a Physician (London, 1834)
On the Deaths of some Eminent Persons of Modern Times (London, 1835)
On the Effects of Cold (London, 1837)
Nugae Metricae (Latin & English) (London, 1842)

Publications by others about Halford:
The Life of Sir Henry Halford, Bart, William Munk (London, 1895)

William Harvey was born on 1 April 1578 in Folkestone, Kent, the son of Thomas Harvey, a Kentish yeoman, and his second wife Joane. He was the second child and eldest son of a family of ten children. In 1588 he went to King's Grammar School, Canterbury, and then in 1593 to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He graduated BA in 1597 and decided to pursue a career in medicine. In 1598 he traveled through France and Germany to Padua, to study at the most renowned medical school of the time. He studied under Fabricus of Aquapendente, Professor of Anatomy, as well as Thomas Minadous, Professor of Medicine, and Julius Casserius, Professor of Surgery. He graduated on 25 April 1602, before returning to England and graduating MD from Cambridge in the same year.

Harvey moved to London and took a house in the parish of St Martin-extra-Ludgate. In 1604 he married Elizabeth Browne, daughter of Dr Lancelot Browne, former physician to Queen Elizabeth I. On 5 October 1604 he was admitted a candidate of the Royal College of Physicians, and was elected Fellow on 5 June 1607. In February 1608-9 he applied for reversion of the office of physician at St Bartholomew's Hospital, whereupon he produced a recommendation from the King and testimonials from Dr Atkins, President of the Royal College of Physicians, and several senior doctors of the College. He was elected to the reversion, a position equivalent to assistant physician, and worked under Dr Wilkinson. Upon the latter's death in the summer of 1609 Harvey was elected full physician.

From 1609 onwards Harvey's time was divided between his hospital duties, his private practice, his anatomical and physiological research, and his numerous duties at the Royal College of Physicians. He became Censor at the College in 1613, and in 1615 was elected Lumleian Lecturer, a role he fulfilled every other year for the next thirty years. He gave his first set of anatomical lectures at the College on 16-18 April 1616. Originally it was believed that Harvey publicly revealed his concept of the circulation of the blood during these earliest demonstrations, although he did not publish his beliefs until 1928. However it is now accepted that

`complete realization of this doctrine was only arrived at by stages during the first twelve years covered by the lectures' (Keynes, 1978, p.106).

In 1618 Harvey was made physician extraordinary to James I. Five years later he received a promise that he would be made physician in ordinary to the King on the next vacancy, although this did not take place until Charles I had been on the throne for some time. In 1620 Harvey was appointed by the Royal College of Physicians to watch the proceedings of the surgeons who were moving Parliament in their own interest, and was sent to Cambridge where the university declined to join the College. Harvey was Censor again for the College in 1625 and 1629, was named Elect in 1627, and was Treasurer in 1628 and 1629.

In 1628 Harvey published at Frankfurt his discovery of the circulation of the blood, in a book entitled Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sangiunis in Animalibus. Throughout the seventeen chapters `the whole subject is made clear from the beginning and incontestably demonstrated' (DNB, 1891, p.96). Harvey's success in his research has been attributed to the fact that

`his originality stemmed not from the amassing of observations per se but from his remarkable gift for perceiving and pursuing the theoretical implications of his observations' (DSB, 1972, p.152).

In his book he described the movement of the blood around the body, and covered the motions of the arteries and of the ventricles and auricles of the heart, and the use of these movements. He explained that blood is carried out of the heart by arteries and comes back to it via veins, performing a complete circulation. He finally demonstrated that the right ventricle is thinner than the left, as it only has to send the blood to the lungs, whilst the left ventricle has to pump it over the whole body. The book immediately attracted attention and discussion. Whilst a few opposed his theory, such as Caspar Hofmann of Nuremburg, his momentous discovery, `the greatest of the discoveries of physiology' (ibid, p97), was certainly accepted throughout the medical world before his death.

In 1630 he requested leave of absence from St Barts, and resigned from his position of Treasurer at the Royal College of Physicians, to travel with the Duke of Lenox on the King's command to France, Spain and Italy, between 1630 and 1632. It was probably on his return to England that he was sworn in as physician in ordinary to the King. In May 1633 he journeyed to Scotland with Charles I for Charles' coronation as King of Scotland, 18 June 1633. In October of that year St Barts appointed a full physician to allow Harvey more liberty to fulfill his many duties. Harvey then drew up sixteen regulations for the hospital, essentially stating that absolutely incurable cases should not be admitted, and that the surgeon, apothecary, and matron were to discharge all services decently and in person.

Once back in England Harvey was in full attendance on Charles I. He remained heavily involved with the Royal College of Physicians however, regularly attending the comitia, examining applicants for Candidate, and drawing up rules for the library. In July 1634 he made a speech to the apothecaries persuading them to conform to the College orders.

In April 1636 he again left England, this time for Germany and Italy, as part of an embassy sent to Emperor Ferdinand of Germany. Harvey was in attendance on his friend the ambassador Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel. During this diplomatic mission he was able to visit a number of medical colleges, and lectured to students and professors on his theory of blood circulation. Whilst in Germany he visited his critic Hofmann, in Nuremburg, in an attempt to convince him of his theory on the circulation of the blood, but failed.

On returning to England, at the end of 1636, Harvey remained in London until the outbreak of Civil War. From 1639 he was the King's chief physician, and in 1642 he left London with the King. Shortly afterwards his apartment in Whitehall Palace had been ransacked and most of his papers destroyed by the Parliamentarian soldiers. Harvey was present at the Battle of Edgehill, and was in charge of the Prince of Wales and Duke of York during the fighting, although it is said that he `cared little for politics' (ibid, p.98). He subsequently went to Oxford with the King and was incorporated MD on 7 December 1642. In 1643 he resigned from St Barts. He continued his anatomical work, making dissections at Oxford. In 1645 he was made royal mandate warden of Merton College, Oxford.

In 1646, after the surrender of Oxford, Harvey left the university and his appointment as warden and returned to London to live with one of his brothers, all of who were wealthy merchants. His wife had died the previous year in London, unable to leave the capital to join her husband in Oxford. He was now 68 years old and withdrew from practice and from the royal cause. Three years later he published Exercitatio Anatomica de Circulatione Sanguinis, ad Joannem Riolanem filium Parisiensem (1649), a discussion of the arguments against his doctrines set out in Riolanus's book Encheiridium Anatomicum (1648). His last publication, Exercitationes de Generatione Animalium, quibis accedunt quaedam de Partu, de Membranis ac Tumoribus Uteri et de Conceptione, based on his study of embryology, appeared in 1651.

From this period until his death it is said that `the chief object which occupied the mind of Harvey was the welfare and improvement of the College of Physicians' (Munk's Roll, 1878, p.133). In July 1651 Harvey built a library for the College. Although he wished to remain anonymous the source of this generous donation soon became known, and in December 1652 the College decided to erect a statue of Harvey. The library was completed in February 1653-4 and handed over to the College with the title deeds and his whole interest in the building. In 1654 he was elected president, but declined the honour on the grounds of his age. He did however serve on the Council, in 1655 and 1656. In 1656 he also resigned his Lumleian lectureship, but before leaving he donated to the College, in perpetuity, his estate at Burmarsh, Kent, and left an endowment to pay for a librarian and the delivery of an annual oration.

Harvey had suffered from gout for sometime but the attacks became more severe towards the end of his life. He died of a stroke on 3 June 1657 at the age of 79. His body was placed in the family vault at Hempstead, Essex, the fellows of the Royal College of Physicians forming part of the procession from London to Essex. His body remained there until 18 October, St Luke's Day, 1883 when it was moved to a sarcophagus, provided by the College, in the Harvey chapel erected in Hempstead Church. In his will Harvey left his books and papers to the College, a benefaction to Christ's Hospital, and many bequests to his relations. The College posthumously published a collected edition of his works in 1766, whilst a complete translation into English, by the Sydenham Society, appeared in 1847. In his honour the Harveian Oration is delivered every year on St Luke's Day.

Publications:
Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sangiunis in Animalibus (1628; Translated with Introduction & Notes by G. Whitteridge, Oxford, 1976)
Exercitatio Anatomica de Circulatione Sanguinis, ad Joannem Riolanem filium Parisiensem (1649)
Exercitationes de Generatione Animalium, quibis accedunt quaedam de Partu, de Membranis ac Tumoribus Uteri et de Conceptione (1651)
Harvey's post mortem examination of Thomas Parr, the old man of 152, in De Ortu et Natura Sanguinis, Treatise of John Betts (London, 1669)
Eleven Letters of William Harvey to Lord Feilding, June 9 - November 15 1636 posthumously published (privately printed, London 1912)
De Motu Locali Animalium, posthumously published, edited, translated, and introduced by Gweneth Whitteridge (Cambridge, 1959)

Publications by others about Harvey:
Guilielmi Harveii Opera Omnia a Collegio Medicorum, Akenside (ed.), with prefixed biography by Dr Thomas Lawrence (London, 1776)
The Works of William Harvey: Translated from the Latin with a Life of the Author by R. Willis, Robert Willis (Sydenham Society, 1847)
William Harvey: A History of the Discovery of the Circulation of the Blood, Robert Willis (London, 1878)
A Brief Account of the Circumstances Leading to and Attending the Reintombment of the Remains of Dr William Harvey in the Church of Hempstead in Essex, October 1883, William Munk (privately printed, London 1883)
The Life of William Harvey and his Discovery of the Circulation of the Blood, Rowland Hills (London, 1893)
William Harvey (Masters of Medicine), Sir D'Arcy Power (London, 1897)
William Harvey 1578-1657, Raymond Benedict Hervey Wyatt (London, 1924)
A Bibliography of the Writings of William Harvey, MD, Discoverer of the Blood, 1628-1928, Sir G.L. Keynes (Cambridge, 1928)
William Harvey, Thomas Archibald Malloch (New York, 1929)
William Harvey: His Life and Times: his Discoveries: his Methods, Louis Chauvois (London, 1957)
William Harvey, Norman Wymer (Oxford, 1958)
William Harvey, Englishman, 1578-1657, Kenneth James Franklin (London, 1961)
William Harvey, the Man, the Physician and the Scientist, Kenneth David Keele (London, 1965)
William Harvey: Trailblazer of Scientific Medicine, Rebecca B. Marcus (London, 1965)
William Harvey and the Circulation of the Blood, Gweneth Whitteridge (London, 1971)
William Harvey and the Circulation of the Blood (Pioneers of Science and Discovery), Eric Neil (London, 1975)
New Light on William Harvey, Walter Pagel (Basel, 1976)
The Celebration of the 400th Anniversary of the Birth of William Harvey - Scientific and Social Programme, 9-13th July 1978, Royal College of Physicians of London (London, 1978)
The Life of William Harvey, Geoffrey Keynes (Oxford, 1978)
William Harvey and His Age: The Professional and Social Context of the Discovery of the Circulation, Jerome J. Bylebyl (Baltimore, c.1979)
The Diary of William Harvey: The Imaginary Journal of the Physician who Revolutionised Medicine, Jean Hamburger, translated by Barbara Wright (New Jersey, 1992)
William Harvey's Natural Philosophy, Roger Kenneth French (Cambridge, 1994)

John Latham was born on 29 December 1761, at Gawsworth, Cheshire, the eldest son of the Rev. John Latham, vicar of Siddington, Cheshire. Latham acquired his early education at Manchester Grammar School. In 1778 he entered Brasenose College, Oxford. He proceeded BA in 1782, and MA in 1784. Between 1782 and 1784 he studied medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London. In 1784 he began to practice medicine in Manchester, where he was elected physician to the town's infirmary. In 1786 he resigned the office and returned to Oxford where he graduated MB in the same year. The following year he was appointed physician to the Radcliffe Infirmary and graduated MD in 1788.

In 1788 Latham moved to London and set up his home and practice in Bedford Row. His exertions on settling in the capital were excessive, and he consequently established a large, lucrative practice. He was admitted a candidate of the Royal College of Physicians in the same year, and became a fellow in 1789. It was also in 1789 that he was elected physician of the Middlesex Hospital and the Magdalen Hospital. From his election as fellow he played an active roll in the life of the College, for example acting as censor on several occasions between 1790 and 1807. In 1791 he published A Plan of a Charitable Institution to be Established on the Sea Coast. In 1792 Latham undertook to arrange the College library, the result proved so satisfactory that his colleagues voted him the sum of £100. In 1793 he resigned from the Middlesex and became physician to St Bartholomew's Hospital.

Latham gave several of the eponymous lectures of the Royal College of Physicians, including the Goulstonian Lectures in 1793, the Harveian Oration in 1794, and the Croonian Lectures in 1795. In 1795 he was appointed physician extraordinary to the Prince of Wales. The following year Latham published On Rheumatism and Gout, in which he detailed an elaborate treatment and argued that neither acute rheumatism nor gout were hereditary. In 1802 Latham retired from his position at St Bartholomew's.

In 1807, at the age of 46, Latham retired to the country, due to exhaustion brought on by his intense labour. It was believed that he was consumptive and that he might die. However away from his professional business he regained his health and eventually recovered. He returned to London and began a more moderate practice, based in Harley Street.

In 1811 Latham published Facts and Opinions concerning Diabetes, and authored many medical papers which were published in the Royal College of Physicians's Medical Transactions. His writings `show that the parts of physic in which he excelled were clinical observation and acquaintance with the materia medica' (DNB, 1892, p.166). Latham was President of the College from 1813-19. In 1816 he founded the Medical Benevolent Society. When the Prince of Wales ascended to the throne as George IV in 1820, Latham was reappointed physician extraordinary.

In 1829 Latham finally left London and retired to Bradwall Hall in Cheshire. He had married Mary Mere in 1874, and they had had three sons. Their second son Peter Mere Latham, born in 1789, also became a physician, whilst the first and third sons, John and Henry, were both poetical writers. Latham died on 20 April 1843 at the age of 81, after suffering from stones in the bladder.

Publications:
Diatribae duae encaemicae coram Collegio Regali Medicorum Londinensi, scilicet Oratio Harveiana et Praelectio Crooniana (London, 1795?)
On Rheumatism and Gout: A Letter Addressed to Sir George Baker (London, 1796)
The New Pharmacopoeia of the Royal College of Physicians (index by John Latham) (London, 1796, 7th edition; 1801 8th edition)
Facts and Opinions concerning Diabetes (London, 1811)

Peter Mere Latham was born in London on 1 July 1789, the second son of John Latham, physician. He was first educated at the free school of Sandbach, Cheshire, and then from 1797 at Macclesfield Grammar School. He entered Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1806. He graduated BA in 1810 and began his medical studies at St Bartholomew's Hospital and the Carey Street Public Dispensary under the tutelage of Thomas Bateman, dermatologist and physician. Whilst studying at the Dispensary he met the celebrated Richard Bright, physician, with whom he established a life-long friendship. He proceeded MA in 1813, and then MB in 1814. Latham took a house in Gower Street and in 1815 was appointed physician to the Middlesex Hospital. In 1816 he delivered a course of lectures on the practice of physic in London. He graduated MD in the same year.

Latham was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1818, and delivered the College's Goulstonian Lectures the following year. In 1820 he was a censor for the College, and held that office again in 1833 and 1837. In March 1823 he and Peter Mark Roget, fellow physician and savant, were asked by the government to undertake the investigation of an epidemic disorder then rife in the Millbank Penitentiary. They found the epidemic to be scurvy and dysentery, which they concluded was due to an insufficient diet. Consequently they recommended for the prisoners at least one solid meal a day, better bread, and 3lbs of meat every fortnight. Latham subsequently published An Account of the Disease lately prevalent at the General Penitentiary (1825).

In 1824 Latham resigned from the Middlesex Hospital and was appointed physician to St Bartholomew's Hospital. In 1827 he delivered the Royal College of Physician's Lumleian Lectures. Latham published his Essays on some Diseases of the Heart' in the Medical Gazette (1828). In them he maintained that administering mercury until it produced salivation was essential for the cure of pericarditis. Latham's particular interest in heart diseases had been encouraged by the recent invention of the stethoscope by the French physician Laennec. In 1836 Latham was elected joint lecturer on medicine, with fellow physician Dr (later Sir) George Burrows, at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School. It has been said of Latham thathis clinical teaching was excellent' (DNB, 1892, p.167). It was also in 1836 that he published Lectures on Subjects connected with Clinical Medicine, of which the first six are on methods of study and observation, the next six on auscultation and percussion, and two more on phthisis.

In 1837 he was appointed physician extraordinary to Queen Victoria, an office which he retained until his death. Latham never acquired a large private practice. In 1839 he delivered the Harveian Oration at the Royal College of Physicians, which he subsequently published. In 1841 he resigned from St Bartholomew's Hospital due to frequent attacks of asthma, from which he had suffered from an early age. Latham published Lectures on Clinical Medicine, comprising Diseases of the Heart in 1845. This was described as `a work of great originality, full of careful observation, and containing a discussion of all parts of the subject' (ibid). It has also been said of his work that

`although most remedies Latham advocated have proved ineffective, his descriptions of the clinical symptoms and physical findings in his patients remain interesting and instructive' (Fye, 1989, p.610).

In 1865 he relinquished his small practice and left London to settle in Torquay. He was married twice, firstly to Diana Clarissa Chetwynd Stapleton in 1824, who had died the following year, and then to Grace Mary Chambers, with whom he had four children all of whom survived him. He died in Torquay on 20 July 1875, at the age of 86.

Publications:
An Account of the Disease lately prevalent at the General Penitentiary (London, 1825)
Lectures on Subjects connected with Clinical Medicine (London, 1836)
Oratio ex Harveii instituto habita..., MDCCCXXXIX (London, 1839?)
Lectures on Subjects connected with Clinical Medicine, comprising Diseases of the Heart (London, 1845-46, 2nd ed.)
Collected Works, with Memoir by Sir Thomas Watson, Robert Martin (ed.) (London, 1876-78)
Aphorisms from Latham; edited by W.B. Bean, William Bennett Bean (ed.) (Iowa, 1962)

William Macmichael was born in Bridgnorth, Shropshire on 30 November 1783, the son of William Macmichael, a banker of Bridgnorth. He was educated at Bridgnorth Grammar School and then entered Christchurch, Oxford, in 1800 on a scholarship. He proceeded BA in 1805, MA in 1807, and MB in 1808. He spent the next three years continuing his medical studies in Edinburgh and then at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London. In 1811 he was elected to one of the Radcliffe traveling fellowships, and traveled for several years, visiting Greece, Russia, the Danubian principalities (now Romania), Bulgaria, Turkey and Palestine. In 1812 whilst in Thermopylae, Greece, he contracted malaria. He suffered intermittently from fevers for the next two years. In 1814, less than two years after Napolean Bonaparte's defeat, Macmichael visited Moscow, which he found to be in ruins. He was employed for a short time as physician to the Marquis of Londonderry, Charles William Vane, whilst he was ambassador at Vienna. Macmichael returned from his travels, having received the news that his bankers had failed and that most of his money was lost. He graduated MD at Oxford in 1816.

He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1817, and a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians the following year. He returned to Europe in 1817-18 before settling to practice in London. In 1819 he published an account of his travels illustrated by his own drawings, A Journey from Moscow to Constantinople in the Years 1817, 1818. He became closely involved with the Royal College of Physicians, where he was appointed censor in 1820. In 1822 he was elected physician to the Middlesex Hospital. In the same year he published his first medical work, A New View of the Infection of Scarlet Fever: Illustrated by Remarks on other Contagious Disorders. Having realised that second attacks of the scarlet fever were rare, he advocated if one child in a family developed the disease it was wise to let the other children contract it.

From 1824-29 he was registrar at the College, serving during the College's move from its premises in Warwick Lane, to Pall Mall East, in 1825. During this time Macmichael anonymously published the biographical work The Gold-Headed Cane (1827), which tells of the adventures of the physician's cane carried by John Radcliffe, Richard Mead, Anthony Askew, William Pitcairn and Matthew Baillie in turn. It gives both good biographies of the owners and information on the condition of medicine in 18th century England.

In 1829 Macmichael was appointed physician extraordinary to the King, George IV. The following year he published a small volume entitled The Lives of British Physicians (1830), again anonymously. This work consisted of eighteen biographies by himself and others, of such eminent physicians as Thomas Linacre, John Caius, and William Harvey. It has been said that the work was of `the same merit of style as the Gold-Headed Cane; they contain much information, and are never dry' (DNB, 1893, p.230). It was also in 1830 that Macmichael became librarian to the King, and in 1831 physician in ordinary to the new King, William IV. He had treated the King for gout before he succeeded to the throne, and the King gave Macmichael his own gold-headed cane, as free from gout he no longer needed it. He was indebted to his patron Sir Henry Halford for these appointments, but despite this powerful patronage Macmichael never acquired a large practice.

In 1831 he resigned from the Middlesex Hospital. He was censor again for the Royal College of Physicians in 1832. The following year Macmichael was appointed as Inspector General of Lunatic Asylums, one of four commissioners whose job it was to license and inspect London's madhouses. Macmichael carried out this duty until 1835. The following year, at the College, he was made Consiliarius (adviser or counsellor to the President).

In 1837 he suffered an attack of paralysis. Compelled to withdraw from professional life, he retired to Maida Hill. He had married Mary Jane Freer in 1827 and they had one daughter. Macmichael died on 10 January 1839 at the age of 55.

Publications:
A Journey from Moscow to Constantinople in the Years 1817, 1818 (London, 1819)
A New View of the Infection of Scarlet Fever: Illustrated by Remarks on other Contagious Disorders (London, 1822)
A Brief Sketch of the Progress of Opinion upon the Subject of Contagion, with some Remarks on Quarantine (London, 1825)
The Gold-Headed Cane (London, 1827; 2nd ed. 1828; 3rd ed. by Munk with additions, 1884)
Lives of British Physicians (London, 1830)
Is the Cholera Spasmodica of India a Contagious Disease? The Question Considered in a Letter to Sir Henry Halford, Bart, MD (London, 1831)
Some Remarks on Dropsy, with a Narrative of the Last Illness of the Duke of York, read at the Royal College of Physicians, May 25, 1835 (London, 1835)

Various

Sir Theodore Turquet de Mayerne was born on 28 September 1573 in Geneva, the son of Louis Turquet de Mayerne, a protestant French historian. Theodore Beza, John Calvin's successor, was Mayerne's godfather and namesake. After being educated in Geneva Mayerne went to the University of Heidelberg, where he studied for several years. Physic was his chosen profession and he went to Montpelier to pursue his medical studies. He proceeded MB in 1596, and MD in 1597.

Mayerne then moved to Paris where he lectured on anatomy and pharmacy. He had become greatly interested in chemistry, and in his medical practice made considerable use of chemical remedies. His support of this then recent innovation brought him into favour with Lazarus Riverius, first physician to Henry IV of France, who then procured Mayerne an appointment as one of the King's physicians in 1600. However Mayerne's support equally antagonised the Faculty of Paris, who would accept no dissent from Galen. In 1603 Mayerne, in conjunction with Quercetanus, was attacked by the Faculty in print, in Apologia pro Medicina Hippocratis et Galeni, contra Mayernium et Quercetanum. Mayerne responded with an apologetic answer, and his only medical publication, Apologia in qua videre est, inviolatis Hippocratis et Galeni legibus, Remedia Chemice praeparata tuto usurpari posse. Rupel. 1603. In this he demonstrated that chemical remedies were not only in accordance with the principles but also with the practice of Hippocrates and Galen.

Despite another interdict from the Galenists Mayerne remained in favour with the King, who appointed him to attend the Duke de Rohan in his embassies to the courts of Germany and Italy. Although he continued to rise in the King's esteem, Mayerne failed to secure the advantages the King offered because he refused to renounce his protestant beliefs and conform to the Church of Rome. Whilst the King would still have appointed him first physician, the Queen intervened to prevent it. Mayerne continued as physician in ordinary to the King until 1606, when he sold his place to a French physician.

It is thought that it was in the early part of 1606 that Mayerne came to England, on the invitation of an English nobleman he had treated in Paris. He was appointed physician to James I's Queen, Anne of Denmark, and was incorporated at Oxford on his Montpelier degree on 8 April 1606. It is thought that he spent the next few years in France, until the assassination of Henry IV on 14 May 1610 when he returned again to England. This was upon the request of James I, made via letters patent under the Great Seal. On his arrival the King appointed him first physician to himself and the Queen, and from this point until his death Dr Mayerne appears to have been considered one of the first physicians in the kingdom' (Munk's Roll, 1878, p.165). His practice soon thrived; he even had French patients cross the Channel to consult him. His patients included Sir Robert Cecil and Prince Henry, about whose demise by typhoid fever he wrote a detailed state paper. This document remainsa valuable monument of the medicine of the time' (DNB, 1894, p.151).

In 1616 Mayerne was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. The following year he was influential in obtaining a charter for the Society of Apothecaries, separating them from the Grocers, and was later the chief founder of the Company of Distillers. In 1618 he wrote the dedication of the first Pharmacopoeia Londinensis to the King. At about this time Mayerne revisited France. He was however in England again in 1624 when he was knighted at Theobalds. In the same year he wrote a collection of prescriptions and methods of practice for his colleagues, explaining that he would again be absent from his duties for a time. It has been said about this undertaking that

`certain prudential rules for their conduct are prefixed, which show the man of sense and liberal sentiments, but might, perhaps, be thought somewhat assuming and officious, considering the persons to whom they were addressed' (Munk's Roll, p.166).

In 1625 Mayerne returned for a short time to Switzerland, to his house in Aubonne, where a few years earlier he had taken the title Baron Aubonne.

On the accession of Charles I in 1625, Mayerne was appointed first physician to the King and Queen. During his reign Mayerne rose still higher in reputation and authority. His leisure time was spent conducting chemical and physical experiments, which he had begun in Paris. He introduced calomel into medical practice and invented the mercurial lotion known as the black-wash (lotio nigra). He experimented on pigments, and consequently did much to advance the art of enameling. He mixed paints and varnishes for artists, and cosmetics for the ladies at Court. It has been said of him that he was

`an innovator and a man of new ideas, and for that reason was perhaps over-anxious to prove his respect for what had long been generally received' (DNB, p.152).

Mayerne is ultimately famous for his copious case notes, the detail of which was extraordinary for his time.

It is thought that he remained in London, at his house in St Martin's Lane, during the Civil War, attending patients. On Charles I's execution in 1649, he was made nominal first physician to Charles II. In the same year he retired to Chelsea.

Mayerne was twice married, first to Marguerite de Boetslaer, by whom he had three children. His wife died in 1628. In 1630 he married Elizabeth Joachimi, by whom he had five children, of whom just one daughter survived him. Mayerne died at Chelsea on 22 March 1654/5. His body was interred in the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, with the bodies of his mother, first wife, and five of his children. A monument was erected in his memory, with an inscription written by his godson, Sir Theodore des Vaux.

In 1690 Vaux published Praxis Medica, which contained a series of Mayerne's medical notes. In 1701 Joseph Browne published Mayernii Opera Medica, complectantia Consilia, Epistolas et Observationes, Pharmacopoeiam, variasque Medicamentorum formulas. Lond., which contains Mayerne's long counsels written in reply to letters. These offer some illumination of the duties of a fashionable physician in the early 17th century.

Publications:
Sommaire Description de la France, Allemange, Italie et Espagne (1592)
Apologia in qua videre est, inviolatis Hippocratis et Galeni legibus, Remedia Chemice praeparata tuto usurpari posse. Rupel. 1603

Publications by others about Mayerne:
Praxis Medica, Sir Theodore des Vaux (ed) (London, 1690)
Mayernii Opera Medica, complectantia Consilia, Epistolas et Observationes, Pharmacopoeiam, variasque Medicamentorum formulas. Lond. 1701 Joseph Browne (ed.)
`Rubens and Mayerne', Charles Davis (MA Thesis) (North Carolina, 1967)
Turquet de Mayerne as Baroque Physician: The Art of Medical Portraiture, Brian Nance (Amsterdam, 2001)

Born, 1771; education, the free grammar school, Marlborough and a school in Old Burlington Street, London; medical education mainly under his paternal uncle, also Samuel Merriman, a distinguished obstetrician; qualified, 1800; member of the Society of Apothecaries, 1800; initially practised as an apothecary but began to specialise in midwifery; from 1808 he was physician accoucheur, consulting physician accoucheur, and vice-president at the Westminster Dispensary; employed by the board of St George's, Hanover Square, to attend all difficult births in the parish, 1808; physician accoucheur to the Middlesex and Westminster lying-in hospitals, 1809; lectured on obstetrics at the Middlesex Hospital, 1810-; taught at St Bartholomew's Hospital, 1820-1821; died, 1852.

Publications: Synopsis of the Various Kinds of Difficult Parturition (1814)

Charles Murchison was born on 26 July 1830 in Jamaica, the son of the Hon. Alexander Murchison, physician. At the age of three Murchison returned with his family to Scotland and settled in Elgin, where he was educated. He entered the University of Aberdeen in 1845 as a student of arts, and two years later began to study medicine at Edinburgh University. He distinguished himself in surgery, botany, and midwifery, gaining a large number of prizes. In 1850 he passed the examination for membership of the Royal College of Surgeons, at little over twenty years old. In the same year he became house surgeon to James Syme, professor of surgery at Edinburgh University. In 1851 Murchison graduated MD, with his thesis on the structure of tumours, which won him a gold medal.

Murchison became physician to the British embassy at Turin, Italy, before returning to Edinburgh in 1852, where he served for a short time as resident physician in the city's Royal Infirmary. He continued his medical studies at Dublin and Paris before, in 1853, entering the Bengal Medical Service of the East India Company. Shortly after reaching India he was made professor of chemistry at the Medical College of Calcutta. In 1854 he served on an expedition to Burma, and the following year his two papers on the `Climate and Diseases of Burmah' were published in the Edinburgh Medical Journal (January and April 1855). In the autumn of 1855 Murchison left the service and moved to London.

Settling in London he became physician to the Westminster General Dispensary, and shortly afterwards lecturer on botany and curator of the museum at St Mary's Hospital. He also became a member of the Royal College of Physicians, and of the Pathological Society, in 1855. Throughout his career he contributed 143 papers and reports to the Transactions of the society. In 1856 he was appointed assistant physician to both the London Fever Hospital and King's College Hospital. In 1859 he was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.

He resigned from King's College Hospital in 1860 and was appointed assistant physician and lecturer on pathology at the Middlesex Hospital. In 1861 he was made full physician at the London Fever Hospital, and became a specialist on fevers. From 1861-69 he edited the hospital's Annual Reports. Murchison's most important contribution to medical science was A Treatise on the Continued Fevers of Great Britain (1862). The work was subsequently translated into German and French, and came to be regarded as the leading authority on the subject. In 1866 he was promoted to the position of full physician at the Middlesex Hospital, and in the same year became a fellow of the Royal Society. Another area of interest to Murchison was liver disease, and in 1868 he published his Clinical Lectures on Diseases of the Liver, Jaundice and Abdominal Dropsy.

In 1870 he retired from the London Fever Hospital, and was presented with a testimonial by public subscription. In the same year he received an honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh. The following year he resigned from the Middlesex Hospital in order to become physician and lecturer on medicine at St Thomas's Hospital, both of these appointments he held until his death. He gained a high reputation as a clinical teacher. He was considered brilliant, although dogmatic in his approach, and was a keen controversialist. His consulting practice grew, and he became known for his `accuracy and prompt decision' (DNB, 1894, p.317). He was also an extremely prolific writer, submitting over 300 papers to various medical journals.

In 1873 he traced the origin of an epidemic of typhoid fever to a polluted supply of milk. Afterwards grateful residents of West London presented him with a testimonial. He gave the Croonian Lectures to the Royal College of Physicians in the same year, on the subject of liver disease. In 1875 he was an examiner in medicine to the University of London. For two years, from 1877 to his death, Murchison was president of the Pathological Society. He was appointed physician-in-ordinary to the Duke and Duchess of Connaught at the beginning of 1879.

Murchison died suddenly of heart disease at the age of 48, on 23 April 1879, whilst seeing patients in his consulting room. He was buried at Norwood cemetery. Murchison had married Clara Elizabeth Bickersteth in 1859, and they had had nine children, his wife and six of his children survived him. In his memory was founded the Murchison Scholarship, awarded in alternate years by the Royal College of Physicians and Edinburgh University. A marble portrait bust of Murchison was also placed in St Thomas's Hospital.

Publications:
A Clinical Treatise on Diseases of the Liver, Friedrich Theodor Frerichs, translated by Charles Murchison (London, 1860-61)
A Treatise on the Continued Fevers of Great Britain (London, 1862; 2nd ed. 1873; 3rd ed. 1884) (German translation, 1867; French translation of part, 1878)
Clinical Lectures on Diseases of the Liver, Jaundice, and Abdominal Dropsy (London, 1868; 2nd ed. incl. Functional Derangements of the Liver, 1877; 3rd ed. 1885) (French translation, 1878)
Paleontological Memoirs and Notes; with a Biographical Sketch, compiled and edited by Charles Murchison, Hugh Falconer (ed. Charles Murchison) (London, 1868)
Three Rare Forms of Disease of the Liver, Characterised by the Deposit of Nuclear Tissue (London, 1869)
On Functional Derangements of the Liver (London, 1874)

Born, 1824; educated at Wakefield School; Trinity College, Oxford, 1844; medical school in Kinnerton Street attached to St George's Hospital, London; licentiate, 1850, and Fellow, 1855, of the Royal College of Physicians; MA and MB, 1851; MD, 1857; worked at morbid anatomy and was Curator of the Museum, St George's Hospital; assistant physician, 1857; full physician, 1866; resigned from St George's, 1876; returned to active practice and Consulting Physician for St George's Hospital, 1877; died, 1905.

Edward Roux was born in the northern Transvaal, South Africa, in 1903, the son of an English mother and an Afrikaner father. He grew up in Johannesburg, where his father opened a pharmacy in 1907. Roux's father was a free-thinker and Roux, while still a student, helped found the Young Communists League in 1921. In 1923 he joined the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA). After completing his first degree at the University of the Witwatersrand he was awarded a scholarship to Cambridge University, where he spent the years 1926-1929 completing a PhD and carrying out research on plant physiology. In 1928 he visited Moscow as a South African delegate to the 6th Congress of the Communist International. He returned to South Africa in 1929, and by 1930 was engaged on full-time political work as editor of 'Umsebnzi', the Communist weekly. He remained active until 1935 when he was removed from the party's political bureau for aleged right wing sympathies. He left the CPSA in 1936 and took no direct part in politics for the next 20 years. He returned to his academic career and in 1945 he joined the faculty of the University of the Witwatersrand, where he became professor of botany in 1962. In 1957 he became an active member of the multiracial Liberal Party of South Africa. Although 'named' as a former member of the CPSA in 1950 he was not singled out for persecution by the Nationalist government until the early 1960s. In 1963 he was forced to resign from the Liberal Party under new ruled banning 'named' persons, and in 1964 he was issued a full array of banning orders, prohibiting him from teaching, publishing, attending gatherings, being quoted, or leaving Johannesburg. He died in 1966.
Publications S P Banting - A Political Biography, 1944; Longer than Rope [the first major history of African nationalism in South Africa], 1948, numerous articles and pamphlets. His autobiography Rebel Pity: The Life of Eddie Roux was written with his wife Winifred, and published posthumously in 1970.

Roger Southall received a PhD from Birmingham University in 1975. Since then he has worked on East Africa and South Africa, publishing in 1983 South Africa's Transkei: the political economy of an independent Bantustan.