British Society for the History of Medicine
The British Society for the History of Medicine (BSHM) is an umbrella organisation for medical history societies throughout the UK. It has grown from the original four affiliated societies to twenty affiliated societies in 2016. The society holds its Congress on alternate years in centres around the UK, with the Poynter Lecture being held on alternate years in London.
Origins
The BSHM was founded in 1965 with four original societies - The Section of the History of Medicine of the Royal Society of Medicine, the Osler Club of London, the then Faculty of the History of Medicine and Pharmacy of the Society of Apothecaries of London and the Scottish Society of the History of Medicine.[1][2][3] The first president of the BSHM was Douglas Guthrie, an Edinburgh surgeon who had later become a successful and well known medical historian.[4] He had been the driving force in establishing the Scottish Society of the History of Medicine in 1948, and he was also elected first president of that society. Guthrie's reputation as a medical historian was enhanced by the publication of his major work A History of Medicine.[5]
Affiliated Societies
Members of affiliated societies become members of the BSHM. Most of these are from the world of medicine, pharmacy, dentistry and nursing. In 2016 the following societies were affiliated:
Bristol Medico-Historical Society www.bristolmedchi.co.uk/the-bristol-medico-historical-society
British Society for the History of ENT www.historyofent.com/
British Society for the History of Paediatrics and Child Health www.bshpch.com/
British Society for the History of Pharmacy www.bshp.org
British Society for the History of Radiology www.bshr.org.uk
History of Anaesthesia Society www.histansoc.org.uk
History of Medicine Society of Wales www.homsw.org.uk
Lindsay Society for the History of Dentistry www.bda.org/museum/dental-links/lindsay-society
Liverpool Medical History Society www.lmi.org.uk/LiverpoolMedicalHistorySociety.aspx
Medical Sciences Historical Society www.ibms.org/go/nm/mshs
Osler Club of London www.osler.org.uk/
Royal Society of Medicine – History of Medicine Society www.rsm.ac.uk/sections/sections-and-networks-list/history-of-medicine-society.aspx
The Scottish Society of the History of Medicine http://sshm.ac.uk
Sheffield Aesculapian Society
Suffolk Medical History Society
Ulster Society for the History of Medicine www.ums.ac.uk/ushm.html
Wellcome Library wellcomelibrary.org/
West Sussex History of Medicine Society
Worcester Medical Museums www.medicalmuseum.org.uk
Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London (Faculty of the History and Philosophy of Medicine and Pharmacy) www.apothecaries.org/
Congresses
The BSHM Congresses have taken place at centres throughout the UK. This takes the form of a two- or three-day meeting where keynote lectures are delivered and peer-reviewed papers and posters are presented.
Venues for BSHM Congresses
- 1960 London - Proceedings published as The Evolution of Medical Practice in Britain[6]
- 1961 London - Proceedings published as Chemistry in the Service of Medicine[7]
- 1962 London - Proceedings published as The Evolution of Hospitals in Britain[8]
- 1963 Nottingham - Proceedings published as The Evolution of Pharmacy in Britain[9]
- 1964 London - Proceedings published as The Evolution of Medical Education in Britain[10]
- 1967 Brighton - Proceedings published as Medicine and Science in the 1860s[11]
- 1969 Cambridge - Proceedings published as Cambridge and its Contribution to Medicine[12]
- 1971 Liverpool
- 1973 Swansea/Cardiff - Proceedings published as Wales and Medicine[13]
- 1984 Swansea - Proceedings published as Child Care Through the Centuries[14]
- 1986 Edinburgh - Proceedings published as The Influence of Scottish Medicine[15]
- 1988 Bath - Proceedings published as A Pox on the Provinces[16]
- 1989 Birmingham
- 1991 Dublin
- 1993 Newcastle - Proceedings published as Medicine in Northumbria[17]
- 1995 St Andrews
- 1997 Bristol
- 1999 Leeds
- 2001 Birmingham
- 2003 Reading
- 2005 Exeter
- 2007 Dundee
- 2009 Belfast
- 2011 Guildford
- 2013 Canterbury
- 2015 Leeds
Poynter lectures
The lectures are named for Dr. Noël Poynter, past president of BSHM, who was Director of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine from 1964 to 1973. He made a number of important contributions to the study of the history of medicine and his influence was felt throughout the world. Poynter devoted much time and energy to societies devoted to the study of the history of medicine. He was a prime mover in the founding of the Faculty of the History of Medicine of the Society of Apothecaries in 1958. He was an active member of the Société Internationale d’Histoire de la Médecine, contributing to its reorganisation. He went on to become Secretary-General and then President of the International Academy of the History of Medicine. His links with American historians led to his appointment to the editorial board of the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. Poynter was a regular contributor to journals and author of a series of books, many of which dealt with medicine in Tudor and Stuart times. These included The Selected Writings of William Clowes (1544-1608), A Seventeenth Century Doctor and His Patients: John Symcott, William Harvey: Lectures on the Whole of Anatomy. In 1961 he published A Short History of Medicine, a brief account of the evolution of medicine aimed at a younger readership, while Medicine and Man (1971) addressed social aspects of the history of medicine. He founded and then edited the journal Medical History from 1957 until 1973.
Poynter Lectures and Lecturers
17th Poynter Lecture, 12th October 2016 "Finding Patients in the Medical Museum" Lecturer: Dr Sam Alberti
16th Poynter Lecture, 15 October 2014 “Preaching, Politics and Philanthropy: The Quakers in Pharmacy 1650 to 1900” Lecturer: Dr Stuart Anderson
15th Poynter Lecture, 21 March 2012 “Shocking Bodies” Lecturer: Dr Iwan Rhys Morus
14th Poynter Lecture, 24 March 2010 “The ethics and etiquette of patient care in the Georgian era” Lecturer: Dr Ruth Richardson
13th Poynter Lecture, 26 March 2008 “Leonardo’s Philosophical Anatomies” Lecturer: Professor Martin Kemp
12th Poynter Lecture, 14 March 2006 “Remedies from our natural flora: piecing together an under-related tradition” Lecturer: Dr. David E. Allen
11th Poynter Lecture, 7 April 2004 “Experimental Lives; Medicine and the Lunar Society” Lecturer: Jenny Uglow OBE
10th Poynter Lecture, 8 May 2002 “For love or money? Amateurs and professionals as historians of modern medicine” Lecturer: Dr Tilli Tansey
9th Poynter Lecture, 10 May 2000 “Does a ‘National’ Health Service make ‘Regional’ History trivial?” Lecturer: Professor John Pickstone
8th Poynter Lecture, 11th May 1998 “Government, Charities and the fundraising of Medical research 1948-1998” Lecturer: Dr Bridget Ogilvie
7th Poynter Lecture, 28 June 1996 “The Olympic Cult of Health, Baron Coubertin and the Neurasthenic Nineties” Lecturer: Professor Michael Biddiss
6th Poynter Lecture, 23 May 1994 “Knives and Bodies in Scottish heraldry” Lecturer: Charles C Burnett KStJ
5th Poynter Lecture, 25th Nov 1992 “Caterpillars in Commonwealth Anglo-European Medical relations in the Sixteenth century” Lecturer: Dr Vivian Nutton
4th Poynter Lecture, 20 June 1990 “Some Irish Medical Humanists” Lecturer: Professor Jack Lyons
3rd Poynter Lecture, Wednesday 20 May 1987 “The role of the microscope in the development of medicine” Lecturer: Dr Brian Bracegirdle
2nd Poynter Lecture, 30 May 1985 “Leonardo on natural mathematics” Lecturer: Dr. Kenneth Keele
1st Poynter Lecture, 27 September 1983 “The first Poynter Lecture” Lecturer: Mrs Dodie Poynter
References
- ↑ Med Hist. 1965 Oct; 9(4): 390–391 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1033538/pdf/medhist00153-0097.pdf
- ↑ Jackson, Mark (2011). The Oxford handbook of the history of medicine (Reprinted. ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 3–4. ISBN 9780199546497.
- ↑ Porter, Dorothy (1995). "The Mission of Social History of Medicine: An Historical View". Social History of Medicine. 8 (3): 345–359. doi:10.1093/shm/8.3.345.
- ↑ http://www.surgeonsnews.com/professional-update/douglas-guthrie-and-his-legacy
- ↑ https://archive.org/details/historyofmedicin035119mbp
- ↑ Poynter, F.N.L (ed) (1961). The Evolution of Medical Practice in Britain. London: Pitman Medical.
- ↑ Poynter, F.N.L (ed) (1963). Chemistry in the Service of Medicine. London: Pitman Medical.
- ↑ Poynter, F.N.L.(ed) (1964). The Evolution of Hospitals in Britain. London: Pitman Medical.
- ↑ Poynter, F.N.L. (ed) (1965). The Evolution of Pharmacy in Britain. London: Pitman Medical.
- ↑ Poynter, F.N.L. (ed) (1965). The Evolution of Medical Education in Britain. London: Pitman Medical.
- ↑ Poynter, F.N.L. (ed) (1968). Medicine and Science in the 1860s. London: Wellcome Institute.
- ↑ Rook, Arthur (ed) (1971). Cambridge and its Contribution to Medicine. London: Wellcome Institute.
- ↑ Cule, John (ed) (1975). Wales and Medicine. Llandysul: National Library of Wales. ISBN 0850882605.
- ↑ Cule, John; Turner, Terence (eds). Child Care Through the Centuries. Cardiff: STS Publishing. ISBN 0 948917 00 8.
- ↑ Dow, Derek (ed) (1988). The Influence of Scottish Medicine. Carnforth: Parthenon Publishing. ISBN 1 85070 148 2.
- ↑ Rolls, Roger; Guy, Jean; Guy, John (eds) (1990). A Pox on the Provinces. Bath University Press. ISBN 0 86197 112 4.
- ↑ Gardner-Medwin, David; Hargreaves, Anne; Lazenby, Elizabeth (1993). Medicine in Northumbria. Newcastle: Pybus Society. ISBN 0 9522097 0 5.