Library Blog

An excursion through the Library poetry collection, demonstrating the long history of convergence between medicine and poetry.

A guide to getting started with ClinicalKey, one of our top resources, guiding our members to the resources they need to enhance their clinical practice.

The different illnesses and ailments suffered on ships, how they were combatted, and the brilliance of an unassuming medical guide kept onboard.

This year, English Heritage’s London Blue Plaques Scheme will unveil a very special plaque celebrating the life and work of one of the first female neurosurgeons in the UK. This is just one of the many achievements of Diana Beck (1902–1956), pioneer neurosurgeon and fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Her story is that of a remarkable individual who made significant contributions both to her field and the overall cause of women in medicine while striving for recognition and leadership in a male-dominated arena.

In a series of three blog posts published on successive Fridays during the Paris games, we chart the achievements of surgeons who have participated in the Olympics. This week: Howard Somervell (1890-1975) The Olympian Mountaineer.

In a series of three blog posts published on successive Fridays during the Paris games, we chart the achievements of surgeons who have participated in the Olympics. This week: Henry Stallard (1901-1973) The Olympian Ophthalmologist.

In a series of three blog posts published on successive Fridays during the Paris games, we chart the achievements of surgeons who have participated in the Olympics. First up: Arthur Porritt (1900-1994) An Olympian President.

A cursory look into 19th century’s fascination with poison and poisonings, alongside the contemporary developments in toxicology and forensic science.

Learn how health resorts were used in medical treatment in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and how people could find out which resort was best for them.

The advantages and limitations of using PICO for surgical research.

Pioneering pathologist Dr Joan M. Ross won the John Hunter medal for her outstanding contributions to pathological anatomy in 1946, Learn more about this "staunch friend and wise teacher", a true individual who, despite having written a standard textbook in the subject, has thus far not received the same acclaim as other early women pathologists.

Our Henry Lumley Collections Engagement researcher, Wendy Suffield, contemplates the authorship and other questions raised by an item from the College Archives, namely MS0175 Translation of Gilbertus Anglicus "The Sekenesse of Wymmen" [formerly identified as the "Liber Trotularis"].

A survey of the Library's Voices of Surgery oral history project, and the plans for its future.

Sir William and Lady Flower and their connections to the College and Lincoln's Inn Fields.

Find out about Hector Gavin's 1848 survey of the living conditions of residents of Bethnal Green, and the effects on their health and lifespans.

The RCS England Library holds various published materials that bear witness to the evolution debate of the second half of the 19th century. Some of the protagonists of this mental and moral battle were fellows, while the college constituted a focal point for scientific and intellectual circles.

At the end of 2022 we ran a survey asking members to tell us about their experience of using our online resources and services. Find out what others have said, and how we can help you.

Find out about our new research grant aimed at provoking new and exciting research outputs and building a community of researchers around our fantastic Library and Archives Collections. To find out more about eligibility and apply please read the following blog and visit the grant webpage.

How to critically appraise your literature.

As the year ends we remind you of some of the new and established information resources and services provided for members. There’re e-journals, e-books, 3-d anatomy tools and clinical databases aplenty!

Read a brief history of the poet and wife of John Hunter, Anne, and her extraordinary collaboration with the composer Joseph Haydn.

History Day 2022: The Birth of Mankind was the first book published in English on the subject of pregnancy and birth. The book had multiple editions and was in print for over 100 years. Connecting the experience of birthing mothers and midwives to ancient and new medical scholarship, it brought important information on dealing with difficult birth presentations to a large audience who wouldn't previously have had it. The illustrations, called Birth Figures, showed these differing possible positions of the foetus at the time of birth and were considered revolutionary.

History Day 2022: Cholera to Covid looks at how we record and preserve responses to public health emergencies and using keywords and subject headings to search our catalogues.

History Day 2022: The patient case notes and files of dental surgeons enlisted by the British Army during the First World War (1914-1918) records the work of dental surgeons treating soldiers with severe facial and jaw wounds.

History Day 2022: Read about records relating to dissection and body-snatching held in the Archives of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Elizabeth Garret Anderson was the first woman to qualify in Britain as a physician and surgeon. Read about the extraordinary impact she had on women in surgery in the UK and around the world.

A tour of the new database and evidence resources acquired by the Library.

A tour of some of the new online resources available to members from the RCS England Library.

During the Falklands War, Captain Steven Hughes served at the frontline of two major land battles. Mentioned in despatches for bravery, he later worked as an orthopaedic surgeon. Read about his experiences.

A guide to getting started with ClinicalKey, one of our top resources, guiding our members to the resources they need to enhance their clinical practice.

On International Women's Day we celebrate Constance Fozzard, a top consultant gynaecologist. She achieved her FRCS in 1967 when few women trained in surgery.

We are celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month with a blog on Patrick Trevor-Roper (1916-2004), a successful eye surgeon whose appearance in front of the Wolfenden Committee helped decriminalise homosexuality.

History Day 2021: natural history items in the archive collections.

History Day 2021: medical history items in the archive collections.

History Day 2021: notable items in the Library's medical tracts collection.

Pamela Ball, a surgeon in Kidderminster and Wordsley in the Midlands, was the first woman from Jamaica to gain the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. From Plarr's Lives of the Fellows.

Irene Irving recently became the 10,000th fellow to be added to Plarr’s Lives, the College’s online collection of biographies, which records the lives of surgeons going back to the beginning of the fellowship in 1843.

A guide to the Library's second online exhibition, 'Depicting Anatomy: The hunt for unalloyed reality'.

The Australian obstetrician and gynaecologist Catherine Hamlin was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace prize for her and her husband's work in treating fistulae in women in Ethiopia.

A remarkable group of London medical students provided life-saving treatment to survivors of the liberated concentration camp Bergen-Belsen in 1945. Read the story of these compassionate young medics who did so much to help those in need.

The records of the London Lock Hospital held in the Archives of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

The work of Sir Harold Gillies, a pioneer of facial plastic surgery.

Surgeon Julian Taylor served in two World Wars. As a Japanese POW in Changi Prison Camp, he dedicated himself to the welfare of his patients. This included designing individual artificial limbs from scrap material. Read his story.

Read the story of Kennedy Burnside, an Australian surgeon and diarist who used a secret camera to record Japanese POWs in Changi Prison, Singapore.

Dorris Wallace, surgeon and trained jungle warrior ran the Lady Hardinge Hospital in India during World War Two, met her husband (escaping POW) after she operated on his wounds. Read her amazing story.

Born on this day (2 April) in 1619, Moyse Charas was an apothecary in France during the reign of Louis XIV. Find out about the frontispiece to his Pharmacopée royale, galénique et chymique of 1676.

Phyllis Knocker was the first medically qualified woman to become an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons.

The oldest comprehensive printed book on the natural plant wealth of Asia and of the tropics is Hortus Malabaricus (meaning ‘Garden of Malabar’), published from 1678-1693, regarding the medicinal properties of plants in Kerala, Karnataka and Goa.

Why use our latest 3-D visualisation and learning tool Visible Body? Answers from those in the know...

In 1864, surgeon John Hamilton published Restoration of a Lost Nose by Operation, sharing his patients’ case histories after his early Indian rhinoplasty operations at the Richmond Hospital in Dublin, Ireland. Read their stories here.

Anatomical flap books were being used to show what’s hidden under our skin as early as the 1500s, taking their name from the layers of movable paper flaps that are lifted to reveal the layers below making the viewer an active participant who ‘dissects’ the body by opening the flaps. These are some examples from our collection.

In 2017, we moved 5 km of books and journals to the British Library in Yorkshire. Read about Jo’s visit to their robot store and discover how much work goes into a journal binding project.

In 1815, the future poet John Keats briefly studied medicine, with the apparent intention of ultimately becoming a surgeon. But was he ever serious about this?

An action-packed life and beautiful images of snakes from Sir Joseph Fayrer’s Thanatophidia of India 1872, a classic book on venomous snakes.

"The only things certain in life are death and taxes". Benjamin Franklin's famous quote was derived from Daniel Defoe's work, "The political history of the Devil". Here we take a look at the Library's copy and the life of its author.

John Thomas Quekett, British physician, pioneering microscopist & histologist, born on this day in 1815.

How your impact stories can help the Library improve its services.

Mark Catesby was the first naturalist to draw indigenous plants as backgrounds for the birds and animals published in his beautiful, ground-breaking book ‘The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands' between 1729 and 1747. Approximately one-half of the 220 hand-coloured illustrations are of birds and, Catesby has been called the “founder of American ornithology” .

Love the library but live on the web? Find out more about the online resources covering dental surgery you can access though the Library webpages.

The discovery of a lost doorway to the Hunterian Museum.

The 31st May 2019 marks the 32nd World No Tobacco Day (WNTD), so let's explore the history of the use of tobacco and attitudes towards its consumption, using the RCS Library collections.

Alfred Swaine Taylor wrote significant works on forensic evidence at a time when Victorians were gripped by fear about poisoning. Meet a hero of the 19th courtroom.

78% of the children Dental Surgeon Richard Denison Pedley examined in 1893 needed some teeth removed or filled. Dental decay is avoidable but have things changed today?

The trial of John White Webster for the murder of George Parkman at Harvard Medical School in 1849, marks one of the earliest uses of scientific (and especially dental) evidence at a US criminal trial.

Regarding author Rudyard Kipling's connections to the College.

From the back streets of Paris to the official fighting art of France, "Manuel de la boxe française et anglaise: méthode Leboucher" (1882) explains the art and history of French boxing, or savate. versus the English style, the sport of kings. It is fully illustrated with drawings of manly opponents with very fine moustaches to demonstrate the different moves.

Martin Van Butchell was one of the more colourful characters in Georgian London. The story of his life and unusual habits can be read in 'Life and character of the celebrated Mr. Martin Van Butchell, surgeon dentist and fistula curer, of Mount-street, Berkeley-square', a gossipy pamphlet held in the RCS Library.

New journals in the online collections.

How, the intersection between human and animal medicine (‘zoobiquity’) can lead to new treatments.

The results of the Library's Online Services survey, 2018.

As we start putting the Library blog to bed before a new informative, entertaining and, we hope inspiring, year dawns, we thought we’d review of some of the information we’ve shared with you this year.

The story of SD Mahomed, the Indian surgeon who brought shampoo to Georgian England.

The "wonderfully eccentric, romantic revolutionary, crusader of reform" William Price achieved RCS member status when he was 21. Read about his remarkable life.

The home of the Royal College of Surgeons is currently being rebuilt, but this is just the latest in a series of reconstructions over the last couple of centuries.

An introduction to Acland's Video Atlas of Human Anatomy.

The evenings are getting darker and Halloween is coming. Writing in "The Leisure Hour", the author of "Haunted London: Lincoln’s Inn Fields" is haunted by ghosts of history, painting an atmospheric picture of London as he walks up a grimy Chancery Lane, across Lincoln’s Inn Court and into Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Be haunted by the ghosts of Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

John O’Riordan talks about how our historic library is being protected during the construction phase of the Lincoln’s Inn Fields redevelopment project.

Victorian homes were full of arsenic – your wallpaper could kill you and your fashionable green socks caused ulcers...

Phossy jaw was a horrific industrial disease of Victorian match makers. Victims suffered toothache, abscesses & swollen gums as their jaws decayed, glowing in the dark. Read about surgery to remove the lower jaw bone of one match girl in New York.

Benjamin Bynoe served as ship’s surgeon on board HMS Beagle during Charles Darwin’s epic five-year voyage, helped survey areas of South America and Australia, and collected important scientific specimens, but his name has been largely forgotten, including in Plarr's Lives of the Fellows where he got just 2 sentences. A recent enquiry prompted further research and a much-expanded entry.

An introduction to the Patient Information feature on ClinicalKey.

The story of Eleanor Davies-Colley's involvement with the South London Hospital for Women.

The story of Eleanor Davies-Colley, the first female MRCS, and her work with the Invalid Children's Aid Association.

Completing the Library's collection of Gray's Anatomy.

The College's annual Conserve Our Collections event, held at the London Metropolitan Archives in 2018.

A brief guide to the e-books available via the Library's ClinicalKey resource.

More UK Medical Heritage Library contributions, this time regarding naval healthcare.

An exploration of the Library's contribution to the UK Medical Heritage Library project, concentrating on contagious diseases and army medicine.

Sir Robert Jones was the father of modern orthopaedic surgery. We celebrate his life during the British Orthopaedic Association's centenary year.

Giving a presentation as part of a teaching role or to share your knowledge on the latest evidence in your specialty? The RCS Library can help!

On World Blood Donor Day, we celebrate Percy Lane Oliver and the history of the blood transfusion service.

Why you should love a leech: blood letting to microsurgery. Find out why medical leeches are back.

John Ellis (1710–1776) was a naturalist and London business man with an interest in science. He became the most successful plant transporter of the eighteenth century. This post explores his publications with their beautiful illustrations, learning more about the practical history of eighteenth-century colonial life.

Stabbed, bludgeoned, sliced & bleeding, the WoundMan showed the medieval battlefield surgeon what to do. This article looks at Feldtbuch der Wundartzney (1517) for advice.

A guide to the versatile and comprehensive ClinicalKey online resource.

A look at the colourful illustrations in John Whitchurch Bennett's "A Selection from the Most Remarkable and Interesting Fishes Found on the Cost of Ceylon".

Learn how the motorcycle accident that killed Lawrence of Arabia 80 years ago led to the introduction of crash helmets in UK.

Surgeon, Sir William Fergusson (1808-1877) was described as “the greatest master of the art, the greatest practical surgeon of our time". Read about his life and achievements.

"An anatomical account of the elephant accidentally burnt in Dublin, on Fryday, June 17. in the year 1681" records the story of a very unlucky elephant who arrived in London in 1675.

April 2018 is an important milestone for RCS Library and Surgical Information Services: after much planning and scoping research, there is now a Current Awareness Update for each of the eleven surgical specialties.

Postman’s Park, in the City of London, is the site of one of the Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice commemorating ‘ordinary’ Londoners who died while trying to save others. Individual ceramic plaques recording each story are set into the wall of a long wooden cloister, three of which bear witness to the bravery of doctors.

The story of Mary Toft of Guildford who, in 1726, claimed she had given birth to rabbits, causing considerable notoriety.

Many of our Members and Fellows read our Current Awareness Updates as part of their continuing professional development. The Updates help to keep surgeons up-to-date with the latest research being published in their particular sub-specialty area. However, it can be difficult to quantify and demonstrate reading as a piece of recognised learning that can be credited.

Fantastic beasts and everything you need to know about them: Edward Topsell’s historie of foure-footed beastes is a wonderful bestiary published in 1607 describing both real and fantastic creatures, all illustrated in detailed woodcuts. The book includes familiar animals such as the cat, horse and hedgehog but also the fantastic including the Unicorn and the Manticore.

How do you engage with a museum’s collections if the museum is closed? Working with the King's College Museum of Life Sciences to bring museum exhibits to the public.

The ‘enchanted loom’ is a famous metaphor for the human brain invented to poetically describe a conception of what happens in the cerebral cortex when you wake from sleep. Its inventor, Sir Charles Scott Sherrington, was a Fellow of the College.

2017 was an extremely busy year for us here in the Library and Surgical Information Services. Here's a look at everything we achieved last year.

The clothes surgeons wear when operating on their patients has changed over time. Trace this history with us through drawings, paintings, photographs and written reports.

Henry Wainwright hid a terrible secret in his East End warehouse. Surgeon Frederick Larkin’s detailed forensic evidence led to his conviction for murder in 1875.

Ernest Thompson Seton’s first book, Studies in the art anatomy of animals, was published in 1896 and still in print today. See examples of his drawings covering the anatomy, proportions and motion of different animals, as well as their exterior features, hair, fur and feathers.

Find out about the role of Specialist Advisor for the Library's Current Awareness Updates, and how it can contribute to your professional development.

Comparing the sights of London between 1851 and the present day, courtesy of Thomas Holmes' "Great Metropolis".

William Banting lends his name to the original low-carbohydrate high-fat diet.

The prize-winning work of the 19th century Surgeon, Joseph Swan.

A selection of “tailor-made” Christmas cards from 1947, drawn by a medical illustrator, Mary Dixon Elder, and individually surgically and anatomically themed, some more successfully than others, to bring a personal touch to a “departmental party” at Northwestern University Medical School.

Christmas planning getting you down? Escape to Christmas Island with Charles W Andrews’ guide, A monograph of Christmas Island (Indian Ocean) : physical features and geology, 1900.

The son of the physician Bernhard Albinus (1653–1721), Bernhard Siegfried Albinus was born in Germany in 1697. He would go on to become one of the most famous anatomists of the eighteenth century, producing 'Tabulae sceleti et musculorum corporis humani', published in 1747.

In 1833 George Spratt published his innovative Obstetric Tables. Designed as a teaching aid, the book includes fifty hand-coloured plates with flaps that lift to show a "dissected" view of the female body during pregnancy.

The life and achievements of William Marsden, founder of the Royal Free Hospital and the Royal Marsden Hospital.

The story of No. 3 Canadian General Hospital during the First World War.

Some advice from the Information Specialists on conducting a medical literature search using the Library's online databases.

For Halloween, the murderous story of Burke and Hare...

Between 1947 and 1949, the artist Barbara Hepworth sat in operating theatres in Exeter and London, producing 80 depictions of surgeons and their teams at work, while the NHS was being formed.

A guide to the Library's services for College Members and Fellows.

Joseph Lister pioneered antiseptic surgery in 1867 and made surgery safer, saving many lives. In 1879 the mouthwash Listerine was developed and named after him.

Moving books is a regular task in libraries; moving 5 km of them to a new location is not. Find out how @Harrow Green got hands on...

How the Library can help surgeons keep abreast of the medical literature.

With over five kilometres of books to clean before moving the collections to temporary storage for the redevelopment, the Library turned to experts Downie Allison Downie Book Binders (DAD) for help.

An introduction to the Library’s hospital pharmacopeia collection.

The remarkable story of the The Gold-Headed Cane, a book containing the biographies of 6 physicians from the point of view of the cane they all owned.

A hand-coloured cartoon by Thomas Rowlandson in 1787, highlights the lucrative 18th century practice of tooth transplantation.

The practicalities of packing and moving the Collections.

Three of our Fellows have been President of the Alpine Club: find out how they combined successful surgical careers with their daredevil passion for climbing.

“The study of Anatomy is the use of a hymn in praise of the wisdom of God.” So appears an anonymous quote on the title page of the prospectus of the Parisian Gallery of Anatomy, an anatomical museum that based itself in Sheffield, Liverpool and Manchester from the 1850s to the 1870s.

The story of one Victorian gentleman’s toothache, in graphic form by Horace Mayhew and George Cruikshank.

A look at an early attempt at outlining an optimum training regime for competitive cycling, by Percy Furnivall.

Quekett's collection of microscope slides ... of coal.

Richard Bradley's 1721 work on the cultivation of coffee and its efficacy in the prevention of plague.

This week’s post looks at how to get the most out of the Updates in celebration of two new Updates launching this July: Urology and Emergency General Surgery.

The history of Down House, home of Charles Darwin and later site of the College's Buckston Browne Research Farm.

A Book of Cheerful Cats by J.G. Francis is a strange book to find in a medical library. It’s an amusing collection of cartoons and rhymes involving cats and other animals.

Images and video showing how we move large animal skulls in the Hunterian Museum.

The Archives shares William Hill’s photographic slides of primates and other animals.

A beautiful bound volume of watercolour paintings believed to have been the property of anatomist John Hunter.

Last week, the Library Blog told the story of how the Library collections were protected during the Second World War. Now we are moving the collections again as the College redevelops its London home. This time, we have had more time to plan and ensure that the collections are moved in the optimum condition to safeguard centuries of knowledge for future generations to discover.

During the Second World War, the College took great care to protect its heritage in the anticipation of aerial bombing, moving much of the Library collections to safe locations before the College was hit during the "Blitz".

On the 8th May 2017, we will be launching the first of our new Current Awareness Updates. Following the success of the Current Awareness Service pilot between 2012 and 2016, we will be relaunching and expanding coverage of the Service.

A look at William Edgar Allen, a 19th century industrialist from Sheffield who also established the Edgar Allen Institute for Medico-Mechanical Treatment, treating large numbers of injured soldiers during the World Wars.

A look at William Henry Fisk’s wonderful naturalistic anatomical drawings of a "flayed" penguin to see the muscle structure.

The Library of the Royal College of Surgeons of England contains countless medical, surgical, natural history and zoological texts as one might expect; however, there are a number of books in the collection that are a little bit more unexpected. For example, on a shelf in one corner of the library there is a small collection of books by Rudyard Kipling, including a signed 1922 edition of his most famous work The Jungle Book.

The pioneering Victorian microscopist John Thomas Quekett (1815-1861), author of one of the first microscopy textbooks, collected and prepared at least 12,000 histological sections. Our guest editor Alessandro Felder, budding biologist interested in comparative bone micro-anatomy writes about his work at RCS imaging some of Quekett’s bone sections.

The Hunterian Museum contains approximately 3,500 specimens and preparations from John Hunter’s original collection including the partial skeletons of nine large animals. The bones are over 250 years old and include a Narwhal (the “unicorn of the sea”), an Elephant and two Camels.

Anatomie très utile c.1559 is an anatomical ‘fugitive’ sheet designed to display internal organs and structures.

The role of conservation during the Library's decant project for the upcoming rebuild.

Jessie Dobson has a unique place in the history of the Hunterian Museum, becoming its first female curator in 1954.

October 2016 marked the 150th anniversary of the Sanitary Act (1866), which Sir John Simon (10 October 1816 – 23 July 1904), pathologist, surgeon and public health reformer, was influential in bringing about.

Incunabula and rare books from the collection, as seen during the recent Cataloguing Project.

A look at the medical effects of tight corsets as worn by women in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Considering the many opportunities that the RCS's Project Transform will provide for the Library, Museums and Archives.

This month marks 100 years since the first and only “Rat Day”, held in Boston on 13 February 1917. The finale to the Boston Rat Campaign led by the Boston Women’s Municipal League (BWML), the day saw prizes offered for the highest number of dead rats delivered to designated sanitary yards.

Eric Strach FRCS (1914-2011), an orthopaedic surgeon who worked in Liverpool, was one of a number of Fellows and Members who lost relatives in the Holocaust and worked in the concentration camps after they were liberated by the Allies.

Later this year we’ll be moving to temporary accommodation during the redevelopment of our home in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. We hosted an event in the Barry Reading Room a few months ago, showcasing how the Library, Museum and Archive teams are preparing for the move.

Sometimes in the archives we come across material which is not easily accessible. This was the case with the accounts book of Sir William MacCormac, which had remained locked for (possibly) over a century.

The internet is full of cats doing funny things, but this isn’t just a recent phenomenon. Harry Pointer produced humorous pictures of his pet cats mimicking human activities in the 1870s.

You might be forgiven for thinking that a medical archive wouldn’t contain much that is festive in nature. Therefore, it may come as a surprise to know that the Royal College of Surgeons archives contain a number of seasonal items.

Better known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle was also a graduate of medicine from the University of Edinburgh and had a short-lived career as a general practitioner and ophthalmologist. Alongside his detective stories, he wrote fiction inspired by his experiences of medical practice. His novella The Stark Munro Letters (1895) follows the early struggles of a young practitioner.

Cholera was one of the deadliest diseases to affect Britain in the nineteenth century. On the 150th anniversary of the fourth and final London pandemic in 1866, Fahema Begum looks at the work of John Snow, who's work was instrumental in the fight against the disease.

On the 16th November we welcomed over 40 guests to our annual Conserve our Collections event. It’s an opportunity to promote the scheme and allow our guests to see items they have helped to conserve.

Some of the finest microscope slides in the RCS museum collection were produced by John Thomas Quekett, who built a collection of slides giving the most astonishing overview of the natural world on a microscopic scale.

We see ClinicalKey as a valuable resource and members at all levels can access ClinicalKey using their College Login details.

Only three people have received the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest award for gallantry, twice, and of these, two were surgeons – Arthur Martin-Leake FRCS and Noel Chavasse MRCS.

The shelves of our Erasmus Wilson Gallery are once again full as our contribution to the UK Medical Heritage Library is complete.

The man who famously healed a blind boy by removing a clouded lens, and introduced the technique of ”cutting laterally for the stone” , was also the author of one of the truly memorable anatomical works of the period, Osteographia

Many of the foods which we enjoy today have their origins in the medical world. The recipe books in the Archives are excellent examples of the historical cross-overs between medicine and cooking.

Our new facsimile exhibition in the display cases on the ground floor reveal some of the College’s historic prize essays, some of which stand out for reasons other than their written text – due either to the beauty or nature of their illustrations, or to the significance of their author.

Three famous Fellows and their sporting successes. Find out more about them in the RCS England archives.

Vaccination is a medical procedure that is familiar to most of us. From babyhood to our later years, we are offered vaccinations to fight an ever-changing roster of diseases.

Samuel Gaskell’s "illustrations" includes 15 thin membranes of blood vessels, and 37 pieces of leathery ileum - and all are human specimens.

William Wood FRS, FLS (1774-1857) originally trained as a surgeon at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. He turned to the study of natural history with a particular interest in sea shells, for which he remains famous.

Visitors to the "Designing Bodies" exhibition will no doubt have seen the exquisite resin corrosion casts prepared by David Tompsett, including the cast of the arterial supply of the brain, demonstrating the arterial circle of Willis.

In celebration of International Women’s Day on Tuesday 8 March 2016, we would like to share some of the items in our collections that relate to the pioneering women who led the way for women to qualify as practising surgeons and members of the RCS.

This week we received our latest batch of conservation binding which had been funded via the Conserve our Collections programme.

Plaster is peculiar stuff. As a chalky powder, heavier than dust, it can pervade a wide area. As a fluid it is mercurial and insubstantial, and could almost pass for milk.

As it is William Clift’s birthday on St Valentine’s Day, we thought it was only right to acknowledge the debt of gratitude the Royal College of Surgeons of England owes to him.

Soon the shelves in our Erasmus Wilson Gallery will again be full: we have nearly completed our contribution to the UK Medical Heritage Library.

At the beginning of this month, January 2016, after eight or so years of work, the editorial team in the Library finished uploading all nine of the printed volumes of Plarr’s Lives.

The College’s collections are rich with artistic illustrations depicting human anatomy.

The Library is pleased to announce its new subscription to Elsevier’s ClinicalKey resource.

Occasionally we come across markings in books which remind us of their past role as personal objects: markings by children.

We hope you enjoyed getting to know a little bit more about the fascinating collection of books, archives and museum items that are held in our Designated collections.

As part of the RCS Collections Review project, the Museum’s visual works are currently being assessed. This category includes sculptures, pencil drawings, prints, oil paintings, pastels and watercolours.

Our Collections Review project, which has been running throughout 2015, has given us unprecedented insight into the College’s museum, library and archive holdings.

On the 18th November we hosted the annual event to promote our Conserve our Collections scheme.

We are pleased to announce that we have purchased the back files of The British Journal of Surgery.

August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof, 1705–1759, was born in Augustenburg and, having shown an early artistic talent, was apprenticed first to his uncle, the artist Wilhelm Röselvon Rosenhof, and then to Johan Daniel Preisler.

Held in our Archives is a small leather-bound manuscript with two silver clasps, simply entitled The Bones.

As it’s Halloween, we have delved into the gloomiest reaches of our collections and sought out some of the more macabre material we hold.

As part of the RCS Collections Review project, the Museum’s visual works are currently being assessed. This category includes sculptures, pencil drawings, prints, oil paintings, pastels and watercolours.

Before the establishment of professional healthcare, the majority of the sick were treated at home with the main carers being the women of the household.

On October 8th 2015, we celebrate National Poetry Day, inspiring us to revisit our collections in search of poems.

The Ornithology of Francis Willoughby (1678) is the enlarged and corrected English version of the previously published Latin work Ornithologiae libri tres (1676).

John Hunter (1728-1793) was born during the night of February 13/14, 1728, at East Kilbride, Scotland.

Jacques-Fabien Gautier (he added the "D’Agoty" later in life) was born in Marseilles in 1716.

Bernardino Genga (1620–1690) was an Italian surgeon and anatomist, with a great interest in classical texts and Greek and Roman sculpture, which led to him teaching anatomy to artists at the Royal French Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Rome.

Browsing through the College’s collection of folios with anatomical illustrations, we occasionally come across the same plate in various works.

The 31st of August is the anniversary of Sir Everard Home’s death in 1832.

On 26th August 1768, Captain James Cook (1728-1779) embarked on his first voyage of discovery aboard HMS Endeavour from Plymouth.

Recently, our attention was drawn to a rare item in our collection: a report on a late 19th century experimental medical education scheme in China, which included a set of fascinating photographs.

Many of the magnificent plates in Thomas Willis’ Cerebri anatome were drawn by Sir Christopher Wren.

Charles Estienne (1504-1564) was a 16th century French anatomist and came from a family of publishers and printers.

This fascinating little book is the Guide de l'Étudiant en Médecine et en Pharmacie 1874-1875 by Joseph Auguste Aristide Fort, a guide for medical students of the Paris medical school and full of details on courses and their content, term time calendar, lecturers and examinations, similar to the way medical schools today provide this information on their websites.

Our Collections Review project is highlighting some gems of the Library’s historical medical and surgical holdings.

This week, the Wildlife Trusts celebrate the UK's amazing sea animals and plants during National Marine Week.

This outstanding book has been reviewed as “the most magnificent work of its kind now extant”. In it, Cheselden gives full and accurate descriptions of all the bones of the human body and many animal ones.

The 23rd of July was the birthday of Sir Jonathan Hutchinson, a former President of the RCS.

On Monday, the 13th of July, there was a very exciting news story for those interested in Victorian literature.

This was only the third surgical textbook to be printed in English.

Claude Bernard (12 July 1813 – 10 February 1878) was a French physiologist. He is credited with many contributions to that field and other related disciplines.

One of the books we used in a small display this week was Sir Charles Bell’s A System of Dissections, explaining the anatomy of the human body, the manner of displaying the parts, and their varieties in disease.

As teaching models have been important surgical training tools for more than a century, it is not surprising that the Royal College of Surgeons of England holds a large Models and Casts collection.

Our new facsimile exhibition in the Library showcases the 17th and early 18th explorations of the scientists in service of the French Académie des Sciences.

The 1st July 1646 saw the birth of Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, a German philosopher and ‘universal thinker’.

Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) was the daughter of Matthaeus Merian the Elder (1593-1650) the celebrated engraver, publisher and topographical artist

Last week, on 17th June, English Heritage honoured Sir Victor Horsley (1857-1917), pioneering neurosurgeon, with a Blue Plaque at his former home in Bloomsbury, London.

Dominique-Jean Larrey (1766-1842) was orphaned at the age of 13 and raised by his uncle, who was chief surgeon in Toulouse.

While trying to research the inclusion of neuroanatomical details in the drawings of Italian artists on behalf of a College fellow, I came across Dr Mortimer Frank’s 1920 edited and translated version of Dr Ludwig Choulant’s 1852 History and Bibliography of Anatomic Illustration.

Today, 13th June, is the anniversary of Henry Gray’s death from smallpox at the age of only 34 (1861).

Gaspare Aselli (1581-1625) was born in Cremona and attended University in Pavia where he obtained degrees in medicine, surgery and philosophy.

Surgical catalogues of instruments and appliances are not the largest, but definitely amongst our fattest, books.

After the recent debate as to whether a portrait on the title page of John Gerard’s Herball shows William Shakespeare, we were yesterday reminded by an enquiry that another item in our collection has a connection to Shakespeare.

On 19th May the Library launched the new Colorectal Current Awareness Bulletin.

The Royal College of Surgeons of England has made a home in Lincoln’s Inn Fields since the late 1790s.

We have followed with interest the debate in the national and international news around a potential Shakespeare portrait discovered in John Gerard’s herbal.

Over the next year, the Library at the Royal College of Surgeons of England will be preparing almost 2,500 volumes to send to the Wellcome Library for digitisation as part of the UK Medical Heritage Library.

The RCS collections review team is currently surveying the microscope slides collection. Working our way through the 761 units (drawers and boxes) constituting this collection, we have uncovered some hidden treasures and met some interesting characters.

In the 19th century many surgeons also practiced as apothecaries. The study of materia media, the knowledge of the therapeutic properties of substances, in particular plants, was part of the education of anyone working as a medical practitioner.

Jean-Baptiste Marc Bourgery (1797-1849), Traité complete de l’anatomie de l’homme comprenant la medicine operatoir…avec planches lithographiées d’apres nature par N-H Jacob. 1831-54.

At the Charles Tomes Lecture on 27 March, organised by the Faculty of Dental Surgery, we displayed items from the Museums, Archives and Library collections to celebrate the bicentenary of Charles Tomes’ father, Sir John Tomes.

On April 17th we launched a new current awareness bulletin aimed at all our fellows and members in the General Surgery specialty.

In February 2013 the Arts Council England formally Designated the RCS library, museums and archives as outstanding collections of national and international quality and significance.