Physicians' Gallery

The 1800s saw a series of scandals concerning individuals being locked away in lunatic asylums – the victims of unscrupulous persons who wanted to be rid of a ‘difficult’ family member, spouse or friend. But who were the victims of this trade? And to what extent was it carried on? Why was it a problem for the wealthy and less so for the poor? Was a male head of household simply able to ‘put away’...

Dr Burney uses the notorious case of the serial murderer John Christie (1953) to explore the contours of English homicide investigation at mid-century and detail the broader ‘forensic culture’ within which the case unfolded. Crucial to the Christie story is the way that forensic pathology and forensic science operated in a relationship of mutual dependence, and how this reflected an effort on the...

Since the early modern period, artists and anatomists have worked towards perfection; the perfection of anatomical models in three dimensions. But how did they achieve the sophisticated results that survive to this day? Whilst early models in wax were celebrated for their lifelike appearance, such models were fragile and did not allow for the hands-on interaction increasingly called for by medical...

In 1914, abdominal wounds were managed expectantly, without surgical intervention, and the majority of patients died. By 1915, early operative treatment was introduced by pioneering surgeons to try to combat the heavy loss of life. It was realised that early deaths, within a few hours of wounding, were caused by haemorrhage, while later deaths were caused by sepsis. Early surgical intervention was...

“For by the word Nose, throughout all this long chapter of noses, and in every other part of my work, where the word Nose occurs,- - I declare, by that word I mean a Nose, and nothing more, or less.” No reader of Laurence Sterne’s wildly-popular novel Tristram Shandy (1759-67) could be in doubt that sometimes a nose is not just a nose. In this lecture, Dr Noelle Gallagher explores the weird and wo...

The plague was one of early modern Europe’s most deadly and feared diseases. At the forefront of developing public health campaigns in the face of epidemics, from the 14th century onwards, were the doctors who advised on the prevention and treatment of the disease. This talk considers continuity and change in the attitudes and advice given by doctors between 1500 and 1700. In particular, it sets t...

Tracey Jolliffe discusses the science of syphilis in the 21st century. She explores the use of antibiotics to treat this disease and the health problems it can cause. From fatality rates to laboratory diagnosis, Jolliffe uncovers the current picture of syphilis in Scotland. Speaker: Tracey Jolliffe (Biomedical scientist, NHS) Twitter: twitter.com/RCPEHeritage Instagram: instagram.com/physiciansgal...

The De humani corporis fabrica of Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) is the most famous of all books on anatomy. Its artistic brilliance and its insistence on human, not animal, dissection as the basis for understanding the body has ensured that the work has an honoured place in all major libraries. Less attention has been paid to the revised 1555 edition, while the recent discovery of his annotations f...

Lisa Smith researches gender, health and the household in early modern England and France. In this talk, she discusses the tumultuous relationships of the Newdigates and attempts to piece together a shadowy family scandal from the perspectives of father, daughter and son. She considers the significance of the family’s medical history – old age, ill health and mental illness – as the drama unfolded...

Think you’ve heard all there is to know about Burke and Hare, Edinburgh’s infamous body-snatchers? Janet Philp knows more. Join her as she explores the history around the tale of Burke and Hare, and Dr. Knox, the recipient of their shady undertakings. Janet reveals facts about Burke that have never been published before, raising more questions about the Irish man and his activities. Speaker: Janet...

Edinburgh has a strong history in prosthetics research and development. Over the past 40 years, National Museums Scotland has established a world class collection of prosthetics with examples from the 1960s, for children affected by thalidomide, to contemporary pieces that reflect a move towards personalisation and the flexibility of modern materials. This talk reviews the history of prosthetics i...

Italy, though best known for the birth of the Renaissance, is also renowned for the precocious development of its public health policies in the 16th century. In this talk, Professor John Henderson argues that it is time to re-examine and reassess early modern Italian policies dealing with plague. Henderson’s approach is to examine the often moving and tragic stories of the individuals touched by p...

This talk considers the changing public perception of drugs such as cannabis and the factors which have influenced its longevity, including immigration, diplomacy, medical science, and politics. Speaker: Professor Jim Mills, University of Strathclyde Twitter: twitter.com/RCPEHeritage Instagram: instagram.com/physiciansgallery/ Facebook: facebook.com/PhysiciansGallery TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com...

Louis Wain was a relatively well known British illustrator working in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly known for his depictions of cats. It is claimed that ‘cats drove him mad’. This talk will explore the ‘madness’ of both human and animals, the curious cross-codings arising between ‘mad’ people and troublesome beasts, and parallels in the spaces/environments that they have occ...

Can old specimens contain new information? Mütter Museum Curator, Anna Dhody will talk about the ways scientists are looking to the past to improve our future. New technology has emerged that allow researchers access into the past, to see what infectious microbes were responsible for previous pandemics, and hopefully provide insight on how to prevent or combat future ones. Ms. Dhody is also the Di...

Born into a middle-class family in 1578, William Harvey rose to fame as one of Britain’s foremost anatomists, Harvey’s discovery of the circulation of blood rocked the medical world of the time, published in his treatise On the Motion of the Heart and Blood. Physician to King Charles I and a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London, William Harvey is one of history’s prominent figures....

Plants have always played a prominent role in the field of medicine since the first recorded examples. From Dioscorides, a Greek physician and botanist who wrote extensively on the subject, to Hippocrates, "the father of modern medicine", medical practitioners of the ancient world recognised the importance of herbal remedies and embraced them. This talk investigates the history of plants in medici...

This talk focuses on an under-represented area of medical history: the depiction of places of medicine in 19th-century travel guides. Across a huge range of travel guides, written for strangers of all stripes, Edinburgh was illuminated as a city of medicine past, present and future. Investigating these travel guides reveals how Edinburgh's medical spaces and places were constructed and reimagined...

John Dee (1527–1609) was one of the most intriguing figures in Tudor Britain. The model of a Renaissance man, he harboured interests in astrology, alchemy, history, religion, medicine, magic and much more besides. In this talk, Katie Birkwood explores Dee’s life story, thoughts and personality, which survive in the personally annotated collection of his books, now residing at the library of the Ro...

Many exotic plant materials would become household words for the well-to-do during the decades around 1700. A language of curiosity, innovation and invention surrounded attempts to understand, trade in and profit from them. This talk considers some of the ways in which lay consumers, merchants and medical experts appropriated and ‘domesticated’ exotic foods and drugs within the French metropolitan...

How were bizarre reactions to food described before the coining of the term ‘allergy’ in 1906? Symptoms reminiscent of food allergy have been observed since Ancient Greece and Rome, with Lucretius stating that one person’s food could be another’s poison. Many physicians were convinced that reactions to food were responsible for symptoms ranging from asthma to migraine. At the root of debates about...

This talk explores popular reactions to the ‘great influenza’ of 1918-20, primarily in relation to other epidemics of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It will contest scholars’ contention that big epidemics, regardless of the disease, inevitably stirred suspicion and blame of the ‘other’, and that an essential factor stirring that hate rested on the mysteriousness of the disease and medical prac...

Although playing the piano was often seen as a thoroughly respectable pastime for young ladies, for much of the nineteenth century there was serious medical discussion about the dangers of excessive music in girls’ education. Many of the period’s leading psychiatrists and gynaecologists argued that music could over-stimulate the female nervous system, playing havoc with vulnerable nerves and repro...

Speaker: Professor Mark Harrison (University of Oxford) Twitter: twitter.com/RCPEHeritage Instagram: instagram.com/physiciansgallery/ Facebook: facebook.com/PhysiciansGallery TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@physiciansgallery

Speaker: Simon Chaplin (Royal College of Surgeons of England) Twitter: twitter.com/RCPEHeritage Instagram: instagram.com/physiciansgallery/ Facebook: facebook.com/PhysiciansGallery TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@physiciansgallery