Physicians' Gallery

Join authors Ambrose Parry (Dr Marisa Haetzman & Chris Brookmyre) to discuss their new historical novel of medicine & murder, The Art of Dying. Set in the household of Dr James Young Simpson, The Art of Dying is a gripping dive into Victorian Edinburgh, a time of medical marvels, vicious rivalries, enlightenment and squalor.

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Tuberculosis: a contagious, infectious disease that has been a challenge over much of human history. In this talk, Dr Derek Sloan, who has worked in both high and low-income countries, accruing extensive experience in the management of infectious diseases, considers why tuberculosis still remains a threat and what can be done to combat this disease.

Speaker: Dr Derek Sloan, Senior Lecturer/Consultant in Infectious Diseases, University of St. Andrews

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This paper is a historical study and analysis of the events surrounding the emergence of the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP), an integrated care pathway for dying patients, developed in the late 1990s. This paper will describe the historical background and the themes within the history of hospices and the specialty of palliative medicine which frame the specialty’s self-understanding.

Dr Paul Keeley, University of Glasgow

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Humane societies, charities whose focus was the recovery of nearly-drowned persons, sprang up throughout the transatlantic world in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. The saving of lives took many forms, but the exchange of ideas, pioneering of lifesaving equipment and exploring innovative techniques were indirect methods which had a great impact. This talk examines the context in which British and Irish humane societies were founded and operated, locating these organisations firmly within a wider transatlantic milieu, as well as delving deeper into this fascinating and, historically, relatively neglected movement.

Speaker: Dr Ciarán McCabe (University College Dublin and Maynooth University)

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In 1495 a new pandemic swept through Europe. Those infected suffered from a range of terrible symptoms, from eruptions of boils and pustules to extreme pains in their limbs. On 26 September 1496, the Nuremberg city council recorded that the French pox had arrived in their city and those infected were ‘to be cared for by the learned doctors’. However, the city’s physicians were unsure how to deal with this disease. Eventually, after almost one year, Nuremberg’s council found a medical practitioner who, they believed, efficaciously healed the poxed. This was the city’s first Franzosenarzt.

Dr Mona O'Brien, University of Glasgow

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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 Director of the Mütter Research Institute which endeavors to collaborate with scientific and medical professionals to utilize our historical collection to increase and advance the cause of modern health.

Speaker: Anna Dhody, Acting Co-Director of the Mütter Museum, Curator of the Mütter Museum, the Director of the Mütter Research Institute, and the Gretchen Worden Chair, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia

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In renaissance Europe the great feared poisoning - as they had since antiquity - and relied on universal remedies against all poisons. A discussion of some contemporary tests of the efficacy of such remedies will lead us to consider, among other recondite matters, the effectiveness of the breasts of virgins in catching unicorns, the use of a thousand live scorpions in concocting a universal balm, the "cruelty" of Napellus (Monkshood), whether an accretion from goats' stomachs can antagonize corrosive sublimate and the public relations problems of royal doctors.

Speaker: Professor Iain Donaldson (Emeritus Prof. University of Edinburgh)

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How did men cope with sexual health issues in early modern England? How did they feel when their bodies failed them?

This talk investigates how sexual, reproductive, and genitourinary conditions were understood. It tells the story of how men responded to bouts of ill health and reveals that physicians and surgeons had to vigorously encourage men to seek help. Men’s responses suggest that healers’ entreaties were not always successful and that male patients could be obstinate, unruly and disobedient.

Speaker: Dr Jennifer Evans, Senior Lecturer in History, University of Hertfordshire

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This talk explores how and why the casualty department was transformed over the course of the 20th century, going from a chaotic, under-staffed and under-resourced backwater to a high-tech domain with highly specialized staff and services. Using examples from both sides of the Atlantic, the talk pays particular attention to the ways in which the emergency department became a space of sifting, sorting, and segregation in the "front stage" of the hospital.

Speaker: Associate Professor Dr Graham Mooney, Institute of the History of Medicine, John Hopkins University

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The 1890s were a critical decade in the novel science of immunology. Emerging developments in bacteriology and tropical medicine revealed numerous microorganisms responsible for epidemic diseases. Putative vaccines and antitoxins emerged against typhoid fever, bubonic plague and diphtheria. Another strand of immunology from this period, however, has largely been overlooked. Collaborating with researchers around the globe, Professor Thomas Fraser at the University of Edinburgh generated numerous antivenenes, including several developed against Australian snake venoms. This presentation reveals how a President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh collaborated with a former student in the colony of Queensland to develop the theory and practice of applied immunology.

Speaker: Dr Peter Hobbins, Department of History, University of Sydney

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