Category Archives: medical history

Papworth 100

Posted on by | Leave a comment

Patients on the balcony of the Bernhard Baron Hospital, Papworth Village Settlement

Royal Papworth Hospital is a leading cardiothoracic hospital and is best known for its trailblazing work in transplantation since performing the UK’s first successful heart transplant in 1979. However, Papworth has a long standing tradition of pioneering work since its inception as a tuberculosis colony, 100 years ago.

At a time when 41,800 in the UK died from tuberculosis, a young Welshman Dr (later Sir) Pendrill Varrier-Jones was appointed Cambridgeshire TB Officer during WWI. Following sanatorium treatment patients would risk a relapse when they returned to the overcrowded, unsanitary and damp conditions which had led to infection in the first instance. Frustrated by this cycle, Varrier-Jones took a holistic approach to care and wanted to develop a combined treatment and rehabilitation facility that would leave patients, “a useful and productive member of society, a man who, though a consumptive, has learned to be a consumptive, to lead the life of a consumptive and even enjoy that life.”

Having successfully established treatment for a small number of patients in 1916 in the nearby village of Bourn, Varrier-Jones’ vision went through a process of rapid expansion. Papworth Hall was purchased following a large charitable donation in 1917 with the first patients arriving on 12 February 1918.  Patients were prescribed bed rest, a hearty diet and ample fresh air. Once the patient’s condition had improved they were moved onto graduated work within one of the light industries and provisions were available for family members to also settle in the village. Sir Varrier-Jones’ revolutionary aim was to treat the “whole-person,” by providing treatment, suitable employment and allowing patients a home life.

With the discovery of streptomycin in the 1940s, the number of TB patients declined and what was then known as the Papworth Village Settlement opened its remit to include people with other disabilities. This led to the creation of the Papworth Trust, a charity which continues to support disabled people. In 1948, the hospital officially became part of the NHS and became known as Papworth Hospital which moved from the treatment of TB to specialise in chest medicine.

2018 is an important next chapter for us. It’s the year when we become Royal Papworth Hospital, commemorate our centenary, celebrate the 70th anniversary of the NHS, and move from the village of Papworth Everard to our new state-of-the-art hospital located in the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. We’ve made a film to commemorate with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund (for trailer click here) with the first screening coinciding with the NHS’ 70th birthday on 5th July at the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse, this will be followed by screenings in the village of Papworth Everard on 21st July (to book click here) with additional screenings planned for the autumn. This film and screenings were made possible with a generous grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Papworth Hospital Charity

Nico Ferguson, Heritage Assistant
Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

The Pharmacopoeia Londinensis

Posted on by | Leave a comment

The Pharmacopoeia Londinensis was originally published in Latin by the Royal College of Physicians in 1618 and translated into English by Nicholas Culpepper in the middle of the seventeenth century. To celebrate its 400th anniversary an illustrated version of the book is to be published later this year.
I am delighted to be one of a number of contemporary botanical artists asked to contribute to this exciting project. I have selected to paint the beautiful and intriguing ‘Rosa damascena’ or the damask rose. A strongly scented rose it is famous for its use in perfume with the fresh petals either distilled as rose water or as one of the worlds most expensive essential oils, 100ml costs more than £1500.00, the petals are also used dried and the hips used fresh or dried. Rosa damascena essential oil is composed of hundreds of components, including citronellol, citral, carvone, citronellyl acetate, eugenol, ethanol, farnesol, stearpoten, methyl eugenol, nerol, nonanol, nonanal, phenylacetaldehyde, phenylmethyl acetate, and phenyl geraniol. There is evidence of its use medicinally going back to the seventh century with a particular link to Iran and the Middle East. Recent studies of the pharmacological effects of the damask rose show it has not only antibacterial and anti oxidant effects, but also anti-viral, anti-depressant, anti-diabetic, analgesic and hypnotic properties.

Detail of Rosa damascena  –  watercolour

All of the medicinal plants painted for this publication and accompanying exhibition can be found growing in the Royal College of Physicians medicinal garden near Regents Park in London. A lecture on the Pharmacopoeia Londinensis and tours of the garden will be part of the RCP/BSHM special event on 11th June 2018. See https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/events/medicinal-plant-lecture-historical-sidelights-and-poynter-lecture

I was particularly interested in taking part in this medicinal plant project as I have a multidisciplinary art practice with a strong research base informed by my career as a horticulturalist working in therapeutic community gardens.  I use plants as a way of telling stories about our relationships with the natural world.


Ishtar

Julia Groves
info@juliagroves.co.uk
www.juliagroves.co.uk

Finding the “missing link”

Posted on by | Leave a comment

Historians will be familiar with the challenges of researching an archive: sifting through a pile of dusty records, drawing a blank in a confusing catalogue, or scoring hundreds of hits searching an electronic database. With the help of an archive expert, however, the rewards outweigh the effort required.

When preparing for my presentation on English medical researcher Dr Annie Homer at the recent BSHM Congress in Edinburgh, I wanted to find out more about her time in Canada at the start of the First World War. In particular, she had served as the Assistant Director of the University of Toronto’s Antitoxin Laboratory, the forerunner of the Connaught Laboratories.

Extract from Antitoxin Laboratory Record of Diphtheria Antitoxin Refining, dated Sept 28th, 1914 [SPC Archives 83-006-01]

I contacted Dr Christopher Rutty, professional medical and public health historian, and consultant to Sanofi Pasteur Canada’s Connaught Campus in Toronto, where the original buildings and archive documents are preserved as part of the country’s medical heritage. By return e-mail, Chris sent me a copy of a lab notebook, which contained several pages written in Homer’s distinctive hand, revealing her work at the start of the war. The preservation of this “missing link” was a stroke of good fortune.

The Connaught Laboratories, University of Toronto, officially opened on Oct 25th, 1917 [SPC Archives 0591]

The Connaught Laboratories were established in 1917 to make up a shortfall of tetanus antitoxin needed by the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and became the site of pioneering advances in the production of vaccines, heparin and insulin. More information is available via The Legacy Project which can be viewed online at www.thelegacyproject.ca

Edward J Wawrzynczak

Oral Histories of Physicians

Posted on by | Leave a comment

Former RCP treasurer, Dr John Bennett, taken in 1958 when he was a junior doctor and suffering from glandular fever (he looks very cheerful on it!).

Forty-five life story oral history interviews with members and fellows of the Royal College of Physicians of London are now accessible remotely through the RCP Library Catalogue. Researchers can access the recordings plus a full transcript or detailed summary by following the link below.

The recordings cover a wide variety of topics, including medical education, working life in the NHS, diagnostics, treatments and drug therapies in a variety of medical specialties, and the enormous changes seen in both the practice and management of medicine since the end of WWII. While inevitably we have interviewed RCP presidents, treasurers and registrars the collection also contains many stories of physicians who have had only minimal contact with the college but have done important work in district general hospitals throughout the UK.

Oral history is a particularly useful historical source for exploring how individuals experienced certain events or changes, and this is certainly true of the RCP collection. Interviewees talk of the exhaustion, fear and excitement of their time as house officers, of the wonder and trepidation of using new drugs for the first time, and of patients they will never forget. We have heard stories of physicians carrying out dangerous experiments on themselves and their colleagues and the feelings in the profession at the introduction of ethics committees. Interviewees have also shared their thoughts and experiences of the introduction of different government policies, the change from the firm to the shift system, the impact of Modernising Medical Careers and the impact of the NHS Internal Market System.

My favourite extracts from the collection are;

Dr Norman Jones reflecting back on setting up the first renal dialysis unit at St. Thomas’ Hospital,

Sir Colin Berry on the changes in doctor / patient communication during his career,

and a short compilation with Dr Virginia Camp, Professor Christine Lee and Professor Clare Fowler talking about their experiences of applying for medical school.

For more information on the collection please contact Sarah Lowry: sarah.lowry@rcplondon.ac.uk

To access the interviews go to: http://rcp.soutron.net/Portal/Default/en-GB/Search/SimpleSearch and click on <<Oral History: Voices of Medicine>> under <<Key Collections>>.

Sarah Lowry
RCP London

What looks primitive now was “cutting edge” then.

Posted on by | Leave a comment

I recently presented a webinar for the British Institute of Radiology, looking at the developments of X-ray tubes. These tubes were developed in the 19th century and many contributed, including Michael Faraday and William Crookes. Whilst writing my talk I had several thoughts.

It is easy to look at early apparatus and see it as primitive, and the scientific issues involved appear quite straightforward. However this apparatus, which seems so basic to us was cutting edge science at the time. Little was known about what was actually going on in these tubes, and what the cathode rays actually were. It’s interesting to consider why Röntgen discovered X-rays in 1895, and why they had not been discovered earlier. The tubes used by William Crookes in the 1870s would have produced X-rays, although they were not demonstrated. It was really only a matter of time before X-rays were discovered, however this should in no way diminish the genius of Röntgen. However William Crookes, Phillip von Lenard, or the Americans AW Goodspeed and William Jennings were all in a position to make the discovery. In Röntgen’s famous phrase, after he had observed something unusual “I did not think, I investigated”!

Cutting edge radiology apparatus in 1896, from Practical Radiography by H Snowdon Ward.
The picture shows the induction coil and battery with the X ray tube above

It also very difficult to put ourselves into the 19th century mindset. G W C Kaye writing in his classic X-Rays: An Introduction to the Study of Röntgen Rays (1919) wrote “In the early nineties (1890s), it was not infrequently maintained that the science of physics had put its house in complete order, and that any future advances could only be along the line of precision measurement.” In 1895 Charles Thurstan Holland had expressed similar sentiments regarding surgery. The discoveries of X-rays, followed in 1896 by the discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel turned everything upside down, leading to a revolution in the scientific understanding of both of the world and of ourselves. This is the reason why I find the period from the early 1890s leading up to the First World War so very fascinating. In comparison, whilst things have changed since my student days, the transformation has not compared in scale to that earlier period.

My final thought when preparing for my webinar is as to why some figures are plucked out for fame, and others remain obscure? Coolidge,  Crookes, and Röntgen are well known; and yet A Bouwers who made major contributions to radiology remains undeservedly obscure.

Finally a webinar is a great means of communication, and is one the BSHM should utilise.

Adrian Thomas
Past-President BSHM