British Society for the History of Medicine

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. The first president of the BSHM was Douglas Guthrie, an Edinburgh surgeon who had later become a successful and well known medical historian. 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.

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

1. 1960 London - Proceedings published as The Evolution of Medical Practice in Britain
2. 1961 London - Proceedings published as Chemistry in the Service of Medicine
3. 1962 London - Proceedings published as The Evolution of Hospitals in Britain
4. 1963 Nottingham - Proceedings published as The Evolution of Pharmacy in Britain
5. 1964 London - Proceedings published as The Evolution of Medical Education in Britain
6. 1967 Brighton - Proceedings published as Medicine and Science in the 1860s
7. 1969 Cambridge - Proceedings published as Cambridge and its Contribution to Medicine
8. 1971 Liverpool
9. 1973 Swansea/Cardiff - Proceedings published as Wales and Medicine
10. 1984 Swansea - Proceedings published as Child Care Through the Centuries
11. 1986 Edinburgh - Proceedings published as The Influence of Scottish Medicine
12. 1988 Bath - Proceedings published as A Pox on the Provinces
13. 1989 Birmingham
14. 1991 Dublin
15. 1993 Newcastle - Proceedings published as Medicine in Northumbria
16. 1995 St Andrews
17. 1997 Bristol
18. 1999 Leeds
19. 2001 Birmingham
20. 2003 Reading
21. 2005 Exeter
22. 2007 Dundee
23. 2009 Belfast
24. 2011 Guildford
25. 2013 Canterbury
26. 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