ICML 2009: State Library of Queensland Session 30

Theme: History of Medicine Lectures

Time: 8.30-12.00
Date: Friday 4th September 2009
Chair: Professor John Pearn

A debate over a library: soma versus psyche
Prof Christopher Gardner Thorpe, Editor, Journal of Medical Biography, United Kingdom.
Dr Katriona Munthe, CEO of Munthe Insitute Museum Collections, United Kingdom.

Christopher Gardner-Thorpe lectures widely in medical history and edits the Journal of Medical Biography. He is a consultant neurologist with a busy clinical and medicolegal practice.

Katriona Munthe has always been interested in the psychobiography of an individual. She is a Jungian analyst who practises in Rome. She was also trained in philosophy and art history. More recently her interests have extended further into the history of medicine.

Abstract:
A neurologist explores the medical books of Dr Axel Munthe, his underlinings and comments in the margins; a psychotherapist discovers her grandfather's interests in the thoughts and emotions of his patients. Together they unearth the interface between the body and the soul to be found in this historical library.

Medical museums as libraries
Prof Robin Cooke, Mayne Medical School and Royal Brisbane Hospital , Australia

Present Appointments From January 2009 he retired from clinical duties to concentrate on teaching, and publishing educational material in print and electronic media. He holds teaching appointments at the University of Queensland, Bond University, Griffith University, James Cook University, Queensland University of Technology and at a number of Brisbane Teaching Hospitals. He graduated from the University of Queensland Medical School in Brisbane, Australia, in 1959. Pathology training was in Brisbane and at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, London, U.K. In 1962 he established the Pathology services in Papua New Guinea, and had the thrill of studying the pathology of these 3 million Stone Age people as they came into contact with Western Medicine for the first time. This study continued in the subsequent 40 years. In 2003 he was awarded an Order of the British Empire by the PNG Government for his contributions to Medicine in Papua New Guinea. For 23 years he was Director of Anatomical Pathology at the Royal Brisbane Hospital, one of the largest teaching hospitals in Australia. While there he built on his New Guinea experience and became an expert in Tropical Diseases. In 2000 he was awarded an OAM (Medal in the Order of Australia) for his contributions to teaching. He is composing and publishing continuing educational material and slide seminars for Medical students, Anatomical Pathologists and Pathology trainees. Some of these are being produced digitally as interactive exercises on CD in a way that simulates a microscope, and in accompanying books. His first successful publication, co-authored by photographer Brian Stewart was 'A Colour Atlas of Anatomical Pathology' published by Churchill Livingstone. It has excellent pictures of fresh, unfixed specimens. The 3rd. Edition was released for sale in November, 2003. It has had very flattering reviews and was reprinted at the end of the first year of publication. The first and second editions were published in Spanish, Japanese and Greek. A Russian translation of the third edition was released in Jan 2005. A Japanese translation was released in 2006. A second major book 'Infectious Diseases - text - atlas - cases' published by McGraw-Hill was released in July 2009. It, too, has very flattering reviews. Since 1995 he has been Editor and producer of International Pathology - the News Bulletin of the International Academy of Pathology which has a circulation of 23,000 world wide. It is published quarterly and features the Editor's own pictures of contemporary people and places, and of historical people and places. He was President and chief organizer of the highly successful XXV International Congress of the International Academy of Pathology held in Brisbane, Australia. October 10-15, 2004. It attracted 2000 delegates. He was the invited editor and main contributor to a publication to mark the 100th anniversary of the IAP - 'Scientific Medicine in the Twentieth Century - A commemoration of 100 years of the International Association of Medical Museums and the International Academy of Pathology.' This had a print run of 3,000 and a copy was given to each of the 2600 delegates who attended the Centenary Congress of the IAP in Montreal, Canada, in September 2006.

Abstract:
The functions of museums and libraries overlap, but they both house collections of material that is well catalogued and made available for public study. Medical Museum specimens are used for teaching health professionals about diseases that affect human beings. They also perform an historical function by recording changing patterns of disease. (1750–now) Leonardo da Vinci (1490) made drawings and sculptures of human anatomy. Andreas Vesalius (1543) made anatomical dissections for the students of the University of Padua. He commissioned drawings to be made and he published them in the first printed text book. Italian artists made wax models of anatomical dissections. (1720-1850) Anatomists and pathologists (1750-now) preserved specimens in liquid fixatives – first alcohol and then formaldehyde. They kept the specimens in sealed glass containers (1750-1940) and thereafter in clear perspex containers. The above themes will be developed and illustrated in the lecture.

The Curious Herbalist; the life and interesting times of Elizabeth Blackwell
Mr Bruce E Madge, The London Upright MRI Centre, United Kingdom

Bruce is well known to medical librarians having been Chair of the Health Libraries Group from 1997 to 1998 and becoming President of CILIP in 2008. He has been a librarian for over 30 years working in the health library and information field. In 2004 he got his Honorary FCLIP for work done in the area of health informatics. He was a founder member of the UK Council for Health Informatics Professions (UKCHIP) and is a strong advocate of regulation of the profession. Currently he is working as Director of Marketing for the London Upright MRI Centre, a small medical imaging centre in London, which just goes to prove that librarians can be flexible in the jobs that they can perform. Before coming to his current post he was a Sub-Librarian at the British Medical Association Library. Prior to that he worked for 2 years as Assistant Director for Patient Information at the newly established National Patient Safety Agency. Here he set up and ran an information service for patients and a small library for staff. His first senior management role in 1995 came when he headed up the Healthcare Information Service at the British Library. Here he managed the production of the popular Allied and Complementary Medicine database (AMED) as well as the UK indexing input for Medline amongst other medical indexing work. Prior to that he spent several years working in various positions within the NHS which included District Librarian at Bromley Hospitals NHS Trust and Librarian at the National Poisons Unit. His international experience includes being the Chair of the Health and Biosciences Libraries Committee of IFLA, a member of the European Association of Health Information and Libraries Council and a past Chair of the International Co-operation Section of the US Medical Library Association. He is also a Trustee of Partnerships in Health Information. In 2000, I wrote a book entitled “Harnessing Health Libraries” for Radcliffe Medical Press and have a number of articles to my name. Outside of work and whenever he is in America, he plays lead guitar for the Bearded Pigs, the world’s only international, open access medical librarian rock band and has a passion for Jaguar cars.

Abstract:
This paper will look at the work of Elizabeth Blackwell (c1700 –1758), the first woman to produce a commercially successful herbal, who produced her hand drawn and coloured “Curious Herbal” in 1735 to free her husband from debtors prison. Elizabeth Blackwell’s name is not well known in the history of medicine although her later namesake Dr Elizabeth Blackwell, well known as a pioneer for women doctors, considered her predecessor a “physician-accoucheur worthy of all praise”. Although largely forgotten by medical history, her name is better known in the field of botanical illustration and many histories of botanical illustration make reference to her work. However many people, such as the botanical writer William Blunt, dismiss her contribution to botany as not particularly scientific and amateurish. However they miss the major point that she produced the herbal virtually single handed and was a woman working with a medical profession dominated by male doctors. Indeed she was able to enlist the support of notables such as Sir Hans Sloane and Dr Richard Mead. Her story is a fascinating one and using copies of the herbal in the British Library, this paper will look at the circumstances surrounding the production of the herbal, her influences and sources she used for the book, including the people who recommended production of the book to the Royal College of Physicians.

Kipling and his medical references
Dr Robert Pearce, Surgery and Pathology, UWA, Australia

Robert Pearce is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Pathology at the University of Western Australia in Perth.

Abstract:
Rudyard Kipling was a prolific author and he had a tremendous following throughout the world during his lifetime. His novels and short stories often contained medical references that were well-informed. Though he had no medical background this Nobel Laureate had friends in high places who obviously influenced his choice of subject and his social commentary.One such acquaintance was Sir John Bland-Sutton, one time President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, who was very likely responsible for a gift of books from Kipling's library to the Australasian College in Melbourne. The significance of these texts and their authors in the literary career of this famous author is reviewed in this paper.

One Library of Books
Dr Katriona Munthe, CEO of Munthe Insitute Museum Collections, United Kingdom.

Katriona Munthe has always been interested in the psychobiography of an individual. She is a Jungian analyst who practises in Rome. She was also trained in philosophy and art history. More recently her interests have extended further into the history of medicine.

Abstract:
A journey through the library of an individual guides us across the map of his personality. Artistic and historical pursuits nourished Dr Axel Munthe's art of healing; the library encompasses a grand tour of Europe.