Philip Syng Physick was an American physician and professor born in Philadelphia. He was the first professor of surgery and later of anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania medical school from 1805 to 1831 during which time he was a highly influential teacher. Physick invented a number of surgical devices and techniques including the stomach tube and absorbable sutures. He has been called the "Father of American Surgery."
The Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) is a medical society based at 1 Wimpole Street, London, UK. It is a registered charity, with admission through membership.
Hypophysectomy is the surgical removal of the hypophysis. It is most commonly performed to treat tumors, especially craniopharyngioma tumors. Sometimes it is used to treat Cushing's syndrome due to pituitary adenoma or Simmond's disease It is also applied in neurosciences to understand the functioning of hypophysis. There are various ways a hypophysectomy can be carried out. These methods include transsphenoidal hypophysectomy, open craniotomy, and stereotactic radiosurgery.
The Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine is a peer-reviewed medical journal. It is the flagship journal of the Royal Society of Medicine with full editorial independence. Its continuous publication history dates back to 1809. Since July 2005 the editor-in-chief is Kamran Abbasi, who succeeded Robin Fox who was editor for almost 10 years.
Sir Vincent Zachary Cope MD MS FRCS was an English physician, surgeon, author, historian and poet perhaps best known for authoring the book Cope's Early Diagnosis of the Acute Abdomen from 1921 until 1971. The work remains a respected and standard text of general surgery, and new editions continue being published by editors long after his death, the most recent one being the 22nd edition, published in 2010. Cope also wrote widely on the history of medicine and of public dispensaries.
Roger Sinclair Kirby FRCS(Urol), FEBU is a British retired prostate surgeon and professor of urology, researcher, writer on men's health and prostate disease, founding editor of the journal Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases and Trends in Urology and Men's Health and a fundraiser for prostate disease charities, best known for his use of the da Vinci surgical robot for laparoscopic prostatectomy in the treatment of prostate cancer. He is a co-founder and president of the charity The Urology Foundation (TUF), vice-president of the charity Prostate Cancer UK, trustee of the King Edward VII's Hospital and as of 2020 is president of the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM), London.
The History of Medicine Society (HoMS), at the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM), London, was founded by Sir William Osler in 1912, and later became one of the four founder medical societies of the British Society for the History of Medicine.
Charles Edward Wallis, otherwise known as the 'father' of the London School Dental Service, was a physician and dental surgeon in London in the early 20th century. As one of the first assistant medical officers to London County Council, his research led to the establishment of a school dental treatment service and an improvement in child welfare.
The Fitzpatrick Lecture is given annually at the Royal College of Physicians on a subject related to history of medicine. The lecturer, who must be a fellow of the College, is selected by the president and may be chosen to speak for two years successively. The lectures are supported by funds from the Fitzpatrick Trust which was established in 1901 by Agnes Letitia Fitzpatrick with a £2,000 donation in memory of her physician husband Thomas Fitzpatrick. Agnes was influenced by her husband’s close friend, Sir Norman Moore, who persuaded her to choose ‘’history of medicine’’ as a subject. Subsequently, Moore was credited with its idea and implementation.
The Public Health (Aircraft) Regulations 1938, created by the Ministry of Health, dealt with preventing the entry of infectious diseases into Britain via aircraft, applied to all HM Customs and Excise approved airports where foreign aircraft land and came into force on 1 July 1938. They were constructed to comply with the Office International d'Hygiene's International Sanitary Convention for Aerial Navigation, first drafted in Paris in 1930. The regulations established sanitary aerodromes and its administration was the responsibility of the town councils.
Sir Peter Freyer was an Irish surgeon with an expertise in genitourinary surgery, best known at first as an Indian Medical Service (IMS) officer, for making popular the procedure for crushing bladder stones to allow them to be evacuated through the natural passages, a procedure known as a litholapaxy. Following retirement from the IMS after 20 years of service in India, he returned to England and popularized a procedure for benign large prostates. This was known as the suprapubic prostatectomy, a transvesical prostatectomy or the Freyer operation, where the prostate is removed through an abdominal incision above the pubic bone but below the umbilicus and through the bladder, and it included using suprapubic drainage post-operatively.
The International Sanitary Convention for Aerial Navigation (1933) was an international sanitary convention, drawn up in 1932 and signed at The Hague on 12 April 1933 and came into force on 1 August 1935 to protect communities against diseases liable to be imported by aircraft and to protect air crew against diseases due to flying. It contained a number of regulations consisting of measures to prevent the spread of plague, cholera, yellow fever, typhus and smallpox. It was formally ratified by around ten countries. Service aircraft were included in March 1939. Intelligence on infectious disease at ports was provided to health authorities by the health organisation at the League of Nations. It was amended in Washington on 15 December 1944, to form the International Sanitary Convention for Aerial Navigation (1944), which came into force on 15 January 1945.
John Gillies, was a Scottish anaesthetist, who worked at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE). For gallantry as a serving soldier in WWI he was awarded the Military Cross. He founded the department of anaesthetics in the RIE and became its first director. The Gillies anaesthetic machine which he devised was the first British closed circuit anaesthetic device and was in use until the 1960s. With his colleague HWC ('Griff') Griffiths he pioneered the technique of high spinal anaesthesia to produce hypotension and 'bloodless' operating fields. Gillies anaesthetised King George VI in Buckingham Palace and was made Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) for this service. He was president of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland from 1947 to 1950.
In the early stages of the First World War, Serbia suffered an epidemic of typhus and relapsing fever. The epidemic first appeared in the late autumn of 1914, after the second Austrian offensive. By December the Austro-Hungarian troops were pushed out of Serbia for the second time in ten days. Around 50,000 wounded and sick remained in hospitals. Great problems with the lack of accommodation and food were affecting not only hospitals but the civilian population as well, besides that, there were around 50,000 Austro-Hungarian prisoners that had to be accommodated and fed too. Dr. Roman Sondermajer established a large field hospital near Kragujevac, using army barracks to care for the sick and wounded.
Air Vice-Marshal Sir David Munro was a Scottish physician, senior Royal Air Force officer, and later Rector of the University of St Andrews.
Sir Arthur Massey was a British medical doctor and author. He was the medical officer of Coventry and author of Epidemiology in Relation to Air Travel (1933). In 1950, he became honorary physician to King George VI.
Herbert Alexander Haxton FRCS FRSE was a Scottish surgeon to the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital and the Manchester North Hospital and Crumpsall Hospital. He contributed to surgical techniques of suturing and investigated the function of the sympathetic nervous system in the sweating conditions hyperhidrosis and gustatory hyperhidrosis.
John Percy Lockhart-Mummery FRCS, was a British surgeon at St Mark's Hospital, London, who devised a classification of rectal cancer and described familial polyposis which led to the formation of the polyposis registry. He was the author of several books, including Diseases of the Rectum and Colon and their Surgical Treatment (1923) and The Origin of Cancer (1934). His work on colorectal surgery earned him the nickname "King Rectum".
Ernest Muir FRCS, CIE, CMG was a Scottish medical missionary and educator in British-controlled India and Nigeria most noted for his work with Hansen's disease (leprosy).
