Founder | John Coakley Lettsom |
---|---|
Type | Charity |
Location |
|
President | Robina Coker |
Website | The Harveian Society of London |
The Harveian Society of London, named after the physician William Harvey, is a medical society and registered charity, [1] founded in 1831. Doctors assemble regularly at the Medical Society of London, Chandos Street, Cavendish Square to converse and discuss medical matters through the medium of lectures and conferences. [2] [3]
The society's council rotate annually and comprises the president, two vice-presidents, the treasurer, the executive and two honorary secretaries, the archivist and nine councillors. [2] [3]
John Coakley Lettsom, had opened a dispensary in London in 1770, following which, in 1773, he founded the Medical Society of London. [4] Over the next 50 years, the expansion of dispensaries, particularly around Marylebone, created a platform for a group of doctors to get together and create The West London Medical Society, the intention of which was to cultivate a medium to better their knowledge and advance medical science. [5]
By October 1831, the society's name had changed to 'The Harveian Society of London' and it had held its first meeting at the Western General Dispensary. From 1951, the meetings have been held at the Medical Society of London's home, Lettsom House. [3] [5]
Anthony Todd Thompson and Marshall Hall, both physicians, were the first two presidents. Subsequently, presidents have frequently been high-profile medical professionals, including Thomas Hodgkin, D'Arcy Power, Lord Horder, Cecil Wakeley and Sir Zachary Cope. [5]
Society rules were first printed in 1832. The Society remained exclusively male until 1956, when women were permissible to join in only as guests, eventually being allowed full membership from 1964 under the Presidency of Dr. D. Geraint James. [5]
Started in 1875, an annual lecture is given in honour of William Harvey. Past speakers have included surgeon (and brother of economist John Maynard Keynes) Geoffrey Keynes, nobel prize winners for work on penicillin Ernest Chain and Howard Florey, co-discoverer of DNA Francis Crick and heart transplant pioneer Christiaan Barnard. [5]
In 1928, following the death of his son, killed in the First World War, Sir George Buckston Browne bestowed the ‘Buckston Browne Prize’ for a paper based on original work and 'medal' in memory of his son. [5]
Buckston Brown also endowed an annual dinner for Harveian members, which is also celebrated with the Buckston Browne cup. In 1944, Lt–Colonel Sir Norman Gray Hill was killed in the Second World War. In honour of his endowment and memory, the annual dinner was renamed the Buckston Browne Gray Hill Dinner. [5]
Every year, in June, the president and associates make a particular call to Harvey's birthplace in Folkestone and lay flowers at Harvey's statue. [3]
In 1973, in the presence of the society and on behalf of the British Medical Association, an honorary plaque was added. [6]
Established in 1954, the William Harvey Memorial prize was initially open only to students from the William Harvey Grammar School. [5]
A selection of Harvey's works, biographies and portraits are kept in a small library. [5] Some portraits were removed from the Royal College of Physicians and returned to the society. [7]
In 1975, the society requested sculptor Nigel Boonham to create a head of William Harvey for his 400th anniversary. A total of fifty were to be cast in a resin bronze limited edition and sold to members. [8]
The Royal College of Physicians of London holds an annual lecture established by William Harvey in 1656 called the Harveian Oration.
The Harveian Society of Edinburgh was founded in 1782 by Dr Andrew Duncan. [9] [10] The Society holds an annual Festival in honour of Harvey. The President of the Society delivers the Harveian Oration, followed by a formal dinner. The venue for the Festival alternates between the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
The Harvey Society, found in 1905, is based in New York City and hosts an annual lecture series on recent advances in biomedical sciences.
The Harvey Club of London, the oldest medical club in Canada, is based in the University of Western Ontario
William Harvey was an English physician who made influential contributions in anatomy and physiology. He was the first known physician to describe completely, and in detail, the systemic circulation and properties of blood being pumped to the brain and the rest of the body by the heart, though earlier writers, such as Realdo Colombo, Michael Servetus, and Jacques Dubois, had provided precursors of the theory.
The Royal College of Physicians of London, commonly referred to simply as the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination, and now also Physicians Assistants without examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1518, as the College of Physicians, the RCP is the oldest medical college in England.
The Royal College of Surgeons of England is an independent professional body and registered charity that promotes and advances standards of surgical care for patients, and regulates surgery and dentistry in England and Wales. The college is located at Lincoln's Inn Fields in London. It publishes multiple medical journals including the Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the Faculty Dental Journal, and the Bulletin of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Sir Francis Martin Rouse Walshe, FRS was a British neurologist.
John Coakley Lettsom FRS was an English physician and philanthropist born on Little Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands into an early Quaker settlement. The son of a West Indian planter and an Irish mother, he grew up to be an abolitionist. He founded the Medical Society of London in 1773, convinced that a combined membership of physicians, surgeons and apothecaries would prove productive. As the oldest such in the United Kingdom, it is housed in London's medical community at Lettsome House, Chandos Street, near Cavendish Square. Lettsom was its mainstay, as founder, president and benefactor.
John Coldstream (1806–1863) was a Scottish physician.
The Harveian Oration is a yearly lecture held at the Royal College of Physicians of London. It was instituted in 1656 by William Harvey, discoverer of the systemic circulation. Harvey made financial provision for the college to hold an annual feast on St. Luke's Day at which an oration would be delivered in Latin to praise the college's benefactors and to exhort the Fellows and Members of this college to search and study out the secrets of nature by way of experiment. Until 1865, the Oration was given in Latin, as Harvey had specified, and known as the Oratio anniversaria; but it was thereafter spoken in English. Many of the lectures were published in book form.
Sir Andrew Douglas MaclaganPRSE FRCPE FRCSE FCS FRSSA was a Scottish surgeon, toxicologist and scholar of medical jurisprudence. He served as president of 5 learned societies: the Royal Medical Society (1832), the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (1859–61), the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (1884–87), the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1890–5), and the Royal Scottish Society of Arts (1900).
Angus Macdonald FRSE FRCPE, was a Scottish physician, obstetrician and lecturer at the University of Edinburgh. He served as President of the Edinburgh Obstetrical Society from 1879 to 1881.
Andrew Duncan, the elder FRSE FRCPE FSA (Scot) was a British physician and professor at the University of Edinburgh. He was joint founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. As first proposer of an asylum in Edinburgh he gives his name to the Andrew Duncan Clinic which forms part of the Edinburgh City Hospital.
Andrew Duncan, the younger was a British physician and professor at the University of Edinburgh.
The Harvey Society is a learned society based in New York City, Named after the British scientist William Harvey (1578–1657), its scope is "the diffusion of knowledge of the medical sciences". Since its founding in 1905, the society has sponsored an annual series of lectures given by leading biomedical researchers which it publishes in book form at the end of the year. The society's seven annual lectures are now held at Rockefeller University's Caspary Auditorium.
William Saunders FRS FRSE was a Scottish physician who was the first president of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society.
David Maclagan MD, FRSE, FRCSEd, FRCPE was a prominent Scottish medical doctor and military surgeon, serving in the Napoleonic Wars. He served as President of both the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He was Surgeon in Scotland to Queen Victoria.
Sir John Rose Cormack FRSE FRCP was a Scottish physician and medical journalist. He established several notable British journals: the Edinburgh Monthly Journal of Medical Science; the London Medical Journal; and the Associated Medical Journal.
George Alexander Gibson FRSE FRCPE was a Scottish physician, medical author, and amateur geologist. As an author, he wrote on the diverse fields of both geology and heart disease. The Gibson Memorial Lecture is named after him. He was the first to discover a heart condition – the Gibson Murmur – which is named after him.
Sir Robert William Philip was a Scottish physician and pioneer in the treatment and control of tuberculosis.
The Harvey Club of London is the oldest currently active medical club in Canada. It was founded by Drs. James W. Crane and C.M. Crawford in 1919 in London, Ontario. The club was initially founded as a way for practicing physicians to stay abreast of new developments in biomedical sciences, analogous to the modern concept of continuing medical education, a function that it continues to perform with annual presentations of papers. The club also provides academic and financial support to students at the medical school of Western University.
The Harveian Society of Edinburgh was founded in April 1782 by Andrew Duncan. The Society holds an annual Festival in honour of the life and works of William Harvey, the physician who first correctly described the manner in which blood circulates around the human body. Until 1829, the Society was known as the Circulation Club or the Harveian Club. Membership of the society is by invitation and members are doctors based primarily in Scotland. There are currently over 140 members, who are known as "Harveians".