The Swiney Prize, a British award made every five years by the Royal Society of Arts with the Royal College of Physicians, was set up by the will of George Swiney, an English physician who died in 1844.
The prize came to be awarded alternately for medical jurisprudence and general jurisprudence. New cups were designed, after an initial stable period when a pattern by Daniel Maclise was reused. The first new design came in 1919, by Melvin Oliver. [1] [2] [3] [4]
George Swiney, a physician, was the son of William Swiney (1748–1829), Admiral of the Red. He was born on 8-Jun-1793 at St Marylebone, Middlesex, England. He was educated at Edinburgh University, where he graduated M.D. in 1816. Having retired from practice, he settled in London, lived a secluded life, and acquired a reputation as an eccentric. He spent much time on his will and died at Grove Street, Camden Town, on 21 January 1844. He bequeathed £5,000 to the Society of Arts, to found a quinquennial prize for the best published essay on jurisprudence, the prize to be adjudicated jointly by the Society of Arts and the London College of Physicians [5]
Swiney also left £5,000 to the British Museum to found a lectureship in geology, the lecturer to be an M.D. of Edinburgh. [6] Holders have included
Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Lee, Sidney, ed. (1898). "Swiney, George". Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 55. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts or more commonly by its acronym RSA, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges.
Medical jurisprudence or legal medicine is the branch of science and medicine involving the study and application of scientific and medical knowledge to legal problems, such as inquests, and in the field of law. As modern medicine is a legal creation, regulated by the state, and medicolegal cases involving death, rape, paternity, etc. require a medical practitioner to produce evidence and appear as an expert witness, these two fields have traditionally been interdependent.
Theodric Romeyn Beck, alternatively Theodoric Romeyn Beck or T. Romeyn Beck, was an American physician in Albany, New York, specializing in medical jurisprudence who authored the first significant American book on forensic medicine, Elements of Medical Jurisprudence in 1823.
William Augustus Guy was a British physician and medical statistician.
Sir George Whitecross Paton was an Australian legal scholar and Vice-Chancellor of Melbourne University from 1951 until 1968.
Cedric Keith Simpson was an English forensic pathologist. He was Professor of Forensic Medicine in the University of London at Guy's Hospital, Lecturer in Forensic Medicine at the University of Oxford and a founding member and President of the Association of Forensic Medicine. Simpson became renowned for his post-mortems on high-profile murder cases, including the 1949 Acid Bath Murders committed by John George Haigh and the murder of gangster George Cornell, who was shot dead by Ronnie Kray in 1966.
Alfred Swaine Taylor was an English toxicologist and medical writer, who has been called the "father of British forensic medicine". He was also an early experimenter in photography.
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.
The Goulstonian Lectures are an annual lecture series given on behalf of the Royal College of Physicians in London. They began in 1639. The lectures are named for Theodore Goulston, who founded them with a bequest. By his will, dated 26 April 1632, he left £200 to the College of Physicians of London to found a lectureship, to be held in each year by one of the four youngest doctors of the college. These lectures were annually delivered from 1639, and have continued for more than three centuries. Up to the end of the 19th century, the spelling Gulstonian was often used. In many cases the lectures have been published.
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).
Jervis Street Hospital was a hospital in Jervis Street in Dublin, Ireland. The site of the hospital became the Jervis Shopping Centre.
Professor John Glaister was a Scottish forensic scientist who worked as a general practitioner, police surgeon, and as a lecturer at Glasgow Royal Infirmary Medical School and the University of Glasgow. Glasgow University's Glaister Prize is named in his honour.
Andrew Duncan, the elder FRSE FRCPE FSA (Scot) was a Scottish 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.
John Gordon Smith (1792–1833) was a Scottish surgeon and early professor of medical jurisprudence.
Charles Meymott Tidy (1843–1892) was an English medical man and sanitary chemist, a barrister who wrote also on legal matters.
George William Balfour FRSE was a Scottish physician, known as a heart specialist.
The Obstetrical Society of London existed from 1858 to 1907.
William Hawes (1805–1885) was an English businessman, banker and reformer, noted for efforts to improve the workings of the Poor Laws, bankruptcy law and excise.
The Bisset Hawkins Medal is a triennial award made by the Royal College of Physicians of London to acknowledge work done in the preceding ten years in advancing sanitary science or promoting public health. It is named after Francis Bisset Hawkins (1796–1884), a distinguished London physician and is presented after the Harveian Oration.