History of Medicine Society

HoMS was established to cover all medical specialities and with the support from Sir Francis Champneys, Sir Raymond Crawfurd, Sir Thomas Clifford Allbutt, Sir Ronald Ross, Sir William Selby Church, Sir Henry Morris, Henry Barnes and Professor Richard Caton, the first meeting on 20 November 1912 had 160 attendees[2][4] The inaugural meeting, with Sir William Osler as first president, was based on manuscripts by William Petty, the history of Anaesthesia, and encouraging research and scholarship in medical topics.[2][4] Despite opposition from Sir Richard Douglas Powell, Osler personally invited guests to join the new society.[4] Dorothea Waley Singer became the first woman to deliver a paper to the HoMS in 1919.[2] In 1927, the first British qualified female dentist, Lilian Lindsay, presented "The London Dentist of the 18th Century".[5] She became the first female president of the HoMS in 1950.[2]

• 
  Sir William Osler
• 
  D'Arcy Power
• 
  Sir Richard Douglas Powell - Opposition
• 
  Sir Francis Champneys
• 
  Sir Ronald Ross
• 
  Sir William Selby Church
• 
  Sir Henry Morris
• 
  1912 Council Minutes

The Norah Schuster prize, established in 1991 and named for pathologist, Norah Schuster, is awarded annually. Around three essays in the field of history of medicine or science are chosen to receive the award.[2][9]

• 
  Lee Hatter, Norah Schuster Prize winner (2017)
• 
  Norah Schuster Prize winners (2018)
• 
  Joanna Park, Norah Schuster Prize winner (2022)

Sarah Hughes Prize winners (2022)

The society collaborates with the Medical Journalists' Association to award the annual Sarah Hughes Trust Prize to journalists and healthcare practitioners who expose misleading information.[10][11] The prize was first awarded in 2022 when it was received by BBC journalists for exposing false science relating to ivermectin and COVID-19.[12][13]

The Bynum lecture is named for professor of medical history W. F. Bynum. It is delivered annually by a practising social historian.[14]

Named for physician and dental surgeon, Charles Edward Wallis, the C. E. Wallis memorial lecture is delivered every five years and arranged in conjunction with the odontology section. Wallis was active at the RSM and interested in history and archaeology.[15][16][17] His brother, Ferdinand Wallis donated £100 in 1927 to fund a lecturer, appointed by the society to speak on the history of dentistry.[17][18]

The Sarah Hughes Trust in conjunction with the HoMS funds an annual lecture, which was first delivered in 2021 as a conversation with between Jed Mercurio and health and social care editor at Channel 4 News, Victoria MacDonald.[19] In 2022 it was delivered by Professor Dame Marina Warner.[13]

• 
  Jed Mercurio and Victoria MacDonald (2021)
• 
  Dame Marina Warner (2022)

William Withering's letters were bestowed by Osler in his will.[2] Sir William Hale-White, president of RSM 1922–1924, was a lecturer in medicine who, following retirement, studied the history of medicine and wrote on René Laennec[22] and John Keats.[23] He catalogued Withering's letters.[24][25] A facsimile of Withering's letter was published by Ronald Mann in 1986.[2]

Albert John Chalmers, born in Manchester in 1870, was a physician in tropical medicine in Ghana and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). He died in India in 1920 and was known to have an interest in the history of medicine.[26] His wife donated £500 and 350 old books from Chalmer's personal library, including a first printed edition of Celsus (1478), to the new Chalmer's room on the RSM library's third floor. This room was opened by a ceremony on 23 June 1922.[27] Although the actual room no longer exists, many of its books were displayed in 2016 as part of an exhibition in the RSM library.[28]