This year marks 300 years since a lady by the name of Mary Mercer set up a shelter for poor girls in 1724 on the site we now know as the Mercer's building.
The following blog will explore aspects of the last 300 years of medical history at the Mercer's site and its connections to the wider medical profession in Ireland.
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| Mercer's Hospital c. 1734 RCSI Heritage Collections, J.B. Lyons Records |
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| Mercer's Hospital logo and motto- ‘Fac Similiter’, ‘Do Likewise’. RCSI Heritage Collections, J.B. Lyons Records |
As Mercer’s Hospital was a charitable institution, it was obliged to raise its own funds. One of the most celebrated events planned took place on April 13th, 1742, at the Music Hall in Fishamble Street, Dublin when George Frideric Handel’s Messiah premiered.
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| © Copyright Gerald Coke Handel Foundation |
In 1789, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) acquired its first premises in Mercer Street immediately adjacent to the hospital and opened Schools of Surgery in Mercer Street towards the end of that same year. Over time, fourteen of Mercer's Hospital’s surgeons held the title of President of RCSI.
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| Mercer's Hospital Staff RCSI Heritage Collections, J.B. Lyons Records |
In 1904, the hospital arranged another fundraising event of historical significance, Mirus Bazaar. This was a one-week fête which proved wildly successful and was mentioned in James Joyce’s Ulysses. RCSI Heritage Collections staff posted a blog which references Joyce’s use of the fête in his famed novel and his connections with RCSI which can be found here.
Mercer’s Hospital closed as an acute general hospital in 1983 and was subsequently purchased by RCSI, who restored the building and re-opened it in 1991 to function as a clinical centre and medical library. The medical centre was again refurbished several years later thanks to funding from the Mercer’s Foundation. The building itself is currently in use as offices for RCSI staff (including RCSI Heritage Collections!), classrooms for RCSI students and houses Mercer’s Medical Centre.
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| Mercer's Hospital Ward RCSI Heritage Collections, J.B. Lyons Records |
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| Formularies for Mercer’s Hospital and Guinness Brewery, RCSI Heritage Collections, Hayes, Conyngham & Robinson Pharmaceutical Chemists Archive |
A Formulary is a list of prescription drugs preferred by a health plan to ensure cost-effective treatment options for patients and are also used to help a hospital choose medications that provide the best value for patients while meeting their healthcare needs. The content of the Formulary is decided by a group of people often physicians and/or surgeons as well as pharmacists and would be continually evaluated for how appropriate, safe, and cost-effective prescription drugs are to their patients.
The formularies found in the HCR Pharmaceutical Chemists collection for Mercer’s Hospital are dated to 1921. Interestingly, one of them has ‘Guinness’ Brewry [sic]’ inscribed above the title. What was the connection between the formularies of the Guinness Brewery and Mercer’s Hospital? The answer may be one of the physicians listed, Sir John Lumsden (1869-1944).
Lumsden studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin and gained an MB in 1894 and following an MD in 1895. He was appointed First Medical Officer (1894) and soon after Chief Medical Officer (1899) at Guinness’s Brewery in St James’s Gate in Dublin. Lumsden reorganized the company’s medical provisions for their employees and their families, which became an efficient, effective, and exemplary service. He worked for Guinness until 1940 but while working for Guinness he also served as a senior visiting physician to Mercer’s Hospital from 1897-1939. He was also responsible for setting up the first division of the St John’s Ambulance at Guinness.
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| Guinness Archive, Diageo Archive (Photograph of Sir John Lumsden, Reference: GDB/CO13/0015.087) |
The ‘Lumsden Connection’ would lead us to believe that the formularies of both Mercer’s Hospital and the Guinness Brewery would have been similar or the same for several years.
Medical professionals and institutions engaged in the healing art are all interconnected as these formularies demonstrate bringing together Hayes, Conyngham & Robinson Pharmaceutical Chemists, the Guinness Brewery, Mercer’s Hospital, St John Ambulance and RCSI, further links and discoveries are guaranteed, and we will keep readers posted on any new developments here at RCSI Heritage Collections.
References
- Hayes, Cathy. “Sir John Lumsden.” Last modified October 2009. https://www.dib.ie/biography/lumsden-sir-john-a4917.
- Kelly, Ronan. Every Branch of the Healing Art: A History of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Dublin: Eastwood Books, 2023.
- Lyons, J.B. The Quality of Mercer’s Hospital 1734-1991. Dublin: Glendale Publishing Ltd. 1991.
- “Drug Formulary.” Science Direct. Accessed December 4, 2024. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/nursing-and-healthprofessions/drug-formulary.
- “Mercer’s Medical Centre: a legacy of care for our students and our local community.” Last modified February 28, 2022. https://www.rcsi.com/impact/details/2022/02/mercers-medical-centre-a-legacy-of-care-for-our-students-and-our-local-community.
- Allen, Pádraig. “Sir John Lumsden (1869-1944).” St John Ambulance Ireland. Accessed December 18, 2024. https://www.stjohn.ie/about-st-john-ambulance/sir-john-lumsden-1869-1944/.
Images
- J.B. Lyons Records. RCSI Heritage Collections.
- Messiah: an oratorio, compos’d by Mr Handel, accession number: 2141, reference: 10/C/MESSIAH, Gerald Coke Handel Foundation.
- Guinness Archive, Diageo Archive, Sir John Lumsden (GDB/CO013/0015.087)