RCSI Heritage Collections

The word 'pamphlet' comes from a 780 line 12th century Latin comedic play. Bet you didn't know that! The play was called Pamphilus de amore and focuses on Pamphilus who seeks to woo Galatea. This small work was issued without any covers. This meant that the popular poem could be easily and widely copied and circulated in the form of a small slim booklet. Pamphilus was being read in England, France, Italy and Spain and by the early 13th century the word 'pamphlet' was being used in Middle English to describe a small thin book with no cover on or about a particular topic.   Pamphlet dated 1755 ( RCSI/PAMP/8c ) Pamphlet by Charles Marie de la Condamine ( RCSI/Pamp/16a ) With over 6,000 pamphlets in our Heritage Collections, a large scale cataloguing project was undertaken and is still ongoing to make them available online. By clicking here you will be brought to the RCSI Heritage Collection online catalogue hierarchical browser. If...

Fully aware that the moment he died [John] Hunter would come for his body, [Charles] Byrne had concocted a plan designed to thwart him. As his friends leaned forward to hear his dying words, Byrne made them vow to seal his body in a lead coffin, ship it to the middle of the English Channel and plunge it to the bottom of the sea, far from the reach of even the most resourceful anatomist.  - The Knife Man ; Wendy Moore pg.313 Or so Charles Byrne thought!! Byrne was an Irish giant who had arrived in London in April 1782 to earn a living from showcasing his remarkable height of seven foot eight inches. But in doing so he caught the eye of the most renowned surgeon and anatomist of the time, John Hunter .  John Hunter (1728- 1793) painted by Sir Joshua Reynold in 1786. Note the long shin and foot bones in the top right corner! John Hunter was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland in and around 13 February 1728, his exact birth date isn't known. Hunter did...