RCSI Heritage Collections

RCSI Heritage Collections has been awarded funding from the Heritage Council to celebrate the life and legacy of pioneering Irish surgeon Abraham Colles on the 250th anniversary of his birth in 2023. Abraham Colles (1773-1843) was a surgeon, physician, and anatomist, and a leading figure in the golden age of Irish medicine in the 19th century. He also had a strong connection with RCSI being a past pupil, professor and President of the College. Colles revolutionised the teaching of anatomy in medical schools around the world with the publication of his ground-breaking Treatise on Surgical Anatomy in 1811. This work prompted a radical departure from established approaches to the study of human anatomy and proposed a new model of teaching that lent itself much more readily to the realities of clinical practice for surgeons and physicians in the nineteenth century. This innovative approach to the teaching of anatomy paved the way for new discoveries and fresh observations regarding th...

During the American Civil War (1861-1865) military surgeons carried a book with them through the battlefields and army hospitals. This book was adopted by the Surgeon-General of the United States Army soon after it's publication in Dublin in 1860. It was a 'bible' to army surgeons. The book was Anatomy of the Arteries of the Human Body, Descriptive and Surgical with the Descriptive Anatomy of the Heart by one John Hatch Power FRCSI. Power's Anatomy of the Arteries of the Human Body published in 1860 John Hatch Power was born on 24 November 1806 in Dublin. From a young age he showed an interest and aptitude in surgery. So after receiving some instruction in surgery he was apprenticed to Robert Adams at the age of 19. On 7 May 1831 Power received his licence from the College and soon afterwards became Demonstrator in the Richmond Medical School. In 1838 he graduated M.D. from Glasgow University and in December 1844 Power became a Fellow of the College. Powe...

The 1555 copy of Andreas Vesalius’  De Humani Corporis Fabrica   is perhaps the most important book held by RCSI Library.  Just over one hundred copies of this work are known to exist worldwide and RCSI holds the only known copy in Ireland. It is considered a masterpiece in the fields of both anatomy and art. It is 500 years since the birth of Andreas Vesalius one of the greatest anatomists and dissectors of the medical world. BBC4 recently ran a series on TV called The Beauty of Anatomy   which features a different anatomist for each of its 5 episodes. One of these anatomists was none other than the great Vesalius.   Engraving by Tintoretto of Vesalius c1540  Vesalius was born in Brussels on 31 December 1514. He started his medical studies in the University of Paris in 1533 where he learned the art of dissection. In 1538 he had moved to the University of Padua where he received his M.D. and was appointed a lecturer in anatomy. It was here that...

The other night there was a very interesting programme on how medical schools in the 1800s acquired cadavers to aid in the teaching and study of anatomy. Body snatching was a very lucrative business back then with some 'Resurrection Men' earning up to a months wages from one grisly transaction! Resurrection men at work! Courtesy of  Autodidact in the Attic The programme is entitled  Secrets of the Body Snatchers and was a Time Team Special on Channel 4 with Sir Tony Robinson as the presenter. Watch it here   Secrets of the Body Snatchers  I do, sometimes, find it hard to take what Baldrick from Blackadder  says seriously though. - Researched and written by Meadhbh Murphy

RCSI Museum circa 1900s Museum's full of curious specimens, eerie skeletons and natural wonders are fascinating. A fascination that has been awoken in younger generations through the captivating TV programmes by David Attenborough. The College housed quite a large museum and was even pronounced as 'one of the most valuable in Europe' by Friedrich Tiedemann and Jules Cloquet  in the 1800s. In 1820 the College decided to establish a museum on a level par with the scale of their other departments. A committee was formed and they were empowered to appoint a Curator at once. Candidates for the position of Curator had to exhibit specimens of their work.    Shekleton's mercurial specimen Baby orangutan skeleton E.a.90 A young anatomist named John Shekleton presented his specimen of a mercurial injection of the lymphatics of the lower extremity which, it has been said, excited the wonder of all who saw it. This specimen is still on view in the Anatomy ...