RCSI Heritage Collections

Did you know that RCSI Library holds over one hundred and fifty years of the British Medical Journal (BMJ) in its archives? One hundred and sixty four to be precise; with holdings from 1853 to the present day. Early BMJ Volumes at RCSI Library As you would expect a number of groundbreaking articles have been published in the journal. In this post, RCSI Heritage Collections takes a look at a series of seminal articles published in the BMJ which helped demonstrate the link between tobacco consumption and lung cancer. In the first half of the twentieth century, there was a massive increase in the consumption of tobacco thanks largely to modern manufacturing methods which enabled their mass production [1] . At the same time there was a sharp rise in Lung Cancer – some suspected this was a result of increased tobacco consumption while others believed it was due to improved diagnosis or air pollution [2] . A major milestone in the linking of smoking and lung cancer was the publication ...

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas..... So the song goes! RCSI Heritage Collections want to wish all our online family a Very Merry   Christmas  and a Happy New Year. We also want to thank you guys for taking an interest in the weird and wonderful that can be found in RCSI Heritage Collections. The blog has had  over 100,000 page views since it started in March 2013, which we think is a cause for celebration.  Woohoo!!  The only way to pour champagne! This is Meadhbh Murphy over and out. Until next time.....

To celebrate the centenary of the enhanced 2nd edition  Sir Charles A Cameron' s immensely rich and historically valuable book History of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, The Irish Medical Schools etc , RCSI Heritage Collections have made it available to read and search on our website. Sir Charles A. Cameron (1830-1921) Cameron was an amazing individual who not only held the position of Executive Officer of Health and Public Analyst for Dublin for 59 years, he was President of RCSI in 1885, he fought for better sanitation and living conditions for those living in the Dublin tenements but he also wrote a thoroughly researched and readable history of the College. Click on the link below to read and search Cameron's great tome. History of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, The Irish Medical Schools etc , by Sir Charles Cameron

As the number of shopping days left before Christmas continues to dwindle, RCSI Heritage Collections decided to have a look at what was on offer to those in the medical world in times gone by. By looking at advertisements in the back of the  Medical Directory  series, which spans from 1852 to today, you could pick a variety of items for those hard to get and not so hard to get people in your life. Let's have a look at what was on offer..... For the ladies, why not get the most fashionable figure hugging under apparel? An ad for Bailey's Ladies Bandages and Belts from 1853. 'No Lady Should Be Without One' - who can argue with that!  Spirella Figure Foundation Garments from 1936. How about that person who is always trying new health fads? How yummy, orange peel flavoured cod liver oil tablets?! From 1853. Many would try and claim that beer can aid sickness..... From 1889. Valentine's Meat Juice from 1936. Say no more!  Not forgetting...

We were at RCSI Heritage Collections could not let today pass without mentioning Abraham Colles.  Abraham Colles (1773-1843) Today 173 years ago Colles passed away at the age of 70 in his house, 21 St Stephen's Green. Abraham Colles was born in Milmount, Co. Kilkenny on 23 July 1773. Over the next 70 years he would come to dominate the world of surgery both in Ireland and around the world.  Colles entered TCD in September 1790 and received his B.A in April 1795. At the same time he registered in RCSI and was indentured to Philip Woodroffe. Colles received his ‘letters testimonial’ from RCSI in September 1795. That same year he travelled to Edinburgh where he devoted himself to furthering his medical studies. Colles' indenture to Philip Woodroffe, signed by both men  In June 1797 he graduated as Doctor of Medicine in Edinburgh and made his way London to take up his residence. By the winter of 1797, Colles was back in Dublin and had taken up his residence in Ch...

As Explore Your Archive week draws to an end, RCSI Heritage Collections decided to look at an explorer and surgeon who has for many decades lived very quietly in the archives. But today is his day to shine! Put your archive loving hands together for..... David Walker! David Walker (1837-1917) by Stephen Pearce (NPG 922) National Portrait Gallery, London David Walker was the surgeon and naturalist who accompanied Sir Francis Leopold McClintock to the Arctic on the yacht Fox in 1857, to try and locate the missing Franklin expedition. Sir John Franklin , his two ships Erebus and Terror and 129 crew had left London in the summer of 1845 to try and discover a navigable north-west passage and had not been heard of since.  After numerous unsuccessful public search expeditions, Lady Franklin decided to finance a private search expedition to uncover some evidence of what had happened to her husband and his men. She contacted McClintock, who was in Dublin on a leav...

Of all our national assets, Archives are the most precious; they are the gift of one generation to another and the extent of our care  of them marks the extent of our civilisation. - Arthur G. Doughty Explore Your Archive (EYA) 2016   begins tomorrow, Saturday 19th and runs until Saturday 26th November. To find out more visit the   website  and read about the fascinating material that lives within a variety of Irish archives. Once your interest has been aroused why not explore some other archives that highlight the wide diversity and wealth of material available to research, read, admire and, in the case of some fashion archives, covet!!                  The Waldorf Astoria Archive                                                                  ...