Dr Alun Withey is an academic historian of early modern medicine, technology and the family. Here, he describes the inspiration and contexts of his new book, Physick and the Family: Health, Medicine and Care in Wales, 1600-1750, which includes research carried out in the Wellcome Library.
I never set out to be a medical historian. Whilst studying for my History BA, I was struggling to find a topic for my dissertation. I knew I wanted to do something connected to Wales and the seventeenth century, and settled upon the Civil Wars. I visited a local record office, and was introduced to a source that nobody had done much work on…a commonplace book. Amongst the notes and jottings were several medical remedies that looked interesting to the untrained eye. My curiosity was piqued and I decided to look into it further. Seven years, and a PhD later, I’m still looking!
Welsh medical history, at least in terms of the early modern period, has often been overlooked. In 1975, the editor of a collection of essays on the subject concluded that there were problems caused by a lack of medical sources for Wales. Such work that had been done tended to concentrate on the folkloric and magical elements of medicine in Wales, doubtless an important element of Welsh heritage, with the legendary ‘Physicians of Myddfai’ and their remedies garnering a lot of attention. The problem with ‘folklore’, however, is that it is a loaded term; Although magical remedies, symbolism and the ‘cunning man’ were important components, I felt that they also somehow contributed to a rural caricature, and made Wales seem remote, cut off from the wider world by its language and sometimes awkward terrain.
Physick and the Family, the first academic monograph on early modern Welsh medical history, set out to give what I see as the other side to the story of Welsh medicine. In doing so I not only wanted to write a new medical history of Wales, but also to use Wales as a test-bed to address much broader questions in medical history. In this sense, a new study wouldn’t just fill in gaps, but could provide a credible new investigation of the experience of sickness, health and care in the early modern period.
In many ways, the sources, dictated what questions could be addressed and answered. Contradicting the earlier view about Welsh sources, it soon became clear that there was actually a wealth of source material – much of it untapped. The book draws upon Welsh remedy collections, of which a good number survive – one especially rich example surviving in the Wellcome Library, known as the ‘Welsh Leech Book’ (MS.417). A study of the types and derivations of Welsh recipes proved insightful into the movement of medical knowledge both into, and within, early modern Wales, and not least in changing medical terminologies in the Welsh language. Diaries and letters yielded much useful information about sickness, the ways in which people described their symptoms, and also important factors such as the social rituals and conventions of sickness and the sufferer.
But the book also uses different types of source material, and it was often this that yielded the most interesting and surprising results. A detailed study of probate inventories, for example, looked at evidence for medical paraphernalia in the early modern home, but also for evidence, in shop inventories, of medicines for sale. From studies of shop inventories in three Welsh counties, it is clear that even small, remote village shops often sold a range of medical goods.
Other records such as those of the Old Poor Law were revealing in matters of care. Who, for example, cared for the sick, and what measures did the parish take to look after its own sick poor? The survival of some astonishingly detailed poor law records for one particular Welsh parish, allows for a detailed case study of the often sophisticated structures of care available to the early modern patient.
The book is intended to have a broad appeal, and not just to those inside the Welsh borders. It has been written to speak to anyone with an interest in medical history certainly, but also in social history more widely, since it is at heart a book about the experiences of ‘ordinary’ people. But as a regional history, it also encourages a more nuanced view of the early modern medical world, and one that takes into account the often important variations that could be caused by topography and geography, as well as language and literacy.
I said earlier that this was the first book of its kind; technically it is. But it is also worth mentioning a hidden gem in the Wellcome Library archive. In the 1920s an eminent physician, Dr David Fraser-Harris, was busy compiling his ‘History and Lore of Kymric Medicine’ – a richly detailed study of Welsh medical history and one in many ways far ahead of its time. Sadly, he died before it was completed and it now survives only in many boxes and unfinished drafts. In seeking to say something new about Welsh medicine we obviously shared a similar goal. I hope that he would have approved of my modest efforts some 90 years later.
Author: Alun Withey
Guest Post: Exploring Health and Medicine in Early Modern Wales
Random Edition on BBC Radio 4
In this week's episode of BBC Radio 4's Random Edition, presenter Peter Snow marked the 150th anniversary of the death of Prince Albert.
The programme focused on how the Prince Consort's death was reported in one issue of the London Daily News, but also featured recordings made at a number of relevant locations to Prince Albert's life and legacy, such as Osborne House, Windsor Castle and the Royal Albert Hall.
One segment of the episode was recorded here at the Wellcome Library, in which Peter Snow came face-to-face with the painting shown above, a vast canvas depicting Prince Albert on his deathbed. The programme concludes with a discussion over competing theories over the cause of the Prince Albert's death.
Random Edition: Prince Albert is available on the BBC iPlayer to listeners in the UK until Wedensday 21st December.
Image: The last moments of HRH the Prince Consort. Oil painting by Oakley under the pseudonym Le Port, ca. 1861. (Wellcome Library no. 47371i).
See also W. Schupbach, 'The Last Moments of H.R.H. The Prince Consort', Medical History, 1982, 26, pp321-324 (free to access PDF)
New Post: Specialist, Medieval and Early Modern Medicine
Applications are welcomed for a new post at the Wellcome Library as a Specialist in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine.
Candidates should have a higher degree in History with specialisation in pre-modern medicine or science and must be able to demonstrate the following:
- A strong academic profile
- Knowledge of relevant collections, including those outside the Wellcome Library
- Knowledge of current academic work in fields relevant to the Library's pre-modern collections
- Excellent communication skills, both written and oral, including the ability to engage non-specialist audiences
- Strong influencing and persuading skills
- Good networking skills
- An aptitude for collaboration and team-working
- A reading knowledge of Latin and at least one other relevant foreign language.
Full details of the post - and details on applying - are available from the 'Current Vacancies' section of the Wellcome Trust's website (direct link).
The closing date for applications is 21st December 2011.
History of Medicine Course at the Society of Apothecaries
Details are now available of a 3-day introductory course in the History of Medicine, to be held at the Society of Apothecaries, London, on 1st-3rd February 2012.
The programme will cover Ancient, Classical, Eastern and Western medicine and the development of modern medicine from its early roots through to the present world. Speakers will include the Head of Wellcome Library, Dr Simon Chaplin.
More details are available from the Society of Apothecaries website, including the course programme (PDF) and booking details.
Image: Five surgeons participating in the amputation of a man's leg while another oversees them. Coloured aquatint by T. Rowlandson, 1793. (Wellcome Library no. 11636i).
Item of the Month, November 2011: Certificate of attendance at William Hunter's lectures
One of the pivotal figures in eighteenth century medicine, William Hunter (born on May 23rd 1718 at Long Calderwood, Kilbride, Scotland) was an eminent doctor, surgeon, obstetrician and teacher of anatomy. Educated in Glasgow and Edinburgh, he arrived in London in 1741 and by 1746 had begun to give lectures on anatomy and dissection in Covent Garden. By 1756, Hunter’s esteem had risen to the extent that he became a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians.
Hunter regularly published essays and other works and became one of the outstanding physicians of the day, being appointed as physician extraordinary to Queen Charlotte in 1762. He had a school of anatomy built in 1770 in Great Windmill Street, London with an amphitheatre and what became an internationally famous collection. He died in March 1783 of a stroke following a long battle with that most recognisable of 18th Century diseases, gout. Whilst key to understanding the growth of the ‘man-midwife’ during this period, William Hunter’s career arguably now stands in the shadows of his younger brother, John.
The Wellcome Library acquired this certificate in May 2011. It dates from the Spring of 1755 when Hunter was still lecturing in Covent Garden and confirms that one Richard Colmer (surgeon) had satisfactorily completed anatomy and surgery courses under Hunter’s tutelage. The certificate, signed by Hunter, is headed by an engraved portrait of a bust of William Harvey, M.D., classical pillars to either side.
William Harvey was in born in Folkestone, Kent in 1578, educated at Canterbury, Cambridge University and Padua before joining the College of Physicians in 1604 and working at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, being appointed as physician extraordinary to James I in 1618 then physician in ordinary to King Charles in 1631. As many readers of this blog will no doubt be aware, his 1628 publication, Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus presented his discovery of the workings of the heart and the circulation of the blood.
As suggested by the use of his image on this certificate, Hunter was a clear admirer of Harvey. We know that Hunter purchased and read keenly a number of works from Harvey's own Library. Hunter also authored a manuscript – now held in the collections of University of Glasgow – which illustrates this interest: Historical Anecdotes of Dr. William Harvey by Wm. Hunter, collected from family papers, etc., communicated to me by Councillor Eliab Harvey of Lincoln's Inn-fields, from the College book, from his own writings, from writers, from the Records in St. Bartholomew's etc [1].
This certificate now joins the other material held by the Wellcome Library on William Hunter, which includes his classic work of obstetrics, The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus Exhibited in Figures to other certificates of attendance and student notes made at his lectures. Indeed, our MS.2965 – which consists of notes made by William Brougham Monkhouse (later surgeon to H.M.S. Endeavour, 1768-1770 on Captain Cook's First Voyage) - dates from the same period as Colmer’s certificate of attendance at Covent Garden.
Whilst establishing a connection between Colmer and Monkhouse is outwith the purposes of this blog, let’s instead consider the connections between Hunter and Harvey and one man of medicine paying homage to another.
[1] See K Bryn Thomas, 'William Hunter on William Harvey', Medical History, 1965 July; 9(3): 279–286
Author: Stephen Lowther
A big push for midwifery history
The last few weeks have seen two major collaborative projects in the field of midwifery archives come to fruition, opening up exciting new avenues for research and exploration.
Thanks to the Wellcome Library’s own partnership with the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) and the generous support of the ICM for the cataloguing of its archive, this has now been completed and the material is fully accessible to researchers. Further details about this collection are available in a separate blog post.
On 4th November 2011 an event was also held at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) to mark the re-launch of the library and archive collections of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) which are now co-located with the RCOG’s own archive and heritage collections at the RCOG’s headquarters at 27 Sussex Place, London. As highlighted by several speakers at the launch, anyone with even a passing awareness of the history of maternity care in this country will realise that the relationship between the two sets of professionals represented by these bodies has not always run smoothly and that childbirth has always been a highly-contested area, medically, socially, culturally and historiographically. This makes it all the more to be applauded that the RCM and the RCOG have shown the necessary vision to work together to secure a future for their heritage collections. We hope that some of our own users will support the venture by taking a pleasant stroll across Regent’s Park to consult them.
To give you a flavour, an outline catalogue of the RCM archive is now available on-line. There are organisational records going back to the foundation in 1881 of the Matron’s Aid Society. In addition, uniforms, badges, instruments and other objects, photographs, posters and the papers of individual midwives such as case registers, notebooks, and diaries give an insight into the work and experiences of midwives during the 20th century. Printed collections include a complete set of Nursing Notes and Midwives Chronicle. There are obvious synergies with the material held in the Wellcome Library, such as the papers of Rosalind Paget, who was heavily involved with the then Midwives Institute, and which include material relating to the running of the journal and the company Nursing Notes Ltd.
The RCM heritage collections can now be consulted alongside those of the RCOG which include its own institutional records, the personal papers of obstetricians and gynaecologists, and records of related organisations such as the Women's Visiting Gynaecological Club and the Royal Maternity Charity. The College also houses a collection of obstetric, midwifery, surgical and gynaecological instruments and artefacts and around 2000 rare books, including multiple editions of all the major works in the area, such as the obstetric atlases of Smellie and Hunter, and runs of clinical reports from maternity hospitals.
We have already noticed a growing interest in the history of midwifery, including from our friends at de partu, and hope that access to these major collections will give a further impetus to this trend.
Author: Jenny Haynes
Images:
- Midwife teaching at antenatal class c1940 (RCM/PH7/2)
- Midwife providing instruction in breastfeeding c1940 Archive Reference (RCM/PH7/2)
Both from the RCM Archive held at the RCOG. Copyright of the Royal College of Midwives.
