Tag: Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh launches The People’s Dispensary Website

Edinburgh patient experiences from the 1700s revealed

The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh is delighted to announce the launch of a new website, The People’s Dispensary: 

https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/peoplesdispensary

At its core, The People’s Dispensary features a digitised and transcribed collection of 18th century case notes of the Edinburgh Public Dispensary from its foundation in 1776. Located in Edinburgh’s Old Town, it provided free diagnosis and medicines to the city’s sick. Users of the website will be able to search these digitised and transcribed records which feature fascinating details about the diseases, treatments and experiences of poor patients in 1700s Edinburgh.

The digitised and transcribed 18th century patient case notes feature over 10,000 pages of patient records. It is a unique resource as the only surviving collection of 18th century dispensary patient case notes in Britain and contains 1,372 patients, 174 medical practitioners and 900 diseases and treatments.

Daisy Cunynghame, Heritage Manager & Librarian, says: “We are excited to bring this collection to the public eye and very proud of the efforts of colleagues and volunteers that were involved in creating this web resource.

“These records contain amazing insight into the experiences of poor patients in 1700s Edinburgh. So often when stories are told of medicine and sickness in Georgian Britain, they focus on people who wrote letters and kept diaries – people who were middle and upper class.

“Through this new website we can share details of the experiences of the less well-off who relied on charitable medicine.

“The case notes are really remarkable – we find out about a woman who swallowed two pistol bullets as a folk remedy for her constipation.

“Our hope is that the website will encourage our audiences to learn about and reflect on what life was like for ordinary people in historic Scotland”.

Professor Mark Strachan, Heritage Trustee, says: “Although modern medical treatments bear little relation to those prescribed in the Edinburgh Public Dispensary, we can still see many parallels between past and present practice.

“The need to balance potential side effects of the treatment against the consequences of not treating an illness, the adverse health consequences of certain occupations and the challenge for women in having symptoms of illness believed by doctors were as common in Georgian Britain as they are today.”

Some interesting points:

• One of the recommended treatments was sea bathing. But there was a risk attached. In the case of Margaret Gray, a patient admitted to the Edinburgh dispensary in the winter of 1781 with a diagnosis of hysteria, it was recommend that she bathe in a tub or ‘form of shower bath’ rather than sea bathing, because ‘in deep water fatal consequences in the way of drowning have sometimes happened’

• Dispensary physicians recorded the home remedies that patients had already tried, including a remedy provided by a ‘benevolent lady, the widow of a Clergyman’. Sometimes the physicians did not approve, including in one case where an individual applied burnt butter to their child’s head, as a treatment for a fungal infection, ‘by the advice of some officious neighbours’

• The case notes record the occupations of many of the patients, and the impact that their diagnosis had on their health. This included street hawkers, labourers and servants. Two very Edinburgh-specific occupations were water carrier and chairman. The water carriers’ job was to collect water from the well and then deliver it to individual homes across the city. Chairmen – the carriers of sedan chairs – were also much more common in Edinburgh than other cities. Because of the Old Town’s narrow and winding streets, it wasn’t possible to travel around much of the city in a horse and cart, so chairmen were employed instead to carry their employers throughout the city. And a lot of the medical problems of both carriers and chairmen were admitted into the dispensary for were clearly related to their line of work – particularly chronic back pain and rheumatism.

• Dispensary physicians would regularly record their concern that female patients were faking their medical conditions in order to be prescribed medicines which would bring about an abortion.

Web link: https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/peoplesdispensary

College to launch new exhibition Wild and Tame: Animals in History

The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (“the College”) is launching a new public exhibition next week: Wild & Tame: Animals in History. 

The exhibition will explore the history of animals, real and imagined, and their impact on human lives and culture. From unicorns and the first Renaissance animal encyclopaedia to Charles Darwin, it will show how humans exploited animals and how they cared for them, creating our shared history.

As well as providing us with food and labour necessary for our survival, animals were essential in the development of medicine. They were our test subjects, as well as a source of medical ingredients – from the fat of whales to treat haemorrhoids in the past to modern use of venoms to treat heart disease. 

The exhibition will show the instruments used to treat animals in the past and explore the modern idea of One Medicine – a call for closer cooperation between physicians and veterinarians for the benefit of all species on Earth.

Using the remarkable collection of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh natural history books, the exhibition will show the changing ways we depicted animals and studied them, finally unlocking the mysteries of evolution and our place in the natural world.

The exhibition will also explore the vital role animals played in our cultural history, from myths and monsters to modern pets and companions.

As well as books and objects, the exhibition has an interactive digital display which further explores the place of animals in popular culture as symbols and mascots.

Estela Dukan, co-curator of the Wild and Tame: Animals in History said: “ Close links between animal and human health call for closer communication and cooperation between human medicine and veterinary medicine.

“Animals have been essential to human survival for thousands of years, but increasing number of humans living today and modern international travel mean we are coming into closer contact with different animals and environments across the planet.

“The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh recognises the importance of globally connected health research and education to improve wellbeing of humans and animals. Our exhibition explores the history of these links and the role animals played in development of modern medicine.”

Kate Aitkenhead, co-curator of the Wild and Tame: Animals in History, said: “Animals are an integral part of our daily lives. Our relationship with them has often been fraught and overbearing, whilst still maintaining a core of respect and companionship.

“We have included them in our heraldry, such as the rampant lion on the Scottish coat of arms, or the unicorn as the national animal of Scotland, seen as a creature of courage, purity and healing.

“Through artworks, objects, encyclopaedias and viewpoints both historical and modern, we explore the impact this ubiquitous relationship has had on medicine and science as a whole. Animals aren’t going anywhere.

“Our exhibition aims to provide an understanding of our shared history in order to help ensure the continued health and safety of humans and animals alike.”

The exhibition will also include contributions and quotes from people and organisations dedicated to conservation and animal health around the UK, such as Prof Neil Fitzpatrick, veterinary surgeon, and Sheila Voas, Chief veterinary Officer for Scotland.

Doctors encourage Scottish Government to take forward schools air quality monitor pilot

A proposal for air quality monitors to be trialled in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Perth

  • Doctors encourage Scottish Government to take forward schools air quality monitor pilot
  • A proposal for air quality monitors to be trialled in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Perth

The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (“the College”) is urging the Scottish Government to take forward its proposal to monitor air quality around urban schools in Scotland.

The College’s costed pilot proposal would see air quality monitors placed for a year in up to three schools, within 50m of those schools, in each of five Scottish cities: Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Perth. The pilot would therefore see up to 15 schools across Scottish cities taking part.

Last year, the College called for air quality monitors to be placed at all city primary schools in Scotland for a period of at least a year, in its submission of evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee.

The pilot idea was developed by the College’s Working Group on Air Pollution and Health. It has now been submitted to the Scottish Government following positive discussions with government officials last year. Members of the Working Group highlighted the lack of data on air quality around schools despite the knowledge that air pollution can pose serious health risks to children.

As part of the working group’s preparation of the pilot proposal, clinicians plotted the distances between primary and secondary schools in these five city areas and existing air quality monitors.

The group found that from the 337 primary and 94 secondary schools examined, only one primary school was within 50m of a PM (particulate matter) monitor and only 2 primary schools were within 100m of a NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) monitor.

There were no secondary schools within 100m of either type of monitor.

Professor Jill Belch, Co-lead of the College’s Working Group on Air Pollution and Health, and Professor of Vascular Medicine at the University of Dundee, said: “Science has provided robust evidence that children are significantly harmed by air pollution, with sometimes tragic results.

“Whilst lung disease in children is widely recognised as a result of breathing polluted air, less well known to the public, but equally important, are the effects of this pollution on the developing organs within a child.

“For example, exposure to polluted air in childhood has been shown to reduce brain cognitive function in a number of key ways. Further, and of concern, is that children appear to become unwell at lower levels of pollutants than do adults.

“ At present the early work conducted by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh suggests that few school have air quality monitors nearby, so we do not actually know how well or otherwise, our children are protected. It is therefore imperative that we ensure air quality around schools is within regulatory levels, and the College’s proposal to the Scottish Government can start this process.”

Professor Andrew Elder, President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and the other Co-Lead of the Working Group on Air Pollution and Health, said: “ There is overwhelming evidence that air pollution can have a wide range of detrimental health impacts on our children including problems with the lung, heart, brain and immune and hormonal systems.

“We also know that there is a correlation between areas of high deprivation and poor air quality and this can exacerbate pre-existing health inequalities in children and young people.

“ We are concerned at the lack of data on air quality around urban schools in Scotland- with the vast majority of urban air quality monitors currently sited too far away from schools-  and believe we must collect as much accurate school level data as possible so we can have an evidence base for action.

“The College hopes that the Scottish Government will consider our proposal positively and we remain committed to working constructively with it and all other stakeholders so that we can better understand the levels of air pollution around our schools and subsequently support implementing mitigation measures where these are required.”

Mike Corbett, National Official (Scotland) for the NASUWT said: “Thousands of people die each year because of occupational diseases caused by air pollution at work. Pollution arising from work and travel to work are health issues for which employers currently take little responsibility.  

“Air pollution impacts workers and their families at all stages from before birth to old age and is particularly damaging to the growth and development of babies and children. 

“ Being able to quantify the scale of the problem around our schools is the first step to cleaning up the air we and our children breathe and moving towards a heathier and safer future.  NASUWT is therefore very pleased to endorse and support this proposal for pilot air quality monitoring around schools.”