Twenty-Six Portland Place: The Early Years of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

606 Pages·41.835 MB·\606

by  Gordon C. Cook (Author)

Twenty-Six
Portland Place
The early years of the Royal
Society ofTropical Medicine and
Hygiene
Gordon C Cook
MD, DSc, FRCP, FRCPE, FRACP, FLS
Visiting Professor, University College London
President, Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, 1993-5
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LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2011 by Radcliffe Publishing Ltd
Published 2018 by Routledge
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Copyright© 2011 by Gordon C Cook
Gordon C Cook has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1998 to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
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Typeset by Phoenix Photosetting, Chatham, Kent
Cover designed by Meaden Creative
ISBN 13:978-1-84619-485-6 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-138-11764-8 (pbk)
'Zonae Torridae Tutamen'*
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Contents
Preface vii
Prologue 1
Chapter 1 Foundation of the Society 5
Chapter 2 The Society established and Manson's presidency -1907-9 25
Chapter 3 Ross's presidency: 'from a very tender plant to a very 77
vigorous tree' - 1909-11
Chapter 4 The pre-war years (1911-14) and the Royal Society of 111
Medicine's attempt to absorb the STMH
Chapter 5 The Society during the Great War (1914-18) 159
Chapter 6 Early inter-war years (1919-20)-the Society 183
becomes Royal
Chapter 7 The 1920s: consolidation of the Society, but still no 209
permanent base, and an unfortunate episode involving
the Colonial Office
Chapter 8 George Carmichael Low's presidency and removal to 269
Manson House - 1929-33
Chapter 9 The mid 1930s: the Society safely installed in its 315
own house
Chapter 10 The pre-World War II years 347
Chapter 11 The Society during World War II (1939--45) and the 371
future of clinical tropical medicine
Chapter 12 The early post-war years -1946-50 417
Chapter 13 Completion of the Society's first half-century-in 1957 477
Chapter 14 Epilogue to the Society's first half-century (1907-57) 549
Appendices (I-III) 557
Index 573
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Preface
This book records the first fifty years of the Society of Tropical Medicine and
Hygiene (STMH), founded in 1907 (over a century ago), which was to add
Royal to its title in 1920. As a former president (1993-5), I have for long
felt that a history of these years was much overdue, largely because this
Society had such an enormous impact on the fledgling medical specialty
in the early days of the twentieth century.1
The STMH was formed in order to provide a forum at the 'heart of
Empire' for discussion and development of ideas and current research by
physicians and clinical parasitologists into the 'exotic' diseases of warm
climates, about which the average medical practitioner in London's
'medical quarter', and also a wider audience in Britain, knew little or in
many cases nothing.2
Although its venue in the initial years of its existence was far from
stable and to a large degree unsatisfactory, for some seventy years, from
1931, it operated from its own premises-26 Portland Place-a permanent
memorial to its first president, Sir Patrick Manson FRS (1844--1922), the
'father of modern tropical medicine'.
Twenty-six Portland Place in many ways became in the minds of
countless Fellows of the Society, throughout the world, synonymous
with the organisation itself, and following the unfortunate sale of this
property in 2004, the focal point of the Society's various activities over
these years was lost forever.
It is perhaps worthy of note that George Bernard Shaw's (1856-1950)
well-known polemic on the contemporary medical establishment- The
Doctor's Dilemma-was written in 1903, ie a mere four years prior to the
foundation of the STMH; furthermore, the action of the play is set in
nearby Queen Anne Street, the location of Manson's London residence.3
I have quoted liberally from the Society's minute books (most written
in longhand)-both those of Council and Ordinary meetings. My editing
has been minimal, alterations being aimed solely at easier reading.
Although I have referred at times to the Annual Reports, these have
had a far lesser part to play in the genesis of this story. The presidential
addresses (which I have both edited and shortened-the originals being
viii Preface
reproduced in entirety in Transactions) over these fifty years form a close
reflection of the formative years of the new discipline. Where I have used
the abbreviation CM, reference to Council minutes is indicated.
I am extremely grateful to Caryl Guest, for some twenty years the
Society's Administrator, for much invaluable assistance with the archival
material, and to Maureen Moran for typing the entire book from my
longhand manuscript.
GCCook
St Albans, June 2010
References and notes
1. F M Sandw ith, W C Brown. The Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene: first
annual report of the Council. 1908.
2. G C Low. The history of the foundation of the Society of Tropical Medi
cine and Hygiene. Trans R Soc trop Med Hyg 1928; 22: 197-202; G C Cook.
Presidential address - Evolution: the art of survival. Trans R Soc trap Med
Hyg 1994; 88: 4-18; G C Cook. Tropical Medicine: an illustrated history of the
pioneers. London: Academic Press 2007: 118-25, 136-41.
3. S Weintraub. Shaw, George Bernard (1856-1950). In: H C G Matthew, B Har
rison (eds). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford Univer
sity Press 2004; 50: 83-97; B Shaw. The Doctor's Dilemma. London: Penguin
Books 1957: 188.
Prologue