DEP/BAD/1/1 | Official Reports Made To Government by Drs Russell and Barry on the Disease called Cholera... | The report, by William Russell and David Barry, includes: report of the Board of Health on cholera in India; extract of report on cholera in Russia by Dr Keir; order in council passed by the Privy Council to prevent the spread of cholera; letters and reports by Dr Russell and Dr Barry on cholera in Russia; translation of the protocol drawn up on the first case of cholera in St Petersburg, Russia; letters from consuls at Dantzig, Cronstadt and Berlin [Germany]. | 1832 |
DEP/BGW/9 | Letter from George William Balfour to his sister, Jane Balfour | Written from Vienna. He writes of the Emperor of Russia's visit and the failed attempts to arrange a marriage between an Archduke and a Russian princess; John's [Balfour's eldest brother, eventually a surgeon to the East India Company] request for a lens and a book on talbotypes; instructions to his sister to find a suitable wife for himself; [Johann] Strauss' musical style; similarity between Scots and German; and courses with Rokitansky and Skoda. | 6 Jan 1846 |
DEP/BGW/17 | Letter from George William Balfour to his father, Reverend Lewis Balfour | Written from Vienna, Austria-Hungary [Austria]. He writes of Spring at the hospital; epidemic of intermittent fever and it possibly being a precursor to the cholera currently in Russia; success of treating cholera homeopathically; his surprise at seeing an engraving by Edward Burton (a friend); and a trip into the countryside at Laab, Austria-Hungary [Austria] to visit a friend working at a water cure place. Two copies of each page due to lines being missed in photocopying. | 1 May 1846 |
DEP/CJN/4/2 | Reprints file of John Crofton | Includes printed articles (some are copies) by Crofton or ones to which he contributed: A Tribute to Sir Robert Sibbald; The NHS [National Health Service] Revolution - before and after - a personal view, 1998; Medical schools - facing up to the challenge of tobacco, 1997; Tobacco and the developing world, 1996; European medical schools and tobacco, 1996; brief interview with John Crofton, 1997; Tobacco and the associations affiliated to the Union, 1994; Health Education in Areas of Multiple Deprivation - a report by the Scottish Health Education Co-ordinating Committee, 1985; Housing and Health in Scotland, 1994; Medical education on tobacco - implications of a worldwide survey, 1994; Smoking behaviour and attitudes towards smoking of medical students in Australia, Japan, USA, Russia and Estonia, 1993; Memo on desirable tobacco content of curricula of medical schools, 1992; Confessional, 1992; Smoking behaviour and attitudes of medical students towards smoking and anti-smoking campaigns - a survey in 10 African and Middle Eastern Countries, 1992; Smoking habits and attitudes of medical students towards smoking and anti-smoking campaigns in nine Asian countries, 1992; Tobacco and the Third World, 1990; From Shamble to Symbiosis [on the Public Health Alliance], 1989; Tobacco - world action on the pandemic, 1989; Smoking Habits and Attitudes of Medical Students Towards Smoking and Antismoking Campaigns in Fourteen European Countries, 1989; Etude Pilots Cooperative de L'UICTMR les Etudiants en Médecine et le Tabac, 1988; Alcohol Misuse and Society - Challenge and Response, report on symposium, 1988; The Winterton Memorial Lecture - Alcohol 1988 - Challenge and Response, 1988; Extent and Cost of Alcohol Problems in Employment - a review of British Data, 1987; National Alcohol Forum misfires with cutting on Crofton's resignation from the Scottish Health Education Co-ordinating Committee, 1986; Introduction - the challenge to epidemiology and community medicine, 1986; Alcohol - a neglected challenge, 1986; Lesioni polmonari diffuse - correlazioni cliniche, 1983.
These were originally in a box file with CJN/4/3-7. | 1983-1998 |
DEP/COJ/1/1 | Journal of John Dixon Comrie | During a brief stop at Murmansk, before finally making port at Archangel, Comrie visited the military and the Russian hospitals and went for a walk on the hills.
As their convoy passed along the coast, Comrie watched with interest the effects of the ice-breaker on the enormous floes, and thought about Richard Chancellor (whom he mis-names Sir Richard Challoner) who in 1553 sailed from England to found the settlement at Archangel to trade with Moscow.
Comrie arrived in Archangel on 27th May, to find the No. 53 stationary Hospital housed in the seminary building attached to an imposing monastery. He was also responsible for another three hospitals, and available to advise the French or Russian hospitals if required. Much of his time was spent reviewing cases among the British for discharge and return home, or dealing with outbreaks of dysentery and scarlatina among the Russians.
On his second week, Comrie took a trip up the River Dvina inspecting field hospitals, one of which was partly on board two river barges. He mentions the Russian 'felshers' who were country practitioners with a basic medical training, and draws and describes the Russian village bath-houses.
Back in Archangel by June 11th, the first social event of the week was to attend the Russian nurses' 'at home', when they drank tea, conversed in French and played polite party games. He later describes a samovar in detail. On the Saturday, by contrast, he visited the Russian Sanitary Officer's house in the evening, where they dined at midnight and did not leave until 1.30 am. Comrie here tasted his first Vodka, which he found too fiery and bitter.
Comrie was particularly interested in the scurvy cases among the prisoners in Kegostroff Island Hospital who were successfully treated with a diet of vegetables and beans. He had wired London for a camera to record these cases. It finally arrived on 13th July, and some of the photographs were reproduced in his paper on the subject. [Source: biography written by archivist Joy Pitman, c1990; see biographical file] | 14 May 1919-21 Aug 1919 |
DEP/COJ/1/2 | Journal of John Dixon Comrie | Towards the end of his stay he examined prisoners suffering from the effects of mustard gas and a new tear gas. Perhaps his most bizarre and unfortunate case was that of a man 'found dead after having celebrated with too much rejoicing his prospective return to England'. Since his heart showed recent endocarditis, however, his death was tactfully attributed to military causes so that his widow would be eligible for a pension.
On the political front Comrie believed that 'if the British cabinet would only adopt a firm attitude, send out a moderate force ... and announce that the Allies are definitely going to help the Russians right through till freedom is gained, Bolshevism would be dead by next Spring.' He realised that the 'average soldier' wanted to get home and thought they should not be there. Of four commissars he spoke to personally, one thought the Russians should be left to sort out their own affairs, but three thought there would be no peace unless a foreign power, preferably Britain, settled the matter.
However, when Comrie went to Koska, Russia to see the Bolshevik prisoners, or 'Bolos' as they were nick-named, being dis-infested for lice, he was surprised to find that 'a very large number, perhaps the majority, are very young lads; not the loafers, drunkards and hairy villains whom one expects to see'. Later he comments that out of the 2000 prisoners taken on the Dvina front, some 700 were in fact anti-Bolsheviks kept in the army 'through terrorism', and adds that the rank and file often show great resentment towards their commissars. [Source: biography written by archivist Joy Pitman, c1990; see biographical file] | 22 Aug 1919-20 Sep 1919 |
DEP/CUL/1/2/172 | Letter from an unnamed correspondent, [St] Petersburg [Russian Empire] to William Cullen | Correspondent's own case. Incomplete; missing final page(s). | 14 Aug 1774 |
DEP/CUL/1/2/1332 | Letter from [Baron] N B Dimsdale, Red Lion Square, London, England to William Cullen | Letter of introduction for Dr Pischikoff, a Russian physician. | 29 May 1783 |
DEP/CUL/1/2/1333 | Letter from D [Danilo] Samoilowitz, Paris, France to William Cullen | He describes having seen the progress of the plague amongst Russian troops fighting the Turks, the citizens of Bucharest and in Moscow where he worked in three hospitals caring for plague victims. He has written four papers on the subject which he offers to the Royal College. The first was a letter on tests of cold rubs for the cure of the plague and other putrid maladies (published Paris, 1781) to serve as a prospectus for his memoir on the plague of Moscow [Russian Empire] titled 'The Anti-Pestiletial of Catherine II'. The second is a memoir on inoculation against the plague with a description of three powders for anti-pestilential fumigation invented by the Moscow Committee of Prevention and used by him (published in Strasbourg, 1782). The third is a letter addressed to the Academy of Dijon [France] in reply to those who doubted his memoir on inoculation against the plague. The fourth is a reply for M. Gourmand of the College of Medicine at Nancy to his question on whether cauteries were a preventative against the plague. He has also written a fifth paper on obstetrics, a tract on the section of the pubic synthesis. He offers to send these publications to Cullen and asks to be elected a member of the Royal College so he can use the title in his publications. Included is a copy of the letter in a different hand which gives more information than the original letter, for example that he hopes to spend the winter at the University in Edinburgh, [Scotland] and about his own qualifications. (Samoilowitz was a Ukrainian epidemiologist). | 29 May 1783 |
DEP/CUL/1/2/1405 | Letter from Wm [William] Saunders, Jeffries Square to William Cullen | Letter of introduction for Mr De Poltosatzky [Poltoratzky], a Russian nobleman wanting to study law and history and to meet Dr Robertson and Mr Ferguson. | 24 Oct 1783 |
DEP/CUL/1/2/2384 | Letter from Alexr [Alexander] Macdougall, Dunolly, [Scotland] to William Cullen | He writes that he had hoped to see Cullen to show him a letter from Dr Rosselle of Ostend [Belgium] [Austrian Empire]. The letter had an account of what happened at the meeting of their Faculty of Medicine where Cullen's 'system in Physic' was adopted 'as the best hitherto known and in particular has thrown light upon the complaints peculiar to low marchy country's (sic)'. He also writes that he has applied to be a military surgeon 'the northern nations of Europe being now engaged in war' and had been accepted in Sweden although he would have preferred Russia. He asks for a letter of introduction from Cullen to Dr Rogerson if the latter was in Russia. | 8 Apr 1789 |
DEP/CUL/1/3/59 | 'Avis au Public' by P S Pallas | From the collection of William Cullen. Printed proposal by P S Pallas to write a glossary of all the Russian languages and dialects. In index. | 22 May 1785 |
DEP/CUL/1/3/95 | Letter from D [Danilo] Samoilowitz, Paris, France to William Cullen | He has sent his memoirs on the plague in Moscow, Russia to London, England care of Mr Murray. In index. | 8 Sep 1783 |
DEP/CUL/1/3/123 | Letter from J Rogers, St Petersburg [Russia] to William Cullen | He thanks Cullen for introducing him to Mr Bell who has been able to tell him news of the state of medicine in Edinburgh, Scotland and his old acquaintances. Dr Pallas is publishing the Russian edition of Flora Russica. He encloses work done by the Empress during her convalescence on 'tracing analogies between the languages that were known to her' and believes that part of it will be published. In index. | 27 Jun 1785 |
DEP/EOS/2/24 | Edinburgh Obstetrical Society correspondence regarding papers | Envelope of letters (both typed and manuscript) thanking the society for diplomas of honorary fellowship from Mary Scharlieb, London, England; Dr A Couvelaine, Paris; Dr Webster, New Brunswick, Canada; and W Stroganoff, Leningrad (St Petersburg). Also membership form for the Official Year-book of the Scientific and Learned Societies of Great Britain and Ireland. | 5 Feb 1926-27 Mar 1926 |
DEP/EOS/2/30 | Letter from W Stroganoff, Leningrad, Russia regarding the Edinburgh Obstetrical Society | He sends his paper on eclampsia. With meeting of 13th June 1927. | 2 May 1928 |
DEP/LAT/1/62 | Lecture file of Thomas Laycock: Suicide and Self-Mutilation - Homicide - Homicidal Mania... | Contains 'Combative and Destructive Appetites' with pasted cuttings on attacks by animals, cannibalism, murders by lunatics and suicides, and case note on an imbecile cannibal; 'Self-mutilation and suicide' with pasted cuttings on statistics and cases of suicide; and 'Symptomatology and Etiology' with pasted cuttings. Also includes letter from W C McIntosh, Perth Asylum, with a case of self mutilation, 1869; letters to K McLeod, Calcutta [Kolkata] [India] from B Cockburn, Benares and C [_?] Parker, Mirzapur on the sect of agharpunts [?] who practice cannibalism in their belief in the equality of all things, 1873-1874; photograph of a Hindu guru with a pierced penis; case note of homicidal mania, 1861; carte de visited of severed heads; and cuttings on religious sects of Russia, suicides, criminal lunatics and murder cases 1865-1875. | 1861-1875 |
DEP/POR/8/16 | Newspaper cuttings relating to Ireland and Russia | From the collection of Richard Poole. Cutting with the words to Ella Lee; map of the ferry routes between Britain and Ireland; the advance of Russia; and review of theological work by James Walker. | 1830s-1850s |
DEP/SMC/2/1/143 | File of the Scottish Medical Service Emergency Committee: London, England - War Victims' Relief... | Correspondence concerns the release of Dr William Christie to work for the Relief Committee in France or Russia. | Oct 1916 |
DEP/WAA/3/48 | Illustration collection of Alexander Watson: Maps showing the course of cholera | Map of the course of cholera in Poland during 1831; map of the government of Orenburg shewing the progress of cholera 1829-1830; and map of the course of cholera in Russia, Poland and Hungary 1829-1831. | 1829-1831 |