| Description Of Item | All accounts agree that J D Comrie's lectures on the History of Medicine were memorable, instructive and enjoyable. They owed their popularity particularly to the author's enthusiasm and humour. Over the years Comrie, with his classical as well as medical training, visited many areas of the Eastern Mediterranean associated with the development of medicine, and built up a large collection of lantern slides to illustrate his talks.
It was stated later that the attendance at his course 'consistently maintained an average of close on 100 students'. The papers in the College include four sets of notes for the course, one entitled 'First Set 1908', which covers the fifth century B.C. to the nineteenth century, and one entitled 'Most recent set 1938-39', which starts later at the second century B.C. The lectures follow a predominantly chronological line, with the focus on significant individuals such as Hippocrates, Galen, and Pasteur, or topics such as 'The Development of Knowledge of Pathology', mediaeval epidemics or anatomy. Most of them are written in a conversational tone, illustrated with many quotations, and include details such as the interest shown in medicine by Attila the Hun, and the anecdote about Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689), who when asked to recommend a book on medicine, suggested Don Quixote, thereby demonstrating his contempt for the current medical literature. The later centuries, however, are dealt with in a more cursory manner than the earlier periods, with just a few brief paragraphs given over to the facts regarding each figure or important discovery.
[Source: biography written by archivist Joy Pitman, c1990; see biographical file] |