Fitzpatrick Lecture

The Fitzpatrick Lecture is given annually at the Royal College of Physicians on a subject related to history of medicine.^[1] The lecturer, who must be a fellow of the college, is selected by the president and may be chosen to speak for two years successively. The lectures are supported by funds from the Fitzpatrick Trust which was established in 1901 by Agnes Letitia Fitzpatrick^[2] with a £2,000 donation in memory of her physician husband Thomas Fitzpatrick.^[3][4][5] Agnes was influenced by her husband's close friend, Sir Norman Moore, who persuaded her to choose history of medicine as a subject. Subsequently, Moore was credited with its idea and implementation.^[6]

Fitzpatrick Lecture

Founder	Thomas Fitzpatrick (London physician)
Established	1901
Faculty	Royal College of Physicians

The first two Fitzpatrick lectures were given by Joseph Frank Payne,^[6] whose request instigated history of medicine lectures at the Royal Society of Medicine and with whose support Sir William Osler established the History of Medicine Section.^[7] He was succeeded by Sir Norman Moore, Leonard Guthrie and Clifford Allbutt and Raymond Crawfurd.^[8]

Lecturers

1903-1920

Years	Name	Lecture title	Comments	Image
1903-1904	Joseph Frank Payne	The Medicine of Anglo-Saxon Times[9]	Paid tribute to Thomas Fitzpatrick prior to first lecture, stating that Norman Moore, an intimate friend of Fitzpatrick, should have given the first lecture.[6]
1905-1906	Sir Norman Moore	The history of the study of medicine in the British Isles[10]	Moore spoke on Medical Study in London during the Middle Ages and Education of physicians in London in the 17th century.[10]
1907-1908	Leonard Guthrie	Contributions to the Study of Precocity in Children[11] The History of Neurology	After Guthrie's death, his work was privately printed in 1921, by his nephew, Eric G. Millar.[12]
1909-1910	Clifford Allbutt	Greek Medicine in Rome[13][14]	Allbutt dedicated the published lectures to Sir Norman Moore, president of the RCP.[14]
1911-1912	Raymond Crawfurd	The King's Evil[8] Plague and Pestilence in Art and Literature[8]	Crawfurd further expanded these topics to produce books on the subjects.[15]
1913	Charles Arthur Mercier	Astrology in Medicine[16]
1914		Leper houses and mediaeval hospitals[17]
1915-1916	William Halse Rivers	Medicine, Magic and Religion[18]
1917	Arnold Chaplin	Medicine in England during the reign of George III[19]
1918		The early history of the Army Medical Service
1919-1920	Edward Granville Browne	Arabian medicine[20]

1921-1940

Years	Name	Lecture title	Comments	Image
1921-1922	Robert Oswald Moon	The Post-Hippocratic Schools of Medicine Hippocrates and his Successors in Relation to the Philosophy of their Times	Lectured on Hippocrates and his successors and interested in classics. He also wrote book on The Relation of Medicine to Philosophy.[21]
1923-1924	Charles Singer	History of Medicine The Evolution of Anatomy: a Short History of Anatomical and Physiological Discovery to Harvey[22]
1925-1926	Arthur Shadwell[23]	Medicine in Ancient Egypt, Assyria, and Palestine
1927	Herbert R. Spencer	The History of British Midwifery (1650-1800)[24]
1928-1929	George Frederic Still	The history of paediatrics[25]
1930	No lecture
1931-1932	James Stansfield Collier	The development of neurology from the commencement of the nineteenth century to the present time[26]	Collier died in 1935 before his lecture material could be published. Manuscript is now lost.
1933-1934	Humphry Davy Rolleston	History of the endocrine organs[1]
1935-1936	John Davy Rolleston	The history of the acute exanthemata[27]	Demonstrated how current medical problems could be understood through studying the past.[28]
1937-1938	Henry Harold Scott	A History of Tropical Medicine[29]
1939	Thomas Archibald Malloch	Medical interchange between the British Isles and America before 1801	Lecture not delivered due to World War II and personal illness. Published by the Royal College of Physicians in 1946.[1]
1940	Major Greenwood	Medical Statistics from Graunt to Farr[30]	Lecture not delivered due to World War II. Greenwood retains status as nominal Lecturer from 1941 to 1943. The lecture was later published in 1948.[1]

1941-1960

Years	Name	Lecture title	Comments	Image
1941-1942	John Alexander Nixon		Lecture not delivered due to World War II.[1]
1943	Major Greenwood	Medical Statistics from Graunt to Farr[31]	Greenwood talked about 18th century English medical statistics. Later produced three papers and one book on the subject.
1944-1945	Reginald Cecil Bligh Wall	The London Apothecaries: their Society and their Hall[1]	Postponed
1946-1947	Arthur S. MacNalty	The History of State Medicine in England[1]
1948-1949	William H. Wynn	The Pestilences of War[1]
1950-1951	William Brockbank	The History of Some Therapeutic Procedures[1]
1952-1953	Maurice Davidson	Medicine in Oxford, a Historical Romance[1]	Davidson also authored a book on the history of the Royal Society of Medicine to cover the years 1905 to 1955.[32]
1954-1955	C. E. Newman	The Evolution of Medical Education in the Nineteenth Century[1]	Newman described the development of professional solidarity and societies of physicians and apothecaries, demonstrating similarities between apothecaries and attorneys.[33]
1956-1957	C. F. T. East	Some Aspects of the History of Cardiology[1]
1958-1959	W. S. C. Copeman	Medical Practice in the Tudor Period[1]
1960	K. D. Keele	Evolution of Clinical Methods in Medicine[1]	Published in a book reviewed by Lloyd G. Stevenson.[34]

1961-1980

Years	Name	Lecture title	Comments	Image
1961	K. D. Keele	Evolution of Clinical Methods in Medicine[1]
1962-1963	A. H. T. Robb-Smith	The Oxford Medical School and its Graduates[1]
1964-1965	R. R. Trail	The History of Popular Medicine in England: up to the 17th century[1]
1966	Geoffrey L. Keynes	John Woodall, Surgeon, 1556-1643. His place in medical history[1]
1967	P. E. Thompson Hancock	Thomas Hodgkin, Physician and Philanthropist[1]
1968	C. E. Newman	The History of the College Library[1]
1969	A. N. T. Meneces	The Influence of War on Medicine[1]
1970		The Influence of Medicine on War[1]
1971	Edgar Ashworth Underwood	The Evolution of Haematology: The History of the Formed Elements of the Blood[1]
1972		The Evolution of Haematology: The History of some Diseases of the Blood[1]
1973	R. J. G. Morrison	Dr Messenger Monsey, 1693-1788.[1]
1975	W. C. Gibson	A Canadian Trio of Internationalists – Banting, Bethune and Chisholm.[1]
1976	Gweneth Whitteridge	Some Italian precursors of the Royal College of Physicians[1]
1977	Edwin S. Clarke	The Neutral Circulation: the role of analogy in medicine[1]
1979	Christopher Booth	Clinical Science in the age of Reason[1]
1980	A. John Robertson	Dinner with Laennec[1]	A. J. Robertson was the second medical editor of journal Thorax. His Fitzpatrick lecture was based on Läennec, and the physicians who contributed to the confusion about rales and rhonchi.[35]

1981-2000

Years	Name	Lecture title	Comments	Image
1981	P. A. J. Ball	Plants, their predators and the physician[1]
1982	Arthur Hollman	Thomas Lewis - Physiologist, Cardiologist and Clinical Scientist[1]
1983	Robert Manoah Kark	Richard Bright MD FRS DCL (1789-1859).
1984	Gordon Wolstenholme	Governments may damage your health[36]
1986	John Malins	Provincial physicians in England 1700-1900
1987	Alex Sakula	A history of asthma[37]
1988	Abraham Goldberg	Towards European medicine: an historical perspective[38]
1989	P. Richards	Leprosy: myth, melodrama and mediaevalism[39]
1993	A. Stuart Mason	Hans Sloane and his friends[40]
1994	J. H. Baron	Art in hospitals[41]	Given whilst Baron was an RCP councillor.[42]
1995	David A. Pyke	The great insanity: Hitler and the destruction of German science[43]
1996	Robert Tattersall	Frederick Pavy (1829–1911) - the last of the physician chemists[44]

2001 onwards

Years	Name	Lecture title	Comments	Image
2007	Jeffrey K Aronson	Clinical pharmacology: a suitable case for treatment
2015	Timothy Peters	King George III and the porphyria myth - causes, consequences and re-evaluation of his mental illness with computer diagnostics[45]
2016	David Eedy	Churchill's medical men[46]
2017	Gareth Williams	Edward Jenner and John Hunter: the apprentice and his sorcerer[47]
2018	Nick Levell	Daniel Turner Vs Thomas Dover - a story of rivals, slaves and pirates, dermatology and physicians[3]
2019	Richard Heron	Good work to attract and retain global capability[48]
2020	Ali Jawad	Sir Harry Sinderson Pasha, royal physician extraordinaire[49]
2021	Andrew J. Lees	Soulful neurology[50]
2022	David J. Gawkrodger	Diseases and mortality in the armies of nineteenth century British India[51]
2023	Helen Lachmann
2024	Anita K. Simonds	[52]

See also

• Bradshaw Lecture
• Goulstonian Lecture
• Harveian Oration
• Hunterian Oration
• Lumleian Lectures
• Milroy Lectures