In 1974 there wasan outbreak of juvenile arthritis in Lyme, Connecticut. The authorities, responding to public pressure, enlisted the help of professor Allen Steere to investigate it. He noted that all thecases had been preceded by a spreading erythematous rash following a tic bite.
Read moreSMS minutes - 2010 medical students
An ordinary meeting of the Society was held on Wednesday 3rd November. The President was in the chair. The meetingheard from fivemedical students who had been in receipt of a Foott Memorial Bursary.
Read moreLord Owen - In Sickness and in Power
An ordinary meeting of the Society was held on Wednesday 3rd March 2010. The President was in the chair. He introduced the speaker The Rt. Hon the Lord Owen who spoke to the title: In Sickness and in Power. He had recently written a book of the same title to which he made reference.
He said there were three lessons to be learnt from heads of government regarding their health. First, heads of government lie about their health. Second , their personal physicians lie about it on their behalf and thirdly, they often die early because of it. Did their illnesses affect their decisions? One has to remember, he said, they get to the top because of their strength and this includes fighting illness.
Read moreDr Jason Payne-James - The role of the Forensic Physician
Dr Payne-James explained that clinical forensic medicine is not pathology and attending murder sites. It is an important and emerging branch of medicine that involves such things as examining prisoners.
Read moreMr Colin Hobbs - The SSTT: Supersonic Triumph and Tragedy
The first time the sound barrier was broken the pilot died. The speed of sound is 770 mph. As the aeroplane gets faster the molecules of air are compressed and form a shock wave. He showed some impressive photos of this. There is kinetic heating and, for instance, Concorde generated a fuselage temperature of 174°C although the ambient temperature is -60°C at 60,000 feet.
Read moreDr Harry Mycock - Ascent of Aconcagua
The Speaker for the evening, Dr Harry Mycock, gave an account of his attempt at ascent of Aconcagua. This is the highest mountain in the southern hemisphere at 23,000 feet. He said he had climbed mountains since his days as a student and this particular mountain is the highest one that can be trekked.
Read moreMr Ken Ingamells - Shackleton in Antarctica
Mr Ingamells described this time as the ‘heroic era of Polar exploration’. Sir Ernest Shackleton was a doctor’s son from Sydenham Kent. He was apprenticed to a shipping line and had worked hard to get his masters ticket.
Read moreMedical students - 2008 Foott Memorial Bursary
He described Cairo with its 18 million population 75% of whom are under 25 and his accommodation in a cheap downtown hotel. He was attached to the A&E department of the University Hospital, which treats over 1 million patients a year.
Read moreMr James Munro FRCS - Walter Reed and Yellow Fever
Yellow Fever was known as the yellow plague in the Roman and Byzantine empires. It crossed the Atlantic in the slave trade and caused epidemics in the Caribbean and southern states of America. It presents with anorexia, vomiting and jaundice after which there is a remission which is followed by multiorgan failure, black vomit and death in 50% cases.
Read moreDr David Doyle - Fashions in head injuries and fashions in dispatching infants
He described his early training in Edinburgh with a Dr Ford Robinson, who had discovered that the spirocheate was the cause of GPI, and the post mortem room with the most beautiful rose garden which it transpired was where the PM room assistants dumped the blood after autopsies
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