Level of Description: Fonds

Extent and Medium of the unit of description: 1.24 linear metres

Name of creator(s): Glasgow Southern Medical Society

Administrative/Biographical History
The Society was formally instituted in August 1844 having arisen as a consequence of informal meetings by a small group of medical men. A formal constitution was adopted in November 1845 with objectives which included the “promotion of amical feelings amongst our medical bretheren,” “to assist each other toward attaining a more extensive and accurate acquaintance with the theory and practice of our profession,” and “to assist each other in our professional duties when required.” At a meeting of the society in 1878, Ebenezer Duncan, a local practitioner and Surgeon at the Glasgow Deaf and Dumb Institute, proposed the erection of a hospital on the south side of Glasgow to cater for the growing population. A committee of investigation was formed as a consequence. The Society was also represented in a committee which gathered funds for the construction of the Victoria Infirmary. As a consequence of its fundraising efforts, the Society was represented by one of its members on the hospital’s governing body. Between 1900-1902 the Society was very active in the campaign to defend those medical practitioners from prosecution who employed unqualified assistants in their dispensaries (or shops). The Society held a joint meeting with the Glasgow Southern Women’s Medical Society in 1928 but did not admit its first woman member until 1979. The Society is still in existence.

Scope and content
Minute books, 1844-1992; Council minute books, 1895-1998; rolls of members, correspondence and papers, 1888-1993; Minutes for Association for the Promotion of Medical Library and Reading Rooms for the South Side of Glasgow, 1897-1898; Minutes of joint meetings of the BMA Glasgow and West of Scotland Branch, the Glasgow Southern Medical Society and the Glasgow Eastern Medical Society, 1901; Minutes of the BMA Glasgow and West of Scotland Branch, 1909-1919.

Conditions governing access
Access to some items may be restricted. Please contact the Archivist at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.

Conditions governing reproduction
Identification of copyright holders of unpublished material is often difficult. Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Archivist. We will try to assist in identifying copyright owners but the responsibility for copyright clearance before publication ultimately rests with the reader.

Language/scripts of material
English

Finding aids
List at item level.

Publication Note
Jacqueline Jenkinson, Scottish Medical Societies 1731-1939, Edinburgh University Press, 1993

Archivist's Note
Compiled by Carol Parry, Archivist, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow

Rules or Conventions
ISAD(G): General International Standard Archival Description, International Council on Archives (2nd edition, 2000).

Date(s) of Descriptions
December 2001