Monthly Archives: August 2012

The Neurological Patient in History

A few weeks ago we received a copy of Jacyna and Casper’s new book The Neurological Patient in History.  One the of the Wellcome Unit members, Lynsey Shaw, has reviewed the book for Reviews in History.  Lynsey is a Wellcome Trust funded doctoral student, studying administrative and therapeutic practices of the Royal Air Force neuropsychiatric branch during the Second World War.
Lynsey gives a positive review of The Neurological Patient in History, concluding that it

…is a valuable and welcome addition to the historiography. It not only places the neurological patient firmly in the spotlight, it also encourages readers to re-examine the patient using fresh and thought-provoking lines of enquiry.

The book is nestling on our rather full shelves in Library Room 2 at shelfmark RC338 NEU 2012.

Related links: SOLO library catalogue | Wellcome Unit Library contact page

 

Wellcome Unit Library staffed Tuesday and Thursday afternoon this week

The Wellcome Unit Library will be staffed today (Tuesday) and Thursday 2-5pm this week.  The Library will not be staffed on Wednesday or Friday.

If you would like to arrange an apppointment to visit the Library please contact us.

Related Links: Wellcome Unit Library website | New books on LibraryThing | Favourite HSMT resources on Delicious

Online history of medicine resources

Sick City podcasts

During the summer we do have slightly more limited opening hours to cover staff leave and training.  However, there are lots of online history of medicine resources that can still be accessed, even when you are not in the library.  Here are some of our favourites.

Online resources – for University members

There are a wealth of online resources that can be accessed on and off campus.  University members can access Oxford’s journal and database subscriptions via OxLIP+ and can search for ebooks on the SOLO library catalogue (limit search results to online resources only).

Starr’s Brain Surgery (1893) from Medical Heritage Library

Online resources – free access for all

There are also a wealth of free online resources that University members and non-members alike can access.  Search for primary sources in the Medical Heritage Library, which includes over 10000 digitised rare books.  Example titles include an 1880 printing of Culpeper’s Complete Herbal and Hunter’s Lectures on the Principles of Surgery.

The Bibliotheque Numerique Medica is another fascinating digital library.  It includes profiles and digitised works by figures such as Ambroise Pare and Felix Vicq-d’Azyr and themed sections on medical specialities such as dermatology and veterinary medicine as well as many more.

(c) Dr Alun Withey

This week there have also been a number of interesting new blogs and podcasts. Here are our top 3:

1) Dr Alun Withey on the history of spectacles.  He also links out to another blog post of the use of puppies in medicine.

2) The Chirurgeon’s Apprentice on wandering wombs

3) Sick City’s latest podcast – their seventh guided walk around London

You can find out about more of our favourite online free resources via our Oxford HSMT Delicious page and see our latest new book purchases on LibraryThing.

Related Links: Oxford HSMT Delicious | Wellcome Unit LibraryThing new books catalogue | SOLO | OxLIP+

Library closing early on Friday 3 August

The library will be closing early on Friday 3rd August at 4pm.  This is to allow staff to attend the farewell gathering at the History Faculty Library (our sister library) prior to the move of HFL staff and collections to the Radcliffe Camera.

If you would like to arrange to visit the Wellcome Unit Library, please contact us.

You can browse our latest acquisitions online via LibraryThing, search for print and electronic material on the SOLO library catalogue, search for electronic journals and databases via OxLIP+ and browse our favourite free online resources on our Delicious page.

Related Links: HFL move page | Wellcome Unit Library contact details

New books and a new member of staff in the library

Natalie in Library Room 1

This week we have news books and a lovely new member of staff.  Natalie is working here for the summer, while our regular staff member Bethan is away.  Natalie is currently a graduate trainee and works at the Oxford University History Faculty Library.  She is an expert at using our online library catalogue SOLO and accessing e-resources through OxLIP+.

We also have some more new books.

Physick and the family: health, medicine and care in Wales, 1600-1750 by Alun Withey (Manchester University Press, 2011) RC498.2 WIT 2011

One of the Wellcome Unit Library’s favourite bloggers (dralun.wordpress.com/), Dr Withey’s book uses primary sources to examine how medical knowledge was disseminated in early modern Britain orally and in print and how the sick were cared for in their homes and communities. Reviewed in Social History of Medicine 25(3).

Desperate Housewives, Neuroses and the Domestic Environment 1945-1970 by Ali Haggett (Pickering and Chatto, 2012) HQ1075 HAG 2012

This book is part of the Studies for the Society for the Social History of Medicine series.  Haggett’s aims to ‘explore the various aspects of the dometic role in more depth, in order to provide a more nuanced appraisal of women’s experience’ (p.12). Chapters examine mid-twentieth century medical understandings of affective disorders, personal accounts of anxiety and depression and representations of anxiety and depression in the medical and popular press.

Pickering and Chatto offer some sample pages for free on their website.


Slavery, Disease, and Suffering in the Southern Low Country by Peter McCandless (CUP, 2011) RA418.3.U6 MCC 2011

McCandless explores diseases in the region of Carolina, the ‘wealthiest and unhealthiest’ region in North America.  An excerpt is available online on the CUP website. Reviewed in the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 67(2).

An Introduction to the Social History of Medicine: Europe Since 1500 by Keir Waddington (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) R484 WAD 2011

This is a comprehensive single volume work covering a wide variety of topics including nursing, surgery, medicine and religion and medicine and empire.

The Moses of Malaria by Jan Peter Verhave (Erasmus, 2011) QL757 VER 2011

This books examines the work of Nicholaas H. Swellengrebel (1885-1970), who was a biologist that specialised in the study of malaria.  Verhave highlights how Swellengrebel’s approach bridge the debates between those who wanted to control mosquitoes and those who wanted to eradicate them.  Reviewed in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine 86(1).

Related links: Wellcome Unit Library’s Library Thing | SOLO