A medical roll of honour : physicians and surgeons who remained in London during the Great Plague / by S.D. Clippingdale.

  • Clippingdale, Samuel Dodd, -1925.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A medical roll of honour : physicians and surgeons who remained in London during the Great Plague / by S.D. Clippingdale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    KeprilUed from the Uritish Mkdk'ai. .JoiniNAi,, February nth, t'JDO. A MEDICAL BOLL OF HONOUll Physicians and Surgeons who remained in London DURING THE GrEAT PlAGUE. When the Great Plague of 1665 occurred in London, there was a general stampede of all who could leave the city. The exodus included those to whom the distressed in- habitants naturally turned for help, namely, the clergy and the doctors; and the panic-stricken and plague- stricken inhabitants were left largely in the hands of irregular practitioners in both professions. The medical refugees included men of high reputation and great wealth; among them one, at least, whose name is a household word in the annals of medicine. All the ofi&cers of the College of Physicians, led by their president, fled ; to find, on their return, that their college had been broken into and the college coffers emptied. How many medical men remained at their posts is not accurately known. There were not many. Apparently not more than twenty-five. Not a large number to minister to the medical needs of a population estimated at 240,000 and in a time of pestilence. No list has been preserved of this small band of heroes. A study of con- temporary literature, however, and an examination of valuable manuscripts in the Guildhall Library, most kindly transcribed by Mr. Edward M. BoiTajo, the City Librarian, has enabled the compilation of the following list, which, however, cannot pretend to be more than an approach to completeness: In the compilation of the following biographical notes, Monk’s valuable “ Roll of the Royal College of Physicians ” has been largely drawn upon : Allen, Thomas, is mentioned by Pepys as being in London during April, 1666, when the Plague was still raging severely. Dr. Allen was educated at the University [399/Ob] • t. BY S. D. CLIPPINGDALE, M.D., F.R.C.S. I.—Physicians.