Medico-Botanical Society of London

1815-1852

58 items

No apparent arrangement.

Purchased from: F.H. Sikes, Chelsea, February 1928; Charavay, Paris, October 1928/April 1929; Winifred A. Myers (Autographs) Ltd., 1991-1992; W.H. Collectables, 1992; Henry Bristow, 1996. MS.7691/1 accessioned in 1940, source unknown.

The Society (est.1821?) was instituted for the collection, cultivation, study and exploitation of medicinal plants. Fellows, including those drawn from the medical professions, attended lectures, submitted reports and awarded annual medals for the encouragement of medical botany. John Frost (1803-1840), the founder of the Medico-Botanical Society of London. Frost abandoned medicine for botany after quarrelling with his teacher Dr. Wright, the apothecary of Bethlem Hospital. He founded the Medico-Botanical Society of London in 1821 and became Secretary to the Royal Humane Society in 1824; in 1830 he was expelled from the Medico-Botanical Society of London on the grounds of his arrogant behaviour and in 1832, as a result of financial liabilities, he fled to Paris. Subsequently he practised as a physician in Berlin.

Database description transcribed from Richard Aspin and Christopher Hilton's typescript supplements to the Library's published manuscript catalogues.