The president's address on the medical history of Carlisle : delivered at the Sixty-fourth Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association, held in Carlisle, July, 1896 / by Henry Barnes.

Barnes, Henry.

Date:: 1896

Credit: The president's address on the medical history of Carlisle : delivered at the Sixty-fourth Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association, held in Carlisle, July, 1896 / by Henry Barnes. 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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$would naturally have its influence in suggesting to a people who were advancing in many branches of kno\v1edge that the strength and success of their armies would be greatly in- creased by having medical officers to watch over the health of their soldiers. Some modern discoveries in this part of Great Britain and elsewhf^re have demonstrated that in the time of the Empire, at all events, the armies of Eome were provided witli a medical staif. Among the many monu- mental tablets which have been discovered along the course of the great Roman wall there is surely none more interest- ing to us than one which was discovered a few years ago at Houseteads. The inscription shows that it was erected by the first cohort of the Tifngrians to tlie memory of their medicus ordinarius. This cohort distinguished itself under Agricola at the battle of Mons Grampius, and was after- wards engaged in the erection of a portion of the more northern Roman wall of Antoninus. At a later period, pro- bably under the reign of Marcus Aurelius, it became stationed at Castlesteads in this county. According to the Notitia, this cohort was stationed at Borcovieus (House- steads), where the monument alluded to, as well as several others, were erected by it. The translation of the inscription, according to the rendering of the learned historian of the Roman wall. Dr. Bruce, is as follows: Sacred to the Gods of the Shades below. To Anicius Tngenuus, Physician-in- Ordinary of Cohort tlie First of the Tungrians. He lived 25 years. The elaboi-ate nature of the carving on this monu- ment affords sti'ong evidence of the esteem and respect in which this young pliysician was lield by his comrades. It is said to be more ornamental tlian many of the altars raised by this and other cohorts to the worship of their deities, and his name is worthy of mention to-day as that of the earliest member of our profession of whom we have any record as having lived and practised in the Border Counties. Leprosy and Leper Hospitals. Another point in connection with the early history of the city is deserving of notice. One of the earliest institu- tions established for the reception of cases of leprosy in this countiy was placed just outside pur city walls. It is not quite certain at what period leprosy was first introduced into England, but it must have been fairly common before the date of the Norman Conquest, as I find it the subject of legis- lation in the codes of a Welsh king, Hoela Dha, or Hoel the Good, who died about the year 950, In the laws relating to married women, it is enacted that a wife may leave her hus- band without losing her dower if the husband become a leper. It is reported that Lanfranc, Bishop of Canterbury, who died in 1080, founded two hospitals at Canterbury, one for general diseases and one for leprosy. Some years ago I investigated the records of the leper hospitals connected with the counties of Cumbei'land and Westmorland. These were three in num- ber, but the Hospital of St. Nicholas at Carlisle was the wealthiest and m»st important. Tliip earliest records of which I could find any notice take back its history to the year u8o. There is a general concurrence of opinion that it had a royal foundation, and some historians believe that it was founded by William Rufus. If this be so, it was one of the earliest institutions of the kind in this country. Leprosy seems to have been a fairly common disease in this part of$