ARCHIVES OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS

Part 3: Council Minutes of the Royal College of Physicians, 1836-1978

Publisher's Note

Part 3 of this microfiche project focuses on the Council Minutes and associated background papers. It complements the annals (a record of proceedings of the College and minutes of Comitia) which are covered in Parts 1 and 2 of this project.

The early manuscript volumes of Council Minutes begin in 1836 and continue through the First World World War up to the 1930s. They contain some interesting details on the administration of the College against the background of the Medical Act of 1858 and the creation of the General Medical Council, the professional organisation of medicine during the nineteenth century, the challenges of the early years of the twentieth century, as well as on the fundamental changes in the work and role of the College. The Medical Act of 1858 paved the way for these changes, and the College gained from this structural reform of the medical profession in terms of a growth in prestige, influence and importance. The College ceased to be a "London body" and took on a "national role" for England and Wales. Its constitution was further reformed defining two grades: the Fellows and the members - the Fellows, continually growing in number, being the constituency which elected the Council and Officers. The number of endowed lectures began to increase in 1881 and the College enlarged both its national dimension and international outreach.

The material from 1938 onwards combines minutes and background papers. Used in conjunction with the annals, these documents provide researchers useful insights on the role of the Royal College of Physicians in promoting the highest standards of medical practice, health and healthcare in the modern era. They also provide evidence on the contribution of the College, its discussions and reports, its attitudes and responses, in facing up to the challenges of medicine in the modern era.

The records show that the College is always striving to set and improve standards for clinical practice; to support physicians in their practice of medicine; to promote and provide continuing professional development throughout a doctor’s career; to give detailed advice to the Government of the day, the public and the profession on healthcare issues to promote the advance of medical knowledge; and to foster collaboration with all relevant bodies in medicine, nationally and world-wide.

With frequent new technological and scientific breakthroughs in all spheres of medicine, the availability of new techniques, new drugs, and the pressing need to set priorities yet maintain standards, from the 1960s onwards, the College has witnessed another period of major expansion which it describes as follows: “Its activities are more numerous than ever. It is a professional body of doctors with its own exacting standards and examinations, exercising a direct influence on the quality of training and the appointment of consultants in all medical specialities. The College is an academic institution, with a diverse educational programme helping physicians to keep abreast of the latest state of scientific and clinical knowledge. The College continues the tradition set by Thomas Linacre in being an independent body deriving its status and authority from the knowledge and professionalism of its Fellows and Members, now numbering more than 22,000 physicians. The College publishes reports, makes recommendations and gives advice across the whole range of medical and health matters. Its expert knowledge is drawn upon by Governments, Royal Commissions, public bodies and the medical profession internationally. The College Journal is a vital forum for the latest developments and debates in the world of medicine while its reports range widely over public health policy topics such as the effects of smoking and alcohol, NHS issues such as the setting of priorities, and authoritative overviews of medical conditions.”

Part 3 brings together a full set of Council Minutes for the College, 1836-1978. The early Council Minutes are quite brief, but particularly from the 1960s onwards, they become much more important and more detailed than the Annals. Both sets of records combined give scholars the full picture of College activities, views on the most important issues of the day, the challenges of the National Health Service, as well as the inter-action between social issues, such as poverty and poor housing, and policy decisions on health and medicine.

Brief Note on the Arrangement of material in Part 3:

The material for 1836 to 1938 consists of manuscript minutes in largely unfoliated small red/maroon bound volumes in very neat, good condition. The material for 1938 to 1975 comprises large bound volumes of minutes with related background papers. Material for 1976-1978 has been included in its unbound format.

Each new volume or year starts on a new microfiche. Fiche header information provides details of volume number, date, and folio or document numbers. For the period 1938-1977 the minutes and background papers are interleaved and bound together in a single sequence in each volume. For most of this sequence, the odd folio numbers are used to identify the minutes with relevant background documents appearing in between the folios of minutes. An alphabetical index of contents appears at the end of each volume, except for the year 1967. There is a combined index for 1967-1968 on fiche 190. For 1978 the arrangement is different and the material is not interleaved. The folios of minutes appear first, followed by the sequence of background documents relevant to that year's minutes. The alphabetical index of contents for the year is included after the background documents.

For more details of the arrangement of material in Part 3 of this microfiche project please see the Contents of Fiche listing. This paperback guide accompanies the microfiche edition and contains the listings for both Parts 2 and 3.

A quick survey of some of the entries in the various Indexes to the Council Minutes and of the titles of documents interleaved with the minutes give a picture of the range of issues under discussion:

Anaesthetics
Reorganisation of the Programme of Advanced Medicine
Airline Pilots, Cardiovascular fitness
College representation on the Central Committee of Hospital Medical Services
Child Health Services
Deployment of Doctors in the Medical Specialities
Disputes within the National Health Service
Dissident Scientists, Soviet Union
EEC
Endocrinology and Diabetes Mellitus
Joint Working Party on Ethics of the Medical Profession
Functions of Council
Representation on the General Medical Council
Neurology
Hospital Posts
Training Posts
Travelling Fellowships
Tropical Diseases
Tuberculosis
Joint Consultants Committee
Medical Care for the Elderly
Nursing Staff
Evidence for Royal Commission on the National Health Service
Smoking or Health

The background papers included with the Council Minutes include draft texts of key reports submitted to Council for discussion, for example:

Report of the Committee on Neurology, (first draft July 1969; second draft October 1969)
Report on the Medical Aspects of Boxing, October 1969
Report of the Sub-Committee on the Diploma in Psychological Medicine, July 1970
Draft Report from the Committtee on Smoking and Air Pollution, July 1970
Report of the Committee on Thoracic Medicine, April 1971
Report of the Committee to Review the Question of Admission to the Fellowship, April 1971
Report of the Joint Committee of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of General Practitioners on "The General Practitioner in the Hospital", April 1972
First Report of the Joint Committee on Higher Medical Training, October 1972
Report of the Committee on Communicable Diseases, October 1974
Report of the Geriatrics Committee Working Group on Strokes, July 1974
Reports and Recommendations of the Inter-Collegiate Committee on Nuclear Medicine (October 1974 and April 1975)
Report on Coronary Arteriography, October 1974
Report on the Fluoridation of Water Supplies, October 1975

Each year the background papers include a substantial document on Applications for Recommendation of Hospital Posts as Suitable for Consultant Training and the Council also consider on an annual basis a series of Nominations to the Fellowship of the College.

“The Royal College of Physicians is the oldest English medical society or institution. There is scarcely any activity proper to a medical body in which it has not engaged at one time or another. Its purposes and its achievements have been determined by constantly varying needs and opportunities, but it still carries with it qualities which it acquired at different stages of its history, some of them even from the earliest stages.”
Sir George Clark
in an article for the British Medical Journal, 9 January 1965

Once again, we are most grateful to Cathy Thornton, Archivist, and her colleagues in the Library at the Royal College of Physicians, London for their help in the preparation and filming of Part 3 of this project.

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