Medical Manuscripts Collection
Please note
Users are advised that this collection may contain descriptions of medical symptoms and treatments and / or graphic images of wounds, injuries or disease and / or medical illustrations and images. General readers may find these upsetting.See the Access and usage section below for further details.
Details
Type of record: Archive
Title: Medical Manuscripts Collection
Classmark: MS 2032
Date(s): 1756-1955
Language: English
Size and medium: 25 volumes, 31 letters, 2 papers, 1 folder, 1 envelope; manuscript notebooks, manuscript papers, photographs
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/504591
Collection group(s): Medical Collections
Description
This artificial collection groups together some individual manuscripts relating medical practice and education. The general content of the collection includes lecture notes, case notes and papers, many of which are by individuals associated with the Leeds School of Medicine or the Leeds General Infirmary. They cover a range of subjects, such as surgery, anatomy, materia medica, chemistry, and physiology.
The collection contains a number of volumes of lecture notes, many of which were delivered by notable figures in the fields of medicine and chemistry. These include: Thomas Young (1726-1783), William Cullen (1710-1790), Joseph Black (1728-1799), John Latham (1761-1843), John Abernethy (1764-1831), James Gregory (1753-1821), Joseph Adams (1756-1818), Sir Charles Bell (1774-1842), and Francis Boot (1792-1863).
There are also some sets of notes from lectures delivered at the Leeds School of Medicine, including by Berkeley G.A. Moynihan (1865-1936), 1st Baron Moynihan; and a volume of lectures given by Joseph Prince Garlick (1793-1865), William Hey III (1796-1875), and Thomas Pridgin Teale senior (1801-1867), during the 1835/1836 session of the School.
A number of these lecture notes can be linked to entries in the manuscript catalogue of the original library of the Leeds School of Medicine [see MS 2032/2 for further details].
The collection also contains manuscripts relating to the Leeds General Infirmary, such as: patient case notes and clinical photographs kept by staff at the Leeds General Infirmary; correspondence and manuscripts by people associated with the Infirmary; and a register of circulation of the Infirmary Medical Library.
In addition, the collection has manuscripts relating to medical societies, including the minute book of the Leeds Medical Club; and a report on a visit to Vienna by the Moynihan Chirurgical Club.
Within catalogue descriptions for individual manuscripts, the original terminology has been used, and where possible modern terms have been provided in square brackets using MeSH (US National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings).
Provenance
Many of the manuscripts were transferred to Special Collections from the Medical and Dental Library in 1981; see individual catalogue entries for specific details for each item. Some can be traced back to the original libraries of the Leeds General Infirmary and the Leeds School of Medicine.
They each originally had an individual MS reference number and were listed under various artificial collections, including SC MS Case notes, SC MS Ess, and SC MS Gen. They have all been given new reference numbers, and any original reference numbers have been recorded on the individual catalogue entries.
These archives were catalogued as part of the Wellcome Trust-funded Medical Collections Project (2015-2018).
System of arrangement
The collection arrangement begins with the two manuscripts relating to the libraries of the Leeds General Infirmary and the Leeds School of Medicine respectively; then lists each individual manuscript or file in chronological order.
Access and usage
Access
This collection is subject to various access conditions. Please see individual catalogue descriptions for further details on access.
Users are advised that this collection may contain descriptions of medical symptoms and treatments and / or graphic images of wounds, injuries or disease and / or medical illustrations and images. General readers may find these upsetting.
View the Cultural Collections sensitivity policy
On our website
Subject theme: Medicine
An overview of the collections relating to medicine held in Special Collections at Leeds University Library.