New Archive Catalogues for May – Part I
As part of the ongoing cataloguing of the archive collections, May sees the release of several new catalogues of some of the smaller collections in the archive. These catalogues can be downloaded from the archive webpage, and the descriptions will shortly also be available through the online archive catalogue. The first three of these newly catalogued collections are of the papers of three Dublin based organisations set up to improve the treatment of a specific disease or for the promotion of the medical profession as a whole.
The Dublin Branch of the British Medical Association – the BMA was founded in 1832, with the aim of promoting medical sciences and protecting the interests of the medical profession. From 1835 regional branches were established, with the Dublin branch being founded in 1877. The collection contains administrative, financial and membership papers of the branch from its foundation to 1902, the branch continued in existence until 1936 when it merged into the Irish Free State Medical Union. The collection also contains papers relating to a visit by the British Medical Association to Dublin in 1933, and a joint BMA and Irish Medical Association exhibition held in Dublin in 1952.
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| BMA/5/2 - BMA Fifty-fifth Annual Meeting, Dublin, 1887 |
The Cow-Pock Institution –In 1800, when cow-pock was one of the greatest killing and disfiguring disease of the age, the Dispensary of Infant Poor in Dublin began vaccinating children against cow-pock under their surgeon John Creighton. Within four years demand was so high that a special Cow-Pock Institution was established in Dublin to offer free inoculation and supply packets of vaccine by post. The Institution existed until 1889 when it became the Vaccine Department of the Local Government Board. The collection contains a subscription book, vaccination register, minute books and letters created by the Institution during the period 1804 to 1885.
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| 1802 cartoon showing Edward Jenner administering his newly discovered Cow-Pock vaccination |
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| NAPT/5 - NAPTB Poster |
The Dublin Branch of the National Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis – at the end of the nineteenth century one of the leading causes of death in Ireland was tuberculosis. The Dublin Branch of the National Association for the prevention of Tuberculosis was founded in July 1899 at a meeting held in the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. The purpose of the association to bring together the leading medical professions of the day with the aim of eradication of TB, primarily though public health information, and the relief of those suffering from the disease. The Collection contains the minute books and correspondence of the Dublin branch during the first ten years of its existence. By the later 1900s the National Association in Ireland was overshadowed by the work of the Women's National Health Association.