New Lives for Old

There's a great new book published by the National Archives (Kew) about poor children sent overseas to all corners of our old Empire (Australia, New Zealand, Canada). These kids were from workhouses and slums, sent by charities and other organisations to have a (hopefully) better life elsewhere. It's full of first-hand accounts, pictures and letters and is a moving story about a practice which didn't end until the second world war.

You can read it here at the Library, shelfmark GRO.2008.4.1.

Historic maps online

Ordnance Survey maps are official publications, but we send them all to our map expert colleagues over at Causewayside. You don't have to go there, though, to see them all. You can now access the OS 6-inch maps online. These particular OS maps date from 1843 to 1882, when Ordnance Survey carried out its earliest comprehensive survey of Scotland. They're significant because they illustrated a very wide range of natural and man-made features for the first time and they were the most detailed series covering the whole of Scotland.

You can also see the OS large scale town plans (1847 - 1895).

History of medicine on TV

BBC Four's new five part series called Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery starts at 9pm tonight. Presented by the medically trained Michael Mosley, each episode covers a different branch of surgery.
I was browsing the volumes about Calcutta Medical Institutions in which doctors were evaluating Joseph Lister's antiseptic methods. The 1880 report has a section by the First Surgeon, K. McLeod in which he writes, "I have come to consider it a sacred and imperative duty to endeavour, to the best of my ability and means, to prevent every breach of surface, whether wound or sore, from becoming the seat of septic change; and if it has already done so, to correct the vice and restore it to sweetness." Click on the image to see more about McLeod's antiseptic methods in Calcutta in the mid 1880's.
McLeod came to Edinburgh in 1876 and on following Lister in his wards, realised that he hadn't been carrying out the procedure in accordance with Lister's teaching. He returned to India determined to demonstrate "strict Listerism." Mortality rates were seen to fall after surgery when using antiseptic methods. It is due to the painstaking work of doctors like McLeod that surgery was made much more effective and less fatal.
No doubt the BBC programme will show others like him, so I am very much looking forward to watching it. There is a BBC book by Richard Hollingham to accompany the series.

The founding of Australia

After my first visit Down Under in April/May this year, I'm mad on all things Aussie. I was delighted to find this fantastic resource on the website of the State Library of New South Wales From Terra Australis to Australia. It's got drawings, maps and paintings, and letters from the First Fleet which bring this historic event to life.
I'd highly recommend a couple of books to anyone interested in this period, The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes, and The Commonwealth of thieves by Thomas Keneally.

Earthquakes, tidal waves... and general disasters

The National Risk Register is intended to
capture the range of emergencies that might have
a major impact on all, or significant parts of, the UK.
It provides a national picture of the risks the country faces,
and is designed to complement Community Risk
Registers, already produced and published locally by
emergency planners. The driver for this work is the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 which also defines
what the government means by emergencies, and what
responsibilities are placed on emergency responders
in order to prepare for them.

A plague on all your houses

As you can tell, we're all a little bit obsessed with things medical here! Just to continue the theme, you can see the first medical book printed in Scotland in the "Imprentit: 500 years of the Scottish printed word" exhibition. Written by Gilbert Skeyne, "Ane breue Descriptioun of the Pest" was published in 1568, the year over 2,000 people were killed by the disease in Edinburgh. The author, a physician of King James VI, exhorted the population to "returne to God" to defeat the plague.

There are, of course, official publications in the exhibition, too.

Tracing ancestors who served in India

Did you have an ancestor who served in India? Was he a surgeon or a major? Do you know which regiment your ancestor was in? If you have a starting point such as the date and occupation then by using the East India Register (shelfmark GIF.16, from 1802-1947) you can find out many details such as uniform colours, date of rank, retirement and descriptions of occupations. Some volumes contain records of births, marriages and deaths. It is possible to track someone's career through these records and build up a vivid picture of their life and work in India.
Find out about more resources by clicking on the India Papers Family History page.

In the army now

The first part of the Army Health collection is now available on microfilm, at Mf.IP.23-Mf.IP.32. You can read reports from areas of India such as Bengal, Bombay and Madras detailing the living conditions of the soldiers stationed there.
Adjusting to life in India was hard for the British soldier and often men did not achieve two years' service. The hot and humid climate, coupled with the heavy uniforms, gave rise to many cases of heatstroke, "The men become inert, spiritless and weak, lose flesh and appetite. No medicine is of any good." (Bengal, 1874)
The soldiers were vulnerable to diseases like cholera, rabies, malaria, plague, dysentery and typhus; these were seemingly more virulent due to the heat. To ward off the depression from cool nights following hot days "men received a draught of quinine, cinchona and arsenic and the spirit-drinkers had each a small ration of rum." (Bengal, 1876)
If the men (and their families) survived disease, they could be bitten by snakes or suffer from shoebite -"The contusions were nearly all caused by bad fitting boots when on the march." (Bombay, 1872).
Exercise and diet are recorded in much detail so as to monitor the general health of the men, "Athletic exercise, wrestling, single-stick, clubs, running, leaping &tc are much practised. A few men do a little gardening." (Bengal, 1876) The native soldiers seemed, one officer notes, to take fondly to English games such as cricket and football.
You can also browse through tables of mortality rates and hospital admissions, look at sick rates and invaliding statistics for different regiments and even discover how much rain fell. Click on the image to view a statistics page listing deaths of Madras officers. These reports give us a colourful picture, not only showing us what life was like for the troops but also how the Government was trying to sustain military authority through medicine and sanitation.

Gas & electricity bills....

The House of Commons Business and Enterprise Committee's investigation into the utilities market
"Energy prices, fuel poverty and Ofgem" throws up some interesting facts about why gas and electricity costs have risen so sharply recently. Concluding that the utilities companies haven't actually been fixing prices, nevertheless having only "6 big players" in the market makes it harder to introduce much in the way of competitive pricing.

Out for the count

With advances in surgery and medicine happening all the time, have you ever considered what the early days of surgery were like? To relieve some of the pain of, for example, having a limb amputated or a bladder stone removed, patients were given opium, alcohol or simply knocked unconscious with a blow to the head. Nitrous oxide gas (laughing gas) was used to knock out patients during dental work in the mid 1800s and this was followed by the first surgical use of ether in 1842. Chloroform had been around since 1831; in 1847 James Young Simpson of Edinburgh found out about its quick acting properties when he sampled some and ended up under his dining room table.
The India Papers contains the Report of the Hyderabad Chloroform Commission from 1891, when Edward Lawrie was investigating the alleged dangers of chloroform. Deaths had occured under chloroform and scientists at the time were attempting to discover whether fatalities were due to heart or respiratory failure. The report covers over 400 detailed animal experiments and 54 human surgical trials. It also contains much correspondence from doctors via The Lancet. Dudley W. Buxton wrote in 1890: "Without fear or dread must he [the anaesthetist] be prepared to give one or the other anaesthetic, but he must be keenly alive to all the possible contigencies of each, and not live in a fool's paradise that if he only obeys certain rules and directions he and his patient are safe."

Windrush

In June 1948 the ship Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury docks bringing the first Commonwealth immigrants from Jamaica to the UK. Seeking a new and better life, it was the start of a changing Britain enabled by the British Nationality Act.
There's an exhibition, online exhibition and related events at the Imperial War Museum, London, to mark this anniversary.

When you've got go, you've got to go...

... but how and when you do it has become a matter for heated debate. The Department of Health's new strategy for England now gives adults a choice.

Make do and mend...

During these days of rising costs and the so-called credit crunch there's a growing trend to "make do and mend". Our wartime collection can teach us a lot about making do, growing our own veg., and generally stretching meagre resources that little bit further. Our website Propaganda: a weapon of war has lots of information on these publications.

Childhood memories

I found the following little gem while dealing with an enquiry relating to free orange juice for children in the early fifties. Being a child of that era it brought back lots of happy memories. Cod liver oil was also provided to combat rickets.
Kids of today would have a problem relating to the typical menu as shown, "but it did me no harm"!!!

Education education education

The Medical College and Research Institutions collection (Batch 2) is now available on microfilm at shelfmarks Mf.IP.15-Mf.IP.22. It starts with the Indian Medical Review which gives a wonderful overview of disease control, scientific discoveries and institutional achievements. You can view striking accounts of life at important medical institutions such as Central Research Institute, Kasauli, the Pasteur Institute at Coonoor, plus a wealth of statistical information from various Calcutta Medical Institutions. The Government objective was, in some cases like Lahore, to train native doctors in order for them to aid with vaccination administration and sanitation measures whilst ensuring that Western medical practices spread into local Indian life. The reports document examinations taken, castes of students, curricula followed, teaching staff, donations from beneficaries, even sports played. It cannot have been easy for many students; they needed to learn English and some required a good command of Urdu. Many were ill and some indeed died. Much is made in these volumes of student conduct, how to discipline them and their progress. However, in Nagpur (est.1867) W.B. Beatson sadly wrote,"The pupils showed not only indifferent progress, but an utter want of intelligence."

There is much to discover in this collection of almost 8,000 pages, and I find it has been a sheer pleasure to work with it.

The photograph that accompanies this post shows the Harcourt Butler Institute of Public Health, Rangoon, and is one of the few photographs from the collection.

Piper Alpha Disaster - 20 years on

Twenty years after the disaster, have lessons been learned? You can find out more about this major event here at the Library. "The Public Inquiry into the Piper Alpha Disaster" (the Cullen Report) is here, shelfmark: P.P. 1990-91 Cm 1310. We also have the transcripts of the proceedings. Ask for "Piper Alpha public inquiry [proceedings] held at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen before the Hon. Lord Cullen", shelfmark: GEK.58. You can also read the Health & Safety Executive's report into the implementation of Lord Cullen's recommendations: "Implementation of Lord Cullen's research and development recomendations / J.G. Krol ... [et al.]", shelfmark: GHI.1997.2.25.

Aussie founders

Anyone out there with a convict ancestor? If they were transported to Queensland, Australia, now you can search for them on the State Library of Queensland's new database.

P.M. Gordon Brown says "stop wasting food"...

So say the headlines - but there's more to the Cabinet Office's report than that. It addresses issues of global food security, climate change and the way it affects food production, food and health, and ... food wastage.

NHS 60

Our National Health Service is 60 years old. The National Archives at Kew have a great "Citizenship" website, with a history of the welfare state.

India Papers on microfilm

Phase 1 of the Medical History of British India project is also available on 35mm microfilm. Simply go to the National Library of Scotland catalogues, click on main catalogue and type in Mf.IP., choosing the shelfmark search and you will find a list of the Phase 1 titles. The shelfmark for these runs from Mf.IP.1 - to Mf.IP.12.

Batch 1, Medicines, from Phase 2, is also available to view on film here in the Library. Type in Mf.IP.13 and Mf.IP.14 to view the titles. These notably include the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission Report (volumes vi and vii) from 1894 and the Hyderabad Chloroform Commission Report from 1891, as well as titles on opium use and cinchona cultivation.

Equality Bill

The Minister for Equality, Harriet Harman, announced her department's "Framework for a Fairer Future: the Equality Bill, sparking a "What is discrimination?" discussion in the media.

Zimbabwe elections blog

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office website has a blog by British Embassy staff in Harare. It gives a fascinating, if rather depressing, insight into what's going on there.