FIFTY FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF PHARMACY
1 JANUARY - 31 DECEMBER 2022
1. Annual General Meeting 2022
The 54[th] Annual General Meeting of the Society was held at the Copthorne Hotel, Salford Quays on Sunday 27[th] March which was during our first inperson conference since 2019. 18 Members attended the meeting.
Until the pandemic interrupted the normal pattern our AGMs were held on the Sunday morning during the weekend of our annual conference.
This conference was dedicated to the memory of Peter Homan past President and Honorary Secretary.
At the AGM the following Trustees (Office Bearers) were confirmed:
President: Dr Chris Duffin Vice-President: Professor Mark Nesbitt Hon. Treasurer: Ms Selina Hurley Hon. Secretary: Mr Roy Allcorn
The 2021 Annual Accounts were agreed unanimously by the Members who attended the meeting.
2.
Meetings of Committee
The Committee met three times during the year (7[th] February, 9[th] May and 17[th] October), all these meetings continued to be held on-line:
Name Comments Mr R T Allcorn Dr S C Anderson Mr J Betts Mrs D Bishop Dr J Crellin Dr C Duffin Ms B Hudson Ms S Hurley Dr M H Jepson Mr M Johnson Prof M Nesbitt Ms C Walker
Committee membership changes in 2022: John Crellin joined the committee at the end of 2021 and attended his first committee meeting in February 2022.
3. Membership
Total membership (including 3 Honorary Members) at 31[st] December was 136.
Movements in the year having been as follows:
New members: 10 / Resigned: 4
Five members continued to have subscription payment shortfalls and again because of this we suspended their September mailings.
4. Meetings/Events
No in-person committee meetings were organised during 2022 as it had been decided to continue to meet online. Our Summer annual visit series restarted however with an afternoon visit to Kew Gardens on 15[th] July where we had a guided tour centered around the Nosegay and Evolution Gardens. The tour was headed up by BSHP committee member Mark Nesbitt aided by two colleagues. No visit was possible to a School of Pharmacy.
5. On-line Lecture Programme
A series of free on-line discussions and talks were arranged in 2021 as a replacement for our evening presentations and given their success a new series was set up for 2022. Bookings and ticketing were again administered using the Eventbrite system.
The schedule of these lectures was as follows:
24[th] January : “The Poison Trials: Wonder Drugs, Experiment, and the Battle for Authority in Renaissance Science” by Prof. Alisha Rankin (Tufts University) 21[st] February : “The Medicinal Uses of Emeralds in History” by Dr Chris Duffin (BSHP).
25[th] April : “The Doctrine of Signatures in Early Modern Medicine” by Xinyi Wen (University of Cambridge).
23[rd] May: “Precious Pills in Tibetan Medicine” by Dr Barbara Gerke (University of Vienna).
13[th] June : “History of Pharmacy in the Arabic Civilization in between Past and Future” by Dr Ayman Atat (Freie University of Berlin). Start time for this one was 2pm as opposed to the usual 6.30pm.
According to Eventbrite, during the year we issued 706 tickets for these 5 events. We have reached a truly international presence with these events.
The next series planned for the Autumn could not be arranged in time and so a new series was scheduled for the new year.
6. Annual Spring Conference March 2022
There were 34 participants overall including 19 members of the Society and 4 pharmacy students. The conference theme was collections, collecting and collectors.
An optional visit to the Manchester University School of Pharmacy on Friday afternoon included a welcome from the head of the school of health sciences, Professor Kay Marshall and head of the school of pharmacy Professor Jayne
Lawrence; talks by two fourth year pharmacy students, Menah Zaky and Zina Derradji, on historical items from the school and the Manchester Museum of Medicine and Health, and a tour of some of the facilities and other historical material on site.
Friday’s dinner was followed by a talk by James Sumner on The Spaces and Places of Manchester Science .
The following short papers were given on Saturday morning:
Maria do Sameiro Barroso Portuguese monastic pharmacies: The legacy of the Monastery of Tibães
Chris Duffin Josef Anton Hafliger (1873-1954) and his collection
John Crellin The Chafing Dish: Health and Social Considerations of a Pharmaceutical/Medical Artefact, c. 1550-1850
Patrick Chiu A.S. Watson: Transformation from Colonial Chemist to Global Health & Beauty Retailer
Fay Hartley A Glossop Apothecary - Veterinary Prescriptions 1844-1902
Manon Auffret Apomorphine in human medicine: From the Mid-19th Century to the Present Day
For the Saturday afternoon there was an organised visit to the John Rylands Research Institute with a special session looking at rare books and archival material specially selected by Dr James Peters, University Archivist, plus a chance to explore the building. Saturday dinner was followed by a quiz.
Sunday’s proceedings began with the Annual General Meeting. This was followed by a talk by Rachel Webster on Medicinal Plants at Manchester Museum and Briony Hudson on An heirloom to be handed down”: collectors and collections at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Museum
Posters were presented by:
Chris Duffin: Anti-epileptic gems and amulets (and) The Geological Materia Medica collection of John Burges (1745-1807)
Tanja Pommerening: Breaking boundaries, expanding horizons. A concept for interdisciplinary research and teaching in pharmacy, medicine and humanities.
Axel Helmstadter, and Tanja Pommerening: Teaching pharmacy ethics. A literature survey in view of a potential pharmacy curriculum reform.
Anne Grons, Tanja Pommerening, and Tonio Sebastian Richter: Coptic Pharmacological Prescriptions. Are Coptic pharmacological prescriptions effective and how can we know?
Shirley Ellis: Simulated Materia Medica Cabinet for 1970.
The conference again successfully met our aims of attracting members and non-members to share a common interest in pharmacy history in an enjoyable and welcoming atmosphere, particularly valued after three years’ absence.
7. Pharmaceutical Historian
Four issues of the Pharmaceutical Historian: An International Journal for the History of Pharmacy (Vol. 52, Nos. 1,2,3,4) were published during the year dated March, June, September and December. Stuart Anderson continued with the editorship continuing the current arrangement to publish the journal on-line (with Ingenta) and thus internationally with the International Society for the History of Pharmacy (ISHP). Printed copies continued to be produced and sent to all members who wanted them in that format. Those members resident overseas are all sent pdf copies by email.
8. BSHP Gazette
Four issues of the Gazette, our quarterly newsletter, were produced and mailed out to coincide with the four issues of the Pharmaceutical Historian. This continued to fulfil the aim of having four pages of news, updates, details of events past and forthcoming and other information including, where relevant, a selection of photographs reproduced in full colour.
9. BSHP Website (www.bshp.org) and Social Media
Our website was kept updated especially with regards to forthcoming virtual events.
Many new membership applications were received via the web-based form and paid for using the associated on-line PayPal payment system.
The number of our followers on Facebook and Twitter continues to grow and is now an important means of keeping everyone interested in us bang up to date.
10. Awards
It had been decided last year that the Burnby Memorial Bursary and the Research Grant would be closed and replaced by the Peter Homan Small Grant Scheme. This will be launched in 2023.
Peter Homan, a much-appreciated past President who sadly died last year, bequeathed his collection of history of pharmacy books to the Society. We have been able to distribute these to various museums and libraries including the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries and the School of Pharmacy Library at University College London (where they will form the core of their Flagship Collection). Furthermore, his collection of pharmaceutical artefacts was bequeathed to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Museum, where many items are now on display.
11. Appreciations
The Committee wishes to put on record its thanks to Catherine Walker at the Museum of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society for her help and support.
We are also indebted to Associaction Enterprises for continuing to undertake various Secretariat and office-based duties for the Society, especially given various difficulties caused by the pandemic for many such bodies.