Glasgow Southern Medical Society

Minute books, 1844-2000; Council minute books, 1895-1998; rolls of members, correspondence and papers, 1888-1993; Minutes for Association for the Promotion of Medical Library and Reading Rooms for the South Side of Glasgow, 1897-1898; Minutes of joint meetings of the BMA Glasgow and West of Scotland Branch, the Glasgow Southern Medical Society and the Glasgow Eastern Medical Society, 1901; Minutes of the BMA Glasgow and West of Scotland Branch, 1909-1919.

he Society was formally instituted in August 1844 having arisen as a consequence of informal meetings by a small group of medical men. A formal constitution was adopted in November 1845 with objects which included the “promotion of amical feelings amongst our medical bretheren,” “to assist each other toward attaining a more extensive and accurate acquaintance with the theory and practice of our profession,” and “to assist each other in our professional duties when required.” In 1878, Ebenezer Duncan, a local practitioner and Surgeon at the Glasgow Deaf and Dumb Institute, proposed the erection of a hospital on the south side of Glasgow to cater for the growing population. A committee of investigation was formed as a consequence. The Society was also represented in a committee which gathered funds for the construction of the Victoria Infirmary. As a consequence of its fundraising efforts, the Society was represented by one of its members on the hospital’s governing body. Between 1900-1902 the Society was very active in the campaign to defend those medical practitioners from prosecution who employed unqualified assistants in their dispensaries (or shops). The Society held a joint meeting with the Glasgow Southern Women’s Medical Society in 1928 but did not admit its first woman member until 1979. The Society is still in existence.

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Descriptive list available at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow