History of General Practice Collections
C HI Papers of The National Association of General
Practitioners 1844-1846
History
"Various branches of the medical
profession have colleges, charters, and corporations, from which
the
general practitioner is either
altogether excluded, or attached as an appendage only; he is not
admitted to a participation in their councils, or to share in their
honours; as a general practitioner, he belongs exclusively to no
one branch, and is, therefore, virtually excluded from
all."
William Gaitskill (President of the
Metropolitan Society of General Practitioners in Medicine and
Surgery) Lancet. (1830). ii, 451.
In 1843, the Royal College of Surgeons of England decreed that
only Fellows [a very limited number of members] could have
a role in the governance of that College, effectively cutting out
the majority of those practising general medicine from having a say
in the profession. A group of disaffected members set up an
Association [The National Association of General Practitioners of
Medicine, Surgery and Midwifery] which set about lobbying for
an institution or College to represent them. It quickly gained 4000
members but the attempt came to nothing.
It was not until 1952 that a College was founded, at around the
same time, John Hunt one of the prime movers of that
institution rediscovered
the existence of the Association when looking through old
volumes of the Lancet in the RSM library. Writing in the first
annual report of the new College in 1953) Hunt wrote
"Looking back, it is instructive and chastening to
realise that more than a century ago this step [founding a College]
ws carefully considered, and was nearly taken. Then as now, general
practice was changing. There was much concern for its future, and
for the academic welfare of family doctors." (The College of
General Practitioners First Annual Report 1953 page 3)
The College purchased some original papers of the National
Association in 1997 in order to complement its own
institutional Archives collection.
References
Contemporaneous
For copies of articles about the founding of the
National Association of General Practitioners, and subsequent
meetings, appearing in The Lancet, 1845, i, pp.127-28, 326-27,
191-92, 356-59, 393, see RCGP Archives John Hunt Personal Papers,
B HUN A
1-1.
Histories of the Association
- John Hunt - "Past Attempts to
Found a College" The College of General Practitioners First
Annual Report, 1953, pp.3-7, Appendix I and III. 'A
History of the Royal College of General Practitioners: The
First 25 Years', John Fry, Lord Hunt of Fawley and R.J.F.H.
Pinsent (eds.) (RCGP, 1983), pp.1-5.
- R M S McConaghey - "Proposals
to found a Royal College of General Practitioners in the nineteenth
century" in the Journal of the Royal College of General
Practitioners, 1972, 22, 775n 1973.
Exhibition
Posters from an exhibition about this collection held at
Princes Gate. January 2002. Curated by Dr David McKinlay
FRCGP
Click on image for full size picture
(C HI A) Catalogueof the Records relating to the National
Association of General Practitioners.1844-1846
C HI A1. Transactions of the National Association of
General Practitioners, 1844 - 1846
Proceedings and reports of the National Association of
General Practitioners
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CHI A1- 1
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Volume containing manuscript and printed transactions of the
National Association of General Practitioners and preliminary
meetings of Marylebone Medical and Surgical Association, with lists
and circular letters. Also copies of legislative Bills for the
better regulation of Medical Practice throughout the United Kingdom
and second report by the deputation of general
practitioners.
Item: Notice of 5th annual meeting of the
Metropolitan Counties Branch of the British Medical Association,
June 1857
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17 Aug 1844
- 5 Aug 1846
(1857)
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C HI A2. Reports of the National Association of General
Practitioners, 1845 - 1846
Reports of delegations from the National Association of
General Practitioners
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CHI A2 -1
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Three reports of the joint deputation of the Society of
Apothecaries and the National Association of General Practitioners
appointed to confer with the Secretary of State, Sir James
Graham,on the subject of the incorporation of the General
Practitioners, with preface dated London 18 March 1846.
N.B. First report, 12 May 1845
Second Report, 5 August 1845
Third Report, 25 February 1846
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(1845)-
1846
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