Medical Collection

This is an international collection of medical and scientific literature, in various formats, published from 1850 onwards. It provides a rich resource for the study of history of medicine, and to a lesser extent of contemporary biomedical subjects, and reflects the course of medical thought and practice in different social and cultural settings.

The collection represents a broad understanding of the field and its changing boundaries, and therefore covers a broad spectrum of subjects, from preclinical and clinical medicine including anatomy, physiology, paediatrics, surgery, pathology, dentistry, nursing, etc. - with particularly strong holdings in public health, sanitation and tropical medicine - to botany, evolution, phrenology, alternative remedies, cookery, and numerous other subjects that represented an integral part of medical thought in the past and provide an essential context for the study of medical history.

Items in the collection range from a first edition of Darwin's 'On the Origin of Species', various editions of Gray's anatomy, Mrs Beeton's 'Book of Household Management', through advertisements for toothpaste, to the latest issue of the 'Lancet' and current edition of the 'British National Formulary'. The collection also contains the most complete set of the British Medical Officer of Health Reports in the country, and equivalent foreign and colonial publications.

The collection comprises hundreds of thousands of medical monographs and textbooks, anatomical atlases, pharmacopoeias, etc.; 40 000 pamphlets; 30 000 theses; some 11 000 serials, including clinical and scientific journals in print and electronic format, annual reports and popular newsletters; a considerable amount of grey literature such as governmental and other reports, publications of pressure groups and patient organisations; 20 000 items of medical ephemera; patents; and a growing number of electronic journals, databases and web resources.

An alphabetical subject guide is available to assist you in browsing the collection’s open shelves.