Humphrey Hodgson and Simon Shorvan

The Royal College of Physicians celebrated its 500th anniversary in 2018, and to observe this landmark it published a series of ten books. Each of the books focuses on fifty elements that have contributed to making the RCP what it is today.

This, the fourth book, outlines some of the effects of war on the College as an institution, on its buildings and especially on its members and fellows. Medicine can profoundly change the fortunes of those engaged in war, and war also greatly changes medicine. It creates new diseases, leads to medical innovation and advances in therapy, and has also stimulated new approaches to the organisation of medical care. This book is a brief exposition on aspects of the complex interface of war and medicine, and the crucial role played by the College and its physicians in the medicine of war.

Other books in the series

Anatomy of a building - Rowan Moore

A garden of medicinal plants - Henry Oakeley, Jane Knowles, Michael de Swiet and Anthony Dayan

Quacks, rogues and charlatans - Paul Strathern

Curiosities from the College museum - Richard Thompson

Grave and learned men: the physicians 1518-1660 - Louella Vaughan

Ever persons capable and able: the physicians 1660-2018 - Louella Vaughan

Physicians and their images - Ludmilla Jordanova

Simples and rarities suitable and honourable to the College - Alastair Compston

Physicians and global health - Krishna Chinthapalli