Richard Thompson

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 fifth volume in the series, explores the RCP's distinguished history through the unique objects in its museum's collections. Over the centuries the College has accumulated a diverse array of 'curiosities' that illustrate its rich traditions and the lives of its distinguished fellows and members. The author, former RCP president Sir Richard Thompson, uses fifty of these items to draw an engaging portrait of an organisation with a proud and colourful past. These include; the anatomy tables, Baldwin Hamey's bell, antimonial cups and the College mace.

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

Physicians and war - Humphrey Hodgson and Simon Shorvan

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