A collection of books designed to help perpetuate the names and to provide an introductory profile of the more significant and fascinating characters, in whose steps we follow.
Francis J Browne – A biography
Herbert E Reiss Publication Date: November 2007 Retail Price: £19.50 ISBN: 978-1-904752-10-3 Extent: 120 pages |
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Francis James Browne is remembered as the foremost obstetrician of his day. He is widely recognised as the founder of modern antenatal care. His book, Antenatal and Postnatal Care, became the best of its kind and a bible to many generations of medical students and junior obstetricians.
FJ (as he was universally known) was born in Ireland, the fourth of eight children of a County Donegal farmer. He qualified in medicine in Scotland in 1906 and worked for 13 years as a general practitioner in a mining town in Wales. At the age of 39, he took up obstetrics and became assistant to JW Ballantyne in Edinburgh. In 1926, he was appointed Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at University College Hospital, London, where he became renowned for his outstanding teaching and inspirational leadership. He was one of the Founding Fellows of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and was awarded the Blair-Bell Medal for his significant contribution to the specialty in 1960.
In this biography, Herbert Reiss presents a fascinating glimpse into the life of a great man in a deft and vivid portrait
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Ian Donald – A Memoir
James Willocks and Wallace Barr Publication Date: 2004 Retail Price: £19.50 ISBN: 978-1-904752-00-4 Extent: 141 pages |
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Ian Donald was a vibrant, controversial character who deserves to be remembered for many things in addition to his enormous contribution to the development of medical ultrasound, although this inevitably stands out as his greatest achievement. In many aspects of his practice he was revolutionary and he was always receptive of new ideas. He was an inspirational teacher, a caring clinician who was adored by his personal patients and a stimulating and provocative colleague. He was never in doubt about what was right and wrong in the world and consequently met with much opposition when his views were not politically correct. He was a true "Renaissance Man" of many talents and he was never dull.
Ian Donald’s greatest contribution to his profession was in medical ultrasound. The story of the initial experiments with early "flaw detectors" through Ian’s single-minded determination to develop the technique into a useful diagnostic tool to their eventual success is described in his own words and from the memories of the authors, who were intimately involved in the process.
Reviews of this book can be found here.
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Professor William Nixon directed the Obstetric Unit at University College Hospital (UCH), London, for twenty years from 1946 to 1966. These were innovative times in obstetrics and gynaecology and Nixon was among the innovators. Much that is now accepted as normal good practice was pioneered by him and today’s management of pregnant women and their babies stems from his work.
He was a humane doctor and he expected this of all who worked with him. Pregnancies come from two people and William Nixon saw to it at UCH that both were recognised. Thoughtful treatment of father and mother were the norm. In both obstetrics and gynaecology, Nixon’s researches led to new scientific ideas being introduced first at UCH, then nationally and in turn worldwide. Professor Nixon sent the men and women that he trained to all parts of the world and there they carried his principles, which still live on.
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William Blair-Bell - Father and Founder
John Peel Publication Date: 1986 Retail Price: £1.00 ISBN: 978-0-902331-37-2 Extent: 89 pages |
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Blair-Bell was by general acclaim the most distinguished gynaecologist in Great Britain in the present century. He brought gynaecology out of the narrow field as a minor part of general surgery, and founded the British College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1929, together with his colleague Sir William Fletcher Shaw.
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Lives of the Fellows of the RCOG
Sir John Peel Publication Date: 1976 Retail Price: £1.00 ISBN: 978-0-433-25002-9 Extent: 176 pages |
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This book is an account of the more important activities of 318 Fellows of the RCOG over the first 40 years of the College's existence.
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