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Special Articles

ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS

THE NEW BUILDING

OUTRIGHT approval of anything new and British is

unfashionable, and perhaps it is not as often deserved asit should be. The new home of the Royal College ofPhysicians, which the Queen consented to open this week,allows fashion to be defied.

Abroad, the innovator is usually free to forget the pastand think only of the present and the future. Here, hemust drive with one eye constantly on the mirror; lookingahead, he may never lose sight of what is behind. Mr.

Denys Lasdun’s task was not just to design a building inwhich the diverse functions of a modern scientific societycould be exercised, but one in which the hallowed usagesof four and a half centuries would live, and retain theirmeaning. As if that were not enough, his work had to be

B Br-I

Site of the new building at the south-east corner of Regent’s Park.

contemporary without affronting the well-bred dignity ofNash’s terrace across the way. He may well have sympa-thised with Hamlet, told to destroy a husband withoutdistressing the wife. Attempts to reconcile seeminglyincompatible demands of this kind do not always endhappily. We do not always resist the temptation, as it were,to adorn our latest aircraft with brass carriage-lamps. Weseek a compromise where none is possible. This kind of

problem admits only two solutions: an exact copy of theearlier style, as in Park Crescent a few yards down theroad, or something completely new, respecting the pastwithout being tied to it.

Others have appraised Mr. Lasdun’s building. The

Royal Fine Art Commission was well satisfied with the

Inner hall.

First-floor eallerv.

design ; and Mr. Kenneth Robinson, addressing theHouse of Commons on behalf of the Opposition, said thatit was brilliant and imaginative, and blended well with itssurroundings.2 2 It is perhaps enough to record that itlooks like what it is-a place of learning and peace.The ivory mosaic of the walls acknowledges rather than

mimics the cream stucco opposite; and the blue brick-work, confined as it is to the background and the lowerlevels, is not a continuation of Nash’s roof slates, but atranslation of them. The resulting exterior is distinguished;it is also befittingly modest. It gives the visitor little

warning of the expanses of light and air that await himinside. From the foyer he passes to a spacious inner hall,where some of the college’s fine collection of portraits arehung. A broad staircase, designed for a procession and

Library.

suggesting a progress, leads to a landing with moreportraits, again beautifully displayed. The two largestrooms of the main building open off it. To the west is thelibrary, and to the east a dining-room. Both these roomsare two storeys high, with galleries at the upper level.They are equipped with loudspeakers so that either can belinked to the other or to the lecture-theatre downstairs.The library, endowed by the Wellcome Trust, is not infact the working library of the college: it houses the mostvaluable books, and serves the reading room, but it is alsoa very fine conference chamber. The dining-room is

designed to seat two hundred. One wall, over sixty feetlong, can be raised hydraulically to add a long gallery,

1. Lancet, 1960, ii, 1405.2. ibid. p. 1455.

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overlooking the garden, to this room. These and theother principal rooms are air-conditioned-the library atall times, for the sake of the books. The execution of allthis is entirely modern, but Harvey, whose portraitpresides over the library, is obviously at home.At the foot of the staircase is the Censors’ room, with

more than a hint of a Grand Transformation Scene in

pantomime. From the plate glass and mosaic of the hallthe visitor walks straight into the 17th century; this oakpanelling was originally installed in Warwick Lane afterthe Great Fire of 1666, and was transferred to Pall MallEast a hundred and fifty years later.The lecture-theatre forms a separate block, also

approached from the foyer. It is so arranged that it can beused without disturbance to whatever else may be goingon in the college. The lectern is a gift from the RoyalCollege of Surgeons, and a ceremonial chair and table inTasmanian oak were presented by the Royal AustralasianCollege of Physicians. The theatre is provided with first-class equipment for visual aids, and simultaneous interpre-tation in three languages can be carried on. The acousticshere, as in the other public rooms, are excellent. Althoughmicrophones are there, they will probably be neededmostly for transmitting from one room to another, andfor recording speeches.

, Lecture-theatre.

This fine piece of work was made possible solely by thegenerosity of the Wolfson Foundation, which providedhalf a million pounds for the building. Not only theRoyal College of Physicians, but medicine the world over,can be grateful.Two and a half years ago, at the laying of the foundation

stone, Sir Robert Platt 3 said: " We hope that our newbuilding will become the meeting-place of physiciansfrom all over the world." It surely will, and the collegecan be proud to receive them there.

3. ibid. 1962, i, 523.

Occasional Book

COLLEGE HISTORY

THE Royal College of Physicians decided some yearsago that the time had come when a fuller and moremodern history of its 400 years of varying fortunes shouldbe written. The appearance of the first volume, proves thewisdom of this decision and of the choice of Sir GeorgeClark as historian.

Sir George chose to write the history from the point ofview of the college’s place in English social history; asensible decision, because although the fellows of thecollege have done much to advance the science of medicinein this country, there was in fact little advance to record inthe first 300 years of the college’s existence. Those dis-coveries that were made, such as that of the circulation ofthe blood, which bore fruit in the end however little effectthey had at the time, fit easily into the story, while theeffects of the college on medical education, examinations,and practice in those early days are essentially aspects ofsocial rather than of technical history. Sir George hasalso, in a quiet way, made a notable contribution to thehistory of the professional idea and ideal in this country,and his second chapter will stand as a landmark of

practical interest and importance in the changing world oftoday.The story opens with the description of the medical scene

when the college was started, and of the relation between themedicine of the English Renaissance and its medieval pre-cursors. Into this scene comes Thomas Linacre, of whose life,personality, and influence this is the best description yet given.Linacre stands out in this context as a very great man, and itbecomes less surprising, to those who know how much of whathe started survives into the college of today, that the influenceof one man should have lasted so long. And comparable withLinacre stands John Caius, of whom more is known, but whowas another of the enduring formative influences. The descrip-1. A History of the Royal College of Physicians of London, vol. 1. Sir

GEORGE CLARK, F.B.A. London: Oxford University Press (for theRoyal College of Physicians). 1964. Pp. 425. 55s.

tion of the forms and ceremonials which were so dear to Caius’sheart and the influence of this kind of early ceremonial onEnglish life generally for a couple of hundred years (and evenlonger) is interesting. So too is the remarkable persistence inthe college of faith in Galen as the essential foundation of

medicine, from the drastic correction of Dr. John Geynes in1559 onwards. The description of the earliest statutes mightbe a dull, if essential, mass of information; but in Sir George’shand it becomes readable and entertaining. Indeed, he writesthroughout with a light and genial touch which enlivens thestory wonderfully: as an instance look at his happy remarks onBacon (p. 198) or the joyous description of the first Goulstonianlecture (p. 251).Everyone knows that the days of Elizabeth I were stirring

times: it comes as a surprise to find how true this was of thecollege. Stirring days they certainly were when out of some 20fellows, 2 were in prison, 1 was twice on the rack, 2 fled, 1 washeavily fined, and 1 was hanged. The college, however, sharedwith the rest of the country increasing prosperity, and apartfrom those who got into trouble the fellows were a fine set ofcharacters. The great Victorian eccentrics were not superior totheir Elizabethan forebears.Another matter in which a later age failed to realise the

significance of the past was unqualified practice. In the early1800s the profession was to complain bitterly about the preval-ence of quackery: what would they have said about it twohundred years earlier? Only when a competent historianassembles the facts do we realise how appalling the positionwas. The college battled against it bravely: this volume showshow difficult a fight it fought, especially when the law was souncertain. On the whole it was successful against individualsbut unsuccessful in stamping out quackery generally. The nextvolume will show how the unendowed college ultimately foundit impossible even to deal with individuals. From the beginningthere was opposition from the public (especially from the richand powerful), and from the lawyers, to the real suppression ofunqualified practice. In the reign of James I the main trouble,as Sir George sapiently points out, was that such suppressionlooked like a monopoly for the college; and monopolies were atthat time the most unpopular institutions in England.

In 1614 the college remained passive and uninterested andallowed the Apothecaries charter without safeguards; in 1814 itmade the same mistake over the Apothecaries Act, and in bothcenturies the supine attitude of the moment cost the college