Postgraduate medicine and personalities--1925.

Sir William Osler (Figure 1) arrived in Britain in 1905 determined not only to guide Oxford medicine as its Regius Professor but also to improve the standard of postgraduate medicine throughout Britain. He felt that each county hospital should have a postgraduate department, using the argument that without postgraduate education a doctor was stale in five years, in the rut by ten years, and by twenty years so deeply in the rut that he would never be able to get out of it. His influence led to the creation of the Post-Graduate Medical Association in 1911, but the 1914-18 war halted its progress. It was redeveloped in 1919 as the Fellowship of Medicine and Post Graduate Medical Association. It was an early success for many doctors, returning from the Armed Services, were seeking higher qualifications. Many from the British Empire overseas were seeking special postgraduate training before returning to their own countries. The postgraduate movement received considerable impetus in 1925 by two events. The Minister ofHealth appointed a Committee to draw up a practical scheme ofpostgraduate medical education centred in London. It was an important influential Committee for it included Lord Dawson ofPenn, Sir Humphrey Rolleston, Sir John Bland-Sutton, Sir Thomas Horder, Dr John Parkinson and Alfred Webb-Johnson. The second milestone was the appearance of The PostGraduate Medical Journal. This was founded to give an account of the postgraduate activities in the country and also to chronicle many of the distinguished lectures which were being delivered in various hospitals and at the rooms of the Medical Society of London and the Royal Society of Medicine. Osler died in 1919 but his influence on postgraduate medicine permeated the nineteen twenties in many different fashions, not the least being his friendship with Henry Wellcome. This London business tycoon was to give considerable support to postgraduate medicine. In 1925, Henry Wellcome lived at Gloucester Gate, Regent's Park, quite near the Wigmore Street headquarters ofthe Wellcome Historical Medical Museum. Osler, amongst others, had persuaded Wellcome to exhibit his historical medical collection at the XVII International Congress of Medicine which was to be held in London in 1913; it was a great success so in the same year it was made available to the public in Wigmore Street. In 1924 he formed 'The Wellcome Foundation Ltd.' to consolidate under one head his various enterprises including Burroughs Wellcome and Co., the Chemical works, the Bureau of Scientific Research, the Museum of Medical Science, the Physiology Laboratories etc. This was a culmination of his life's work, and showed the world that his commercial interests and profits were dedicated to the support of his research interests and love of the history of medicine and pharmacy. In recognition of his services to Science, Wellcome was elected a member ofThe Athenaeum in 1924, received