Women and medicine in the French Enlightenment: the debate over Maladies des femmes

Moran had the vision to realize that the core of a medical school must be teaching units with whole-time academic staff. Teaching by part-time clinicians, of whom he was one, was no longer enough. In his determination to push this idea through, and in the money he raised, he served his medical school well. He became Churchill's doctor soon after he became prime minister and remained more or less in that position until the great man died in 1965. His duties included not only waiting on Churchill at 10 Downing Street, but also travelling with him on his many long, tedious, uncomfortable, and dangerous wartime journeys. When the party arrived at Cairo, Moscow, Washington or wherever it was, Moran often had little to do. But when he did have something to do he was in a very hot seat. Churchill had various illnesses and dealing with them and even more important dealing with the press required steadiness and skill. Moran was apt to complain at the distraction of these duties, particularly the long periods away from his wife and the College of Physicians, but there were compensations, or should have been if Moran had not been a poor mixer and inclined to show his critical opinions of other people, field marshals, foreign ministers and the like. Moran became President of the Royal College of Physicians in 1941 and was re-elected every year until 1950. Re-election of the sitting president was not then the formality that it is now. Moran was challenged every year by Lord Horder and won re-election in the crucial year 1948 by only 6 votes out of 336. His and Horder's views on the new health service were far apart. Moran strongly favoured the NHS and was determined to help push it through. One of his chief objectives was to ensure a spread of properly-trained consultants throughout the country. He succeeded in this, a universally acknowledged triumph of the NHS. Moran was a cold, remote and stubborn figure. This was, as he acknowledged, a big drawback for a man in his position(s). His general reputation was high and deserved to be, but it was heavily clouded at the end of his life by his decision to publish a long and detailed account of Churchill's health and illnesses. This was done without the agreement of Churchill's family, indeed in the face of their hostility and in spite of …