The Edinburgh Pathological Club

THE following is a brief account of the history of this Club, compiled from information contained in large Minute Books, beautifully kept throughout the 78 years of the Club's existence. The first member to be mentioned is, of course, Sir John Batty Tuke, who founded the Club at a dinner party in his house on 22 July, 1886. Batty Tuke, who was knighted in 1898 when he was President of the Royal College of Physicians, was born at Beverley in Yorkshire in 1835, and graduated M.D. of Edinburgh in 1856. He spent the next six years in New Zealand, where he was involved in the Maori War, and on his return he became associated with Dr. David Skae at the Edinburgh Lunatic Asylum, as it was then called, besides conducting a private mental hospital of his own, and pursuing the researches on the brain for which he became famous. In 1874 he was Morison Lecturer at the Royal College of Physicians, and for 25 years he represented the College on the General Medical Council. He was also Member of Parliament for Edinburgh and St. Andrews Universities for a period of 10 years. At a Meeting of the Royal College of Physicians on 4 February 1885, Batty Tuke moved that the College should found a Laboratory for original research. At first opinions differed, but the project was reconsidered and approved two years later, and the laboratory began work in Lauriston Lane, and later in Forrest Road, where the Royal College of Surgeons joined the sister College in the effort, in 1895. The first scheme of research, undertaken at the request of the Fishery Board, concerned the life-history of the salmon. Obviously the laboratory was determined to cast its net wide. I mention the laboratory at this point, because its fortunes were closely linked with those of the Pathological Club. Batty Tuke, as Chairman of the laboratory committee, was called the 'Curator', a position which he held for twenty-five years. There were also seven 'Superintendents' of the laboratory between 1887 and 1950, and three of them, Sims Woodhead, Noel Paton, R. Cranston Low, became, as I shall presently explain, Secretaries of the Club.