xii SOCIETY OF (LICENTIATE) PHYSICIANS 151 



character of his friend Russell was read by Fothergill in 1769, 

 whilst the dispute with the college was still going on. He 

 became the president in 1774 on the death of Sir W. Duncan, 

 and held the office during the remaining six years of his life. 

 Fothergill wrote to a friend on October 17, 1776 : "I read 

 one [an oration] yesterday to a little society of physick on the 

 right dignity of a physician, and it seemed not to be ill received. 

 The licentiates have agreed to bring something every quarter. 

 This was an introduction ; the succeeding will relate to 

 particular subjects of medicine." 1 



III. THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON 



The active and inquiring spirit which marked medical 

 circles in London at this period led to the birth of many 

 societies, mostly small groups of personal friends. Some 

 grew up in connection with medical schools, others had a 

 wider range. 2 Few of these associations outlived the circum- 



1 This letter seems to refer to a revival of activity in the society. On 

 Fothergill's death Dr. W. Hunter succeeded him as president, as he did also 

 in the case of the Medical Society (of Physicians). Lettsom's Account of 

 Fothergill was read at two meetings of this society in 1782. In the following 

 year Hunter died, and his memoir by Dr. S. F. Simmons was read to the 

 society, Sir W. Watson being then president, and Garthshore secretary : 

 there were twenty-three members. The society probably dropped not very 

 long afterwards. The following MS. receipt has been preserved : " 15 Feb. 

 1771. Received of Dr. Fothergill Forty Guineas, as his nth and i2th Sub- 

 scription call for the Licentiated Physicians. William Hunter, Treasurer." 

 See Foth. Works, ii. 359, 376, iii. 217 ; MS. Letter at Fds. Ref. Lib. ; Med. 

 Reg. 1779, 1783. 



2 Amongst them may be mentioned the following : The Physico- Medical 

 Society of London, 1771 ; a copy of its Laws, printed 1774, is in the British 

 Museum. A Society of Physicians, led by Dr. S. F. Simmons, issued from 

 1781 to 1790 the London Medical Journal, and later, in 1791, Medical Facts 

 and Observations. The Society for Promoting Medical Knowledge, founded 

 by the same physician in 1782 ; the MS. scheme of constitution is preserved 

 at the Royal Society of Medicine ; Dr. Gray and Mr. Ford were secretaries ; 

 volumes of Medical Communications were published in 1784 and 1790. The 

 Lyceum Medicum (1785 to about 1805) ; the remaining members were elected 

 in a batch to the Westminster Medical Society on its foundation in 1809. The 

 small Society for the Improvement of Medical and Chirurgical Knowledge, which 

 included John Hunter (his Sunday night meetings may also here be mentioned), 

 issued Transactions between 1793 and 1812, and was finally dissolved in 1818. 

 Some societies were attached to hospitals ; such as the Guy's Physical Society 

 (1771, lasting until 1852, and parent to the present Pupils' Physical Society) 

 also a private medical association (Astley Cooper and others) which published 

 Medical Records and Researches in 1798 ; a society at the Middlesex Hospital, 

 1774, which has continued with some intermission to this day ; the Medical 

 Society at Dr. Sheldon's Anatomical Theatre, Great Queen Street, 1779 ; and 

 the Medical and Philosophical Society at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, 1795, 

 which, after two years' cessation, was re-named the Abernethian Society in 

 1832, and still exists. Other small societies arose in different parts of the 



