Dear All

I would have thought another candidate for this list would be Andrew Duncan 
junior, (1773-1832), physician, and Librarian of Edinburgh University from 
1809-1822, during which time he was also successively Professor of Medical 
Jurisprudence, Professor of the Institutes of Medicine (physiology, held 
jointly with his father) and Professor of Materia Medica.

As Peter Hoare points out the position of the "Librarian" in medical 
corporations such as this one is perhaps also worthy of consdieration. In 
the case of this particular medical royal college (I am unable to speak for 
the others) the post of Librarian, originally called Bibliothecarius, was 
held by a member of fellow from the foundation of the library in 1698 until 
the appointment of the first professional secretary and librarian in 1865. 
The little I know from the corporate minute-book about the librarians' 
activities prior to 1865 suggests that they were active in building up the 
library through purchase and donation, while at the same time being 
actively engaged in medical and surgical practice and research in some 
cases.


James Beaton
Librarian
The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow
232-242 St Vincent Street
Glasgow
G2 5RJ
-----Original Message-----
From:	ingrid walton [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:	Wednesday, March 08, 2000 09:36
To:	[log in to unmask]; Keith Manley
Cc:	[log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]
Subject:	RE: Scientists and librarians

Dear all,

I seem to remember Joseph Priestley was technically employed as librarian 
to
his patron - wasn't his laboratory in a room off the library itself?
(Inflammable gases plus books - doesn't bear thinking about, does it?)

Ingrid Walton


Senior Librarian
John Innes Centre
Norwich NR4 7UH,
UK

=======================================

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Hoare [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2000 10:16 PM
To: Keith Manley
Cc: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Scientists and librarians


Keith Manley wrote:
>
> I have recently been sent the following query for which I welcome any
> responses, not necessarily to me personally but preferably to these 
lists.
> The query concerns librarian / scientists and scientist / librarians in
> the 18th century. Certainly as far as England is concerned, many of the
> early librarians of the British Museum might be regarded as scientists.
> But I wonder how far this is true elsewhere? England has a long tradition
> of antiquaries as librarians, though perhaps they were not so prevalent
> in the 18th century (Ducarel would be an exception).

Keith:

The biggest name - not from this country - is surely Leibniz, at
Wolfenbuttel.

Lockhart Muirhead, librarian of Glasgow University 1795-1823, was also
from 1807 Regius Professor of Natural History (and had much to do with
the transfer of the Hunterian Museum - largely scientific of course -
from London to Glasgow). Most of his predecessors were theologians or
classicists.

I suspect there will have been one or two librarians of Oxbridge
colleges who were scientists, and some of the scientific bodies like the
Royal Colleges of Physicians & Surgeons will have had at least honorary
librarians among their Fellows - I haven't any instances to hand. Were
there any librarians of observatories in the 18c., I wonder?

The relative scarcity of proper "librarian" posts in Britain outside the
universities may also be relevant - no court libraries as in the German
or Italian-speaking world.

Regards

Peter
____________________________________________________________________
Peter Hoare, 21 Oundle Drive, Wollaton Park, Nottingham NG8 1BN
Tel/fax 0115 978 5297		E-mail [log in to unmask]
_____________________________________________________________________


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