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SUMMARY:Using Babylonian gods to sell cod liver oil: Henry Wellcome and me
 dical interest in Assyriology around 1900 - Ruth Horry (Department of Hist
 ory and Philosophy of Science)
DTSTART:20110314T130000Z
DTEND:20110314T141500Z
UID:TALK28548@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Caitlin Wylie
DESCRIPTION:At the turn of the twentieth century\, the British pharmaceuti
 cals firm Burroughs Wellcome & Co. trade-marked designs of a fish-cloaked 
 Babylonian god in order to market cod-liver oil preparations to\nmedical p
 rofessionals. The firm's owner\, Henry Wellcome\, also opened a Historical
  Medical Museum in London where doctors could learn about the history of t
 heir discipline. Here\, visiting medics encountered\nstatues of Babylonian
  healing deities that rubbed shoulders with their ancient Greek and Egypti
 an counterparts. Through these examples and others\, my talk explores inte
 rest in Mesopotamian medical matters by historically interested medical pr
 actitioners -- particularly Henry Wellcome\, but also William Osler's Sect
 ion for the History of Medicine within the Royal Society of Medicine.\n\nL
 iterate civilization flourished in Mesopotamia (Assyria and Babylonia)\, t
 he geographical area that is now modern Iraq\, from c.3500-75 BCE. I discu
 ss how Wellcome's Historical Medical Museum attempted to incorporate Mesop
 otamian sources into disciplinary\nhistories of medicine dominated by anci
 ent Greek ancestry. Yet whilst Wellcome's Museum and business activities c
 ommercialised Mesopotamian imagery for a medical audience\, these undertak
 ings ultimately relied\non a network of specialists\, including museum cur
 ators and Assyriologists -- experts in the obscure ancient languages of Me
 sopotamia.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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