ARCHIVE OF THE EAST SUSSEX MEDICO-CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY

Summary of contents

AMS6315/1 Copies of rules; 1855-1925

AMS6315/2 Annual reports; 1856-1861

AMS6315/3 Balance sheets; 1913-1953

AMS6315/4 General and committee meeting minutes; 1851-1953

AMS6315/5 Medical registration committee minutes; 1858-1859

AMS6315/6 Membership lists; 1855-1949

AMS6315/7 Subscription receipt stubs; 1894-1947

AMS6315/8 Subscription receipt book; 1924-1943

AMS6315/9 Secretary's papers; 1849-1936

AMS6315/10 Leases of premises; 1888-1934

AMS6315/11 Cash books; 1851-1873

AMS6315/12 Catalogues of the library; 1858-1928

AMS6315/13 Registers of books borrowed from the library; 1851-1944

AMS6315/14 Programmes of annual dinners; 1913-1938

AMS6315/15 Sussex Medical Friendly Society cash books; 1857-1885

AMS6315/16 Sussex Medical Friendly Society subscription receipt stubs; 1885-1893

AMS6315/17 Brighton and Sussex Medico-Chirurgical Society, printed records; 1854-1881

AMS6315/18 Sussex Medical Friendly Society copies of rules; nd (c1857)

Open to consultation, unless otherwise stated

Documents given 2 Oct 1992 (ACC 5967)

The Society was founded on 23 May 1851 as the Hastings and St Leonards Medico-Chirurgical Society. Its declared purpose was that of 'circulating medical books and periodicals, of forming a permanent medical library and of holding periodical meetings'.

In 1855 an appeal was launched to encourage doctors from the surrounding areas to join the Society. On 23 May 1855 the Society's name was changed to the East Sussex Medico-Chirurgical Society to reflect the enlarged catchment area. Quarterly meetings were then held at Hastings, Rye, Battle and Eastbourne.

The Society agreed in 1859 to undertake the duties of a medical registration society for the eastern part of Sussex (see AMS6315/9/2). From November 1863 the Society's rules were amended to allow it to adjudicate in professional disputes (see AMS6315/9/13).

During the 1850s the Society campaigned against the presence of lead in the Hastings water supply and, in 1858, for the renewal of the provisions of the 1848 Public Health Act.

Other areas of concern to the Society included the poor state of the Borough Sanatorium in the 1890s and an unrelenting campaign against homoeopathy (see AMS6315/9/10 and 9).

In January 1885 the Society objected to powers in the Hastings Corporation bill for the compulsory notification of infectious diseases.

On 8 September 1992 the remaining members of the Society (then numbering 6) decided to disband the Society. The medical artist's drawings were handed to the Department of Medical Illustration, Conquest Hospital, Hastings.