Premium
Exploring the legacy of history
Author(s) -
Mellick Sam
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
anz journal of surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.426
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-2197
pISSN - 1445-1433
DOI - 10.1046/j.1445-1433.2001.02276.x
Subject(s) - medicine
Herbert Michael Moran was born on 29 April 1885 in Sydney and died on 20 November 1945. I never had the good fortune to meet him but in 1946, when I was a fourth year medical student in Brisbane, I purchased a small brown‐coloured book called Beyond the Hill lies China . To this day I cannot recall what led me to that purchase but I have looked at it from time to time over the past years and found it increasingly evocative of my own student and early hospital days. I have drawn deeply from the previous Moran lectures, particularly Sir John Loewenthal’s lecture in 1974, which revealed for me the greatest detail about the man himself. I am indebted to Colin Smith, the College Archivist, for information held in his files; and Michael Moran who is here today for a number of personal reminiscences as well as family memorabilia. Moran was intensely interested in history. He was the founder of the first society dedicated to the study of the history of medicine in Australia, and through this activity he met the physician Leslie Cowlishaw whom he introduced to the College with the aim of securing Cowlishaw’s ‘vast knowledge of medical history and (his) wonderful library’. By a nice coincidence the third Cowlishaw Symposium was held at the College just 3 days ago, and Moran’s College legacy is thereby increasingly recognized.