Transcribed by Roger Thomas

https://doi.org/10.36866/pn.100.14

The Physiological Society Sheffield Meeting, 24–25 September 1965

With RB Fisher in the Chair a Semi-Annual Meeting of the Society was held in the Department of Physiology of the University of Sheffield on Saturday, 25 September, 1965 starting at 9.15 am. Ten minutes later 15 Ordinary Members and 3 Associate Members had been elected, Elizabeth A.Ullmann and PR Lewis acting as Scrutineers to the ballot, and places and dates of scientific meetings for 1966 were approved.

The Semi-Annual Meeting only briefly interrupted a scientific meeting under the Chairmanship of DH Smyth. This had begun at 2 pm on the previous clay with 8 of the 26 Communications of the Meeting and it was continued after tea with no less than 40 Demonstrations. These were mainly drawn from DH Smyth’s own department and R Barer’s department of Anatomy and Human Biology which not even the most prejudiced of physiologists could describe as corpse-centred.

At 6.30 pm Members and their Guests were entertained most generously to sherry by the Vice-Chancellor and, at 7.15 they dined in Stephenson Hall. After dinner R Passmore spoke of the great pleasure Members had had in this meeting at the very centre of England and he warmly thanked the Chairman and his colleagues. DH Smyth in his reply welcomed the Vice-Chancellor and two Guests of the Society, Dr. Heinz and Dr. Ring from Frankfurt, and said how delighted he and his colleagues were to have Lady Mellanby in Sheffield once again. He explained that his own special genius was not in arranging of meetings but in finding the right man to do this for him. His particular genie on this occasion was G Wiseman who, through these two days , never failed to materialise with a bus or a beer or whatever Members were wishing for.

Finally at the end of a very substantial dinner with excellent wines, DPC Lloyd was moved to speak well of George III, but apparently a few more meetings of The Society must still pass before his lingering reservations about the true merits of Lord North can be removed.

Signed: W Feldberg

The Physiological Society Mill Hill meeting, 5–6 November 1965

The Meeting at the National Institute for Medical Research on the 5/6 November, 1965 was perhaps the last Mill Hill Meeting of The Society to be held at W Feldberg’s invitation. It should perhaps have been a solemn affair but he took very good care that it was not.

Under his Chairmanship and those of OG Edholm and. DH Sproull, 26 Communications were given. In some of these the tide of undiscovery or rediscovery had ebbed rather far in the previous 6 weeks and sometimes what promised to be a full spring tide appeared as a modest neap – yet, with charitable guidance from the Chair, The Society amended all.

At Dinner which was held in the Institute on the Friday evening, the wines were very generously given by the Divisions of Experimental Biology, Human Physiology, Organic Chemistry and Physiology and Pharmacology. The Society’s thanks to the Chairman and his colleagues were splendidly given by H Davson in fine Shakespearean lines. He modestly compared his own oratorical powers with those of GL Brown whom he thought night have been better able to ‘serve forth the funeral baked meats’. In this he was perhaps a little unjust to himself – and to Shakespeare.

W Feldberg spoke three times. He welcomed the many foreign guests. He gave the speech he would have given if he had been sure that this was positively his last appearance. He passed on to the young advice on the art of physiological experimentation given to him. The approach of his teachers ranged from the statistical with Langley through the inspirational with J Barcroft to the astronomical with Dale and confirmed our long lasting suspicion that all that is really essential is simply to be gifted at doing good experiments.

The meeting ended on Saturday afternoon in the usual agreeable Mill Hill all way with the Demonstrations, of which there were 14, and with tea at half past four.

Signed: LG Goodwin, The Physiological Society

The Nuffield Institute of Comparative Medicine Meeting, 10–11 December 1965 

At the invitation of LG Goodwin a meeting of The Society was held on the 10/11 December, 1965, at the Nuffield Institute of Comparative Medicine of the (Regent’s Park) Zoo.

The Meeting was opened by S Zuckerman, who had played a major role in the founding of the Institute and who confessed that this was the first meeting of the Society which he had attended for over 20 years. After taking the Chair for the first session he left before tea but it was not known for certain that he was really about to meet JZ Young at the back door of the Treasury. He was followed in the Chair by LG Goodwin, GW Vevers and
PA Jewel and in all 20 Communications were heard, the first on the Programme being withdrawn because of ill health.

After the dinner, which was held at the Royal Society of Medicine, A St G Huggett, whom Members were delighted to see looking so marvellously well, thanked the Chairman and his colleagues and especially Miss Pat Wright for a very happy first Meeting at the Zoo. He looked forward to a Demonstration in which a single injection would change sex. He remarked that after all the difference between the sexes was slight and that they were only separated by an OH group. From a cry of ‘Vive la difference’ it appeared however that there were still unfortunately those for whom ‘Oh No’s were more important than the OH’s.

The Chairman welcomed Members and their Guests and noted that, as was appropriate for his Institute, work on no less than 12 species of animals had been described; the Meeting was, in fact, only saved from an unlucky 13 by W Feldberg’s reticence about rabbits.

Throughout the Meeting and especially at the time devoted to the 12 Demonstrations, Members enjoyed the freedom not only of the Nuffield and Wellcome Institutes but also of the Zoo and, on the Saturday after lunch, L.G.Goodwin announced that the magic Passwords ‘Physiological Society’ would unlock the doors of the houses of the Zoo including those of almost the best Aquarium in England.

Signed: Eric Neill