Roger Thomas
Editor, Physiology News

https://doi.org/10.36866/pn.100.11

When appointed as Editor in February 2015, I resolved to try to fill in the blank on the Society’s website where the 1992 first issue of Physiology News should have been. No-one at HHH knew where a copy might be found but both the Wellcome and the British Library’s catalogues listed old Newsletter copies so I resolved to search both Libraries on my next visit to London.

Items from the Wellcome Library catalogue had to be ordered in advance, so I requested the earliest issue they listed for the magazine. I also noted the supposed shelf location for what the British Library had in its catalogue. On 16 March I walked from King’s Cross to the Wellcome Library and found that what I had requested was actually the Newsletter of October 1985 – a single sheet of paper. When I then walked back to the British Library and sought The Physiological Society material, I was told it was kept in Yorkshire! A very helpful librarian showed me how to request that the material be sent down to London.

Two days later, the British Library had a box for me in London. Instead of making the journey to London, I managed to telephone the science desk (via Yorkshire) and asked the librarian to look inside the box. He told me that it contained PN issue 30, with two footballers on the cover!

Next, I emailed the Yorkshire branch to please check if they had anything earlier. Two days later they emailed that they had not, but that they had scoured the Wellcome Library catalogue and found what seemed to be a complete listing for the Society’s Newsletter/Magazine/News, from 1985 to date. So a few days later I went down to see what the Wellcome Library had for 1991 and 1992.

Sadly, they had nothing for 1992 before May (PN Number Two). I began to despair, and wondered if Number One had in fact ever been published!

The 1992 editor was Kwabena Appenteng, but he had long retired to Africa and was out of touch.  So I sought his assistant, ‘Heather Dalitz Oxford’ on Google. There were entries suggesting she had worked for St Anthony’s College, but the Porter did not know of her. I telephoned both numbers for Dalitz in the Oxford phone directory and left messages, but had no responses. Finally I tried phoning St Anthony’s College again, and asked for the Registrar. At last I struck lucky. The assistant Registrar knew Ms Dalitz and – whilst not prepared to give me her address – did agree to forward an email to her. Next day I received a very detailed email from Heather explaining that PN Number 1 was the March 1992 issue, prepared for the Newcastle meeting. Full details of the early publications were in a report published in the Society’s 1993 Annual Report. (See http://issuu.com/physoc/docs/annual_report_31.12.1993, pages 25 and 26).

Now I knew that I sought the March 1992 issue of the Magazine, I re-doubled my efforts. I tried emailing a variety of old members, and eventually, using an old email list, most older members with names beginning with A or B. Bob Banks of Durham answered ‘I will almost certainly have a copy, and I’m about to go to my old office to continue clearing out following my retirement. If I find it I’ll get back to you.’ I crossed my fingers and sent a very enthusiastic reply. Later that day he confirmed he did have a copy, and would send me a scanned pdf next day. I slept well that night. He did indeed send the pdf, and The Society’s website archive is now complete. Indeed Bob later sent me a complete set of old Newsletters, going back to 1983. I will try to pass these on to fill in the gaps in the Wellcome Library.