BLAND, J. O. P. and BACKHOUSE, E.
pp. xv, (i), 525, (i). Frontispiece, 29 plates, double-page map of Peking. Original cloth, both joints weak and rear free end-paper loose, one leaf torn to about half way, no loss.
THE RADCLIFFE ASYLUM ON HEADINGTON HILL.
Within a modern black mount and gilt frame. *When the Radcliffe Infirmary opened in 1770, its five-acre site off the road to Woodstock was in a rural setting well outside the city boundary. But by 1812, when there was a proposal to build a sister institution, the Radcliffe Lunatic Asylum, the area around the Infirmary was already becoming too built up. At a meeting on 10 March 1819 it was agreed that a ten-acre site in Headington, where land was cheaper as well as more plentiful, would be purchased for a Lunatic Asylum. It was described thus: 'The situation is healthy and retired; in Headington South Field, being the first of the new enclosures on the right hand adjoining the old road over Shotover Hill, distant about one mile from Magdalen Bridge.' Funds had to be raised first, so the foundation stone of the Radcliffe (or Oxford) Lunatic Asylum was laid on 27 August 1821. The Asylum opened in 1826, the first of a number of hospitals to move to Headington in search of fresh air and open countryside.
THOMAS CHALMERS.
*THOMAS CHALMES FRSE (17 March 1780 31 May 1847), was a Scottish Presbyterian minister, professor of theology, political economist, and a leader of both the Church of Scotland and of the Free Church of Scotland. He has been called "Scotland's greatest nineteenth-century churchman". He served as Vice-president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from 1835 to 1842. Chalmers made an issue within the University of St Andrews of the quality of mathematics teaching. It came to involve attacks on John Rotheram, the professor of natural philosophy. His mathematical lectures roused enthusiasm, but they were discontinued by order of the authorities. Chalmers then opened mathematical classes on his own account which attracted many students; at the same time he delivered a course of lectures on chemistry, and ministered to his parish at Kilmany. In 1805 he became a candidate for the vacant professorship of mathematics at the University of Edinburgh, but was unsuccessful. Chalmers' Bridgewater Treatise, in the series On the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God as Manifested in the Adaptation of External Nature to the Moral and Intellectual Constitution of Man, appeared in two volumes 1833 and went through 6 editions. As noted by Robert M. Young, these books effectively represent an encyclopedia of pre-evolutionary natural history, commissioned and published whilst Charles Darwin was on board the Beagle. In the area of natural theology and the Christian evidences he advocated the method of reconciling the Mosaic narrative with the indefinite antiquity of the globe which William Buckland advanced in his Bridgewater Treatises, and which Chalmers had previously communicated to him. In 1814 Chalmers lectured on the concept of gap creationism, also known as the "gap theory", and subsequently spread its popularity of this idea which he credited to Episcopius. He wrote of Genesis 1:1: "My own opinion, as published in 1814, is that it forms no part of the first day but refers to a period of indefinite antiquity when God created the worlds out of nothing. The commencement of the first day's work I hold to be the moving of God's Spirit upon the face of the waters. We can allow geology the amplest time. without infringing even on the literalities of the Mosaic record." This form of old Earth creationism posits that the six-day creation, as described in the Book of Genesis, involved literal 24-hour days, but that there was a gap of time between two distinct creations in the first and the second verses of Genesis, explaining many scientific observations, including the age of the Earth. Gap creationism differs from day-age creationism (which posits that the "days" of creation were much longer periods - of thousands or millions of years), and from young Earth creationism (which although it agrees concerning the six literal 24-hour days of creation, does not posit any gap of time). The "New College", as the Divinity School became known, was a centre of opposition to the Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844). Chalmers himself did not mention the work, but indirectly attacked its view of development in writing for the North British Review.
On paper, printed in red and black, the embossed symbol of the Association in the lower left corner. IMAGE SIZE : c. 36 x 25 cms. c. 14 x 10 inches, framed and glazed, plus VAT. *The Medico-Psychological Association (MPA), which existed from 1865 to 1926, played a significant role in the history of psychiatry in the United Kingdom. Initially established in 1865, the association was originally known as the Medico-Psychological Society. In 1868, it underwent a name change, becoming the Medico-Psychological Association (MPA). Despite the shift in title, the MPA retained its original objectives. The association's members gained confidence, recognizing the need to extend their influence beyond asylums. Annual general meetings were held to discuss business matters, and quarterly meetings for scientific discussions were introduced. To establish professional standards, the MPA introduced the Certificate of Efficiency in Psychological Medicine examination for its members in 1885. In 1890, they also established the Certificate of Proficiency in Nursing to enhance mental nurses' training.
