 Programs in Medical Classics
2007-2008
UCLA Programs in Medical Classics, now in its
25th year, is a series of presentations
designed to enhance an appreciation of the links among famous
medical writings, clinical practice, basic research,
and humanistic scholarship. These
meetings bring together a convivial group of individuals of
scholarly tastes--both from the community and from UCLA faculty,
students, and staff--for a lecture and an
opportunity to discuss and examine texts and topics that embody the history of medicine,
as well as the relations of medicine to broader cultural settings.
There is no charge for the lectures. Evening programs convene at 6:00 pm in
the UCLA Faculty Center and will be followed by wine and softdrinks,
conversation, and an opportunity to examine rare books and other items pertaining to each lecture.
An optional dinner with the speakers, at $22 per person, will take place in the
Faculty Center about 7:30 pm. An advance reservation is required for dinner; reservations
may be made by calling (310) 825-6940.
Other programs meet as indicated.
Programs for Winter-Spring 2008
Tuesday, 5 February 2008, 6:00 p.m.
UCLA Faculty Center
Contested Wills: The Medico-legal Aspects of Acquired
Language Disorders in Victorian England
Marjorie Perlman Lorch, Ph.D.
Reader in Brain and Language, Birkbeck College,
University of London
Discussant: William M. McGovern, LL.B.
Professor of Law, Emeritus, UCLA
In the second half of the 19th century several areas of theoretical development and
evolving practice can be seen to converge in the civil court cases of contested wills.
The determination of "being of sound mind" required by law was being challenged at
this time by new clinical distinctions between intelligence and understanding,
language and thought, speech and expression in people with neurological diseases.
The emerging diagnostic categories of aphasia and dementia were being developed in the
newly created fields of neurology and psychiatry. At the same time jurisprudence
was developing in the newly founded Probate Courts which were formed to deal with the
large volume of cases regarding will-making. Physicians were being called upon as expert
witnesses with increasing frequency to aid in the determination of testamentary capacity.
The development of ideas on language and thought in Victorian England is revealed
in the medical and judicial opinions recorded in court reports on the ability of
people with language and memory disorders to make wills.
Printable PDF version of February announcement
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Tuesday, 29 April 2008, 5:00 p.m.
First Floor Conference Room, 1357
Gonda (Goldschmied) Neuroscience and Genetics Research Center
The Notorious Saenger Case: What Does It Tell Us About
Post-World War II Medical Research Practices and Clinical Conduct
Gerald Kutcher, Ph.D.
Dean's Professor of the History of Medicine,
The State University of New York at Binghamton
During the 1960s, the physician Eugene Saenger treated patients with
advanced cancers while he also used them as proxy soldiers for military
research. For some critics, the Saenger case is paradigmatic of
unethical research. Yet, the case has remained controversial and
without closure for almost forty years. In this paper, I will argue
that the Saenger case has survived so long in part because his research
shared so much with "normal" post-war investigations and therefore that
the case can be used as a lens to reveal the research practices and
clinical conduct of that period.
A reception with light refreshments will follow the lecture.
This program is co-sponsored by the
UCLA Healthcare Ethics Center
Printable PDF version of April announcement
* * *
Thursday, 15 May 2008, 4:00 p.m.
First Floor Conference Room, 1357
Gonda (Goldschmied) Neuroscience and Genetics Research Center
Genetics Screening Programs for Sickle Cell Anemia and
Thalassemia
Ruth Schwartz Cowan, Ph.D.
Janice and Julian Bers Professor of History and
Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania
Introduction: Edward R.B. McCabe, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Pediatrics and Human genetics, and Bioengineering;
Mattel Executive Endowed Chair of Pediatrics and Physician-in-Chief,
Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA
This program is co-sponsored by the
UCLA Center for Society and Genetics
A reception with light refreshments will follow the lecture.
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Programs for Fall 2007
Tuesday, 16 October 2007, 6:00 p.m.
UCLA Faculty Center
"Powder and Lipstick Were on Just So":
The Ideal Woman, Perceptions of Labor Pain, and
the Use of Obstetric Anesthesia
Jacqueline Wolf, Ph.D.
Professor of Social Medicine, Ohio University
College of Osteopathic Medicine
Introduction by Mary Terrall, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of History, UCLA
In the 1970s the lay press celebrated natural childbirth as invigorating
and transforming. Today attitudes are starkly different: newspapers
and magazines ridicule natural childbirth as “an extreme sport” and
urge women to opt for an epidural. How do medical and social approaches
to labor change so radically in one generation? In these talks, Professor
Wolf will examine the history of medical and social views of labor pain and
corresponding changes in the use of obstetric anesthesia and link those
changes to broad contemporary social concerns and the cultural
perception of women.
Printable PDF version of October announcement
This lecture is rescheduled from February 2007.
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Friday, November 16 and Saturday, November 17
Neuroscience Research Building Auditorium, UCLA
635 Charles E. Young Drive South
The Architecture of Healing
An International Conference at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA,
celebrating the opening of the new Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
- The Origins of the Hospital
- Early Christian Hospitals: Caring and Curing
- Bimaristan, the Islamic Hospital: Innovation and Tradition
- The Commitment to Care v. The Commitment to Knowledge
- Principles and Methods of Clinical Research
- How Technology has Shaped Clinical Research at the Bedside
- The Patient in Clinical Research: Revisiting the Barney Clark Case
- Reception in the Rare Book Room, Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library
- From Hospice to Health Care
- An Illustrated History of Hospital Architecture
- Convergence of Art, Science and Technology: The Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
- Guided Tours of the new Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
Advance registration required
($30; includes lunches, opening reception at the
Biomedical Library on Friday, and conducted tours of the new Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on Saturday;
Student advance registration is Free)
Printable PDF version of Program and Map/Directions (4 pages)
Printable PDF version of Registration Form (2 pages)
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Recent Programs in Medical Classics
- 2006-2007
- 2005-2006
- 2004-2005
- 2003-2004
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