The archive of the Physiological Society in the Contemporary Medical Archives Centre.

The Physiological Society was founded in 1876 in response to the report of a Royal Commission on the use of animals in research, which was expected to lead to legislation. John Bourdon Sanderson invited nineteen physiologists to his house "for the purpose of considering whether any, or what steps ought to be taken with reference to the Recommendations of Lord Cardwell's Commission".' At the meeting Michael Foster proposed "that an association be formed under the name of 'The Physiological Society' for promoting the advancement of physiology and the intercourse of physiologists".2 Early meetings were informal affairs, taking place over dinner, but in December 1880 the modern pattern of events was established by holding a separate afternoon session for the demonstration of experiments and the discussion of scientific work, followed by dinner in the evening. Nowadays the scientific meetings are the focus of the Society's activities, normally taking place over two or three days. For over seventy-five years the papers of the Physiological Society had no permanent home, but were passed from each officer to his successor, accumulating as they did so. It was not until March 1954 that Professor William Paton suggested that an "archival depot" should be established at University College London. He had noticed during his term of office that he had not consulted a great number of the files that were passed on to him by his predecessor, David Whitteridge, and believed that these non-current files should form the kernel of the depot. Paton felt that they would need some weeding because there were "interesting letters buried in the dross" and was far-sighted enough to realize that the archive "may involve later expenditure on keeping our records respectable".3 Initial expenditure amounted to £13-for a metal filing cabinet at UCL. The core papers remained at UCL, and working papers continued to pass between officers and their successors in a fairly haphazard fashion with no system for depositing material at UCL, until 1972, when R. H. Adrian suggested to the Committee that the archive