* Based on the Fitz-Patrick Lecture for 1977 presented at the Royal College of Physicians of London on 7 December 1977.

Dr. Thomas Fitz-Patrick (1832–1900) was a Member of the College, but never a Fellow, and, as the College's distinguished Harveian Librarian, Dr. Charles Newman, pointed out in his Unofficial Fitz-Patrick Lecture of 28 February 1958, Dr. Fitz-Patrick should be one of the patron saints of Members. He was imbued with learning and linguistic skills, but although he is said to have been much concerned with “… the advancement of the study of medical history …” (J. F. Payne, The Fitzpatrick Lecture for 1903. English medicine in the Anglo-Saxon times, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1904, p. 1.), in his writings he reveals little or no interest in the history of medicine. There are, however, two other persons to remember with gratitude. One is Mrs. Fitz-Patrick, to whose munificence this Lecture owes its existence. Wishing to honour the memory of her late husband in the College, she consulted Dr., later Sir, Norman Moore, an intimate friend of her late husband and President of the College from 1918 to 1922. He suggested a lectureship in the history of medicine, the first being given in 1903.