To collect, preserve and display artefacts of a medical nature
Publications
Tonsils to Toenails: the life of Pat Cotter, Christchurch surgeon and tree farmer
Written by Claire Le Couteur, this is a biography of Pat Cotter, not only a respected surgeon and later a successful tree farmer in his retirement, but also an avid collector of medical memorabilia now stored at the Cotter Medical History Museum in Christchurch.
‘A highly satisfactory biography’– Dr Geoffrey Rice
Price: $25 plus $8 postage
TURNBULL: Christchurch’s Radical Doctor: the Life of James Somerville Turnbull MD (1829-90)
Written by Geoffrey W. Rice this is a critical biography of Christchurch’s best-known doctor in the period 1860-90. Turnbull was much more than just a doctor, as he was also a politician (twice elected to the Canterbury Provincial Council), a member of the Selwyn County Council and a board member of Canterbury College.
Price: $30 plus $8 postage (within New Zealand)
Dubious cures and frauds: Quirky objects in the Cotter Medical History Museum
Written by Claire Le Couteur, this is an account of some of the more outlandish ‘medical’ objects in the Cotter Collection and the promotion of many by charlatans in early 20th Century New Zealand. It also features pills and potions in vogue in the same period.
Price: $30 plus $8 postage (within New Zealand)
QUACKERY IN CHRISTCHURCH, 1850-1900: Alternative Remedies and Marginal Practices
Written by Geoffrey W. Rice, this is an entertaining and at times hilarious account of alternative medicine in late nineteenth century Christchurch. The author concludes with remarks on the COVID pandemic and a warning about the resurgence of folk remedies and quackery in the present day.
Price: $30 plus $8 postage
Scalpels to Keyholes: A history of general surgery at Christchurch Hospital 1862-2022
Written by Claire Le Couteur, this book traces the development of surgery at Christchurch Hospital since the hospital opened in 1862 to the present day.
‘A fascinating account of surgical personnel, surgical trends and incidents over the past 160 years’ – Dr Richard Acland, retired Anaesthetist
Price: $40 plus $8 postage
COWARD: Christchurch’s Controversial Coroner: the Life of John William Smith Cowatd (1815-88)
Written by Geofffrey Rice, this is a biography of Christchurch’s longest-serving coroner, from 1861 to 1886. Dr Coward ordered the first exhumation in Christchurch and was criticised for awarding autopsies to his favourite doctors. He was also treasurer to the Philosophical Institute and a governor of Canterbury College, deciding on the earliest buildings of what is now the Arts Centre of Christchurch.
Price: $30 plus $8 postage
NEDWILL: New Zealand’s Outstanding Public Health Pioneer
Written by Geoffrey W. Rice, this is a biography of Courtney Nedwill, once Christchurch’s most admired and most reviled doctor. He was admired as a caring GP and a careful surgeon, but mainly for his work as Medical Officer of Health, 1879-1885, getting rid of cess-pits and other ‘nuisances’ while the sewers were being built.
Price: $30 plus $8 postage
FRANKISH: The Rise and Fall of a Prominent Christchurch Physician: the Life of John David Frankish MD (1842-1913)
Written by Geoffrey Rice this is a biography of one of Christchurch’s leading medical men of the nineteenth century. Frankish helped found the Canterbury Medical Society and was its president in 1883. He was a leading figure in the Acclimatisation Society and was a well-known advocate of a railway to the West Coast.
Currently out of print. Copies are available at Christchurch City libraries.
Doctors Divided: Medical Societies in Christchurch, 1865-97
Written by Geoffrey W. Rice, this book has a richly varied account of what interested New Zealand doctors in the late nineteenth century. From advertising and smallpox vaccination to cures for constipation and TB, the use of electricity and antiseptics, and the 1891-3 influenza pandemic.
Price: $30 plus $8 postage
Dodds’ Pharmacies: Three generations of New Zealand chemists and their medicines
Christchurch’s Dodds Pharmacy in Merivale was well known to many until its change of owner and name in 2016. This book written by Claire Le Couteur, follows the lives and businesses of the Dodds’ family of chemists since 1877 from Port Chalmers to Akaroa and finally to Christchurch.
Price: $35 plus $8 postage
From Southland to Surgery: A Journey Around Values
This magnum opus was written by Rex Ear
An autobiography written by Christchurch surgeon, John Bower Morton. John’s story traverses his early life in Southland, his experiences in kidney transplant surgery and in teaching medical students at Christchurch’s Clinical School.
Price: $30 plus $8 postage
The Microscope – an instrument for progress
Written by Kerry Swanson, this is a history of the Stephen Clark and Cotter Museum collections of Microscopes.
Price: $35 plus $8 postage
Vaccines & Vesicles: a History of Smallpox Vaccination in New Zealand
Written by Claire Le Couteur, this is the somewhat alarming story of how smallpox vaccine was manufactured in New Zealand in the nineteenth century.
Price: $25 plus $8 postage
A Scientific Welsh Eye Surgeon: The short life of Llewellyn Powell MD (1843-79) Christchurch’s first Public Health Medical Officer
Written by Geoffrey Rice, this is a biography of Christchurch’s first Medical Officer of Health and an important public health pioneer in New Zealand.
Price: $30 plus $8 postage
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Camphor for the Collywobbles: Ship’s Surgeon Dr Augustus Florance’s voyages 1857-1862
Written by Claire Le Couteur, this book contains transcripts of Dr Florance’s medical shipboard diaries of two of his voyages, illustrated with a discussion on nineteenth century medicine as practised by him and notes on his life in St Albans, Christchurch.
Price: $30 plus $8 postage
Pills & Potions: At the Cotter Medical History Trust
Written by Claire Le Couteur, this book is a record of selected Museum items.
Price: $20 plus $8 postage
Silent Treasures Tell Their Stories
Written by H Bramwell Cook, is a record of selected Museum artefacts.
Price: $35 plus $8 postage
Historia Nunc Vivat: Medical Practitioners in New Zealand 1840 to 1930
This magnum opus was written by Rex Earl Wright-St Clair and has been digitised by the Trust.
Short Studies of Christchurch Medical Men 1849-1900
Written by Geoffrey Rice, these short studies (mostly based on previously unknown newspaper evidence) form part of a larger project on Christchurch medical men 1849-1900 aimed at producing a biographical dictionary. Full biographies of leading figures such as Dr Llewellyn Powell and Dr Courtney Nedwill have already been completed.
Chemists and Druggists in Early Christchurch and Lyttelton – Download
The Unfortunate Dr Campbell of Lyttelton and Christchurch – Download
Christchurch Trials and Tribulations of Dr Adam Mickle – Download
Clean and Decent in Christchurch, New Zealand – Download
A Fatal Herniotomy and the Medical Libel Case – Download
Christchurch’s Curious Coccyx Case of 1899 – Download
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©Cotter Medical History Trust. Telephone: +64 3 339 2870
021 274 7202 Email: info@cottermuseum.co.nz
021 274 7202 Email: info@cottermuseum.co.nz