John Mallet Purser Annual Lecture

In June 1930 Miss Sarah Purser, R.H.A., presented a sum of £2000 to establish an annual lecture or lectures on some scientific subject in which her brother, the late Dr John Mallet Purser, had been interested. John Mallet Purser held the King’s Professorship of the Institutes of Medicine from 1874 to 1901 and was Regius Professor of Physic from 1917 to 1925. He lectured on physiology, histology, and practical anatomy. In 1922, the King’s Professorship of the Institutes of Medicine became the Professorial Chair of Physiology which marks the inception of the Discipline of Physiology as a distinct department within the School of Medicine. Purser was instrumental in developing the medical curriculum at Trinity College Dublin and in particular introducing and establishing the teaching of scientific aspects, specifically histology and physiology.