International Clinical Trials Day - a commemoration of Lind's work on scurvy

20 May is International Clinical Trials Day. This date was chosen as it is the day James Lind began his trial into possible treatment for scurvy in 1747. This is generally regarded as the first ever clinical trial.

Read below to find out how the first clinical trial was conducted.

Images are taken from Lind, James. A treatise of the scurvy in three parts. 1753. This is one of the volumes in our rare books collection.

Extended Library Opening Hours During the Revision Period

The Library is extending its opening hours for the two weekends prior to exams:

Saturday 25th May: 9am-11pm
Sunday 26th May: 11am-11pm
Monday 27th May (Bank Holiday): 11am-11pm

Saturday 1st June: 9am-11pm
Sunday 2nd June: 11am-11pm

Library & Archives Service staff wish you all the best of luck!

Posters from the Archives

Full translation of Jordanian Child Development poster

Last week we featured some posters from our Nutrition collection. We now have a full translation and explanation of the Jordanian poster, thanks to Hannah Becker.


The poster reads from right to left

Title: Child Development

Subtitle: During the first year of life

Right top heading (above black and white squares): 'Each square equals one hour’s sleep.'

Under squares (right to left):

·         first month 12 hours sleep

·         third month 19 hours sleep

·         sixth month 18 hours sleep

·         ninth month 16 hours sleep

·         one year 15 hours sleep

Above Black line (far right): weight in grams

From bottom right to left:

Yellow boxes	Weight (inside thick black line)	Age (Beneath baby images)	Nutrition (beneath the baby images)
	3500	at birth
Notices/recognises light	3850	One month	Boiling and Cold water
Lifts his head, smiles and cries tears	4600	2 months	Fish oil Vitamin A, D
Lifts his head and neck	5350	3 months	Ground rice or starch
Sits if assisted. Laughs loudly	6000	4 months	Mashed banana Poached apple semolina
Holds hands and sees well.	6500	5 months	Vegetables mashed finely Start with a tablespoon custard
2 teeth Screaming and shouting	7100	6 months	Egg yolk Vegetable soup with minced red meat or lentil soup
Drinks with a cup	7600	7 months	Vegetable soup with minced red meat or liver or fish
Says dada and tata. Sits independently	8100	8 months	Milk, chicken, hummus, Fuul (like broad beans) poached and mashed
Understands the word ‘no’ and crawls	8500	9 months	Yellow outlined images of food: Title: Food from 8 to 12 months Soup Milk Semolina with milk Banana Grapefruit
Mimics voices and stands supported	8850	10 months
Tries standing and understands words	9200	11 months
6  teeth and walks with help	9500	One year

Table outlined in yellow under months 9-12 beneath images of food (written as is, so left = left side)

6 PM	3pm	10am	6am
Starch or ground rice with milk	Minced meat or lentils, vegetables, ground rice or potato Milk or yoghurt	Fruit juice Fruit Semolina Milk	Milk Bread Egg yolk ?

Text beneath the yellow outlined table:

Orange juice and vitamin A, D

Breast milk and boiled water

Red ladder on left

Red text: Height

From bottom to top

In rung = height, above rung = age

1.       50cm at birth

2.       53cm one month

3.       56cm 2 months

4.       59cm 3 months

5.       63cm 5 months

6.       65 cm 6 months

7.       67.5cm 8 months

8.       71.5cm 10 months

9.       74.5 cm one year

For more details of the exhibition in Keppel Street  lobby which features posters and pamphlets from the archives, see http://march.lshtm.ac.uk/news-events/events/exhibition-towards-happier-birth-days 

Library Opening Hours Tuesday 14th May

The Library will be closing between 10am and 12pm on Tuesday 14th May for an LAS Staff Meeting. The Library will reopen at 12pm, and remain open as normal until 11pm.

Archive's Collection of the Month

Nutrition posters from Fiji, Malaysia and Jordan

To celebrate LSHTM's current exhibition, Towards Happier Birth Days http://ideas.lshtm.ac.uk/events/exhibition-towards-happier-birth-days we are highlighting the LSHTM Department of Human Nutrition resource (1912-1990) which is part of our Nutrition Collection.
This resource  includes research data, reports, photographs, publications, correspondence and conference papers from a wide range of sources. The resource was heavily used by the School's staff, students and visitors when it was being actively collected.
It includes a vibrant collection of posters from c.1950s, which were created to help mothers choose the best foods to aid both their own and their infants' health. The posters were digitised for the exhibition.

Jordanian poster showing foods matched with a child's physical development

Other posters include a series concerning nutrition and public health in the South Pacific issued by the South Pacific Health Service, Suva, Fiji

This poster encouraged mothers to feed their child certain foods from 1 year old

And some produced for the Ministry of Health, Federation of Malaya



Foods for mother and baby 5-7 months



Foods for mother and baby 8-11 months

For more information on the  collection, visit our catalogue
 http://archive.lshtm.ac.uk/DServe/DServe.exe?dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Index.tcl

Library Opening Hours Bank Holiday Weekend

The Library will be open as usual on Saturday 4th May from 9am until 8pm, and also on Sunday 5th May from 11am until 8pm. The Library will however be closed on Monday 6th May for the Bank Holiday, re-opening again at 8.30am on Tuesday 7th May.