Professor Anne Marie Moulin

I am very upset by the news I have received. For me and, I think, not only for the historians of medicine but for the academic community working on health, science and politics, and for a broad audience beyond it, the Wellcome Trust for the History of Medicine stood as the elective place for free, socially inspired and creative thinking.

I was a member of the board for four years in the 1990s, and participated to various meetings in London and other places, sponsored by the Wellcome. I found a quality of research and collective work unpaired anywhere in the world, due to the convergence of many positive factors, including of course the generosity of the Wellcome but also the dedication of the members of the teams. This organisation figured for me as a model, and I remember having urged potential sponsors in other countries, starting with France, to emulate the model.

The role of medical history remains more crucial than ever, facing the swift changes in medical science and medical care, in our European countries and in the world (it is an original feature of the Wellcome, faithful to sir Henry's heritage, to promote research with countries in Africa and Asia). The so-called lessons of history are not a luxury, but a vital and ethical necessity. The library, without core research teams attached to it, in order to impulse a dynamic, will lose part of its grandeur and scientific and social usefulness.

I join my colleagues and friends in any loud protest in favour of the revival of the Wellcome enterprise for the history of medicine.

Anne Marie Moulin, MD, Ph.D
directeur de recherche, CNRS, SPHRE/University of Paris VII
ex member of the Scientific Board of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine (1995-1998)