The Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine is pleased to announce that the Medical Archives and Manuscripts Survey (MAMS) will go on-line on April 2nd 2001.

MAMS provides a comprehensive and detailed guide to primary records for the history of medicine and health-care held in archives and libraries in greater London, for the period from 1600 to the mid-20th century. Survey reports can be browsed and searched at http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/mams.

The material recorded is broad in its scope. It includes papers generated by doctors and hospitals, both state and private; local authorities; businesses, from pharmaceuticals to quackery; and individual patients. “Medical history” has been interpreted widely: as well as the records of treatment and research, the survey records material on health-related matters such as nutrition, water supply and sewage disposal, the disposal of the dead and the health implications of housing; on alternative and unorthodox medicine; on anthropology relating to medical issues; and a range of related topics.

The survey of London represents stage one of the MAMS project. It is intended that coverage will be extended nationwide in a second stage of this project.