Innerpeffray Lecture – Medical Gold

Medical Gold- From ancient Egypt to the Nobel Prize

From earliest times man has linked the lustre of gold with the warm, life giving light of the sun. This lecture illustrates four thousand years of the history of gold in medicine. The ancient Egyptians used it for its magic-religious properties. Mediaeval alchemists strived to produce it as a source of eternal youth. Today it is a substance used in medical instrumentation, investigation and cutting edge therapies. This lecture illustrates how artists such as Rogier Van Der Weyden, and Gustav Klimt, as well as numerous goldsmiths and instrument makers, have defined medicine’s relationship with the most coveted of all the elements.