Wellcome Physiological Research Laboratories

The series comprises various correspondence files and laboratory records (including some stables records). Following a long campaign, the registration of WPRL at Brockwell Hall, Herne Hill, London, as a place at which experiments on living animals were permitted under the Cruelty to Animals Act (1876), is well-documented in WF/WPRL/01. The dominant activity of WPRL at this time was the production of diphtheria anti-toxin, for which horses were utilised to raise the serum, and guinea pigs, primarily, to test its efficacy.

For correspondence relating to adrenaline (epinephrin), see WF/WPRL/06 and WF/WPRL/07/13.

From 1913, WPRL was affiliated to the Wellcome Bureau of Scientific Research, and in 1922 it moved to Beckenham, Kent. In 1946, it combined with Wellcome Chemical Research Laboratories to form, at the same location, Wellcome Research Laboratories.

1879-1984

11 boxes

WAPRL (Wellcome Archives, Physiological Research Laboratories) which consists of publications - handbooks of early information and volumes of staff reprints.
WF/E/06/25.

Please see main WF collection description (ref. 'WF').

An incomplete set of records, selected from a series of 50 boxes previously referred to as "Enfield" (as most were formerly stored at a Wellcome site at Enfield before being transferred to Berkhamsted). The selection was made prior to the preparation of the present catalogue.

In Februay 2018 accession 2412: a 1942 laboraroty notebook was added to this collection. This is still to be catalogued: please email collections@wellcomecollection.org for more information.