The Mystery Meeting.

Sometime around 1st July 1988, the Department of Health and Social Security in London received a letter from the Ciba Foundation. It was sent to Sir Donald Acheson, the Chief Medical Officer.

The Foundation was planning an “informal discussion meeting” on the subject of “post-viral syndrome”. Acheson, by now holding the most important medical post in England, had a little history with ‘post-viral syndrome’ as he had (it seems) coined the phrase ‘Benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis’ in 1956.

The letter was dated 29th June 1988. Two days earlier BBC 2 in the UK had broadcast an edition of their long-running science programme ‘Horizon’, focusing on Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.

From the look of the handwriting on the letter it appears that the DHSS (very, very soon in 1988 to be split in two) were positive to the idea. However I cannot say if they attended or not. I cannot say if anyone else who was invited attended. I cannot even say if the event went ahead.

There does not seem to be any record (other than the invitation letter) of the meeting going ahead. That does not mean to say that there isn’t some sort of record out there; just because we haven’t found it doesn’t mean that the meeting didn’t go ahead. Presumably at least one of the participants made notes, possibly prepared a speech but, ordinarily, there’s no information available.

A few of the points and questions arising:

1) There appears to be one very obvious omission from the invitation list - Melvin Ramsay. Ramsay was elderly but still active. He had appeared in the Horizon documentary a couple of days before the letter was written and was perfectly lucid. He had experience of the RFH episode that would have been unique to the meeting. His wife was not in the best of health but he would have had the opportunity to refuse the invitation on those grounds if he, of course, was invited in the first place. He was still enthusiastic about about the future of M.E. research (the letters tell us that) so why wasn't he invited? Indeed, he was planning on attending events in the spring of 1990 in his November 1989 letter to Gilchrist. On the other hand....

2) Simon Wessely was invited. In terms of years, a fraction of the experience of Ramsay (Wessely being in his early thirties, Ramsay in his mid eighties). There is, of course, the little matter of his specialism. Why did he get an invitation, being a psychiatrist, when many would argue that his profession should have nothing to do with the illness? In terms of balance yes, one might see how he managed to get an invitation but he had far less experience than many at the time. However, it was 1988...

3) The letter was written after the Horizon documentary but the guest list was drawn up before it. Katharine Everett (the Horizon documentary producer) was invited but, if the date is to be believed, no decisions on invitations based on the showing of the documentary would have been made subsequently. Why couldn't the guest list be amended at the time of the letter writing?

4) Whose idea was the meeting anyway? Was it the Ciba Foundation's? Did someone approach them with the idea? If the Ciba Foundation were approached, did the person/people making the approach have an agenda either way?

5) Why the lack of records regarding it? The critics will accuse me of 'conspiracy theory' (of course) but the lack of acknowledgement of the event I think is fair game. And if you do accuse me of 'conspiracy theory' then I would suggest you're playing the man and not the ball. I believe I'm asking a perfectly reasonable question.

6) The single largest contingent represented was psychiatry. Even Edwards in Liverpool got his patients to exercise (which Ramsay disagreed with) and P.K. Thomas (neurologist) thought the whole M.E. thing was nonsense. Is there the possibility of bias in the guest list?

7) For how long had this meeting been considered? Was the meeting a reaction to the 'Where There's Life' programme (maybe not)? Was the meeting a reaction to the Horizon documentary (maybe more likely)? Was it thought up because it just merited discussion? I cannot help thinking that the Horizon documentary had a part in this but to what degree I don't know.