The working party accepted an invitation, through † Alan Davison from the Neurochemical Group of the British Biochemical Society, to organise the First Meeting to be held in Bath, UK, in September 1976. The organising committee (Brian Ansell, Tim Hawthorne, George Lunt and the author) were all members of the Neurochemical Group of the British Biochemical Society.
The working party had requested that the meeting should have a clinical theme, so the general area of "Basic Aspects of Neurochemistry Related to the Epilepsies" was chosen. Approximately 350 participants attended the meeting. The book of the proceedings, which included not only the abstracts but also the full text corresponding to each presentation in the symposia and the plenary lectures, was prepared in advance and available to participants at registration, a policy which has been continued for subsequent meetings. The registration fee was kept low at £12.50 (then approx. US$25). A small surplus of £300 was sufficient to fund the activities of the Society until its next meeting in 1978.
The ESN Logo (shown in the reproduction of the cover of the inaugural meeting, was designed by George Lunt and the author (with help from Garry Denbury who was then the Public Relations Officer, University of Bath) at no cost, in contrast to the Logos of many societies who have paid very large fees to consultants, and it is gratifying that it has survived virtually unchanged for nearly 30 years. The cover also shows what was then the unofficial symbol of Bath which has subsequently been adopted by the University as its Logo. This stone cast, found on the pediment of a Temple excavated at Bath , represents the head of a “gorgon” which appears on the shields of two Roman Gods, the Sun God “Sulis” and the goddess “Minerva”, both of whom had temples dedicated to them in Bath . [Aqua Sulis - “Water of the Sun God” - is the Roman name for Bath ]. This gorgon is unusual in that it is male, whereas those found in continental Europe have normally been female. The “hair” represents snakes, which as the providers of many neurotoxins, seem suited to a Neurochemical setting.
Those who attended the inaugural meeting may not recall much of the science but they will certainly remember the "Roman orgy" in the Roman baths and the vigour of the arguments at the Business Meeting (chaired by † Henry McIlwain), where the discussions concentrated on the major principles to be adopted by the new society:
The Society should be open to all scientists interested in Neurochemistry (basic and clinical) with no religious, racial or political barriers. [This may seem self-evident nowadays, but 1976 was in the middle of the “cold-war” between “Western” and “Eastern Bloc” countries, with their differing ideologies as well as politics]. It was therefore agreed that at least one meeting in three should be held in an “Eastern Bloc” country.
In view of currency restrictions in “Eastern Bloc” countries, it was hoped that the new society would find a way to operate without membership subscription . [It was felt that the example of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies could not be followed since most European countries then had no Neurochemical group and some did not have a Biochemical Society].
- “Europe” was defined geographically as including those countries which bordered the Mediterranean Sea .
Symposia should be chosen to represent new and current trends in the subject, ideally with non-concurrent sessions. [This latter policy ceased for some years to operate in view of the rapid growth of the subject, but has since been revived from the Perugia meeting in 2001].
At least one symposium should reflect a clinical theme.
The abstract book should be available at Registration.
Provision of travel grants to help young Scientists to attend Society meetings.
The name of the society caused considerable concern - it needed to be clearly distinct from the recently formed ENA (now European Neuroscience) - some people were unhappy about ESN as it stood in other contexts for “Educationally Sub-Normal” or “Equivalent Student Numbers”. However no alternative name was thought acceptable, and taking the precedent of the international society (ISN), ESN was preferred to ENS.
