The Seventh International Congress of Medicine was held in London in 1881 and was attended by over 3000 delegates. The conference president was Sir James Paget, and speakers included Pasteur, Lister, Virchow, Osler, Charcot, Koch, Huxley and Darwin.
How did the organisers manage to bring together so many people from all over the world without email, photocopiers, phones, next-day delivery postal services?
I hope to bring you the full story in due course. In the meantime, if anyone has any ideas I would love to hear from you!