[Sir Thomas Watson, President of the Royal College of Physicians.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Thomas Watson.') to Yarmouth physician Henry Davey, suggesting a meeting and tour of London University, with reference to 'Mr. Bell', i.e. Sir Charles Bell.

Author: 
Sir Thomas Watson (1792-1882), President of the Royal College of Physicians, 1862-1866 [Sir Charles Bell (1774-1842), Scottish physiologist and surgeon; Henry William Robert Davey of Yarmouth]
Publication details: 
24 Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square [London]. 'Monday Evening. - Feby 23. 1829'.
£200.00
SKU: 21647

The recipient of this letter is the surgeon Henry William Robert Davey (1798-1870) of Yarmouth, son of surgeon Henry Sallows Davey (1781-1855) of Beccles; and the 'Mr. Bell' mentioned in it is Sir Charles Bell, who had taught Davey ten years before at Theatre of Anatomy, Great Windmill Street. 2pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged, with a strip cut away from the outside edge of the second leaf, which carries two postmarks and Watson's address to 'Henry Davey Esqre | Tavistock Hotel | Covent Garden'. Twenty-one lines of neatly-written text. He begins by apologising for being 'in such a hurry' when Davey called at his house that morning that he 'did not immediately open my Friend Rennie's letter – In fact I was just starting, as you perhaps saw, to visit a Patient in the Country'. Should Davey 'not have succeeded in meeting with Mr. Bell' Watson will have 'great pleasure in shewing you the London University'. He can 'with difficulty' suggest a time when he is 'sure to be found at home', but he 'must be at the Middlesex Hospital' on the following day between noon and one o'clock, 'where I shall be very glad to see you if you think I can be useful to you'. From the distinguished autograph collection of the psychiatrist Richard Alfred Hunter (1923-1981), whose collection of 7000 works relating to psychiatry is now in Cambridge University Library. Hunter and his mother Ida Macalpine had a particular interest in the illness of King George III, and their book 'George III and the Mad Business' (1969) suggested the diagnosis of porphyria popularised by Alan Bennett in his play 'The Madness of George III'.