[Sir James Paget, eminent pathologist.] Autograph Letter in the third person, declining to dine with the Hunterian Society.

1p, 12mo. In fair condition, on aged paper, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to reverse of second leaf of bifolium. Reads: 'Mr. Paget regrets that an engagement for the Evening of February 4th. prevents his having he honour of accepting the Invitation of the President, Vice-Presidents and Council of the Hunterian Society'. 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'.