[Lord Adrian of Cambridge [Edgar Douglas Adrian], Nobel Prize winning electrophysiologist, Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.] Three Autograph Cards Signed (all 'E. D. Adrian') to German neurologist Otto Maas.

Lord Adrian was Professor of Physiology in the University of Cambridge 1937-1951; President of the Royal Society 1950-1955; Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1951-1965; president of the Royal Society of Medicine 1960-1962; Chancellor of the University of Cambridge 1967-1975. In 1932 Adrian and Sir Charles Sherrington receiving the 1932 Nobel Prize for Physiology 'for their discoveries regarding the functions of neurons'.The recipient Otto Maas obtained his medical degree from the University of Strasbourg in 1898. Between 1910 and 1932 he was Director of the clinic in Berlin-Buch. Together with his wife, Hilde, he also ran a private practice in Berlin-Westen. He was an assistant to Hermann Oppenheim, and collaborated with Hugo Liepmann, and Oskar and Cécile Vogt. From around 1934 he was based in London, where until at least 1938 he was associated with the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. Arrested by the Nazis during the Second World War, Maas was sent in 1942 to Treblinka concentration camp, where he is presumed to have been murdered. The only printing on the three cards is the letterhead. The last of the three is accompanied by the envelope, with stamp and postmark, in which it was sent. The collection is in good condition, lightly aged. All three addressed to 'Dear Dr Maas'. ONE: 6 February 1934. Adrian writes on both sides of the card. Having been away from Cambridge on the previous Monday he has only just found Maas's letter. 'I'm afraid it will be too late to arrange a meeting in London tomorrow (7th) but I shall be down next week on the 16th & perhaps we might meet in the morning if you are free then. The Medical Research Council meets in the afternoon of that day.' TWO: 12 February 1934. Adrian writes on both sides. 'Can you come & talk to me about your proposed work on Friday at the Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street at about 11 o'clock? I must be off by 12 but an hour should be long enough for me to get all the information the Council will want. Don't trouble to reply if you can come then. The porter will know where to find me.' THREE: 27 January 1938. On one side. Accompanied by the envelope, with stamp and postmark, addressed by Adrian to 'Dr. Otto Maas | National Hospital | Queen Square | W.C. | London', and with 'Prof Adrian' in red pencil, no doubt by Maas. Reads 'Dear Dr. Maas | Thank you very much for a most interesting reprint! | Yrs sincerely | R. D. Adrian'. 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'.