[James Cowles Prichard, Commissioner in Lunacy who introduced the term 'senile dementia'.] Autograph Letter Signed ('J. C. Prichard M.D. F.R.S. | Senior Physician to the Bristol Infirmary'), a testimonial for his student Robert T. H. Bartley.

Author: 
J. C. Prichard [James Cowles Prichard] (1786-1848), physician and ethnologist who published an influentical work on evolution, Commissioner in Lunacy who introduced the term 'senile dementia'
Publication details: 
Bristol; 2 July 1841.
£500.00
SKU: 21641

1p, 4to. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to the reverse of the blank second leaf, the recto of which has laid down upon it the letter's envelope, with penny red stamp and postmarks, addressed to 'Robert T. H. Bartley Esq | Surgeon | West Hackney | London', with manuscript annotation by post official official stating that Bartley is 'not known' in the area. Folded several times. The letter reads: 'I have much pleasure in certifying that Mr Robert T. H. Bartley was very diligent in his professional studies and duties while he was a pupil at the Bristol Infirmary and that he has deservedly held the character of a young gentleman of superior talent and acquirements in the various branches of knowledge connected with medicine.' 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'.