[Professor William Bevan-Lewis, physician and physiologist.] Autograph Letter Signed ('W. Bevan-Lewis') thanking psychiatrist Bedford Pierce for his 'eulogistic & cordial tribute', and discussing the Allied victory in the Great War.

3pp, 4to. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to blank reverse of second leaf. Folded twice. Fifty-two lines of text. He thanks Pierce for his 'most kind expressions of regard for myself, & your eulogistic & cordial tribute to my poor efforts in the cause of Psychological Medicine'. which he has read in 'the account of the proceedings at the Edinburgh Meeting in July last', in the Journal of Mental Science. He states that he has been 'most happy in enjoying for so many years the warm appreciation of so many friends & it is a source of peculiar pleasure to myself & my Wife that an old friend, like yourself, should have been spokesman on this occasion'. He discusses his wife's recovery following a cataract operation, and 'the great wave of democracy that is sweeping over the world'. He is 'very glad to have lived to see the final vindication of the cause of the Allies' in the Great War, and explains: 'We live a very quiet & retired life at Brighton but from reasons of health have of course been debarred from taking a very active part in War Work, although even we have tried to play our little part throughout the great tragedy. Brighton today is en fête – be-flagged & jubilant – every face wears a smile, & everywhere we hear expressions of intense relief, gratitude & joy'. 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'.