DISPENSARY

For Davis see Munk's Roll, the Gentleman's Magazine for January 1825, and I. S. L. Loudon's paper 'John Bunnell Davis and the Universal Dispensary for Children' (BMJ, 5 May 1979). The Universal Dispensary for Children, founded by Davis in 1816 and open to the under-twelves, was as Loudon points out 'the first major institution in England devoted solely to the care of sick children, 35 years before the first children's hospital in Liverpool, and 36 before Great Ormond Street'.

The subject of the letter is the surgeon Henry William Robert Davey (1798-1870), son of surgeon Henry Sallows Davey (1781-1855) of Beccles, who had studied under Sir Charles Bell at the Hunterian School of Medicine in Great Windmill Street, London. 2pp, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip from mount adhering to the blank reverse of the second leaf. Folded twice. Written in a neat hand. Headed 'To The Governors of The Yarmouth Dispensary'. Reads: 'Gentn. | Having learned that Mr.

This document is of particular interest as it concerns the foundation of the institution that would become the Royal Free Hospital, Liverpool. As a result of the meeting described in the present document, the Institution for the Care and Prevention of Contagious Fevers opened in 1802 at 2 Constitution Row, Grays Inn Lane. It was the first voluntary fever hospital and had 15 beds. 2pp., 8vo. On a leaf which appears to have been extracted from a minute book. On laid paper with watermark 'JOSEPH COLES | 1799'.

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium with mourning border. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper, with head of the document trimmed and blank second leaf with traces of mount. He acknowledges 'the receipt of your letter enclosing a Memorial from the Committee of the Manchester Health of Towns association' and apologise for the delay in the acknowledgement, 'owing to the great pressure of business'.

12pp., 12mo. Disbound. Stabbed as issued. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. Uncommon: the only copies of this first edition on COPAC at the British Library and Wellcome.

12mo, 2 pp. 28 lines of text. Clear and complete. Folded into a packet 5 x 6.5 cm. With envelope addressed by Peddie as 'from | the Minto House Hospital | Edinburgh.' Fair, on aged paper with some short closed tears to the folds. Speer has been an assistant at Minto House since the previous 1 May, 'during which period he has witnessed a great amount of medical and surgical practice, has had under his own care a very considerable number of patients [...]'.