[Sir George Leman Tuthill, physician to the Westminster Hospital and Bridewell and Bethlehem Hospitals.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Geo L Tuthill. M.D.'), a testimonial for Henry Davey, addressed 'To The Governors of The Yarmouth Dispenary'.

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. Henry Davey is a candidate for the Office of Surgeon to Your Valuable Charity, I beg leave to state that he attended a course of my Lectures on the Practice of Physic in the year 1819, and that from the attention paid by him to his Studies in London I can have no doubt of hi being well entitled to the honor of your favor and support at the [ensuing?] election.' 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'.