ILLNESS

[St Thomas Lunatic Asylum near Exeter, founded in 1795.] Printed bill, filled out in manuscript, for sum due by ‘Mr. Penny’ for ‘Board and Maintenance’, with Signed Autograph Note of receipt by treasurer John Mackintosh, and note on annual accounts.

Author: 
St Thomas Lunatic Asylum, near Exeter, founded in 1795 [John Mackintosh, Treasurer; James Penny, Exeter bookseller; William Seacombe]
Asylum
Publication details: 
‘Lunatic Asylum, near Exeter.’ Made out for the period between 6 May and 1 July 1811. Slug: ‘Trewmans, Printers, Exeter.’
£80.00
Asylum

An interesting piece of Exeter ephemera. See ‘Besley’s Exeter Directory for 1835’: ‘LUNATIC ASYLUM, St. Thomas. Founded in 1795. The expenses are defrayed by the board of patients whose friends can afford to pay for their maintenance, and by benefactions, legacies, &c.’ (In the entry ‘John Mackintosh’ is still listed as treasurer.) 1p, landscape 12mo. Addressed by Mackintosh on reverse to ‘Mr. James Penny / Bookseller / Fore St. / Exeter’. In fair condition, on aged and lightly-creased paper, with slight staining and damage from breaking open wafer.

[ Catherine Subramanian ] Typescript entitled Observations on the English Mental Hospital System & Suggestions for Reforms.

Author: 
Catherine Subramanian
Publication details: 
March 1942 - January 1943.
£560.00

24pp., 4to, good condition. With a sprinkling of annotation. Author's Summary: 1. Introduction; 2. Life in four different mental institutions is described. These Institutions comprise:- A. A privately owned nursing home; B. A county mental hospital; C. A small town general hospital mental obs. ward; D. A large city general hospital mental obs. ward; 3. Legislative and medical administrative reforms are suggested and discussed. Quotation from the Introduction: I have lived for two months in mental institutions, sharing the life of the patients for the full twenty-four hour day.

[Samuel Foart Simmons, one of the 'mad doctors' of George III.] Autograph case notes for six women, made as physician to St Luke's Hospital, London.

Author: 
Samuel Foart Simmons (1750-1813), physician, one of the 'mad doctors' of George III [St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics, Old Street, London]
Publication details: 
[St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics, Old Street, London.] Case notes for three of the patients only dated (date of admission?) July, September and December 1789. Others no year given. Notes (of examination?) dated to 8 and 15 January [1790].
£280.00

St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics was founded in 1750 by City of London philanthropists to treat mental illness among the poor of London. In 1786 it moved from Moorfields to Old Street, where it remained until 1916. Simmons was appointed physician to the hospital in 1781. 6pp, 16mo. A piece of laid watermarked paper has been neatly torn into three 16 x 10 cm leaves: a bifolium, with the single leaf loosely inserted. In good condition, lightly aged. A poignant artefact. Simple, brief notes, giving age, name, date [of admission], address, some with follow-up notes. The six women are 'Eliz.

[Samuel Tuke, pioneer of 'moral treatment' at the York Retreat asylum.] Autograph Letter Signed to his kinsman David Priestman, announcing that he has 'given up attendance of the Retreat Committee' due to indisposition.

Author: 
Samuel Tuke (1784-1857), Quaker minister, asylum reformer and philanthropist [The York Retreat, asylum where 'moral treatment' was employed]
Publication details: 
Lawrence St [York]; 223 June 1848.
£200.00

2pp, 16mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, aged and worn. Addressed on reverse of second leaf to 'David Priestman'. Reads: 'If my friend D Priestman is going to the Asylum [Qty?] Court to-day I shall be obliged by his stating that I have been unable to attend the Committee during the last quarter from my indisposition & that seeing no prospect of discharging the duties of the Office during the next [i.e. the next quarter] I hope the Court will omit my name in the list[.] I have given up the attendance of the Retreat Committee'. The Tuke and Priestman families were related by marriage.

[Samuel Tuke of the York Retreat, asylum reformer.] Autograph Letter in the third person to the medical publisher John Churchill, instructing him to send a copy of his book to German psychiatrist Maximilian Jacobi.

Author: 
Samuel Tuke (1784-1857), Quaker minister, asylum reformer at the York Retreat [John Churchill (1801-1875), London medical publisher; Carl Wigand Maximilian Jacobi, German psychiatrist]
Publication details: 
York; 14 September 1841.
£400.00

2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to one edge. Begins: 'Samuel Tuke having been disappointed of an opportunity of sending by a private hand a parcel to his friend Dr Max. Jacobi will be much obliged to J. Churchill to send to him four copies of the translation of his work'.

[John Manning, Norwich physician.] Autograph Letter Signed ('J Manning') to Philip Bowes Broke of Broke Hall, regarding an 'interval of Sanity' in the 'state of mind' of James Bobbet, with reference to 'Dr: Venn'.

Author: 
John Manning (1730-1806), physician at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital [Philip Bowes Broke (1749–1801) of Broke Hall, Ipswich]
Publication details: 
Norwich; 5 November 1776.
£250.00

See Manning's entry in Munk's Roll. The recipient was father of 'Broke of the Shannon', the naval hero Admiral Sir Philip Bowes Vere Broke (1776-1841). 1p, foolscap 8vo. On aged and worn paper, with tide staining at one edge, which is repaired with archival tape, and thin strip of paper from mount on the blank reverse. Addressed at foot to 'Ph: B: Broke Esqr: | Broke's Hall | Near Ipswich'.

[Daniel Noble, Manchester physician specialising in mental illness.] Autograph Letter Signed ('D. Noble') to an individual concerned with the printing and distribution of his work ('Mr. C.'?), mixing practical and personal matter.

Author: 
Daniel Noble (1810-1885), Manchester physician specialising in mental illness and epidemic diseases, friend of surgeon James Braid
Publication details: 
Manchester; 1 August 1843.
£500.00

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to reverse of second leaf. The recipient is not named. The letter begins: 'My Dear Sir, | I beg to introduce my friend Mr. Walker to you as he is frequenting the Leeds Anniversary Meeting of the Association'.

[Bryan Waller Procter (the poet 'Barry Cornwall'), as Commissioner in Lunacy.] Autograph Letter Signed ('B. W. Procter'), asking a colleague (Harris?] for information about the 'Conduct' of 'some patients', 'particularly about Miss Anne [Lealer?].

Author: 
Bryan Waller Procter (1787-1874), poet under pseudonym 'Barry Cornwall' and Commissioner in Lunacy, 1832-1861, member of London Magazine circle, friend of Charles Lamb, Thackeray and Wilkie Collins
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Office of Commissioners in Lunacy, 19 New Street, Spring Gardens [London]. 12 August 1847.
£120.00

Proctor was a much loved individual in literary circles, from the days of the London Magazine to the mid-Victorian period, in which he was the dedicatee of both Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair' and Wilkie Collins's 'Woman in White'. His reputation as a poet was international: he was thought highly of by Pushkin. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to blank reverse. The letter reads: 'Dear [Harris?] | Pray tell me where [?] I can have some conversation with you about some patients of the name of [Lealer? Lester?], whom you know.

[William Conolly, joint licensee with his brother John Conolly of Hayes Park Private Lunatic Asylum, Uxbridge.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Will Conolly') to 'George Rogers Esqr MD', reporting the arrival of patient 'Mr George Helyar'.

Author: 
William Brice Conolly, MD, joint licensee of Hayes Park Private Lunatic Asylum, Uxbridge, with his brother John Conolly (1794-1866), later resident physician to the Middlesex County Asylum at Hanwell
Publication details: 
'Hayes Park nr Uxbridge | Decr. 19. 1851'.
£220.00

2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, on lightly aged and browned paper, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to the reverse. Folded twice. The letter reads: 'Mr George Helyar arrived here last night accompanied by your attendant from whom I received your letter and a purse containing £11 – 12 – Mr Helyar has slept well and appears comfortable this morning, and I hope will go on well with us - | When his Clothes arrive I will inform you - | I also received the Order, & Certificates from the attendant for which pray accept my thanks -'.

[ Telegram; Anthony Eden ] Exchange of telegrams between George Hutchinson, Political Correspondent, Evening Standard, London, and Anthony Eden (resigned as Prime MInister on 9 Jan. 1957

Author: 
Anthony Eden, sometime Prime Minister [Journalist]
Publication details: 
Telegrams both dated 15 May 1957, Eden's from Ottawa, Hutchinson's presumably from London.
£60.00

Both messages, c.20 x 16cm, typescript, good condition. Hutchinson's message, one page, with date and Eden's title ("Sir") added in Manuscript. Hutchinson says: " Your great recovery has encouraged your many supporters to hope for your early reappearance in active public life perhaps through return to Parliament STOP Could you authorise me to say anything about your hopes and intentions - George Hutchinso [...]".

[ Lord Riddell and eugenics: 'Lunacy and mental deficiency must always be festering sores'. ] Printed pamphlet: 'Sterilisation of the Unfit. Paper read by Lord Riddell before the Medico-Legal Society, April 25th, 1929.'

Author: 
Lord Riddell [ George Allardice Riddell, 1st Baron Riddell ] (1865-1934), Fleet Street press baron, proprietor of the News of the World [ eugenics ]
Publication details: 
Printed for H. K. Lewis & Co. Ltd, by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ltd., London and Aylesbury. No date [ circa 1929 ].
£120.00

31 + [1]pp., 8vo. Stapled without wraps. Drophead title. (Offprint from Transactions of the Medico-Legal Society.) In fair condition, lightly aged, central vertical fold, rusted staples. 'No reasonable person', Riddell writes, 'suggests the wholesale sterilisation of masses of lunatics and defectives. Only very moderate measures are proposed.' Riddell's suggestion is that 'in suitable cases, subject to the consent of the Board of Control, or some similar body', and with the consent of the subject, lunatics and mental defectives be sterilised.

[ Printed item in publisher's cloth. ] Doctor Grattan. A Novel.

Author: 
William A. Hammond, Author of "Lal." [ William Alexander Hammond (1828-1900), Surgeon General of the United States Army during the American Civil War ]
Publication details: 
London: Richard Bentley & Son, New Burlington Street. 1885.
£50.00

417pp., 8vo. A fair copy, on lightly aged paper, a little loose in worn publisher's brown cloth binding, with gilt title on spine and decorative cross on front board, and green patterned endpapers. Blind stamp of the W. H. Smith Library, Strand, to front free endpaper. According to Hammond's biographer Bonnie Ellen Blustein, 'The complex plot of Doctor Grattan revolved around the relation of insanity to neurological impairment, and touched on the subjects of neuralgia, headache, kleptomania, and delusions.' This English edition of Hammond's book is now uncommon.

[Bethlem Royal Hospital (Bedlam): printed pamphlet for the 700th Anniversary Celebrations, titled 'Bethlem Royal Hospital 1247-1947'. With printed programme of the 'Bethlem Royal Hospital 700th Anniversary Celebrations.'

Author: 
[Bethlem Royal Hospital, Monks Orchard, Beckenham, Kent; Bedlam]
Publication details: 
Bethlem Royal Hospital, Monks Orchard, Beckenham, Kent. 1947. [Printed by the Baynard Press.]
£30.00

Pamphlet: 19pp., small 4to. Stapled pamphlet in cream wraps, with the Hospital's arms printed in gold on front cover. On shiny art paper, with full-page frontispiece, seven illustrations in text, and two maps at rear. Internally in fair condition, lighty-aged; in worn wraps with slight discolouration to the back. Uncommon. No copy at the British Library; four copies on COPAC, all at London libraries (Guildhall; King's College; Bishopsgate; Wellcome); and only one more copy (Yale) on OCLC WorldCat. Programme: 2pp., 4to, on a single leaf. In fair condition, aged and worn, neatly folded.

[Pamphlet.] Mental Overstrain in Education. Reprinted frrom The Lancet, August 22, 1896.

Author: 
G. E. Shuttleworth, B.A., M.D., &c., President Thames Valley Branch, British Medical Association, formerly Medical Superintendent of the Royal Albert Asylum, Lancaster
Publication details: 
Printed at the Lancet Office, 423, Strand, [London] W.C. [1896.]
£45.00

11pp., 12mo. Stitched. With stamp, shelfmarks and labels of the Board of Education Reference Library. Scarce: no copy in the British Library, and the only copy on COPAC in the library of the Royal College of Surgeons.

[Vellum indenture.] Grant of the Custody of the person and management of the real and personal Estate of Maria Anna Zachary Spinster a Lunatic unto Charles Claridge Gentleman'.

Author: 
[Maria Anna Zachary; Shepherd]
Grant of the Custody of the person and management of a Lunatic
Publication details: 
27 September 1838.
£250.00
Grant of the Custody of the person and management of a Lunatic

Striking vellum document, 60 x 75 cm. Docketed on reverse. 32 lines of text, ruled with red lines, with ornate engraved decorative border along three sides, headed in large letters 'Victoria by the Grace of God', and depicting the young Queen, the royal crest, a crown held by a cherub, blind justice, and other images. Tax stamp in margin and frayed ribbon at foot. On 9 September [V Geo.

Syndicate content