Noted Scottish surgeon and physiologist (1774–1842) who described such disorders as Bell’s palsy and who wrote prolifically on human anatomy and neurology. ALS, signed “C. Bell,” four pages on two adjoining sheets, 7.25 x 9 [postmarked February 3, 1837]. Bell writes from Edinburgh, where he had accepted a medical post in 1835, to surgeon, explorer, and zoologist John Richardson (1787–1865) back in London. In part: “This is the end of the week when my mind has some freedom…from hourly duties…. Still I feel here as in a dream & that awake I might walk down to my friends in Westminster thro’ the park!… The errors I am forced to witness are painful…. Would some of our chairs are better filled. Monro & Home are either careless or incapable…altho’ I know that Brougham has nothing to do with Ministers, I wrote to him to get me a salary…. He answered that he was so provoked at their refusing me a pension that he wd. not ask again…. It is not hard. But for this I might make a respectable end of life…. Let me not feel that I have lost my surest friends….” The final page also bears the integral address panel. In good to very good condition, with intersecting folds, light soiling and staining, a few tears, and seal-related paper loss touching a few words. RRAuction COA.
