Observations on the discovery of the original obstetric instruments of the Chamberlens / by Robert Lee.

  • Lee, Robert, 1793-1877.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the discovery of the original obstetric instruments of the Chamberlens / by Robert Lee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    “ Colne Priory; September 7th, 1861. “Dear Sir,—Absence from home must apologise for not having sooner acknowledged your kind attention in sending me a copy of the engravings from your elaborate and, I doubt not, very accurate dissections of the nerves supplying the heart and uterus, a valuable addition to our knowledge on that subject, which, I trust, will be justly appreciated by teachers and students. I have now withdrawn from practice some years, being in my eighty-third year, and so nearly blind that it is with much difficulty and uncertainty that I write a few lines, and must trust to your indulgence to correct or excuse blunders. “ With respect to Chamberlen and his obstetric instru¬ ments, I wish it were in my power to answer your inquiries in a more satisfactory manner; I did not know of the dis¬ covery till some time after it had been made. From my friend then residing at Woodham Mortimer Hall I begged the instruments, for the purpose of depositing them in some museum, where they might be open to the inspection of professional men, &c., and wrote a brief memoir of the discovery, published in the ‘ Medico-Chirurgical Transac¬ tions,’ on presenting them to that society (by a misprint my name is there given as Cansardine). I heard some¬ thing about the MS. petition to Parliament which you allude to, but never saw it; from what I heard Dr. Gooch say in his lectures, some such document must once have been in his hands. What became of it after I know not. “ The lady you mention as having been at Maldon must have been Mrs. Codd, widow of our late coroner for the county (then residing at Woodham Mortimer Hall), and daughter of my old friend, Mrs. Kemball, who discovered the secret recess where these curiosities were deposited, so that you were on the right track for the most accurate information. Were I enabled to supply you with anything more to the purpose, it should be at your service from (t Dear sir, yours very truly, “H. H. Carwardine.”