BIB_ID
415948
Accession number
MA 1856.14
Creator
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834.
Display Date
London, England, 1824 April 9-10.
Credit line
Purchased from Joanna Langlais, 1957.
Description
1 item (4 pages, with address) ; 22.6 x 18.4 cm
Notes
No place of writing is given, but the letter was clearly written in Highgate at the Gillmans' home.
The letter is unsigned.
This collection, MA 1856, is comprised of 48 letters from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Joseph Henry Green and 2 autograph manuscripts, written between 1817 and 1834. See the collection-level record for more information (MA 1856.1-50).
This letter is from the Joanna Langlais Collection, a large collection of letters written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge to various recipients. The collection has been divided into subsets, based primarily on Coleridge's addressees, and these sub-collections have been cataloged as MA 1848-1857.
Address panel: "J.H. Green, Esqre / 22. Lincoln's Inn Fields."
The letter is unsigned.
This collection, MA 1856, is comprised of 48 letters from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Joseph Henry Green and 2 autograph manuscripts, written between 1817 and 1834. See the collection-level record for more information (MA 1856.1-50).
This letter is from the Joanna Langlais Collection, a large collection of letters written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge to various recipients. The collection has been divided into subsets, based primarily on Coleridge's addressees, and these sub-collections have been cataloged as MA 1848-1857.
Address panel: "J.H. Green, Esqre / 22. Lincoln's Inn Fields."
Provenance
Purchased from Joanna Langlais in 1957 as a gift of the Fellows, with the special assistance of Mrs. W. Murray Crane, Mr. Homer D. Crotty, Mr. and Mrs. Donald F. Hyde, Mr. Robert H. Taylor and Mrs. Landon K. Thorne. Formerly in the possession of Ernest Hartley Coleridge and Thomas Burdett Money-Coutts, Baron Latymer.
Summary
Describing how anxious and alarmed he is about James Gillman's health; describing cuts and infections Gillman had sustained in the past while performing autopsies; saying that Gillman recently assisted at an autopsy and it has brought on a new bout of illness, with boils and shivering fits; saying that Anne Gillman is in Chelsea, where her husband had sent her, and "there is no one in the house, that has the least influence over him but myself -- and I cannot persuade him to let me send for some Physician"; adding that this is particularly galling because there are three other doctors nearby in Highgate; asking if Green would come see him, since he knows that Gillman has such a high opinion of him, and possibly bring Dr. Lister or any other doctor that he thinks might help, "either without any pretext but that I had desired you, or under the pretext of introducing him to me as you were passing by"; saying that he knows Green has many engagements, but that it would be a great relief to him if Green could stop by; sending his respects to Green's wife and mother; making various comments about Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus's Biologie; oder die Philosophie der lebenden Natur für Naturforscher und Aerzte and an article by John Davy in the Edinburgh Medical Review; ending the letter for the time being on "Friday, 1/2 past 12"; beginning the letter again on Saturday morning and recounting the death of a neighbor's child during the night; saying that the neighbor woke him, asking for help, and they returned to his house but the child had already died; commenting on the fury of the mother and saying that it made him unsympathetic towards her: "Had she been a quiet woman, and had I been strongly impressed with the belief that it was a case of Water-stroke, or Neurolepsia hydrencephalia, I should have tried -- at least, I felt a vehement impulse to try Zoo-magnetism, i.e. to try my hand at a resurrection. I felt or fancied a power in me to concenter my will that I never felt or fancied before"; saying that Gillman appears to be improving and he intends to go over tomorrow and convince the parents to "have the child opened"; discussing the role of inflammation in the case and stating "an active inflammation, had it been possible, might save the child -- & could the case be pre-determined, I would give the strongest cordials."
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