Autographed Letter Signed to a fellow doctor by PARSONS, A.C. (1823 - 1893) - 1850

Providence, RI, 1850. unbound. 2 pages (front and back), 10 x 8 inches, Providence, Rhode Island, June 14, 1850, to Dr. Rufus Woodward, asking him to provide a profile on his recently deceased father, Dr. Samuel B. Woodward, in part: "...As Secretary of the R. I. Medical Society it is my duty to prepare a sketch of the Honorary Members of the Society who have died during the first year. Your father was one, & I am very desirous to mention the most prominent events in his life correctly...Not finding anything in the journals that is satisfactory, I write to ask you if you can mention to me the most important events & dates in his life - what books he published & at what dates - how many Asylum Reports came from him - and what were his particular views on any subjects connected with insanity, with which his name is connected..." Natural folds, parts underlined in pencil, portion torn off the back black page with no loss of text; very good(-) condition. Provenance: The Rufus Woodward Archive: sold at Alexander Autographs, February 2007; The Richard Manzi Collection; Argosy Books.<br/> <br/> Harvard educated physician and lecturer at Brown University. He was the only son of the great surgeon Usher Parsons. During the 1850s he was elected President of the Rhode Island Medical Society and is still remembered for his meticulously written journals. Dr. Samuel Bayard Woodward, the recipient of this letter, was the medical superintendent at the first public hospital for the mentally ill in the United States.<br/> <br/>