Autographed Letter Signed to a fellow doctor

Hartford, CT, 1857. unbound. 2 pages, 10 x 7.75 inches, The Retreat, Hartford, Connecticut, August 4, 1857, to fellow physician and champion of better treatment for the insane, Dr. Rufus Woodward, unable to treat Rufus's brother Stanley, who has spent years in and out of mental institutions, in part: "...Stanley has been more reserved and gloomy of late. Yesterday fearing he would abuse his liberty, I had a conversation with him, cautioning him against abusing his liberty which I had given him on his pledge. He became agitated immediately denouncing you and myself in manner language which clearly has him to be insane - which I cannot even repeat. I left him the morning he ran off...the attendant letting him out to work a while. He is an insane man unsafe to be at large! I write in great haste to secure the mail. He will probably go to Middletown or New York..." Accompanied by the original postmarked envelope. Natural folds and several tiny ink smears, but still in near fine condition. Provenance: The Rufus Woodward Archive; sold at Alexander Autographs, February 2007.<br/><br/> American physician who was a pioneer in the humanitarian treatment of the mentally ill, best remembered as the Superintendent of the Hartford Retreat, a facility for the incurably insane.<br/><br/>