U.S. Marine Hospital Physician's Letter to a Friend

Chelsea, Mass, 1846. Letter. Very Good. Letter. Broadsheet. 25 x 21 cm. [3] pp. Folded into nine compartments and addressed to Dr. Nathaniel R. Boutelle of Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, PA on the verso of the final page. Letter dated October 26th 1846, starts off with "Friend Nath., what means this protracted silence?". Dr. Noyes chastises Dr. Boutelle for not calling upon him during Boutelle's trip from Philadelphia to Boston. Noyes then requests news of their colleagues from Boutelle, and proceeds to share with him the news that he knows about their old instructors and classmates. He even proceeds to speculate on romances in the old friend group. Dr. Noyes graduated from Jefferson Medical College in March of 1846 and spent one year practicing at the U.S. Marine Hospital in Chelsea. He went to Europe after Jefferson to become an ophthalmologist, and brought back from London the first hypodermic syringe and the first ophthalmoscope. He was the first President of the Michigan Cremation Association in 1886, and advocated for the practice due to sanitary reasons. He would later practice in Waterville, Maine, Cincinnati, Ohio, Detroit, and finally, practiced in Rhode Island with his nephew at the end of his life. Noyes wrote many articles that help make up the body of American Medical Literature. Publications of the Rhode Island Historical Society, Volume 5. The letter reminds the reader of the long tradition of human gossip and friendship, and of the unique calligraphy of a doctor's handwriting. Very Good with a tiny nick to the fore-edge of the final leaf.