Item Info

Accession Number: 87-0778
Physical Description: [1] page
Material: paper
Transcription:

                      Tavistock House
                             Thirtieth March 1853.
Dear Stone.
                     If you should be disenganged and disposed to look in here this evening, you will find the Leeches and Townshend and Elliotson and the German Doctor who established the famous Hospital for Cretins.
               Ever affecy
                            CD
                     

MssDate: Thirtieth March 1853
Media Type: Letters
Source: Rare Book Department
Notes:

The German Doctor refers to the Swiss Doctor, Johann Jakob Guggenbuhl who treated Swiss children suffering a from a condition known as Cretinsim, a disease which stunted their mental and physical growth.  Guggenbuhl believed that Cretinism was caused by environmental factors and treated diseased children by relocating them to his hospital in the country side . Dickens was impressed by Guggenbuhl's research and method  (Household Words, 4 June 1853, p 315), which, by extension, emphasized the physical and mental effects that children could experience in the slums of Victorian England. Cretinism, however, was eventually attributed to an underactive thyroid gland and not to environmental factors.  Guggenbuhl died in obscurity and his hospital was eventually shut down by the Swiss government.  

Recipient: Stone, Frank, 1800-1859
Provenance: Gift of Mrs. D. Jacques Benoliel 12/6/54.

Bibliography:

Volume 7, p. 54,  The Letters of Charles Dickens, edited by Madeline House & Graham Storey; associate editors, W.J. Carlton…[et al.].

Country: Creation Place Note:Tavistock House
Country:England
City/Town/Township:London

Call Number: DL St71f 1853-03-30
Creator Name: Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 - Author