[ Shelley; St Bartholomew's Hospital; St Bart's ] Certificate concerning the diligent attendance of Jas. William Ilott at" ye Practice" of Surgery

Certificate, 33 x 28cm, small closed tears, some minor creasing, edges dusted, mainly good condition. Headed "St Bartholomew's Hospital", top half occupied by W.H. Toms engraving of a view of St Bartolomew's in toto, beneath which Lawrence has written the dates of his "Practice" as above. This is followed by printed statement "We the Principal Surgeons of this Hospital Certify that [Jas. William Ilott in MS] has diligently attended Practice thereof [24 in MS] Months. William Lawrence has signed to the right, but alos has written, with another signature following, "During the period abobe mentioned Mr. Ilott was one of my dressers for twelvemnonths, & he has since been House Surgeon to the hospital for a year." Note: a. "Lawrence was chastened by this experience and never again published such dangerous opinions. Throughout the nineteenth century, however, he was often regarded as a martyr for the cause of science and of intellectual liberty. His lectures were even cited as precursors for such later works of scientific naturalism as Charles Darwin's Descent of Man (1871) and Thomas Huxley's Man's Place in Nature (1863). (DNB); b." Lawrence was one of three British medical men who wrote on evolution-related topics from 1813 to 1819." ; c. "Shelley and his second wife Mary Shelley consulted him on a variety of ailments from 1814. Mary's novel Frankenstein might have been inspired by the vitalist controversy between Lawrence and Abernethy,[9] and "Lawrence could have guided the couple's reading in the physical sciences".