[Ernest Jones, Welsh neurologist and psychoanalyst, official biographer of Sigmund Freud.] Typed Letter Signed ('Ernest Jones | MD.') to 'Dr. Culpin', i.e. Millais Culpin, on a 'remark' by Sir Patrick Hastings and Culpin's new professorship.

For the recipient Millais Culpin (1874-1952), see the Oxford DNB. The first part of the letter concerns an incident involving the celebrated barrister Sir Patrick Hastings (1880-1952), who would appear from Jones's account to have made a remark – objectionable to Jones and Culpin – 'about the distinction' (between psychiatry and psychology?), in response to a question from a judge (in a case in which Culpin had been called as a medical witness?). The conclusion of the letter concerns Culpin's appointment in 1931 as Professor of Medical Industrial Psychology at the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London. 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to the blank reverse. Folded twice. Eighteen lines of text. He begins by thanking Culpin for letting him know about his 'activity in regard to Sir Patrick Hastings. I think you must be right in your surmise that someone else had got at him in the meantime. It so happens that one of my patients is a barrister and was in Court at the time and heard Hastings make the remark in question to a Judge in reply to the latter's question about the distinction.' It is evident to Jones that Hastings 'repressed the memory' of the incident, 'the remark having slipped from him half jestingly, but his bad conscience about it is shown both by his attempt to remedy it in the way you point out and also by his reaction to your protest. Quite an interesting little sidelight on human nature!' Changing the subject, Jones states that he has been meaning to write to Culpin about his 'well-deserved success'. Culpin has 'probably heard that the Committee was quite unanimous and that the meeting mainly consisted in hymns of praise' about Culpin. Jones concludes the letter: 'I got them to recommend to the Board of Management that the word “Industrial” be inserted into the title.' From the distinguished autograph collection of the psychiatrist Richard Alfred Hunter (1923-1981), whose collection of 7000 works relating to psychiatry is now in Cambridge University Library. Hunter and his mother Ida Macalpine had a particular interest in the illness of King George III, and their book 'George III and the Mad Business' (1969) suggested the diagnosis of porphyria popularised by Alan Bennett in his play 'The Madness of George III'.