[Sir Henry Wade, urologist, President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.] Five Typed Letters Signed: four to Waterston and one to his doctor (regarding treatment for suspected bowel cancer), with reminiscences and discussing homeopathy.

Wade donated his extensive collection of anatomical specimens to Surgeon's Hall in Edinburgh, where it is now known as the Henry Wade Collection. In 1913 Waterston had attained prominence as the first authority to discredit the Piltdown Man hoax. A total of 6pp, 8vo. The first addressed to Waterston’s doctor at St Andrews, Orr, the others to Waterston himself. None of the letters is short, and all but the second are single-spaced. The first (to Waterston’s doctor, Orr) is 2pp, the others (all four to Waterston himself) 1p. In fair condition, lightly aged and ruckled. All five signed ‘Henry Wade’. ONE (7 May 1940, to Orr): Begins: He has a ‘much more cheerful report’ for Orr than he anticipated regarding Waterston’s suspected bowel cancer. On first examination, the Waterston’s ‘healthy rosy cheeks’ convinced Wade that ‘the worst was unlikely’. He describes the tests that have been made (‘the examination did not upset him in any way’) and the treatment he recommends, pending results. TWO (16 May 1940, like the three following, to Waterston himself): He points out that their friendship ‘goes back now to the days when I was a very junior assistant under Sir William Turner and you were then his right hand man’. He gives the results of the examination of the films of discharges, and expresses the hope of seeing him again and noting his progress. THREE (29 October 1940): Begins: ‘It is many a long day since I received a letter that gave me as great pleasure as yours has - to know that all is again well and that you have put on a stone and a half in weight, back to work and able to do a round of golf is undoubtedly a very great joy.’ He is interested to hear that ‘the improvement commenced after a short course of a homeopathic drug [...] our outlook is much more tolerant than it used to be [...] there is very much that we still dont know and in some departments homeopathy may have valuable secrets to offer us’. He ‘heard rumours’ of Waterston’s ‘bad luck at the College’ and is glad that ‘things are not so bad in your Department’. He ends by sending his regards to his ‘old friend, Hugh Richardson’. FOUR (26 December 1940): He begins by explaining that he is ‘Surgeon General to Bangour Hospital, which is one of the Hospitals under the Emergency Medical Service Scheme of the Department of Health. We have 2,500 beds but comparatively few of them are occupied at present, a state of affairs which is very general and on the whole fortunate.’ One of his patients - ‘a nice young lad, an Edinburgh High School lad, who is an anti-aircraft gunner’ - is ‘not doing well’. After describing the case Wade wonders whether he might respond to a course of homeopathic treatment similar to Waterston’s. The patient would remain under Wade’s care at the hospital, but it would be ‘a fair trial’. He concludes: ‘The news from the East is certainly very satisfactory and having spent 3 1/2 years during the last War in these parts, I naturally have a keen interest in that campaign. I should not think it will be long before we have equally stirrig news from these quarters.’ FIVE (31 December 1940): The patient at Banguor has ‘improved very materially since my last visit and the question of our operative treatment is set aside’, but it will not be possible to ‘consult Dr Mitchell and to consult one locality I am afraid would raise questions which might lead to no end of trouble from the military standpoint’. He concludes by asking Wade to convey his regards to Hugh Richardson: ‘tell him that I remember so well during the last War, when home on leave, paying a visit to St. Andrews and seeing his wife and taking with me for his boy, who was then a youngster at School an uncharged Will’s bomb which I had seen then making from munitions at Cairo. Twenty-four odd years have made a great difference and the youth is now a very prominent officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps and a credit to me as my old Resident. I also paid a visit to Professor Irving who was then in the Chemistry Department and is now your Principal.’