Did Charlotte Brontë actually go to Bethlem?
There is no further reference to Bethlem in any known Brontë letter, and the many biographers whose books I consulted wrote that the visit had come off without saying how they had confirmed this. In a footnote, Margaret Smith writes that on January 28, Brontë presented a copy of her new novel, Villette, to Dr. John Forbes, the physician who was supposed to take her to the hospital, inscribing it personally “in acknowledgment of kindness.”2 This could be taken as confirming the visit, but I wondered if it was enough.
Forbes was a distinguished lung specialist, a friend of Brontë’s publisher George Smith and a former schoolmate of Smith’s father in Scotland. In 1849, at Smith’s suggestion, Brontë had consulted Forbes about the care of her sister, Anne Brontë, who was dying of tuberculosis. It seemed possible that the visit to Bethlem had not come off, but that Brontë wished to thank Forbes for agreeing to take her, and for his help with Anne. After all, she signed books on January 28 for several friends and acquaintances.
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Forbes, Dr John (1787–1861):
expert on consumptive diseases who was consulted by post on Anne’s consumption in 1849 and backed the advice of Dr Teale. He was a friend of George Smith’s, and extremely distinguished and in advance of his time. He made Charlotte’s acquaintance after one of Thackeray’s lectures on the English humorists, and on one of her later visits to London (Jan 1853) took her round the Bethlehem Hospital. No doubt it was on this occasion that he told Charlotte of the successful use of chloroform in operations, a remark that Patrick noted in his copy of Graham’s Modern Domestic Medicine . He was also a pioneer in the use of the stethoscope. blackwellreference
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