* 
Persons confined to Bed by Fractures or other Causes. 453 
placed, and maintained in that position which the nature of his 
illness requires : and from the drawings which you did me the 
_favour to show me when you were last in town, I am of opinion 
that a couch or sofa, made on the construction you propose, is 
well calculated to answer the intended purpose ; and will be the 
more generally useful, from the facility with which its machinery 
ean be transferred to a common bed or sofa. 
“Tam, dear sir, yours very truly, 
> “ WILLIAM BaBINGron; 
* To Samuel James, Esq. Surgeon, 
Hoddesdon, Herts.” 
“ New Broad Street, Nov. 26, 1813. 
“* My dear sir,—The sofa bed which you have sent me a 
drawing of, is a highly ingenious invention, well constructed to 
move and support those who from long-continued disease have 
lost the use of their limbs; and admirably designed to give a 
good position to fractures, more especially in that most difficult 
case to manage well, the fractures of the thigh, 
“Few, who are occupied in business as you are, give them- 
selves time to think of such improvements; and I therefore | 
consider this invention as highly creditable to your character 
and talents. 
“J am yours very truly, 
“ AstLEY CooPER. 
“ To Samuel James, Esq. Surgeon, 
Hoddesdon, Herts,” 
Plate VII. will enable the reader. to judge of the capability 
of this-sofa to administer ease to the sick and infirm, and to fa- 
cilitate the cure of fractured limbs in particular. 
In all cases of palsy, asthma, consumption, dropsy, rheuma- 
tism, gout, fractures, and distressing debility, or that excessive 
languor which is sometimes caused by severe fatigue, and at 
other times is the consequence of long continued illness, great. 
relief will be received from the use of this invaluable machine, 
which is manufactured under the inspection of the inventor, 
by Prentice and Son, Little Wild Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, 
where specimens are exhibited for inspection and trial!—The 
machinery is so constructed that it may be readily transferred 
to a common bed, 
FS » XCVII, No-~ 
