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Proceedings in the Great Libel Suit, Hills vs. Lorain. Tried in the Court of Common Pleas of Clearfield County, December Term, 1850.
Proceedings in the Great Libel Suit, Hills vs. Lorain. Tried in the Court of Common Pleas of Clearfield County, December Term, 1850.
Proceedings in the Great Libel Suit, Hills vs. Lorain. Tried in the Court of Common Pleas of Clearfield County, December Term, 1850.
Proceedings in the Great Libel Suit, Hills vs. Lorain. Tried in the Court of Common Pleas of Clearfield County, December Term, 1850.
Proceedings in the Great Libel Suit, Hills vs. Lorain. Tried in the Court of Common Pleas of Clearfield County, December Term, 1850.
Proceedings in the Great Libel Suit, Hills vs. Lorain. Tried in the Court of Common Pleas of Clearfield County, December Term, 1850.

Proceedings in the Great Libel Suit, Hills vs. Lorain. Tried in the Court of Common Pleas of Clearfield County, December Term, 1850.

Rare legal pamphlet concerning the alleged slander of a physician and involving the celebrated Philadelphia surgeon, Dr. Thomas Mütter


Exceedingly rare 1851 legal pamphlet concerning a lawsuit for libeling a physician, the case of Hills vs. Lorain.

Dr. William P. Hills claimed that he was libeled by defendant Henry Lorain who contrived and maliciously designed “...to injure the said pltff., in his good name, fame, and reputation…and intending to degrade, injure and to bring him the said pltff., into great scandal and disgrace, and utterly ruin him…” (p5)

Hills alleged that Lorain slandered him in a letter Lorain wrote to the celebrated Philadelphia surgeon, Dr. Thomas Mütter, a professor at Jefferson Medical College at which school Hills attended medical lectures in 1848 and 1849.

In the letter to Dr. Mütter, Lorain claimed that Hills should not receive a medical diploma since he had not attended medical lectures in New York, as he claimed, nor had he been “...a regular practiser of Medicine for years.” Lorain further defamed Hills by accusing him of malpractice in midwifery cases. The pamphlet contains about nine pages of testimonies (including gruesome details) and cross-examinations on the midwifery cases.

Hills won his case. While he claimed damages of $2,000, he was only awarded $375.

Dr. Thomas Mütter (1811–1859) is best remembered for giving his over 1700-item medical collection to what is today the Mütter Museum of medical anomalies and pathological specimens in Philadelphia.


Description: Proceedings in the Great Libel Suit, Hills vs. Lorain. Tried in the Court of Common Pleas of Clearfield County, December Term, 1850.

Clearfield, Pa.: D.W. Moore, Printer, 1851. 36pp. Pamphlet. 7¼ x 4¾. Self-wrappers[?]; stitched. Removed. Some wear to title-leaf with small losses at fore-edge not affecting text; very good.

[3727731]

Not in McCoy. OCLC: 14832211 (1 copy only; NLM).


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