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I received your very kind Letter some days
ago, & would have answered it sooner; but the truth is
that I had neither strength nor spirit to begin to ↑answer↑ it till now.

I am much obliged to you for your kind enquiries
after my health.

I observe that you, like all my other good friends who
wish me well, fondly imagine, that one month in the Country
would have made me prefectly well, but I am sorry to
acquaint you that this is far from being the case; nor indeed
can it possibly be otherwise. The weather here has been so
uncommonly cold and windy, that I have been ↑confined↑ to the four
corners of a room ever since I came to the Country. For though
I have been here ever since the 17th of March, I have only been
seven times on horseback; and some of these times, the day,
which seemed to promise so well at my outsetting, before I had
rode three miles, turned out so cold and sour, that it obliged
me to return home with all speed, and I was more the worse
than the better of that day's Ride.

As to my present state of Health, it is a great deal worse

The Cough is particularly hard upon me in the night time,
and from the beginning of February when the Cough returned upon
me with greater violence than ever, I am certain I never got two
hours' sleep any night all that time. When it is very violent, which
it often is at different times through the day & likewise in the night
time, it never fails to make me vomit; but what is most astonish¬
ing to me, is, that though it is as hard as if one was knocking with
a pocker upon a Hearthstone, and I have often thought that it would
burst my blood vessels, yet I never have ↑had↑ a sore head or sore breast
with it, or any other Complaint whatever, only that it has almost to¬
tally deprived me of my voice, so that you would scarce hear me
speak.

Since my coming here I have lived as much as possible
upon milk & Vegetables. I take Bearmeal porridge to Breakfast
& supper. I drink great quantities of Butter-milk. I likewise
tried Calfs-feet-Jelly, which was much recommended to me, and
many other softening things of a like nature; but all without effect

This abominable Cough, which nothing can extirpate & which
threatens the most fatal consequences to me, took its rise, so far as I
am able to conjecture, from wet feet & wet Shoulders, joined to sitting
for three or four hours with an open window in a smoaky Chamber.
This happened about the end of the 77. The first Symptom which
I perceived of it was a most violent Stitch in my left side, which
kept me in a sitting posture in my bed for two or three nights; but
being advised of the danger of allowing a pain of that kind to get a
seat, I immediately put on a large Blister betwixt my Shoulders, &
lett blood. After the Blister was taken off, I put Issue Ointment upon
my back, & kept it open in that manner for six or seven weeks. This
I did chiefly on account of tender Eyes, with which I was then much
troubled. But from the length of time which was taken up in ap¬
plying fresh ointment to my back, & in rubbing it (for it was very
itchy) especially in cold frosty weather, I got more mischief than
good from it. For it will be observed that I had not the smallest
cough whatever before that time. But no sooner was the Issue
Ointment removed than the Cough began & continued harder and
more violent every day. I took the Advice of a Surgeon whom Mr
Watt semt over to me while I was confined to my Room. He gave me
Squill-Pills, Squill-Mixture and an Electuary; but seeing them
have no Effect, he very candidly told me, thst no Physician in Edr

No sooner did the 11th of June arrive than I was obliged to go
back to Edr where I continued till after the rising of the Session, drink¬
ing in the breath of a hundred people collected in the Parliament house in
a hot summerday, & swallowing the dust raised by the Gowns of the
Faculty walking about in the outer house -- About the end of August, I
again returned to the Country, where I employed my time very well
in riding & drinking as much Butter-milk as could get so that against
the 12th of Novr I had got a good appetite & was as hail & strong as ever
but unluckily the Cough had never entirely left me; and I was sure that
it would return upon the approach of a Storm or of cold wet weather.

After going to Edinburgh I continued to hold ↑out↑ tolerably well; but (↑till↑) after
the beggining of the year, when the violent winds, which we had all winter,
driving the smoak down my Chimney I was sometimes wakened
in the morning with a thick cloud of smoak which came into the
Closet where I stay, which had almost suffocated me. I was in this
situation every night and every morning for several months (↑weeks↑). At [last?]
this Sulphurous smoak having settled on my Lungs, brought on
my Cough with greater violence than ever, and has reduced me to
the state which I have already described - I have no other com¬
plaint in the world but the Cough, which has reduced me to
the situation of being scarcely able to walk through the
room; & if this cold unfavourable ↑weather↑ continues but three weeks
longer, it will undoubtedly send me to the Church-yard. --

I was often thinking before I left Edinburgh of consult¬
ing Dr Cullen, but I was told that the Advice which he con¬
stantly gave to people in my way was To go to the Country -
ride about on horseback every good Day - live upon milk and
Vegetables of all kinds & continue this exercise and Regimen
till they were perfectly recovered. --

I have often wished, since my coming to the country,

I forgot to mention in its proper place, that I am much
distressed with a shortness of Breath- and the Cough has
made such an impression upon my Nerves, that I cannot
write but with the greatest pain & uneasiness. I was there¬
fore obliged to call in the assistance of Mr James Ramsay whc
has been so good as to be my amanuensis upon this occasion.

I'm sure you will lose all patience before you reach the
end of this londg confused Epistle. I'm sorry it is so long.
I return my grateful thanks to you for your sincere
wishes for my recovery, and am with real regard.

Mr James Buchan
writer
in
Edinburgh
Single Sheet

Mr Henry
April 20th 1779
V.IX. p.170