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Mr Turner has taken a fit of Anxiety to have
your and Dr Gregory's Advice about his Daughter and has
wrote you to this Effect by a friend of his ¹ who will be in Edinburgh
tomorrow and will call upon you - This letter which I could
not have ready to send by him will come to your hand I dare say
in time enough - You will be able to recollect that in the month
of January last you were consulted upon Miss Turner's case
which was a Hӕmoptoe preceeded by and accompanied with
a fixed pain about the middle of the sternum a little to the
right side; that at this time, neither cough, quick pulse or
Hectic heats had made their dangerous Appearance; that
the Hӕmoptoe had been restrained and the pain of the breast
abated by frequent bleedings, gentle Laxatives, Blisters to the
Back, low Diet, the liberal use of Acids &ca. &ca. The Menses
were then regular, and her Health in every other Respect tolerably
good - In this situation you very strongly recommended a sea
Voyage as the only probable means of preventing a fatal Phthisis,
and discouraged every Expectation of a cure being effected by
any other Method - Notwithstanding your Advice, and every
Argument that I could offer both before and after in favour
of the Voyage, it was neglected; the Disease has been making
the ordinary progress in spite of every other Endeavour to
remedy it and is now in all probability drawing very near
to a fatal period - A minute Description of it's progress and a

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tedious Detail of the Remedies employed, would be only a disagreeable
Repetition of what we daily see and unsucsessfuly practise in
such cases - In general since I wrote you last of her, there has
↑been↑ no Return of the blood spitting; but, a cough, chilly fits succeeded
by hot ones and sweats almost every Night, Menstrual Obstruction,
Diarhœa, loss of flesh & strength, all soon took place. At present,
her pulse is at 120 in the Minute, the cough very vexing, especially
through the Nights, her breathing very difficult, the Diarrhœa
excessive and almost unremitting - What can be done in
such a situation? What room is there for hope? And yet, her
father will still fondly flatter himself that something may
be done by Medicine! These that have been chiefly used (besides
the bleedings in the beginning) have been >[a very?] {illeg} Lemon
Juice in very considerable quantities and ↑continued↑ till the Diarrhœa and
gripings forbad a longer use of it; an Issue upon her back;
Mucilaginous Drinks, Infusions of Colts foot, Opiates & ca.
It has been always with with difficulty that she could be prevail'd
on to take Opium in any shape, for though she acknowleges
that she has more respite from the cough and Diarrhœa through
the Night when she has taken it, yet she thinks they return
with the same or with more violence when its' Effects are over,
and that it leaves her more languid and dispirited than
before. She discovers from these Effects that she has taken it, under
whatever disguise it may have been given - With respect to
Regimen, she has been totally confined to a Milk & Vegetable
Diet, a little weak Chicken broth now & then excepted - Her
ordinary Drink has been Toast & Water, Whey, Buttermilk
made from new Milk churn'd the same Day, and such like -
Her thirst is often very great - She returned about a fortnight
ago from the other side of the Water where she had been for four or

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five Weeks for the benefit of Country Air & drinking Goats' Whey;
She was much worse during that time, than and indeed lost
ground considerably - Since her Return home she has had rather
more Ease and has slept better thro' the Nights; Her father thinks
likewise that she has gained a good deal of strength, because
she can walk once or twice across the Room without assistance,
and on this Account, and there being no purulent Appearance
in the Spitting (for what she spits with the cough is still only
a viscid colourless Phlegm) he will entertain hopes; Poor Man -

I wrote you in April last advising you about a white swelling
in a young Lady's Knee about which a Mrs. Scott had spoke
to you; and, at the same time sent you the small pox
History that you had desired to see - But, from my not
hearing from you since, I conclude that my Letter has
some how miscarried - ²

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To
Doctor William Cullen
Physician in
Edinburgh

✍1772