Cullen

The Consultation Letters of Dr William Cullen (1710-1790) at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

 

[ID:2097] From: Mr Patrick Duguid Leslie / To: Dr William Cullen (Professor Cullen) / Regarding: Mr M. (Patient) / 20 November 1781 / (Incoming)

Letter from D. Leslie, concerning the case of Mr. M., who has long suffered from a cutaneous eruption that recurrs every Winter and a nocturnal complaint.

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Metadata

FieldData
DOC ID 2097
RCPE Catalogue Number CUL/1/2/1173
Main Language English
Document Direction Incoming
Date20 November 1781
Annotation None
TypeAuthorial original
Enclosure(s) No enclosure(s)
Autopsy No
Recipe No
Regimen No
Letter of Introduction No
Case Note No
Summary Letter from D. Leslie, concerning the case of Mr. M., who has long suffered from a cutaneous eruption that recurrs every Winter and a nocturnal complaint.
Manuscript Incomplete? No
Evidence of Commercial Posting Yes

Case

Cases that this document belongs to:

Case ID Description Num Docs
[Case ID:1433]
Case of the anonymised 'Mr. M.' who has long suffered from a 'cuteneous eruption', suspected of being the result of an unresolved 'venereal taint' and who also has anxieties over 'nocturnal emissions'.
5


People linked to this document

Person IDRole in documentPerson
[PERS ID:2815]AuthorMr Patrick Duguid Leslie
[PERS ID:1]AddresseeDr William Cullen (Professor Cullen)
[PERS ID:2818]PatientMr M.
[PERS ID:1]Patient's Physician / Surgeon / ApothecaryDr William Cullen (Professor Cullen)
[PERS ID:2815]Patient's Physician / Surgeon / ApothecaryMr Patrick Duguid Leslie
[PERS ID:2814]OtherSir Joseph Banks (1st Baronet)

Places linked to this document

Role in document Specific Place Settlements / Areas Region Country Global Region Confidence
Place of Writing Durham North-East England Europe certain
Destination of Letter Edinburgh Edinburgh and East Scotland Europe certain
Mentioned / Other Belgium Europe certain
Mentioned / Other England Europe certain
Mentioned / Other Italy Europe certain
Mentioned / Other Harrogate North-East England Europe certain
Place of Handstamp Durham North-East England Europe certain

Normalized Text

[Page 1]

Durham November 20th 1781

Dr. Sir


I have sent you the case of a Gentleman of
this neighborhood, to whom I declined giving any
medicine, till such time as you should be consulted.
He is willing to submit to any mode of treat¬
ment you shall think proper to put him
under; & I sincerely wish you may be able to
suggest one that shall prove more successful
than any he has yet employed. Tho' he him¬
self never told me that there was a scrophu¬
lous
taint in the family, yet I am well in¬
form'd that several of his nearest relations
have been martyrs to that desease. This you
↑may↑ hint as a suspicion of your own, as he has
seen the case I have drawn up, & expects to
see your answer. I shall take the first



[Page 2]

opportunity of transmitting you a fee --
I had last week the favour of a letter from
Sir Jos. Banks informing me that the
Royal Society had done me the honour
of electing me a fellow. For this I am in a
great measure indebted to you, I therefore
beg you will accept of my best thanks &
believe me with equal respect & esteem


Dear Sir
your most obedient & humble
Servant

P. D. Leslie



[Page 3]


Mr. M. aged 31, of a full sanguine habit, of an athletic
make, & rather inclining to corpulency, when only
four years old, had a small abscess form'd on the
Buccinator muscle of right cheek, which being
injudiciously lanced, continued long open in¬
spite of every attempt to heal it up. From that
Period there have broke out every winter, in
different parts of the cheek, small ulcers, which
tho' they are only superficial. & discharge a pretty
laudable pus
, seldom dry up in less than two
months. During the warm season, there is in
general no exulceration, but the whole cheek,
as well in summer as in winter, appears
of a deep shining crimson
. This seems to
proceed from the cuticle constantly seal¬
ing off, as fast as it forms. The eye of the
side affected, is some times attacked by a
considerable degree of inflammation, which
seldom yields, when it comes to any height,



[Page 4]

(and that is generally the case once or twice a year)
without two or three large bleedings in the
arm. The other eye is likewise occasionally af¬
fected, but for these six months past neither
has been inflamed, there is however a degree
of weakness in both -- Mr. M. is perfectly free
from any cutaneous eruption on the rest of
his body. There is no sensible hardness of
the Parotid or submaxillary glands, nor any
apparent swelling of the upper lip. He is
rather of a costive habit of body; & his blood
has been generally found seizy with a
firm crassamentum & & a due proportion
of serum
. He lives well, but temperately,
and tho' he resides in the country, being
fonder of books than the sports of the
field, he avoids all violent exercise. He gene¬
rally however rides out every day, when the


[Page 5]

weather allows him. He can bear nothing that
overheats ↑him↑ & has constantly, in hot weather, a
sensation of heat which is very unpleasant
to him ------


Mr. M. has consulted many of the faculty, &
submitted to various modes of treatment,
but no method of cure hitherto employed
has afforded him any permanent benefit.
when 11 years old he took, for many months,
Ward's white drops, but without any sen¬
sible advantage. He was then sent into
Italy in the hopes that the warmth of the cli¬
mate would open his pores, & dissipate
the peccant humours; but during the five
years he lived there, his face broke out every
winter in fresh ulcers, as before & since, & healed
up in the spring. He was when about 19 put
into the hands of a celebrated Quack in
Flanders, whom undertook by mercury & regi¬
men to change his whole mass of fluids,



[Page 6]

but tho' he remained 2 or 3 months under his care,
& underwent a slight salivation, he derived no
permanent advantage from the course. His
face indeed for 2 or 3 winters after, broke not
out with the same violence as usual, but he
doubts whether this should be attributed to the
medicines he had used, or to the strong exercise
he took in hunting for the first 2 or 3 win¬
ters after his return to England -- in 1780
he took for three months successively half a drachm of Crude antimony - six grains of salt of nitre per day & drank freely
of the Sarsæparilla decoction This year he perse¬
vered for 3 months in an Electuary of Æthiops
mineral & nitre with the decoction C. intern. [ut?] {illeg}
but from neither of these prescriptions
did Mr. M. receive the least benefit - He
likewise drank the Harrogate waters 4 or 5
seasons with little or no effect & thought them
rather too heating for his constitution. He has
also tried issues & has now two on his back


[Page 7]

but as they have been of no use, he wishes to know
if he may safely dry them up ----


Mr. M. besides the above mentioned complaint,
has for these 4 years been subject to noctur¬
nal emissions at least once a week
, which
leave him low & languid for two or three
days after. He never had a venereal symptom
in his life, ↑he↑ married in 1773 & had no appearance
of this complaint till within these 4 yea[rs.]
He knows not whether it proceeds from a {illeg}¬
tice use of matrimony, ↑from↑ the unpleasant
sensation of heat which he is seldom without,
or ↑from↑ any acrimony of the fluids. Tho he has
neither lost his flesh nor complexion by this
complaint, he is strongly apprehensive of a
tabes dorsalis. He ↑has↑ taken the Elixir vitriol. & used
the cold bath these 2 or 3 summers past without
effect. The Bark has never been given him, being
supposed too heating -- It may not be improper
to mention that he finds it necessary to let blood
2 or 3 times a year from having been in the habit of
being bled very often when abroad ---


P. D. Leslie



[Page 8]


Dr Cullen
Edinburgh


Dr Leslie
Concerning Mr M.
November 1781
Vol. XIII p.214

Diplomatic Text

[Page 1]

Durham Novr. 20th 1781

Dr. Sir


I have sent you the case of a Gentleman of
this neighborhood, to whom I declined giving any
medicine, till such time as you shd be consulted.
He is willing to submit to any mode of treat¬
ment you shall think proper to put him
under; & I sincerely wish you may be able to
suggest one that shall prove more successful
than any he has yet employed. Tho' he him¬
self never told me that there was a scrophu¬
lous
taint in the family, yet I am well in¬
form'd that several of his nearest relations
have been martyrs to that desease. This you
↑may↑ hint as a suspicion of your own, as he has
seen the case I have drawn up, & expects to
see your answer. I shall take the first



[Page 2]

opportunity of transmitting you a fee --
I had last week the favour of a letter from
Sir Jos. Banks informing me that the
Royal Society had done me the honour
of electing me a fellow. For this I am in a
great measure indebted to you, I therefore
beg you will accept of my best thanks &
believe me with equal respect & esteem


Dear Sir
your most obedt. & humble
Servt.

P. D. Leslie



[Page 3]


Mr. M. aged 31, of a full sanguine habit, of an athletic
make, & rather inclining to corpulency, when only
four years old, had a small abscess form'd on the
Buccinator muscle of right cheek, which being
injudiciously lanced, continued long open in¬
spite of every attempt to heal it up. From that
Period there have broke out every winter, in
different parts of the cheek, small ulcers, which
tho' they are only superficial. & discharge a pretty
laudable pus
, seldom dry up in less than two
months. During the warm season, there is in
general no exulceration, but the whole cheek,
as well in summer as in winter, appears
of a deep shining crimson
. This seems to
proceed from the cuticle constantly seal¬
ing off, as fast as it forms. The eye of the
side affected, is some times attacked by a
considerable degree of inflammation, which
seldom yields, when it comes to any height,



[Page 4]

(and that is generally the case once or twice a year)
without two or three large bleedings in the
arm. The other eye is likewise occasionally af¬
fected, but for these six months past neither
has been inflamed, there is however a degree
of weakness in both -- Mr. M. is perfectly free
from any cutaneous eruption on the rest of
his body. There is no sensible hardness of
the Parotid or submaxillary glands, nor any
apparent swelling of the upper lip. He is
rather of a costive habit of body; & his blood
has been generally found seizy with a
firm crassamentum & & a due proportion
of serum
. He lives well, but temperately,
and tho' he resides in the country, being
fonder of books than the sports of the
field, he avoids all violent exercise. He gene¬
rally however rides out every day, when the


[Page 5]

weather allows him. He can bear nothing that
overheats ↑him↑ & has constantly, in hot weather, a
sensation of heat which is very unpleasant
to him ------


Mr. M. has consulted many of the faculty, &
submitted to various modes of treatment,
but no method of cure hitherto employed
has afforded him any permanent benefit.
when 11 years old he took, for many months,
Ward's white drops, but without any sen¬
sible advantage. He was then sent into
Italy in the hopes that the warmth of the cli¬
mate would open his pores, & dissipate
the peccant humours; but during the five
years he lived there, his face broke out every
winter in fresh ulcers, as before & since, & healed
up in the spring. He was when about 19 put
into the hands of a celebrated Quack in
Flanders, whom undertook by mercury & regi¬
men to change his whole mass of fluids,



[Page 6]

but tho' he remained 2 or 3 months under his care,
& underwent a slight salivation, he derived no
permanent advantage from the course. His
face indeed for 2 or 3 winters after, broke not
out with the same violence as usual, but he
doubts whether this shd be attributed to the
medicines he had used, or to the strong exercise
he took in hunting for the first 2 or 3 win¬
ters after his return to England -- in 1780
he took for three months successively antimon.
Crud. ʒfs
- sal. nitr. gr vi bis die. & drank freely
of the decoct. Sarsæparill. This year he perse¬
vered for 3 months in an Elect. of Æthiops
mineral & nitre with the decoct. C. intern. [ut?] {illeg}
but from neither of these prescriptions
did Mr. M. receive the least benefit - He
likewise drank the Harrogate waters 4 or 5
seasons with little or no effect & thought them
rather too heating for his constitution. He has
also tried issues & has now two on his back


[Page 7]

but as they have been of no use, he wishes to know
if he may safely dry them up ----


Mr. M. besides the above mentioned complaint,
has for these 4 years been subject to noctur¬
nal emissions at least once a week
, which
leave him low & languid for two or three
days after. He never had a venereal symptom
in his life, ↑he↑ married in 1773 & had no appearance
of this complaint till within these 4 yea[rs.]
He knows not whether it proceeds from a {illeg}¬
tice use of matrimony, ↑from↑ the unpleasant
sensation of heat which he is seldom without,
or ↑from↑ any acrimony of the fluids. Tho he has
neither lost his flesh nor complexion by this
complaint, he is strongly apprehensive of a
tabes dorsalis. He ↑has↑ taken the Elixir vitriol. & used
the cold bath these 2 or 3 summers past without
effect. The Bark has never been given him, being
supposed too heating -- It may not be improper
to mention that he finds it necessary to let blood
2 or 3 times a year from having been in the habit of
being bled very often when abroad ---


P. D. Leslie



[Page 8]


Dr Cullen
Edinburgh


Dr Leslie
C Mr M.
Novr. 1781
Vol. XIII p.214

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