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To Dr. Livingston Aberdeen Concerning Mrs Gordon & Lord Errol

I have considered the case of your patient Mrs. Gordon & have given you an advice
upon it which you'l see in her hands, you will perhaps be surprised at my doubts of
there being water in the Abdomen but I own to you I have doubts of the undulation as
you properly term it which is so distinctly be really from the fluctuation of water beacuse I
have found [Oedomatous?] growth give very much the same feeling. But [that?] ever being
I thought it necessary to quiet Mrs Gs. mind as much as possible & as I agree with you
in thinking that the Collection of water is of the {illeg} kind & that she is now
so entirely free of the disorders of the P. V. I am persuaded that the disease will
be slow in its progress & that from several consideral consideration the Tapping is neither
necessary not would be proper at present. For what else occurrs in my advice you will
be at no loss to understand me. Tho' I had not had this opportunity I should certainly
have written to you on the subject of Lord Errol. During his Journey hither he was
once & again very much distressed with looseness & a good deal of of pain in his bowels
but was relieved by the laudanum & for the few days he remained here he was very easy
with his stools more natural. He continued well also in his 1 days Journey to
Greenlaw where I passed a night with him having been accidentally called into ---
Northumberland the day before. The fullness of his belly he thinks was less than
before & as he lay abed I found it quite soft & every where equal & without my being
able to perceive anything like fluctuation. At same time his urine was thin
& in full quantity & the swelling of his ankles was almost quite gone. In this
condition I am hopefull he may escape Dropsy tho his complexion & other
circumstances of his Complaints do not allow me to be free from the same fears
which you mention of incipient visceral obstruction. However the State of his
guts have not allowed one to prescribe either Diureticks or Purgatives

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for the time I have put him upon some Chalybeate powders & a light infusion
of bark telling his Lordship that strengthening his bowels was nothing chiefly
necessary at present