Cullen

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

 

[ID:4736] From: Dr William Cullen (Professor Cullen) / To: [ADDRESSEE UNKNOWN] / Regarding: Colonel George Clerk (Clarke, Clark) (Patient) / 4 November 1783 / (Outgoing)

Reply, 'Col. Clarke'. For the Colonel's obstinate costiveness, Cullen recommends the sacred tincture. For his difficulty in making water, Cullen advises the use of bougees, if the Colonel is familiar with them. For his headaches and feverishness, Cullen prescribes a salt of wormwood draught with a little added lemon juice. Cullen also recommends the Colonel remove to a warmer climate and that if he chooses to remain in Britain, Bath is the safest place.

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Metadata

FieldData
DOC ID 4736
RCPE Catalogue Number CUL/1/1/16/140
Main Language English
Document Direction Outgoing
Date4 November 1783
Annotation None
TypeMachine scribal copy
Enclosure(s) No enclosure(s)
Autopsy No
Recipe No
Regimen No
Letter of Introduction No
Case Note No
Summary Reply, 'Col. Clarke'. For the Colonel's obstinate costiveness, Cullen recommends the sacred tincture. For his difficulty in making water, Cullen advises the use of bougees, if the Colonel is familiar with them. For his headaches and feverishness, Cullen prescribes a salt of wormwood draught with a little added lemon juice. Cullen also recommends the Colonel remove to a warmer climate and that if he chooses to remain in Britain, Bath is the safest place.
Manuscript Incomplete? No
Evidence of Commercial Posting No

Case

Cases that this document belongs to:

Case ID Description Num Docs
[Case ID:1473]
Case of Colonel George Clerk [Clark, Clarke, Clerke] who becomes excessively weak and feeble from chronic costiveness, breathlessness, and other chronic complaints. In New York he has a perpetual fever and stomach complaint and mentions consulting Cullen before but no firm evidence traced unless he is the same patient as Case 283 in 1768.
24


People linked to this document

Person IDRole in documentPerson
[PERS ID:1]AuthorDr William Cullen (Professor Cullen)
[PERS ID:2507]PatientColonel George Clerk (Clarke, Clark)
[PERS ID:1]Patient's Physician / Surgeon / ApothecaryDr William Cullen (Professor Cullen)
[PERS ID:3181]Patient's Relative / Spouse / FriendMr Robert Clerk (Clarke; Clerke; of Mavisbank)

Places linked to this document

Role in document Specific Place Settlements / Areas Region Country Global Region Confidence
Place of Writing Cullen's House / Mint Close Edinburgh Edinburgh and East Scotland Europe certain
Destination of Letter Rooks Nest Godstone London and South-East England Europe inferred
Therapeutic Recommendation Bath South-West England Europe certain

Normalized Text

[Page 1]
Col Clarke
Sir


Your Brother was pleased to call upon me and
to deliver your memorandum more than ten days ago but
some circumstances in my present situations and
particularly some indisposition has prevented my
writing to you as soon as I wished.


I am concerned to find your Costiveness so very
obstinate and I am still persuaded that the Oil
and Tincture I advised is one of the fittest medicines,
when one is frequently to be employed that I can
think of but as you give me reason to suspect
that the weakest but as you give me reason to suspect
that the weakness of the rectum has some share
in your Costiveness I think you may sometimes
take a table spoonful ↑more or less↑ of sacred Tincture which
is peculiarly filled to excite the action of the
rectum
but I would not have you take the
medicine {illeg} but for common rather to em¬
ploy the Oil. Please take notice also that the




[Page 2]


Sacred Tincture I advise is different from the Sacred
Elixir
which we frequently employ in Scotland the
latter being made with Spirits the former with wine
which I think makes it safer for you.


With respect to your difficulty and pain in
making water
I take it to be owing to some remains
of old strictures and difficult now to be mended
but I expect the tepid bathing will be of service
for this Complaint and if you have any acquain¬
tance with Bougees and especially if you can
employ them yourself I believe the use of one
now and then might relieve the difficulty and
stopping of your water.


For your headache attended with some
feverishness
and brought on especially by Eas¬
terly winds they are probably owing to the general
frailty of your Constitution which I hope shall
be in some measure mended and in the mean¬
time when any ↑the↑ fits of headach are violent they




[Page 3]


may be somewhat relieved by a salt of wormwood
draught which you may make for yourself by
taking twenty grains of salt of wormwood dissol¬
ving it in two table spoonfuls of water and adding
to it by degrees a table spoonful of fresh juice of
lemons.


You must be liable to headachs as long as
you are liable to a weakness of bowels and costiveness
and as the fullness and oppression in your bowels
which you so frequently complain of is owing to
the same general weakness which will I hope
mend but will require some time.


Though the tepid bathing has not taken off
the dryness and rigidity of your Constitution so
much as I would wish yet I am certain both by
your Brothers Accounts and your own it has
done no harm and I am persuaded that continued
it will do you service. But this leads me to
speak to another point.




[Page 4]


I must still be of opinion that your greatest se¬
curity for ease and health would be by passing the
winter in a mild and tolerably warm Climate but at
the same time there is no certainty that the British
Climate will absolutely destroy you and therefore
I must leave you to ballance with yourself the
hazard of a British Climate and the trouble and
inconvenience of going far to the South. I shall
only say that if you are to remain in Britain
there is no place more proper than Bath and
I think it has this advantage that you may
be the better of drinking moderately of the waters
and as I am informed there is now an opportunity
of getting a Bath tempered to any degree that
may be desired I think you may carry on your
tepid bathing better there than at home.


I thus give you my opinion on the subject
of Bath but must add further that I cannot




[Page 5]


secure you against the accidents of the Climate
but by a close and constant attention to the avoiding
of cold and damp air and I hope your own discre¬
tion will direct you to all the measures necessary
for that purpose. Wishing you most heartily
success I am


Dear Sir
Your most Obedient humble Servant
William Cullen

Edinburgh 4th. November
1783

Diplomatic Text

[Page 1]
Col Clarke
Sir


Your Brother was pleased to call upon me and
to deliver your memorandum more than ten days ago but
some circumstances in my present situations and
particularly some indisposition has prevented my
writing to you as soon as I wished.


I am concerned to find your Costiveness so very
obstinate and I am still persuaded that the Oil
and Tincture I advised is one of the fittest medicines,
when one is frequently to be employed that I can
think of but as you give me reason to suspect
that the weakest but as you give me reason to suspect
that the weakness of the rectum has some share
in your Costiveness I think you may sometimes
take a table spoonful ↑more or less↑ of sacred Tincture which
is peculiarly filled to excite the action of the
rectum
but I would not have you take the
medicine {illeg} but for common rather to em¬
ploy the Oil. Please take notice also that the




[Page 2]


Sacred Tincture I advise is different from the Sacred
Elixir
which we frequently employ in Scotland the
latter being made with Spirits the former with wine
which I think makes it safer for you.


With respect to your difficulty and pain in
making water
I take it to be owing to some remains
of old strictures and difficult now to be mended
but I expect the tepid bathing will be of service
for this Complaint and if you have any acquain¬
tance with Bougees and especially if you can
employ them yourself I believe the use of one
now and then might relieve the difficulty and
stopping of your water.


For your headache attended with some
feverishness
and brought on especially by Eas¬
terly winds they are probably owing to the general
frailty of your Constitution which I hope shall
be in some measure mended and in the mean¬
time when any ↑the↑ fits of headach are violent they




[Page 3]


may be somewhat relieved by a salt of wormwood
draught which you may make for yourself by
taking twenty grains of salt of wormwood dissol¬
ving it in two table spoonfuls of water and adding
to it by degrees a table spoonful of fresh juice of
lemons.


You must be liable to headachs as long as
you are liable to a weakness of bowels and costiveness
and as the fullness and oppression in your bowels
which you so frequently complain of is owing to
the same general weakness which will I hope
mend but will require some time.


Though the tepid bathing has not taken off
the dryness and rigidity of your Constitution so
much as I would wish yet I am certain both by
your Brothers Accounts and your own it has
done no harm and I am persuaded that continued
it will do you service. But this leads me to
speak to another point.




[Page 4]


I must still be of opinion that your greatest se¬
curity for ease and health would be by passing the
winter in a mild and tolerably warm Climate but at
the same time there is no certainty that the British
Climate will absolutely destroy you and therefore
I must leave you to ballance with yourself the
hazard of a British Climate and the trouble and
inconvenience of going far to the South. I shall
only say that if you are to remain in Britain
there is no place more proper than Bath and
I think it has this advantage that you may
be the better of drinking moderately of the waters
and as I am informed there is now an opportunity
of getting a Bath tempered to any degree that
may be desired I think you may carry on your
tepid bathing better there than at home.


I thus give you my opinion on the subject
of Bath but must add further that I cannot




[Page 5]


secure you against the accidents of the Climate
but by a close and constant attention to the avoiding
of cold and damp air and I hope your own discre¬
tion will direct you to all the measures necessary
for that purpose. Wishing you most heartily
success I am


Dear Sir
Your most Obedient humble Servant
William Cullen

Edinr. 4th. Novr.
1783

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