[Page 1]

Mr. Muir

Your account of Mr. Muir has been com¬
municated by Mr. Fyfe but by my being obliged to
be out of Town for a day or two last week prevented
me getting it till Saturday afternoon so that I could
not write you till now.

The case is very neatly and clearly described
and the conduct of it seems to have been as proper
as it possibly could be but I find the disease to
be very singular and difficult. I would call it
a Hypochondriasis and it is certainly consists
chiefly in a torpor of the Nervous System but
it does not seem to be in a melancholic tempe¬
rament and otherwise it has some peculiar
anomalous Symptoms. I meet with much variety
of Hypochondriaisis and Hysteria but I have

---

[Page 2]

met with nothing resembling the present but what
proceeded from Onanism of which however there is
no account in the present Case. I would willingly
if I were present with you discuss the pathology
of this Case but I cannot do it so simply and clearly
as to make it fit for this letter. I have therefore
only to give you the best Advice I can. The chief
part of it is to advise Mr. Muir if offers and
circumstances will any ways permit to repair
immediately to a warm Climate and to remain
there till the end of April next. If he does this
I would hardly give him any medicine but a
laxative to be employed when occasion requires.
If the Setan had not been put in I should
not have advised it but as it is I would let it
continue dispensing however with the Issue as I

---

[Page 3]

do not perceive that a great deal of such evacua¬
tion is necessary or consistent with the other
remedies employed.

If Mr. Muir cannot go abroad I have to
recommend what Exercise on horseback or in a
Carriage he can bear or be brought to take. This
however must still be with a studious attention
to avoid cold by warm Cloathing of all kinds both
at home and abroad and the keeping entirely at
home in cold weather. The remedy I would chiefly
employ is Electricity but in Shocks of very mo¬
derate force only but these repeated for several
times and particularly repeated twice a day. Please
take notice if the Electricity increases the fre¬
quency of the pulse. If it does it a little it is
right, but if it does it very much th eShock is

---

[Page 4]

[too] Strong or it is too often repeated. I can think of
no medicines from which much benefit can be
expected but I would expect more from Chalybeates
than from the Bark. If the Stupor should at any
time prevail very strongly and especially with a
slow pulse I would try the use of the Volatile
Alkali from five to ten grains in a bolus to
be swallowed in a wafer and repeated as the
effects shall determine. It is no objection
to the employment of entire Mustard Seed
that it passes by stool unbroken for it
commonly does so. Wishing you heartily success
I am with very great regard