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When I writ you last Mr Lawson had carried your
letter with him to the country, so that I did not answer
it so fully as I would have wished. –– Since the time of
my first sending you his case till now, that Gentleman has
continued, upon the whole, remarkably better, – free from any
nephritic or gouty symptoms, and so far likewise free from
feverish symptoms that his spirits, appetite &c are good; tho
his pulse is often quick, and his nights sometimes restless,
with a good deal of sweating. –– When I say that he is free
from nephritic symptoms, – I mean that there have been no
attacks of pain, nor any uneasiness connected with the urina¬
ry passages; but I must observe that for several days
past his urine has been so remarkably and so uniformly
foul as to strike him greatly ––It is not only dark, and
coffee coloured, as urine is often {illeg} -- (↑said to be↑) but to all appearance
contains some blood, its redness is such; – and, besides being
thick and muddy, at whatever time voided, or in whatever
quantity; there are evidently small thin sloughs or shreds in
it (wh Mr L compares to onion skins) such as we might expect
to be discharged from a place slightly ulcerated; tho, as I have

Since I last writ you I have been urging Mr Law¬
son to begin the Caustic Lixivium, but on account of
the state of the urine, which has appeared in the meantime,
(and which has often appeared in the mean time to a con¬
siderable degree before) he begs to delay ↑it↑, and proposed
taking the regenerated Tartar for a few days, which he
had formerly used, & seemingly with a pretty obvious effect
–– till we should hear from you should hear from you

I have been thinking of your reason for doubt¬
ing as to the propriety of warm & stimulating ap¬
plications to the feet when the feet gout is forming.
Is it because some of them may repell as well as solicit? –
Plasters with a proportion of Cantharides, like our Empl. calidumHot Plaster,
I found recommended by some of the London people? – Certainly such
an application is often used as a repellent; – and when the gout is go¬
ing to the stomach, as is said, – are not the strongest wines & even
spirits; as well as spices, – given directly with a view to repell
it, not ↑surely↑ that we are to conceive any such inflammation attacking
the stomach as appears in the extremities. – The idea however of
exciting a redness and superficial inflammation on the skin
seems to be an imitation of nature. –– I wish we may not be
often vague and inconsistent both in our opinions and practices. –
As to the Gout I wish I could think & speak more from experience
than I can. – In this part of the Country most of our gouty peo¬
ple manage their complaints themselves. Severals of them I have

Among the popular remedies wh people have been using in this quarter
for the Gout, the most favourite one is a tincture of two ounces of Gum Guajacum in three
quarts of the best old Rum. – The dose unlimited, so that it is at least a good
course of Dram drinking. –– A Madeira Gentleman brought it here two years ago
along with the case & remarks of a person of consequence in Madeira, who was said to
cured wonderfully by it. – Several people here have told me that it has done
them great good. –

To
Doctor Cullen
Physician
Edinburgh