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Mr G: is in his thirty third year. At
seventeen he was sent to Jamaica, where
he remained four years. About a twelve
month after his arrival, he received a
venereal taint, which was unskillfully
treated, and to remove which; after having
tried mercurials, he drank a decoction of
Guiaicum wood. Not long after he was
seized with an ardent fever, which reduced
him to the last extremity, but it became
at last intermittent, and he was saved
by means of the Bark. At the crisis
of the fever, his body broke out all
over into boils, from the matter of
which he was relieved by the knife,
being reduced too low as his surgeons
informed him, to take purging medicines.
While he continued in Jamaica, he never
afterwards recovered his former health
and vigour. In July 1760 he left that
island and went to Pensilvania, in which
country and at New York he continued till
November. Here his legs broke out into
scorbutick-like blotchesand running sores,
and he had a diet drink ordered him, the
mercurial ↑ingredients↑ in which were sarsaparilla and
crude

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antimony. He used this medicine during his
passage to England, but his complaints were
not removed, and he continued much
emaciated, and without appetite, and
while at London in spring 1761 having
caught a severe cold, he was threatened
with a consumption. Coming to Scotland
soon after, he laid a state of his case
before Doctor Cullen, who ordered him a
a vegetable diet testaceous powders, and a
medicine in pills the name of which Mr
G. has forgot. By this prescription he was
soon restored to perfect health, and continued
well till 1764, when he had a pretty smart
fever; and excepting a slight degree of
the scurvy which he inherits from his
parents, and used to appear in the form
of a roughness of (n) his skin, and sometimes
a little heat and swelling about the joints
of his fingers in spring and autumn, he
had no other complaint till the latter end
of 1770 and beginning of seventy one.
He was at Edinburgh at this time, and employed
in some very laborious investigations in
relation to a process ¹ his family were carry¬
ing on about the Sutherland Peerage, and
having sat at this business for six weeks
with

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unusual closeness, and under uncommon anxiety
of mind, he conjectures it may have given
occasion to the scorbutick symptoms to
which he is subject, appearing with more
virulence than {illeg} (formerly). He expectorated
a bloody matter, his flesh became [knotty?]
and his fingers hot and sticky between the
Joints, and arriving in London 8th February -
where he found he was to sustain the -
double loss of his labours and his fathers
friendship, he soon after became so leprous
all over his body, but especially on
his belly and hands, that he could not
help fancying he had caught some -
infection by sleeping in foul Linnen on
the Road and being [disturbed?] besides
with pedicule inguin. He tryd to find a
palliative in both complaints by rubbing
with a little mercurial ointment, but without
effect as to either. His business over, he
had recourse in the next place to Dr Hills
essence of water Dock; a medicine which
had been of great advantage to his father
in scorbutick complaints and from which
even he himself had recived benefit on
former occasions, but at the end of a course
of near three months, he found the dissease
no

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way abated, lost his flesh, and colour, and
could not sleep. He was now assured by
others, and even began himself to suspect,
that he had the Itch at least superadded
to the scurvy. His body was covered with
whitish [watery?] pimples but especially his
hands and belly, which itchd very much
and pustules also appeared on the palms of
his hands and soles of his feet and a tu¬
mour or swelling he had in his neck was
said to be a symptom of this distemper
He was persuaded therefore to undergo a
very long course of brimstone in the scots
form, which drove the dissease from the skin
but it soon resumed its seat again, neither
did it yield to a strong mercurial ointment
which was used next. The only effect of
these medicines seemed indeed to be, to
drive the dissease to a more dangerous
seat, for he now became sensitive of a
pain, [pulsular?], and uneasiness below his ribs
on his left side towards his breast, expecto¬
rated a blue or blackish, and some times a
white and yellowish fœtid matter, and could
not lye without uneasiness on that side; and
at certain intervals, especially after having

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caught a little cold, or when the air was ↑unusually↑ moist,
the humour which seem'd to collect there, appeard
to pass / as it still does / with a noise and
feeling like the escape of wind, and produced
a flux. Matters were in this state in August
last, when he had Dr Hexams essence of anti¬
mony in an infusion of the Burdock root
prescribed him, which he used with some
interrupions for eight months, and by the
same advice, last winter and spring he
eat constantly of winter sallad, oranges
sweet and bitter, drank orange whey, and
rode on horseback; and when the distem¬
per fluxed him, {illeg} (took) Chamomile tea with
a few grains of Rhubarb once every other
day. He has not used the antimony for
these last three months, or since he drank
the orange whey and Chamomile. This course
has done considerable service in clearing his
skin; but {illeg} (does) not seem to have reached
the root of the dissorder. The Itching and
pimples are still perceived occasionally. This (The)
skin is still excoriated and foul in many
places; The sinews and flesh of his fingers
are sometimes heated and swelled by the
humour; and he has a constant feeling like
that of a washing or flux of matter from

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his left breast, and pulse like that which attends
a [fealing?]; and has a constant expecteration
of dissagreeable looking matter different in
colour and consistence from what he used
to throw up in a cold, tho not in a great
quantity. He has sometimes been advised
to clap a blister on the side that is affected.
and {illeg} (↑at others↑) had thoughts of going
to some of the antiscorbutick mineral
water. In considering this case, it may
perhaps be proper, to have regard to the
circumstances of the mind, as well as
body; as Mr G has been in a state of
uncommon uneassiness and distress for
near two years past, He is rather of a
sedentary disposition, but {illeg} (has hitherto) liv'd
very temperately, in every sense of the word,
and is a very exact observer of medical direc¬
tions. He eats no strong or high seasond
meats, Drinks little wine, and his breakfast
and supper are whey and bread and he
never eats any butters. ---

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Case of Mr William G
of
Gordonstoun
20th June