| Description Of Item | Letter from [James Saidler], Millholme House Asylum, Musselburgh, to Thomas Laycock. Letter details the case of A Mitchell (32) who had repeated fits despite being dosed repeatedly with chloroform. As the fits continued he was given beef tea and two glasses of whisky. The patient died during a fit on 14 [March 1861]. Saidler references a lecture given by Laycock on chloroform as a treatment and the effect on the pulse. Saidler believes the cause of death was a ‘disguised condition of the peripheral nervous system’ that caused spasms that affected respiration and the ‘cerebral nervous system’ and further caused a ‘paroxysm. The whole nervous system being then as it were sufficiently charged or in a sufficient state of super polarity’. No signature or sign off. A note on the front page reads [From D Saidler resident]. The paper has the formal letterhead for Millholme Asylum printed at the top of the first page. |