Letter 5

LETTERS

Letter 5 to Dr. Buchanan

On the 8th September 1863 he wrote Dr. Buchanan

"Thanks for your very welcome letters. I should, have written sooner, but that I have no great inclination at present to enter into business such as you are so sadly worried with. Beyond a task which I have set myself to keep me up, I have little heart for writing. We are still very anxious, though there are some hopeful symptoms, at which we fondly catch, if only the patient can hold on a little longer. I feel deeply your sympathy. And I do assure you I sympathise with You."

Again, on the 20th September, he wrote to Dr. Buchanan

We are waiting on day by day, hour by hour, for Mary s departure. I may say all hope is gone. Dr. Todd, a very skilful and kind man, who advises with Bell, had her head, shaved and blistered; but with little or no expectation of any good result. She swallows with great difficulty a spoonful of brandy and ice; nothing more. She lies very quiet, but complains of heat in her head. Ore rra nobis."