So much was his power of digestion impaired or vitiated by the immense evacuations, and the long continued debility he underwent, that after the cough was removed, and indeed for several years after the period mentioned, he never could eat animal food without heat and flushing, with frequent pulse and extreme drowsiness. If this drowsiness was encouraged, the fever ran high, and he awoke from disturbed sleep, wearied and depressed. If it was resolutely resisted by gentle exercise, it went off in about an hour, as well as the increased frequency of the pulse. This agitation was however such as to incapacitate him during the afternoon for study of any kind. The same effects did not follow a meal of milk and vegetables, but under this diet his strength did not recruit; whereas after the use of animal food it recovered rapidly, notwithstanding the inconvenience already mentioned. For this inconvenience he at last found a remedy in the use of coffee immediately after dinner, recommended to him by his friend Dr. Percival. At first this remedy operated like a charm, but by frequent use, and indeed by abuse, it no longer possesses its original efficacy.
Dr. Falconer, in his Dissertation on the Influence of the Passions and Affections of the Mind on Health and Disease, supposes that the cheerfulness which attends hectic fever, the ever-springing hope, which brightens the gloom of the consumptive patient, increases the diseased actions, and hastens his doom. And hence he is led to enquire, whether the influence of fear might not be substituted in such cases to that of hope with advantage to the patient? This question I shall not presume to answer, but it leads me to say something of the state of the mind in the case just related.
The patient, being a physician, was not ignorant of his danger, which, some melancholy circumstances served to impress on his mind. It has already been mentioned, that his mother and grandfather died of this disease. It may be added, that in the year preceding that on which he himself was attacked, a sister of his was carried off by consumption in her 17th year; that in the same winter in which he fell ill, two other sisters were seized with the same fatal disorder, to which one of them fell a victim during his residence at Bristol, and that the hope of bidding a last adieu to the other was the immediate cause of his journey to Scotland, a hope which, alas! was indulged in vain. The day on which he reached the end of his journey, her remains were committed to the dust! It may be conjectured from these circumstances, that whatever benefit may be derived from the apprehension of death, must in this case have been obtained. The expectation of this issue was indeed for some time so fixed that it ceased to produce much agitation; in conformity to that general law of our nature, by which almost all men submit with composure to a fate that is foreseen, and that appears inevitable. As however the progress of disease and debility seemed to be arrested, the hope and the love of life revived, and produced, from time to time, the observations and the exertions already mentioned.