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LETTER LXXXII.: Hume's Arrival in London. - David Hume, Letters of David Hume to William Strahan [1756]

Edition used:

Letters of David Hume to William Strahan, ed. G. Birkbeck Hill (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1888).

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LETTER LXXXII.

Hume's Arrival in London.

  • Brewer Street,
1

2 of May, 1776.

Dear Sir

I arrived here yesterday very much improved by my Journey. I have seen no body but Sir John Pringle, who says that he sees nothing alarming in my Case2 ; and I am willing, and consequently ready to believe him. I intend to call on you this forenoon, and shall leave this in case I miss you. I know not yet what Sir John intends to do with me; so am ignorant how long I shall remain in London: But wish much to have a Conversation with you; I shall never eat a meal from my own Fireside; but all the Forenoons and Afternoons will be at my Disposal. It will do me Service to drive to your House; so that you need only appoint me by Message or Penny Post3 an hour any day.

I am Dear Sir Yours sincerely

David Hume.

P.S.—I lodge at Mrs. Perkins, a few doors from Miss Elliots4 , and next door to Mr. Forbes the Surgeon. The Afternoons, if equally convenient for you, will rather be more convenient to me, to call on you.

[1]Note 1. Brewer Street, Golden Square, where he had lodged in March, 1769 (ante, p. 203, n. 8).

[2]Note 2. Hume wrote to Dr. Blair from Bath on May 13:—‘You have frequently heard me complain of my physical friends, that they allowed me to die in the midst of them without so much as giving a Greek name to my disorder; a consolation which was the least I had reason to expect from them. Dr. Black, hearing this complaint, told me that I should be satisfied in that particular, and that my disorder was a hemorrhage, a word which it was easy to decompose into [ww][sic] and [ww]. But Sir John Pringle says, that I have no hemorrhage, but a spincture [sic] in the colon, which it will be easy to cure. This disorder, as it both contained two Greek appellations and was remediable, I was much inclined to prefer; when, behold! Dr. Gustard tells me that he sees no symptoms of the former disorder, and as to the latter, he never met with it and scarcely ever heard of it.’ Burton's Hume, ii. 504. Dr. Norman Moore, the Warden of the College of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, has kindly furnished me with the following note on this passage:—

’Hume seems to have had a cancerous growth in the large intestine, followed by a secondary cancerous growth in the liver.

‘The word sphincter is used for a circle of muscular fibres closing an orifice, but as this term is inapplicable to a diseased structure, I think Hume's word spincture is written for stricture. A new growth (cancer) of the colon would be certain to cause a stricture or narrowing of the intestine, and is frequently followed by one or more tumours in the liver. The natural history of new growths of this kind and the sequence of primary cancer of the intestine and secondary cancer of the liver was imperfectly known in Hume's time; but it is probable that John Hunter had some insight into the matter, for Charles Bernard, in Queen Anne's time, had already noticed the occasional recurrence of cancer after operation; the first step in the observation of the natural history of cancer. Hume's age, the duration of his illness, and the interval between Hunter's observation of the disease in his liver and his death, are all consistent with the opinion that he died of cancer of the intestine, followed by secondary cancer of the liver.’

[3]Note 3. See ante, p. 175, n. 2.

[4]Note 4. Miss Elliot, I suppose, is the ‘Peggy Elliot’ formerly of Lisle Street (ante, p. 94, n. 8), with whom Hume used to lodge.