Townsend Correspondence 1840

              Bloomfield January the 24 of 1840
Dear Sister
	We received your letter Six weeks ago but were unable to answer it. The Doctor was taken sick about [torn] November with a dryness and burning of the throat and slight nausea. Wh[torn]toms he soon remived by strict dieting and the aid of tarter plastered on [torn]uch Drinking this time he was riding almost day and night. Thinking him [torn]ll he began ta?ent  [torn,illegible] from which brought [torn,illegible] ten fold [torn,illegible]. On the nineteenth instant he was taken with excessive sickness and violent vomitting and he rode one whole day in this situation. In the evening he took a dose of morphine and rested well during the night. The next morning he was some better but he was obliged to talk nearly all day with people coming from the country which made him worse. I wished him to do something for himself he said he was doing well enough he took a second dose of morphine which warmed him up and he rested well during the second night on friday morning the 21st he was no better and apparently no worse. I tried to get him to be bled by Doc F. but [faded and illegible]. He said he would rather trust his life in myhands than in any other person that he knew of and that Frelland should never be sent for. He then said that I might bleed him if I had the courage to try for no one else should. Without it was Judge Carens and he was not at home. I made up my mind to bleed him and did so as there was no alternative but to do it or wait.I brought the blood the first snap. I drew a good quart which helpt[sic] him the first day or so. He had large (larles?) sores on his stomach. On the 23third he said I might put a large blister on his stomach. I did so and he kept it on twentyfore [sic] bound it drew well. On the 24th he took 20 grams of callamel. This was on Sunday I wished to send for (Amul?) but he would not hear tell of this. So I sent unbeknowngs to him. He was disposed to  get cold. His pulse counted one hundred and fore [sic] in a minute. On the 26th his blister dried up and he was complaining of a faintness and a dificulty of breathing. I had to bathe him every few minutes with camphine and fan his face his hands and feet feeling as cold as death. I had to heat blankets smoking hot and lap him in them as fast as we could heat them for fore [sic] or five days.On monday I had drawn a second blister he was taking a grin of calomel and morphine once in an hour which stopt [sic] the puking to some extent. His calomel would not operate had been drinking weak salts and made [illegible] of injections three times

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As soon as the blister drew he got better. It dried up again in a few hours and he began to scream and wanted pistols and swords to kill himself. I tried to [illegible - cut?] his stomach but the crust was too thick where the blisters had been. He knocked the window out on friday.The 28th instant and until the thirtieth he screamed and cursed every thing that he could think of. I begged of Amos to bleed him I had the Doctors consent for he was glad to have it done he thought it would help him to die sooner and easyer. At one time Ai went to him and said you do wish to be bleed do you. He said yes cut as [torn, faded]

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a day. I was expecting Amos that night but news came that he was not coming until we should send send word again. The thought my fears were (grounaless?) The word I sent was this If he wishes to see his brother in his senses to come soon. His wife took the news and she said that she saw him and that he told her that he was doing well and that if he was not he would send for A. I sent hoses at midnight the same night that I got the word. On that same night he was taken delirious and asked for a kettle full of warm water to drink so that he might get warm. I warmed his blankets right hot and put a coal in his elm water which satisfied him. Amos came the next dayatten, he still knew him he told A that he was doing fine. His pulse was quick and tense his countenance appeared shrunk and an unscowl frown on his forehead.Amos said he would bleed him if his pulse raised.I thought that if bleeding would not raise it nothing would. A. went out in town and gave him a tolerably large dose of morphine. It had the desired effect it equalised the circulation. I then sent for Amos and he bleed him freely and it helpt [sic] him few hours. The symptoms returned and Amos bled him again with success. The disease still raged and I bleed him about midnight Amos being at Mr. Edwards. Sleep The next morning Amos pronounced him out of danger for he seemed so much better. But I thought not his blister was drying up too fast. The Selene arteries ware beating so that I could see his stomach raise the bedclothes quite plain. In the evening they ware trying to shave him he took the raser and would shave himself. After that was done  he then ordered them all home and not to be seen here again. He next asked me to get him a glass of sider or apple juice which he made use of consatantly to stop the retchingwhich nothing else would do half as well. I had to scrape the apples and make as he used it. He also asked for a glass of water and a bowl [sic] of potatoe soup [sic] boiled with a chiken [sic] put on a tray before him. he had tasted a little soup [sic] in the morning. We had to get it for him. He then told A. to come and pertake of his good supper and began eating potatoes A. and I tried to take it from him at the same time and got it for which he cursed us both. He imagined that there [sic] were a number of armed men in the room that aimed kill him he bantered them for a sword [illegible, faded torn]

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his honor as a knight that would fight them honorably and that he was as good a knight [sic] as ever weeled wsord[sic] he would disregard a regiment of them.He thought A and I were intriguing among the rest he would have taken my life at one time if he could have reached me. I mad friends by giving him a sword [sic] being a small stick. His thoughts changed and he thought he was to be (hangnised?). I asked A if bleeding would not helphim he said it would not. I consulted Evenly and he says not to let a small pulse keep the practitioner from the use of the lancet. I finally got Amoses consent to bleed him if the Doctor consented but this was no easy task for he said there was nothing ailing him and that we only wished to weaken him so that we could kill him the easier. He asked for his clothes to put on which I promised him if he would let us bleed him to which he consented. A then tried to open a vein three times but failed. The Doctor said the next Snip was his own  9ding?0 to squirrel hunting and laid the lancet on a vein and brought the blood in a moment but he was so cold that the blood would not run. We lapt hot cloths round his bond so that we made out to get some blood. All at once he said he was bleed enough and raised upon his feet and said look at the drawn sword and then screamed murder and tried his best to get away from us. It was as much as well three men could do to get him back into bed again. He at last fainted and Amos said it was a convulsion caused by bee sting. I thought it was caused by his getting up and fighting with them to get loose. He looked as pale as a cloth the whole time the spasm lasted. When he came to he begged of me to let him have some poison so that he might die soon. He had a small peice of opium in his pocket and he took a large dose of it which clamed him and he rested the rest of the night. I had used all the morphine his favorite medicine. A said opiates made him worse and it most always calmed him. The next morning he dreamed that he was to be kidnaped. I was alone in the room he got up in a moment and would be dressed he said he would see the outside of the house. I got him in the rocking chair by this time A came up. I sent Moses for more help. We could keep him no longer. He picked up the tongs and staggered out of the room and would have fallen down stairs but we turned him round he next made a dart at the window he knocked out the glass and screamed [torn,illegible] he could which soon (raises?) the town.

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I thought it was now death if he was left long the way he was and the most torturing kind. He had not been (physical?) in two weeks and has had better than 60 grains of calomel in him and the number of the injections, I cannot tell but the averaged three per day. He had taken a great deal of weak salts and I gave him some assafoitida dissolved in water. Amos said it would not hurt him and the DOctor had given it to a man that had accute astritis. I had been giving him salts elm tea and two or three small doses of opium and now and then apple juice to stop the vomiting. I had to call it poison every time or he would not have taken a thing.  He tried his best to die with poison as he thought, He told me if I had any feeling for him to give him something that would kill quick and easy. He tried to hold his breath a considerable time saying that he was dying. It was for this I gave the assafoetada and it had a good effect. For he had not taken it an hour when he said I had made a fool of him all day that I had not given him any poison at all. I had drawn the fourth blister and while it run he was a great deal better but it dried up in six hours. It was now night on [illegible] the 30th. The blister was dry and his stomach was swelled and the Seliac arteries beating violently. 

Turn over

Amos had given him up to die three days ago and every one that saw him thought the same. He awoke and said he was to be the sacrifice that night he begged us to knock his brains out he then began to scream. This lasted an hour he then fell into a dose. There were a number of men that thought bleeding would help him but would tell me there is his brother he might know what was best. I asked Amos once more if bleeding would not help him he said no he should never give his consent. I then said that I would if it was only to ease his last moments. I then went to tie up his arm. A sid I should let him sleep. He had been quiet for an hour I could not get him awake. I called him as [torn] as I could and shook him he would not open his eyes nor speak he breathed easily but slowly. [torn] pulled me from him and said he was in a fine sleep. The rest of the watches told A to let [torn] alone for he was dieing. I thought gangerene had taken place and that his sufferings were at an end [torn] said he needed no bleeding then. But got him awake in the course of an half an hour. He soon began to scream and curse worse than ever he would retch so bad that the blood burst from his [illegible]. He would hide and shit on the bed which he had not done before. He thought he had been taken into a (copper?) march to be left to be left to die there by the effect of poison that he was obliged to take he thought he was on that he dream [torn] was  [illegible] with corrosive sublimate and was burning him up alive. Sometimes he thought he was in hell and that htere would be no end to his pain. I went to mix him up a large dose of opium and when I came back he thought he had not seen me for thirty years!