128 DR seller's memoir OF THE 



In the beginning of the year 1765 Whytt's health began to decline. At first 

 he was affected with diuresis to a very considerable extent, particularly in the 

 night, while there was remarked an inequality of tiie pulse and occasional 

 depression of spirits. He was confined almost entirely to his house, driving out 

 only on fine days. As the diuresis lessened, a sense of inward oppression and 

 sinking became of frequent recurrence. Spasms of the bowels and flatulent 

 symptoms often arose, along with other marks of great irritability of the alimen- 

 tary canal. There was cough from the first, which varied nmch in severity 

 throughout his disease, while, in whatever state the cough was, there was always 

 an abundant, jelly-like spit. It appears that from an early period he had a 

 difficulty of lying on the right side, which, in the latter part of his illness, passed 

 into orthopnoea. His case did not at first seem so serious to his medical friends 

 as it turned out to be. Some slight appearances of gout had manifested them- 

 selves just before he became seriously ill. He himself regarded his complaints as 

 connected with gout. The same view was taken by his immediate medical at- 

 tendants, Dr Rutherford and Dr John Clerk. Porterfield provoked him by 

 pronouncing his complaints hypochondriac. Notwithstanding his sufferings, he 

 continued to take an interest in ordinary topics, and to speak sensibly on these. 

 The continual sense of sinking induced him to take more animal food and wine 

 than his medical advisers approved of In the summer of 1765 much purple 

 discoloration of his thighs and legs showed itself, as if he had become affected 

 with scurvy, yet there was no coincident affection of the gums. He was put on 

 vegetable diet, and the spots disappeared. Then a paralytic affection seized one 

 arm and one leg; which, however, subsequently became less. His sufferings 

 were great, but the disease did not gain much ground upon hira for some time. 

 He was wheeled about his house in a chair. For a short period before his disso- 

 lution, one bad symptom succeeded another in quick succession ; the sense of 

 sinking, however, disappeared. The cough was severe, and the pulse failed. 

 When within a day or two of his death, anasarca of the lower extremities began, 

 he said calmly to those about him, " The end is come at last ;" and two days after, 

 April i 5th 1766, he died. 



The chest and abdomen were examined after his death. In the cavity of the 

 left pleura there were five pounds of fluid mixed with a substance of gelatinous 

 consistence and bluish colour. In the right cavity there were two pounds of 

 serum. On the left side there were adhesions. There was some fluid in the 

 pericardium. The lungs were free from disease ; the heart seemed atrophied. 

 There was a very little water in the abdomen. The viscera were generally free 

 from disease. There was a red spot, the size of a shilling, on the mucous mem- 

 brane of the stomach. There were concretions in the pancreas. 



Whytt's funeral was public, in so far that the Principal and Professors of the 



