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Letter from Professor John Goodsir to James Syme, dated 27 September 1853 and sent from the Hotel de la Croix d'or in Karlsruhe, Germany.
The letter is significant as it is the only one known where Goodsir describes the illness he is increasingly suffering from:
“You will be enabled to judge of my case when I inform you that my symptoms are those of incipient affection of the spinal cord, on both sides, but especially on the right side of the lumbar, and in the slightest degree, also, on the left side of the brachial region. The opinion of my medical friends here is, that the duration and character of the case indicated merely engorgement of the pia-matral venous plexus, with slight serous effusion. The opinion is corroborated by the venous engorgement (now much administered) in my legs, and partially in my hands. I, myself, however, am fully aware of the extreme probability of a slight softening having already taken place in the organ, and of the great rarity of reparative action, or even a stationary condition of, the afflicted parts in this disease.”