Letter 59 C H Hall to Dr. Hezekiah Gilbert Leigh

Date: 27 Jul 1872 [unknown]
Location: Greenwood, Virginia
Surname/tag: Leigh

Greenwood, VA

Saturday, A.M.

27th July, 1872

My Dear Gib:

I received your's of the 25th yesterday, but the second box of pills did not arrives so promptly as the first. I suppose they will come today. I passed last night comfortably, with the exception of several occasions of getting up, which I did not attempt to check. The evacuations continue free, & as if produced by mercury or something of that sort. I have not gotten up this A.M. & dressed because the weather is hot, & I can find more comfort disrobed. I went down to tea yesterday evening, & enjoyed a glass of iced milk but did not stay long from my room finding the bed more comfortable. Rev. Dr. Stiles arrived yesterday from Cobb's Island. He says the place is most delightful: the air being superb, & during the three weeks he was there, only one or two days in which he found any oppressive heat at midday, the porches of the house generally furnishing shade & breeze. The surf bath most invigorating & safe. The fare uncommonly good, the bread of the very best quality & of variety. Spots, Sheepshead &c fish from the water: birds killed and eaten in plenty, good mutton & lamb & indifferent beef: as much milk, rich & good, as can be consumed & the best northern ice. The bed rooms are perfectly clean, as are the beds. He does not know how the reports adverse to the cleanliness & comfort of the place could have arisen from, but he said he found nothing of the discomforts, which I told him were reported in Petersburg.

Now what do you think of that as the place for me? Dont you think it would be better than staying any longer here in the mountains, & would not a month there be probably of benefit? If so when had I better leave here? Ans. "Immediately will be best." Will it hurt to stop a couple of days at home, as I have indispensable arrangements to make? Ans. "Not in the least, if you use the shower bath & keep out of the sun."

My questions are good enough. I do not know if you like my answers. Here is a point that occurs to me. Could the strong chalybrate water here, of which I have been drinking for a week past, have acted as an alterative & produced my present evacuations? Was it the effect of this water, pretty freely used, which produced the dull & heavy feelings of Sunday, & the fever of Tuesday, & that is (seemingly) clearing out my system without any other medicine whatever? Does an ordinary chill & fever, without medicine, alter the secretions & set the bile freely to flowing, as now appears to be the case? Had I better stay here a while longer & continue this water & observe its further effects?

Now Sir Gilbertus Magnus, if you can answer all these questions, & doctor your patient one hundred and forty miles away, I shall pronounce you a man of broad and far reaching views. My love to the wife and all.

Yrs ever faithfully, C.H. Hall

VLR (Virginia Leigh Refo)

A letter to Dr. Hezekiah Gilbert Leigh, a practicing physician/surgeon in Petersburg from a patient. Dr. Leigh was the husband of Martha Alice (Moody) Leigh. Sounds like a vacation poster for Cobb's Island!

Acknowledgement

• Many thanks to cousin Virginia Leigh Refo whose research and transcriptions added to this profile. The originals were donated to the Library of Virginia in 2004 by Liz Edens Vermillion with the help of Virginia Refo Moody Family Papers, 1750-1881. Accession 40535, Personal Papers Collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.