LETTERS OF DR. JOHN MCLOUGHLIN
Edited by Jane Lewis Chapin
The Oregon Historical Quarterly, December, 1935, and March, 1936, printed letters from Dr. John McLoughlin, most of them written to his uncle, Dr. Simon Fraser, which were presented to McLoughlin House, Oregon City, by a member of the Fraser family.. Recently the same donor has sent several more letters, which fit in with those already printed. The complaints of Dr. McLoughlin about his compensation in the North West Company and his concern over the medical education of his brother David are here continued. As in the case of the former letters, these are chiefly interesting for the glimpse they reveal of McLoughlin's personality, especially his parental solicitude as expressed in the letter of admonition to his son.
Dr. John McLoughlin to Dr. Simon Fraser
Kamanistiquia, 11th August 1806
Dr. Simon Fraser,
Terre-Bonne
My Dear Sir:
I wrote you a few days ago and if I write now it is not because I have anything new to mention but I want to tell you (which I hope that you are well aware of before) that my sense of gratitude to you for your very kind attention is still the same. Now, as to my practice which has been very extensive this summer, among my patients I had one with the King's evil whom I cur'd by applying the common sorrel in form of a poultice to the part affected. The manner of preparing the poultice is as follows: To as much of sorrel as you think proper, pound it in a mortar till it is reduced to a kind of pulp, then put it into an unglas'd earthen pot and allow it to macerate in its own juice over a gentle fire until it becomes of a proper consistency and to be applied in as warm as the patient can endure to the naked sore. The patient I had complain'd it hurt him much and on the very first application the sore assumed a red colour. I have adopted Dr. Darwin's theory i.e. that ulcers of this nature are from deficiency of irritability, and I imagine that there is an assumption of oxigene from the sorrel that gives the sore the
