Montgomery, Ala. Febry. 21/48
Rev'd William Jarvis,
Dear Sir. I wrote you last night in relation to Dr. Jarvis' illness. I then said that I did not think he was dangerously sick.
He told me that he had been exposed a good deal in the Charity Hospital in New Orleans to Ship-fever about a week before he was attacked in Mobile and that he thought he had the disease. I tried to persuade myself that it was not so: but now I am forced to believe that he has Typhus fever which, you know, is always a serious if not a dangerous disease. I now have no hesitation in saying that I consider Dr. Jarvis dangerously ill. During his visit here a month ago, he endeared himself to the whole medical profession here and they have (on learning his situation) visited him almost to a man, and I am sorry to say that they all agree with me in the opinion expressed above. You will not understand me to say that his case is by any means hopeless, for you know very well what wonderful recoveries take place from this disease and that too after much and long suffering.
It is bad to be sick even at home. How awful then is it to be prostrated on the bed of affliction
