Jan 4 1774: Three or four years ago, a stumbling horse threw
me forward on the pommel of the saddle. I felt a good deal of pain; but it soon
went off, and I thought of it no more. Some months after I observed, testiculum
alterum altero duplo majorem esse. I consulted a Physician: He told me
it was a common case, and did not imply any disease at all. In May twelve-month it was grown near as large as a hen’s egg. Being then at Edinburgh, Dr Hamilton insisted on my having the advice of Drs. Gregory and Munro. They immediately saw it was a Hydrocele, and advised me, as soon as I came to London, to aim at a radical cure, which they judged might be effected in about sixteen days: When I came to London, I consulted Mr Wathen. He advised me,
it was a common case, and did not imply any disease at all. In May twelve-month it was grown near as large as a hen’s egg. Being then at Edinburgh, Dr Hamilton insisted on my having the advice of Drs. Gregory and Munro. They immediately saw it was a Hydrocele, and advised me, as soon as I came to London, to aim at a radical cure, which they judged might be effected in about sixteen days: When I came to London, I consulted Mr Wathen. He advised me,
1. Not to think of a
radical cure, which could not be hoped for, without my lying in one posture
fifteen or sixteen days. And he did not know whether this might not give a
wound to my constitution, which I should never recover.
2. To do nothing while
I continued easy. And this advice I was determined to take.
Last month the swelling was often painful. So on this day,
Mr. Wathen performed the operation, and drew off something more than half a
pint of a thin, yellow, transparent water. With this came out (to his no small
surprise) a pearl of the size of a small shot; which he supposed might be one
cause of the disorder, by occasioning a conflux of humours to the part.
Wednesday, 5. I was as perfectly easy, as if no operation had been performed.
