City Road. June 5th 1805
My Dear Mary
I have seen Mr Young this morning and talkd with him concerning Charles, and the account you give of his knee. He tells me that the pain he felt has no connection with the Bone, and is not a sign of its being worse at all, but is in the nerve that goes from the thigh nearly over the knee and down the outer side of the leg. He is rejoiced to hear that he moves the joint somthing better, and insists that the great discharge has enabled him to move it, and that the reason he did not move it while we kept it sore, was because he felt that soreness and was carefull, (which we know was the case) and that the real cause of the complaint has been in some degree remov'd by our violent treatment.
Seeing this much, he says he has no objection to your healing it entirely for a time to give him rest, which he desires you would do now, for that the small discharge you are able to produce is not sufficient. Therefore heal it immediately and let him be happy for a time—But he wants to know when you write again, how he is as to general health, how he looks, and the colour of his stools? &c
For the present this is to beg of you to give him ease, until you hear from me to the contrary, for I have still some hopes of restoring the limb.
Love to him and to Hannah. Be happy.
Good Mary, only be happy, and you will get well. Yours most affectionately.
Rob Bloomfield