Sad Autographed Letter Signed on the death of his daughter Louisa

Middletown, 1852. unbound. 3 pages (front and back), 10 x 7.75 inches, Middletown, October 3, 1852, to his nephew Dr. Rufus Woodward, in small part: "...I shall not be able to give you a very intelligible description of your cousin Louisa's last sickness and I have no very clear idea what was the cause of her death there was no examination made. She has always been subject to a good deal of pain in the head and more or less affliction of the stomach. Near two weeks before her death she was attacked with the appearance of acute neuralgia - still no heat above the head - the pain would be temporarily eased by Morphine...generally though, not Quinine in sedative doses...it would give some relief when they could be relieved on the stomach. She improved some after the attack -- under medication for a week...when she had one of her fits...something of the likes of Epilepsy. The loss of sight was total -- consciousness absent and action of the heart was extremely feeble, what was always the case after those attacks. In this instance it never relieved -- the pulse was hardly detectable the last five days of her illness. Louisa when an infant was very sick. At about 11 months old she had chicken pox which permanently affected her brain. Her kidneys: they would secrete at times profusely -- at other times scantly..." Condition: usual folds and some underlining; very good(-) condition. Provenance: The Rufus Woodward Archive.<br/><br/> American physician and part of the famous Woodward clan of medical doctors, which included his brother Samuel B. Woodward and his nephew Rufus Woodward.<br/><br/>