'As to my own health I think it rather grows better; the convulsions which left me last year at Ashbourne have never returned, and I have by the mercy of God very comfortable nights. Let me know very often how you are till you are quite well.'
This letter, though it is dated 1778, must have been written in 1780. Thrale's first attack was in June, 1779, when he was in 'extreme danger' (ante, iii. 397, n. 2, 420). Johnson had the remission of the convulsions on June 18, 1779. He recorded on June 18, 1780:—
'In the morning of this day last year I perceived the remission of those convulsions in my breast which had distressed me for more than twenty years. I returned thanks at church for the mercy granted me, which has now continued a year.'—Prayers and Meditations, p. 183.
Three days later he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:—
'It was a twelvemonth last Sunday since the convulsions in my breast left me. I hope I was thankful when I recollected it; by removing that disorder a great improvement was made in the enjoyment of life.' —Piozzi Letters, ii. 163. (See ante, iii. 397, n. 1.)
He was at Ashbourne on June 18, 1779 (ante, iii. 453).
On April 20, 1778, the very day of which this letter bears the date, he recorded:—
'After a good night, as I am forced to reckon, I rose seasonably…. In reviewing my time from Easter, 1777, I found a very melancholy and shameful blank. So little has been done that days and months are without any trace. My health has, indeed, been very much interrupted. My nights have been commonly not only restless, but painful and fatiguing. ….Some relaxation of my breast has been procured, I think, by opium, which, though it never gives me sleep, frees my breast from spasms.' —Prayers and Meditations, p. 169. See ante, iii. 317, n. 1.
For Johnson's advice about bleeding, see ante, iii. 152; and for possible occasions for 'suspected letters,' ante, i. 472, n. 4; and ii. 202, n. 2.
Mr. Mason's 'sneering observation in his "Memoirs of Mr. William Whitehead"'