See Sunday May 2nd [this has been corrected in the transcript]
Same dull shower weather. A very red sunrise: S.W. no sunshine. Got letter from Dav. [Graham]. He will be home on Sat. or Sunday. Mellalieu’s kid very ill, but rather better at night after a dose of Calomel1. Motored round town + after lunch to Prieston. Bella2 out in afternoon + Dora [Muir] did everything as well as anybody could have done. There was a meeting of Panel Committee at Gala, but I couldn’t go.
1 Calomel (Hg2Cl2), also known as horn mercury, mercurous chloride or mercury (I) chloride, was long in use internally and externally, in spite of its toxicity, for a number of problems including constipation, the incubation period of infectious disease, cholera, dysentery and membrane croup (by fumigation), but was an outdated treatment by 1920; Dr Muir may have been running out of options with Dorothy Mary Mellalieu (1919-1920), born 6 November 1919 at Roseneuk, The Glebe, Selkirk but also to die there in June 1920
2 Isabella ‘Bella’ Paulin (1873-), Dr Muir’s housekeeper
[Source: Scottish Borders Archives & Local History Service SBA/657/23, Dr J S Muir of Selkirk, medical practitioner, journal for 1920]
