Snowing this morning + everything white : by one o’clock the snow had disappeared, at any rate in + about the town. Was a little late [?]. Walt. Wilson1 died at 2 a.m. + D.2 made a p.m. [post mortem] which showed an enlarged + diseased [illegible] possibly tubercular. Got my new bicycle equipped with front carrier + cyclometer.3 Cycled to Heather + Forest Mills4 + Hospital where a case of Scarlet has been admitted from Kirkwynd.5 At 4 D. operated on Mrs Scott from Whitfield6 + finding a tumour at the hepatic flexure of colon, made a short circuit of the ileum + transverse colon. The Patons7 were here at lunch + I dressed Isabella’s hand which had been scratched by her cat.
1 Walter Wilson (1888-1923), yarn store worker, died 10 April 1923, aged 35, at 7 Beechbank, Selkirk, of obstruction of gall duct 6 months certified by John S Muir M.B. &c. The son of Thomas Wilson, Co-operative Society Manager, and Janet Wilson née Stewart.
2 David Charteris ‘Dav.’ Graham (1889-1963), M.B., Ch.B., medical practitioner and Dr Muir’s business partner.
3 This is a peculiar comment. Dr Muir regularly used a velometer and quoted precise distances travelled. Such velometers appear to have been designed for specific wheel sizes and yet Dr Muir quoted a very precise reading for his trip into Roxburghshire the day before this comment (see diary entry for 9 April 1923).
4 The Editor assumes that this was another part of Dr Muir’s factory inspection routine.
5 Selkirk had suffered a prolonged outbreak of Scarlet fever and Diphtheria in 1921 and 1922 which, to judge by Dr Muir’s diary, was over by this time. Only time will tell if this occurrence was an outlier or a more serious outbreak.
6 Mrs Scott of Whitefield, Yarrow is so far unidentified.
7 Isabella Clementina ‘Isa’ Paton (1838-1929), had lived with her sister Marion Agnes Paton (about 1841-1940) at Galashiels since moving there from Selkirk in May 1918.
[Source: Scottish Borders Archives & Local History Service SBA/657/26, Dr J S Muir of Selkirk, medical practitioner, journal for 1923]
Rumbling Clint's Scottish Notes 