Heard that Smith's bad health forced him to abandon his Bristol lectures. Lady Cullum alarmingly ill with spasms of the thorax and abdomen: camphor, opium, and [ether] have gave little relief but small doses of calomel and castor oil helped, and she is now convalescing though her appetite is suppressed by an intermittent fever. On journey to Cheltenham could only briefly stop at Oxford to use stables and coach house of Dr [Martin] Routh [(1755-1854)], Master of Magdalen College, as it was race week.
Transcribes brief extract of letter from General [Thomas] Hardwicke on improvement of his health. Implores Smith not to overwork himself on "English Flora" and to forget "every thing unpleasant that passed at Cambridge" [Smith's campaign for botany professorship]. His son at Aix-la-Chapelle, [Germany], or Brussels, [Netherlands], his daughter-in-law's poor health the same despite trying so many celebrated baths in Europe.