Letter from David Donaldson to his father

Letter from David Donaldson to his father

Letter from David Donaldson whilst an undergraduate at Cambridge to his father writing about extra insurance and paperwork. He then continues about several health issues and its impact on his rowing. Additional information about this item was kindly provided by the donor.

Seven page hand written letter

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EDonaldsonDWDonaldsonTXX0126

Jan 26th,
34 Jesus Lane
Cambridge
Dear Papa,
Thanks very much for your letter about the insurance. The Air Ministry apparently send [deleted] one [/deleted] particulars about extra insurance if and when they accept me. I am [2 characters deleted] sorry to keep on sending off urgent letters demanding things; there is [inserted] no [/inserted] particular hurry for the certificate of entry of birth; as the
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form has not been signed by the O.T.C. [inserted] man [/inserted] and I have sent it back to him.
I have been having [deleted] slight [deleted] stomach trouble again (like last holidays) and I went to see [deleted] the doctor [/deleted] Dr. Billington, Dr Taylor's partner. He says that as I am young he can cure it quite easily without medicine and has given me a treatment which seems to consist chiefly
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of Couéism. I also asked him about my spots. He has been working on [inserted] spots [/inserted] [deleted] these [/deleted] for some time. He found that vaccinations and injections were of no use. He also noticed that they [deleted] alw [/deleted] seem to occur when [deleted] a [/deleted] one is [deleted] doing the maximum of mental w[/deleted] at the 'Varsity [inserted] and [/inserted] is [deleted] doing [/deleted] therefore doing the maximum of mental work; [inserted] when one [/inserted] is taking more regular physical exercise that at any other time during one's life; and lastly
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at a time when one[deleted]'s[/deleted] is still developing from puberty to manhood. [deleted] About the [/deleted] nothing [deleted] could [/deleted] can be done about the mental work as that is necessary and has to be done; but for the physical exercise one [deleted] a [/deleted] must avoid too much, especially, as it is difficult to keep it up afterwards; and lastly [2 words deleted] to help the general[deleted]ly[/deleted]d evelopment, he has [inserted] made up [/inserted] [one word deleted] a medicine of testicular extract. [deleted] which [/deleted]
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Also a general tonic is very good as he believes that [inserted] when [/inserted] one comes in tired, with the vitality lowered (as the advertisements say); [inserted] that [/inserted] that is the time that the infection is caught. [deleted] He says [/deleted]
[deleted] If [/deleted] He has always found that a person who takes a medium amount of exercise is extremely healthy, [character deleted] but if he increases it all too much he [word deleted] is very liable to get ill and get spots.
[character deleted] Up to the last few days I have been really very fit; but he wants to give up sculling for about a week and not to do too much rowing for a day or two.
[inserted] After that if I am alright I shall be able to go on as before. [/inserted]
As the muscle [deleted] has bee [/deleted] in my stomach has been [character deleted] irritating a bit lately, I am going to give rowing a rest till Monday; I m going to see him again soon, and if I am still spotty I am going to have some of his medicine.
I must apologise for this medical letter, but I thought it was quite interesting
your hypochrondiacal [sic] son
[one word deleted] David
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[indecipherable character]
Apparently my qualifying exam is on May 28th which is much later than [superimposed character deleted] I thought,
Much love from
[underlined] David [/underlined]