About two weeks before he died, he was taken with a fit of violent oppressive pain, just above the pit of the stomach, which made him feel as if he was very near dying. He was bled, and gradually recovered; yet so imperfectly, that any motion of his body, or any pressure upon that part with the point of a finger, instantly brought on such oppressive pain, that he was convinced the least addition to what he had several times felt, must have put an end to his life. He had an idea that there might be a collection of matter behind the sternum, which might be discharge by some chirurgical operation.