The bloodlettings of Adam Smith’s private pupil Thomas Petty-Fitzmaurice

Act II: “Bloodletting” (Glasgow College, 1760) [*] The next direct evidence of Smith’s encounters with the “absurd prescriptions” of doctors are two pieces of correspondence–one dated March 10, 1760 (Corr. 45); the other, Nov. 11, 1760 (Corr. 52)–both of which are addressed to “Lord Shelburne.” [1] At the time, Adam Smith was a professor at the University of Glasgow as well as a private tutor to Lord Shelburne’s son, Thomas Petty-Fitzmaurice. [2] The first time the young aristocrat became ill during his studies in Glasgow, Smith describes his illness as a “slight fever” in a letter addressed to his pupil’s father, Lord Shelburne: “I think it my Duty to inform your Lordship that Mr. Fitzmaurice has been for some days past ill of a slight fever, from which, however, he never appeared to be in the least danger and from which I hope he is now in a fair way of recovery.” [3] This supposed “slight fever,” however, was serious enough for Smith to call a doctor and for the doctor to perform a…

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