Deivids Hjūms raksta: “1775. gada pavasarī mani ķēra zarnu kaite, kas sākumā mani neuztrauca, bet kopš tā laika, es baidos, ir kļuvusi nāvējoša un neārstējama.” (Hjūms D. Mana dzīve. – grāmatā: Hjūms Deivids. Traktāts par cilvēka dabu - Liepnieks&Rītups, 2008. 522-523.lpp.)

Pie šī izteikuma ir komentārs: “Hjūma ārsti nevarēja vienoties par šās slimības diagnozi. Vispirms tā tika uzskatīta par vienkāršu hemoroīdu, pēc tam – par taisnās zarnas augoni, vēl vēlāk – par žultspūšļa iekaisumu. Viens no slavenākajiem 18. gadsimta ķirurgiem Džons Hanters (1728-1793) aptaustīja Hjūma aknas un konstatēja, ka tās ir palielinātas. Vēlāk Hjūms pats spēja sataustīt olas lieluma augoni savās aknās.”

Dž. Hantera biogrāfe aplūko Hjūma slimības diagnozi (aknu vēzis) nedaudz izvērstāk:

Hunter was approaching the peak of his career. The King's seal of approval meant his professional opinion was increasingly in demand, and his advice was now being sought by more and more well-known Georgian figures. When David Hume, the Scottish philosopher and historian who had made an enemy of the Kirk with his sceptical writings, fell ill with abdominal pains in 1775 he was surrounded by the most eminent physicians of the day. In Edinburgh, William Cullen and Joseph Black rallied to his side; when he visited London a bevy of physicians attempted a diagnosis; and on travelling to Bath in the summer of 1776 the beleaguered patient was assured by a local physician, Dr Gusthart, that the spa waters would cure him. None of them could offer a satisfactory explanation or any effective remedy for Hume's obvious decline. They were happy to posit elaborate theories and propose assorted therapies, but none was prepared actually to examine the patient in order to determine what might be causing his suffering. It was only when Hunter met the ailing philosopher and per¬formed a physical examination that Hume finally discovered the true cause of his illness.
Hunter had arrived in Bath in June on a social visit and had immediately enquired after Hume; they were related by marriage, since Anne's father, Robert Home, was Hume's cousin - the spellings Home and Hume were interchangeable and both names were pronounced 'Hume'. On being invited by Gusthart to examine Hume, Hunter laid his hands on the suffering man's abdomen and could plainly feel a tumour, which he suspected was cancerous, in the liver. Since abdominal surgery was out of the question, there was no hope that an operation could save him. Although Hunter immediately conveyed his diagnosis to Gusthart, even then the philosopher was kept in the dark for several more days. Hume's relief when his physicians finally confessed Hunter's verdict, no matter how bleak, was palpable in the letters he wrote home. 'John Hunter . . . coming accidentally to Town, and expressing a very friendly Concern about me, Dr Gusthart proposed that I should be inspected by him: He felt very sensibly, as he said, a Tumor or Swelling in my Liver,' he told his brother. Hume, who naturally preferred straightforward scientific evidence over superstition, added, 'this Fact, not drawn by reasoning, but obvious to the Senses, and perceived by the greatest anatomist in Europe, must be admitted as unquestionable, and will alone account for my Situation'.91 Relating the diagnosis to a friend, Hume added: 'You ask me how I know this; I answer, John Hunter, the greatest anatomist in Europe, felt it with his fingers.’ The verdict of Hunter's fingers, to Hume at least, carried more weight than the hypothetical musings of all the country's best physicians. And despite his physicians' dogged persistence with their meddling medication, the philosopher died in Scotland, of suspected liver cancer, two months later.

Wendy Moore. The Knife Man: Blood, Body Snatching, and the Birth of Modern Surgery. – Bantam, 2005. p. 356-358.