TEN MONTHS' SUFFERING IN HOSPITAL.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 2179, 1 July 1890, Page 4

TEN MONTHS' SUFFERING IN HOSPITAL.

There is an old saying that physicians are a class of men who pour drugs, of which thsy know little, into bodies of which they know less. This is both true and untrue at tho aame time. There are good and poor lawyers, and good and poor doctors. The trouble with these medical gentlemen as a profession is that they are clannish, and apt to be conceited. They don't like to be beaten at their own trade by outsiders whn have never studied medicine. They therefore pay, by their frequent failures, the penalty of refusing instruction uubss the teacher bears their own "Hall Mark."

An emiuent physician — Dr 13 tow nSequard, of Paris — states the taut accurately when he says; "The .-nodical piofession are so bound up iv their .selfconfidence and conceit that they allow the diamond truths of .science to be picked up by persons entirely outside their vankd." We give ;i mo it interesting incident, which illustralorf the important truth. The steamship '" Concor.lia," of tlw Donaldson Line, sailed from Glasgow for Baltimore in 1887, having on board a3 a fireman a man named Richard Wade, of GlavSgow, He had been a fireman for fourteen years on various ships sailing to America, China, and India. He had borne the hard and exhausting labor, and had boon healthy and strong. On the trip wo now namo he began for the first time to feel weak and ill. His appetite failed, and he suffered from drowsiness, heartburn, a bad taste in too mouth, and cosuveness and irregularity of the bowels. Sometimes when at work he hdd attacks of giddiness, but supposed it to be caused by the heat of the fire-room. Quite often he was sick and felt like vomiting, and had some pain in the head. Later during the passage ho grew worse, and when the ship reached Halifax he was placed in the Victoria General Hospital, and the sbip sailed away without Mm, The houae surgeon gave him some powders

to stop tho vomiting, and tho next day the visiting physician g ivo him a mixtuio 10 Wo taken every fovir hours. Within two days Wade whs so much woise that thn d ictors sLoppoci both the powders aud the mixture. A month pi.s.sed, iho poor fireman getting worse

aad woitv

Then c nun another doctor, who was to bo viniiiug physioitu for the n^xt five months, liv gavo other rmvliciues, but not much ruii.'t'. Ne.irly all that time Wade sull'-iHcl }»reat torlure , he digested nothing, thi-owing up all he ate. Thorn was terrible p;iiu. iv the bowels, burning beao in the throat, heartburn, aod racking hotd tche. Ttie patient was now taking v mixtuio oveiy four hours, powdors one alier each meal to digest the food, operatirg pills one every night, and temperature pills two each night to slop the Cold sweats. If drugs could cure him at all, pichard had an idea that ho took enoui^h to do it. But on t the other hand p'eurisy set iv and the doctors look ninety ounces of matte)' front his right side t< Aod then toid him he was sure- to die.* Five months more rolled by, and there was another change of visiting physicians. The new one gave Watlo a mixture which he said made him- tremble like a leaf on a tree.

At this ciiais Wad.i'!j Scotch blood asserted itwelf. Ho refused to stand ciny more dosing, and told the doctors that if he must, die he couM die as well without them as with them. By this time a cup of milk would turn sour on his stomach, and lie there for days. Our friend from Gl^s^ow was like a wreck on ii sho:.l, fast going 10 pieces. Wo will let him tell the re>t of his experieuce iv the worda in which he conimuuicated it to the pre.-s.

He says : " When 1 was in thia slate a lady whom 1 had never seeD came to the hospital and talked with me. She proved to be an angel of mercy, for without her I should not now be alive. Sh^ toid mo of a medicine called ' Alother Seigel'a Curative Syrup,' and brought mo a bottle next day. I started with it, without consulting the doctors, •And in only a few days' time I was out of bed calling for ham, and eggs for breakfast. From that time, keeping on with Mother Sei^el'd groat romedy, I got well fast, and was soon ablo to leave i he hospital and come homo to G.asgo*'. I now feel as if I was in another world, and have no illness of uny kind."

The abovo faota aro calmly aud itnpartially statod, and tlio reader may draw his owu couclihioq. Wo deem it boat to use no names, although Mr Wade gave them in his original deposition. His address is No. 24-1, rfoobcross Street, Glasgow, whore lottery will reach him.

Editor