DAVE KIRK AGAIN ON THE WARPATH.

Evening Post, Volume LIV, Issue 152, 24 December 1897, Page 2

DAVE KIRK AGAIN ON THE WARPATH.

HE VANQUISHES HIS OPPONENT. A WONDERFUL FEAT FOR ONE 12 MONT as AGO CONDEMNED FOR LIFE TO A SICK BED. .RESTORED VITALITY DUE TO DR. WILLIAMS' PINK PILLS fob PALE PEOPLE. He was unable to stir hand or foot, unable even to move, a victim of spinal di»nase, pleurisy, dysentery, complete paralysis of the boify, and last, but by no means least, locomotor ataxia, a terrible complaint which utterly prostrates the human frame and destroys the power of the will ; so much so that the common functions of nature are performed by a power extraneous to the will. Such was the condition of Dave Kirk after his terrible accident on the Scotch College Grounds, Melbourne, about a year ago. His left heel had to be removed, and 32 stitches Wfere inserted in that part of his foot ; 18 were placed in his right leg. His injuries also included a smashed kneecap, which had to be lifted. He was taken quite unconscious from the scene of his accident to the Melbourne Hospital, where everything likely to afford relief to the patient was brought into play, but the grave looks of the surgeons in attendance plainly indicated that they entertained but slight hopes of the young man's ultimate recovery. Altogether, seven surgeons had to do with the sufferer, who was reduced to a very weak and comatose state after nine operations had been performed on him. Mortification set in in parts of the lower limbs, and artificial means had to be employed to draw off the urine. The system was washed internally four times every day with water and carbolic acid, the stomach being cleaned out by means of a tube. Injections were also largely employed. An eminent member of the profession expressed it as his opinion that Kirk would never again rise from his sick-bed. For seven trying months of pain and suffering poor Dave lay 'twixt life and death. How Dave Kirk, Victoria's largest scratch crack, came down a terrible smash whilst training is a matter of history to all lovers and admirers of the wheel. His was a singular case, and one which must have afforded ample play for the physicians' skill and experiment, yet it remained for Dr. Williams' Pink Pills to effect a radical and complete cure. For 6even months Dave Kirk was bedridden in the Melbourne Hospital. At the expiration of that time he left, and managed to get about on crutches, though with great difficulty only. At tbis juncture his friends, firm believers in the wonderful healing properties of Dr. Williams' Pink Pills for Pale People, brought their influence to bear, and Dave started on a course. The most satisfactory results followed. " Gradually," said Kirk, when speaking to our reporter, " the sense of numbness began to disappear, and the extremities acquired by degrees their wonted healthy glow and warmth. While under treatment in the hospital the sense of feeling entirely disappeared, so much so that when the surgeons would put a needle into any part of my body I was absolutely insensible to the fact. To be sure of the absence of the sense of touch, the doctors would conceal my vision, and then question me as to the part they were piercing ; but my answers clearly proved to them that I was absolutely bereft of all sensibility ! I received a shock from a powerful galvanic battery — a shock so strong that the operator declared it to be half a volt more than he had given to anyone in the institution for 40 years — but was utterly unable to feel its effect. "After a month's trial of Dr. Williams' Pink Pills I was able to throw aside my crutches. B»t one of the most powerful effects of the pills was the restoration of functional healtu. Bowel troubles had been a terrible trial to me ever since the day I met with the accident. Regularity in this direction was perfectly set up, and I am now, after four mouths' taking of these pills, in the injoyment of perfect health."