'THIS MAN WAS FRIGHTENED.’

New Zealand Mail, Issue 979, 5 December 1890, Page 12

'THIS MAN WAS FRIGHTENED.’

And on reading the facts it will appear that he had reason to be. The man referred to was Edward Perrin, a guard on the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway. In September, 1887, he met with an accident, which gave a temporary shock to his system. Not long afterwards he began to feel a pain in the chest and have difficulty in breathing, and threw up a great deal of mucus (phlegm). He at once concluded he had, Borne serious ailment of the lungs, and sought medical advice. The doctor said it was so, and added that there was no cure for it, and that he could do no more than give him something to ease the pain and the cough. Then th 9 doctor gave Mr Perrin a certificate stating that he waa suffering from ‘Catarrh Phthisis, ’ which is the professional term for that dreadful malady, Consumption. Further symptoms soon appeared which seemed to confirm this alarming opinion. The poor fellow experienced great pain in eating, and a tightness across the chest which felt, he said, *as if some strong man was gripping him around the body under the arms.’ The rest of Mr Perrin’s narrative is best related in his own words. He says : 'I soon commenced to have a brackish taste in the mouth as if I had been sucking copper. Then came cold ehills and sweats in turn, the cough got hollow, and I raised more than I had done. These terrible symptoms so scared me that I went and consulted the late Dr Dacre Fox who was at that time Consulting Physician to the Railway Company and to the Infirmary. He examined me carefully, and certified as follows : ‘la the case of Guard Perrin. This man is evidently (frightened. He is suffering from Phthisis and Dyspepsia. Cod liver oil and iron are indicated. * This fully bore out what the other doctor had said, so I now looked upon myself as done for. I took everything I could hear tell of. I have drunk gallons of cod liver oil and sherry, and have had many quarts of camphorated oil rubbed oa my chest, until my wife was sick of rubbing. I was also poulticed continually, but in spite of all this terrific dosing and medicating I got gradually worse. In half-a-dozen words my condition was this: I believed myself to be fast going to the grave with consumption; my friends Baid so, the doctors said so, and it looked like it if anything ever did. It is understood that consumption is sure death, and I made up my mind for that awful end. I had been off my work from 1887 to 1888. I was ashamed to be away so much, as I was obliged to draw funds from the Club all the time to help support my family. ‘ While I was thus doing nothing but waiting to die, crawling about feebly like a man who has virtually done with this world, I happened one day to meet Inspector Rippon, of Ardwick Station, one of the Traffic Inspectors of our line. He was shocked at my looks, but said, ‘Perrin, I don't know as anything will help you; but, if anything will, it is Mother Seigei’s Curative Syrup.’ I remember that this idea amused me, miserably broken and ill as I was. Help me? Could it cure consumption? Not likely. Impossible! Still it couldn’t make me worse, and so I got a bottle and began to take it. I could scarcely credit my own feelings, but as sure as truth is truth, before I had used up that bottle of medicine, I found relief, Now comes what you may find it hard to believe—l took but two more bottles and went back to work, and have been sound and healthy ever since.. I told the doctor about it, and. although he saw I was well, he seemed displeased. ‘ You say Mother Seigel’s Curative Syrup cured you ?’he said. ‘Nonsense. It is only a quack medicine ; it is nothing but stuff and rubbish.’ Well, all right, I said to myself, it may be stuff and rubbish, but it has made a sound man of me after that very doctor had me booked for the graveyard, and said no earthly power could keep me out of it. That was enough for me, and will be enough for thousands of others in this country. * I am exposed to all sorts of weather, but have never had a return of the bad breathing chest pains, nor any of the other symptoms that nearly frightaned me out of my senses. I eat and enjoy my food as well as any man in England, Now, what was the secret of this getting well? If I really had consumption, it was nothing short of a miracle ; but I never had consumption at all. The doctors were all wrong in calling it that. What I actually suffered from was indigestion and dyspepsia, which causes the same symptoms that mark true consumption; hence lots of people who are supposed to have lung complaint might be as easily cured as I was if they would let cod liver oil alone and take Mother Seigel’s Syrup.’ Mr Perrin’s address is—No. 36, Gorton Brook Street, Gorton Brook, Manchester, England, and he will reply to any letters written to him concerning his case.