A. MIRACLE IF EVER THERE WAS ONE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 3264, 22 October 1897, Page 4

A. MIRACLE IF EVER THERE WAS ONE.

DAVE KIRK, AN EX-MELBOURNE CRACK BICYCLIST, LEAVES THE HOSPITAL TO DIB. SEVEN SPECIALISTS PEONOUNCED HIS CASE INCURABLE. TBBEIBLE RESULT OP A FALL AT THE SCOTCH COLLEGE GROUNDS A TEAR AGO. PARALYSIS, HiEMOEEHAGB.j SPINAL DISEASE, AND LOCOMOTOR ATAXIA. NINE MONTHS’ AGONY IN THE MELBOURNE HOSPITAL. NOW A HEALTHY, ACTIVE MAN. THANKS TO DE WILLIAMS’ PINK PILLS. (From the Melbourne Advocate.) _ Dave Kirk, the well-known and highlypopular hero of the cycle track, was, on the Bth October of last year, training in the Scotch College Grounds, Melbourne, when, all of a sudden, and without any warning, the tire of the leader broke, and becoming at once entangled in the wheel; brought the rider to the ground With terrific force. So great was the impact that not a single limb or member of the unfortunate cyclist’s frame escaped serious injury. Iu all haste the victim was removed to the Melbourne Hospital, more dead than alive, and quite unconscious from shock-and hiemorrhage. A hasty examination of the patient by the medical staff of that institution showed them that the case was a most serious one, and the grave looks of the surgeons in attendance plainly indicated that they entertained but the slightest hopes of the unfortunate young man’s recovery. All that the resources of that fully-plenished hospital could command were brought into play for the relief of the patient, but tbe gravest fears were felt as to bis ultimate safety. The external injuries were not, after all, the most serious—the symptoms of serious internal injury to the nervous system were all too patent to the practised and expert eye of the medical faculty. So serious, indeed, was the case of Dave Kirk considered, that an eminent surgeon who called to see the patient declared it as his opinion that the patient would, in all probability, never rise from his sick bed. There poor Dave lay, betwixt life and death, for about seven weary and exceedingly trying months of pain and suffering, unable to stir hand or foot. Unable to move even from side to side—a victim of htcmOrrhage, spinal disease, pleurisy, dysentery, complete paralysis of the body, and last, but by no means least, locomotor ataxy, a fearful 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 absolutely extraneous to the will. An idea of the dreadful injuries sustained by the patient may be gathered from the following details gleaned from Kirk by our representative. Hia left heel bad to be removed, and 32 stitches were inserted in that part of his foot, 18 being placed in the right leg. The kneecap was smashed, and had to be lifted. Altogether seven surgeons bad to do with the sufferer, who was reduced to a very weak and almost comatose state after nine operations had been performed on him. Mortification set in in parts of the lower limbs, and artificial means bad 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. This was a most 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.

THE BRIGHT SIDE OP THE PICTURE. AN ASTOUNDING CHANGE. After seven mouths’[of bed-ridden existence in the Melbourne General Hospital, Dave Kirk left that institution with faint hopes of ever being able to get about without the aid of crutches, with all hopes vanished as to his ability to again enter the cycle arena and carry off once more those brilliant laurels which were at various big wheel gatherings wont to be his, for he was Victoria’s largest ooratoh crack. In May last Kirk’s friends; being impressed by the numerous authentic and spontaneous testimonials from persons of both sexes, of every age and condition in life, and in all parts of the world, recommended a course of the now world-famed Dr Williams’ Pink Pills for Pale People as a last resource. Marvellous but true, as may be learned from the patient’s own lips, no sooner had he begun to take these wonderfully curative pills than Kirk experienced palpable relief. To let him describe himself the returning powers to his limbs and nervous system generally “ Gradually the sense of numbness began to disappear, and the extremities acquit ed 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, tbe 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!

"After a month’s trial of Dr Williams’ Pink Pills I was able to throw aside my crutches. But one of the most powerful effects of the pills was the restoration of functional health. • Bowel troubles had been a terrible trial to me ever since the day I met with the accident. Regularity in this direction was perfectly sot up, and I am now, after four months* taking of these pills, in the enjoyment of perfect health.” It wanted no assurance of this, as those who had seen the subject of this narrative are not slow to express their surprise at the picture of health and almost completely resuscitated power of body and mind presented in the person of David Kirk.

But perhaps the most demonstrative proof of the absolute numbness and absence of all feeling in the patient while under treatment in the hospital was the fact that, although he received a shook from a powerful galvanic battery—a shock so strong that the pperator declared it to be half a volt more than he had given to anyone in the institution for 40 years—Dave Kirk was utterly unable to feel its effect!

A PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATION OP RESTORED VITALITY. A few days ago Dave Kirk, who, by the way, is to be found at his bairdressers’ and tobacconists’ establishment, 471, Elizabeth street north, caught sight of a certain individual to whom he had let out one of hia bikes on hire and who, it seems, was ' possessed of so bad a memory that he forgot to return the machine tp its owner! As showing the restored strength and vigour of ‘ the erstwhile bed-ridden man, Kirk made a dash for the thief, and a hand-to-hand struggle ensued. Hia opponent was a powerfully - built fellow, and a much heavier weight than Dave. Blood flowed freely on both sides, but Dave proved one too many for his man, and with a dexterous effort managed, unassisted, to get him into a cab, and took him unceremoniously to the lock-up, where a charge of theft was laid against the prisoner. That was, perhaps, the most practical evidence of restored vitality that could be given on the part of the cycle champion. Naturally enough the thousand and one chums of the onoe-tbought-dead, but now very much alive, cyclist are loud in their praises of the world-famed Dr Williams’ Pink Pills, and whenever Dave goes out ho is besieged witli congratulations on his regained health. In common gratitude the athlete never fails to give the whole credit of his recovery to that wonderful remedy discovered by Dr Williams. Moreover, Kirk is able to trench a large garden at home, and walk two miles daily to bis business place.

The following articles appeared, in the Melbourne Argus and Herald, last year, shortly after Dave Kirk met with his terrible mishap, proving that his condition was considered hopeless:— EXTRACT PROM THE MELBOURNE ARGUS. “ Everyone has heard of Kirk, the crack racer. About a month ago he met with an accident whilst training, and has been in the Melbourne Hospital ever since. The medical authorities say that he will never ride again, as his spine has been so badly hurt that he will likely be paralysed for life.” EX BRACT PROM THE HER ALD. “ Dave Kirk, residing at the Coffee Palace, Victoria street. North Melbourne, sustained severe injuries this afternoon through falling from his bicycle while training bn the track at the Scotch College ground. The tire of his bicycle burst, and Kirk was thrown violently to the ground. He was removed in a cab to the Melbourne HospitaL” The latter extract appeared in the Herald on the afternoon of the accident, October 9,1696. The former appeared in the Argits about a month later, after • the physicians and authorities had placed lunr under treatment/and discovered that his injuries had resulted iu paralysis, ’ spinal disease, and locomotor ataxia, and that he was entirely beyond their aid. His case was accordingly, by tbe physicians who examined him, pronounced incurable, and they told poor Kirk that he would never rise from his bed again. Dr Williams’ Pink Pills for Pale People have cured paralysis, locomotor, ataxy.

rheumatism, and sciatica j also all diseases arising from impoverishment of the blood, scrofula, rickets, chronic, erysipelas, consumption of the bowels and lungs, anaemia, pale and sallow complexions, general muscular weakness, loss of apetite, palpitations, pains in the back, nervous headache, early decay, all forms of female weakness, and hysteria. There pills are a tonic, not a purgative. They are genuine only with the full name. Dr Williams > Pink Pills for Pale People, and are sold by chemists and storekeepers generally, or the Dr Williams’ Medicine Company, Wellington, N.Z., will forward, on receipt of stamps or post order, on© box for 3s, or half-dozen for 15s 9d.