TEN MONTHS’ SUFFERING IN A HOSPITAL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2000, 28 January 1890, Page 1

TEN MONTHS’ SUFFERING IN A HOSPITAL.

There ia an old saying that phyidoisus sr ■ claas of men who pour drugs, of which feb-ty know little, into bodies of which (-hey kno'v less. This is both true and untrue at tbs same time. There arc good and poos lawyer*.-, and good and poor doctors. Tbo trcnhl.it with those medical gentlemen as a piofosaion ia that they are chnauh, and a pi' to be conceited. They don’t like to be baateu at their own trade by outsiders who have neve? studied medicine. They therefore pay, b? their frequent failures, the penalty of irafusing instruction unless the teacher bears th«? own “ Hall Mark.”

An eminent physician—Dr. Browu-Seqcard, of Paris—states the fact neoaratoly when ha onys s “ The medical profession sro so bound up io their self-ooofideitco and conceit thee they allow th« diamond truths of science to bs picked up by forgone entirely outside thde ranks.” We give a most interesting incident), which illustrates this important truth.

The steamship ” Ooncodda,” of the Donald. Son tine, sailed from Glasgow for Baltimcrs in 1887, having on board rb e. fireman a man named Bichard Wade, of Glasgow. Ho had been a fireman for fourteen years on various ships sailing to America, China, and India. He had borne the hard and exhausting labour, and hod been healthy and strong. On tho trip wo now name he began for fcha fi?st time to feel weak and ill. Hie appetite failed, and hs suffered from drowsiness, heartburn, a bad taste in the month, and ocatfiveaosa and irregularity of the bowels. Sometimes when at work he had attacks of giddiness, but supposed it to be caused by the best of the fire-room. Quite often he was sick and felt like vomiting, and had come pain in the head. Later during the passage be grew worse, and when the ship reached Halifax ha was placed in the Victoria General Hospital, and the ship sailed away without him. The house surgeon gave him some powder# to stop the vomiting, and the next day the visiting physician gave him a mixture to take every four hours. Within two d;»ys Wado was much worse that the doctors sfcoppsd both the powders and mixture, A month pacsed, the poor fireman getting worse and worse. Then came another doctor, who was to bo visiting physician for the next five months, He gave other medicines, bat not much relief. Nearly all that time Wsde suffered g-vst torture ; he digested nothing, throwing up all he ate. There was terrible pain ia the bowels, burning heat in tbo throat, heartburn, and racking headache. The patient wia now taking a mixture every four hours, powder# one after each meal to digest the food,* operating pills one every night, and pills two each night to ctop tha cold awc.its. If drags could cure him at all, Eiohard had an idea that he took enough to do it. Buion the other hand pleurisy set in and tbe doctors took ninety ounces of matter fr om his right sides and then told him ha vnis sura t r o die. Five months more rolled by, and there was another cbeogis o: visiting physicians. The nev? one gave Wade a mixture which bo said made him tremble like a 1-oe.f on a tree. At this stage Wade’s Scotch blood asserted itself. Ho refused to stand any more dosing, and told tbo doctors if he must die ho could die as well without them as with them. By this time a onp of milk would turn sour on his stomach, and lie there for days. Our friend from Glasgow was like a wreck on a shoal, fast going to pieces, Wa will let him tell the rest of his experience in tho words in which ha aommunicated it to the preaa. Ha says t " When I was in this state & kdy whom I had nsvar seen earns to tho hospital and talked with-me. She p, oved to be an angel of mercy, for without her I should not now be alive. She told me of a medicine called * Mother ScigeTa Curative Syren,’ and brought mo a bottle next day; I started wEh it, without consulting tho doctors, and in only a few days’ ilkne I was out of bod calling for hasa &ad eggs for breakfast, From that time, keeping on with Mother Seigol’a great remedy, I got well fast, end was soon able ta loova tho hospital and come noma to Glasgow. I now feel as if I wua in another world, aod have no illness of any kind,"

Th« above facts ara calmly r,nd tmpastially Mated, and tha reader may draw hie owe. conclusion. Wa da*sa it best to use no aam-sa, although Mr Wade gave thorn in his original deposition. Hi# r.ddrouo is No. 214, Sfcobcross Street, Glasgow, where loiters will reach him. Editor.