TEN MONTHS' SUFFERING IN A HOSPITAL.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8790, 28 May 1890, Page 4

TEN MONTHS' SUFFERING IN A HOSPITAL.

There is an old saying that physicians are a class of men who poar drugs, of which they know ]ittle : into bodies of which they know less. Thia is both true and untrue at the same time. There are good and poor lawyers, and good and pool 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 who have never studied medicine. They therefore pay, by their frequent failures, the penalty of refusing instruction unless the teacher bears their own " Hall Mark."

An eminent physician — Dr. BrownSequard, of Paris— states the fact accurately when he says : "The modical profession are so bound up ia their selfconfidence and ooncteit that they allow the diamond truths of science to be picked up by persons entirely outside their ranks." We give a most interesting incident, which illustrates this important truth. The slearaßhip "Concordia," of tho Donaldson Line, sailed from Glasgow for Baltimore in 1887, having on board as a fireman a man named Richard Wade, of Glasgow. He had been fireman for fourteen yearß on various ships Bailing to America, China, and ludia. He had borne hard and exhausting labor, and had been healthy and strong. On the trip we now name he began lor the first time to feel weak and ill. flii appetite failed and he suffered froo» drowsiness, heartburn, a bad taste in tho mouth, and costiveness and irreguliarity of the bowels. Sometimes when at work he had attacks of giddiness, but supposed it to be caused by the heat of the fire-room. Quite often he «vas sick and felt like vomiting, and had some pain in the head. Later during the passage he grew worse, and when the ship reached Halifax he was placed in the Victoria General Hospital, aud the ship sailed away without him. The house surgeon gave him some powders to stop the vomiting, and the next day the visit ing physician gave him a mixtuie to take every four hours. Within two days Wade was so much worse thot the doctors stopped both the powders and the mixture. A month passed, and the poor firemau getting worse and worse*

Then came another doctor, who was to be visitiag physician for the next five inontbß. He gave other medicines but not much relief. Nearly all that time Wade suffered great torture ; he digested nothing, throwing uo all he ate. There was terrible pain in the bowelr, burning heat in the throat, heartburn, aud raking headacho. The patient was now taking a mixture every four hours, powders one after each meal to digest the food, operating pills one every night, and temperature pills tw.o each night to stop the cold sweats. If drugs could cure hi'n at all, Richard had an idea that he took enough to do it. But on the other band pleurisy set in i»nd the doctors took ninety ounces of matter out of his right side, and then told him he was Bure to die. Five montha more rolled by, and there waß anocber change of visiting physicians. Tho new one gave Wade a mixture which he said made him tremble like a leaf on a tree.

At this crisis Wade's Scotch blood asserted itself. He refused to stand any moire dosing, and told the doctors that if he must die ho could die as well without them as with them- By this tiefco a cup of milk would turn sour on his stomach, and lie there for dayb. Our friend from Glasgow was like a wreck on a ehoal, fast going to pieces. We will tell the rest of his experience in the words in which he communicated it to the press.

He says : " When I waa in this state a lady whom I had never eeen carte to tho hospital and talked with me. She proved to be an angel of mercy, for without her I should not now be alive. She told me of a medicine called 'Mother SeigeFe Curative Syrup,' and brought me a bottle next day. I started with it, without consulting the doctors, and inonly a few day s 1 time I tvas out of bed calling for ham. and eg<jß for breakfast. From that time keeping on with Mother Seigel'e great remedy, 1 got well faßt, and was soon able to leave the hospital and come home to Glasgow. I now feel as if I was in another world, and have no illness of any kind."

The| above 'facts are^ calmly recorded and impartially stated, and the reader may draw bis own conclusion. We deem it best to übo no names, although Mr Wade cave them in his original disposition, hi is address is No. 244, Sloboross Street, GlaHtfow, where letters will reach him]'. Kditob.