TEN MONTHS' SUFFERING IN A HOSPITAL.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8799, 7 June 1890, Page 4

TEN MONTHS' SUFFERING IN A HOSPITAL.

Thebb is an old saying that physicians ore a class of men who ponr drugs, of whioh they know little, into bodies of which they know loss. Tbia is both true and untrue at the same time. There are good and poor lawyers, and good and pooi doctors. The troublo with these medical gentlemen as a profession ia that they aro clannish, and apt to be conceited. Tbey 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 medical profession are so bound up in their selfconfidence and conceit that they allow the diamond truths of Bcience to be picked up by persons entirely outside their ranks." We give a most interesting incident, which illustrates this important truth. Tho steamship " Concordia," of the Donaldson Line sailed from Glasgow for Baltimore j 1887, having on board as a fireman a man named Richard Wade, of Glasgow. He had been fireman for fourteen years on various ships sailing to America, China, and India. He had borne hard and exhausting labor, and had been healthy and strong. On the trip wo now name he began iior the first time to feel weak and ill. Hi* appetite failed and be suffered from drowsiness, heartburn, a bad taste in tho mouth, and costiveneßS 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 iv as 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, and the ship sailed away without him. The house surgeon gave him some powders to stop the vomiting, and the next day the visit ing physioian gave him a mixtuie to take every four hours. Within two days Wade j was bo much worse that tho doctors stopped both the powders and the mixture. A month passed, and the poor fireman getting worse and worse* Then came another doctor, who was to be visitiHg physician for the next five months. He gave other medicines but not much relief. Nearly all that time Wado suffered great torture ; ho digested nothing, throwing up all he ate. There was terrible pain in the. bowele, burning heat in the throat, heartburn, and raking headache. The patient was now taking a mixture every four hours, powders one after each meal to digeßt the food, operating pills one every night, and temperature pills two each night to stop the cold sweats. If drags could cure hi«u at a!?, Richard had an idea that he took enough to do it. But on the other band pleurisy eet in und the doctors took ninety ounces of matter out of his right side, and then told him lie was suro to die. Five months more rolled by, and there was another change of visiting physicians. Tho now ouo gave Wade ;i mixture which he said made him tremble like a leaf on a tree. At this crisis Wade'a Scotch blood asserted itself. He refused to stand any more dosing, and told the doctors that if he must die ho could die as well without them as with them- By this tirr»e a cup of milk would turn sour on bis stomach, and lie there for dayb. Our friend from Glasgow was like a wreck on a Bhoal, fast going to pieces. Wo will tell tho rest of his experience in the words in whioh he communicated it to the press. He says : " When I was in this state a lady whom I had never seen carte to the hospital and talked with me. She proved to be an angel of mercy, fur without her I should not now be alive. Sho told me of a medicine culled • Mother Seigel's Curative Syrup,' and brought me a bottle next da3'. I startod with it, without consulting tho doctors, and in only a few days' time I tvas out of led calling for liam and eggs for breakfast. From that time keeping on with Mother Seigel's groat remedy, I got well fust, 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 .illneßS of any kind,"

Thej above 'facts are- calmly recorded and impartially stated, " and tbe reader may draw his own conclusion. We deem it best to use no nameß, although Mr Wade gave them in his original disposition. tlis 1 address is No. 244; Stoboross Street, Olnngow, where letters will reaoh him?. Editob.