The History of a Scar.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5167, 28 January 1895, Page 4

The History of a Scar.

On j the back of my right hand — just about the middle of ; it— there i%» a small scar, :half aa big' as a threepenny piece, perhaps. You would never notice it unless I Bhowed it to you> and even then you woulc( have to look sharp to see it. But it's there all the same, and will be until the hand is returned to dust. It dates back forty years, that scar does. Going home from one day another boy and I quarrelled and fought. Strange to say, it wasn't about a girl either. Anyway, he drew his jack-knife and .tabbed me. in the back of the right hand. The wound, I remember, waß slow to heal. It was sore and inflamed for months, and hardly a day but something hit it, or I knocked it sgaiast something, and so made it worse; My whole available body appeared to be concentrated in that sore. You know how such things are. They are like boils, and if the jvc is any comfortable spot to have a boil there are loads of money waiting' for | the fellow who discovers it. Latoly we have received two letters, both containing an identical expression, namely, tl_iß:'"__W2/-7mi<7 seemed a trouble tome." Now,! ; none of us are so tough as to be proof; against trouble, but wheti everything is a trouble to a man the very heart i_side of hitn must be tender and touchy. And, Mercy knows, isia so often enough. Grief will do it, worry will do it, and illness too. Onfe of these letters, or at least the writer of it, goes on to say : — "It was in March, 1880, that I felt tired and languid, and .without my usual energy, Before that I had always been strong and active. Now I was low-spirited and melancholy ; everything seemed a trouble to me. Ac first I had a bad taste in the mouth, a poor appatite, and all I ate gave me great pain in the chest and sides. Even fish and poultry gave me as much distress 6s more solid food. I was constantly spitting up a sour, acid fluid which caused a miserable feeling in my throat and mouth. " After I had baen for some time in this condition I, was attacked with gout in my hands and feet, which confined me to the. house now and again for a week or two at a time? The parts became inflamed and swollen, and gave me excruciating agony. I could not bear anything to touch them. For four years I was subject to theße attacks. . * The doctor who attended me was able to ease me temporarily, but I was soon as bad as ever. "In the middle of April, 1888, 1 read that cases like mine had been cured by Mother Seigel's Curative Syrup, and I thought I would try it. I hadn't taken more than half a bottle when I felt relieved. Tbis encouraged me to keep on with the Syrnp, and in a comparatively short time all symptoms of the disease left me. Since then I have enjoyed excellent health, and whenever I feel a twinge of my old enemy a dose or two of ' Mother Seigel ' soon sets me right. Yourß truly, (Signed) M. Lbah_ , 49, Grosvenor Terrace, Grosyenor Park, Camber well, London, September 22nd, 1892." .*;• So' much for the facts .as Mr Leahy felt them. What has science to offer in explanation of them ? This. Gout,- rheumatism, and biliousness are three complaints: arising indirectly from an overworked liver, or, more properly, from indigestion and dyspepsia. The poisons so engendered may lie hidden and unfelt for a long time, and then be suddenly rendered activo by mental worry, exposure, overeating, wrong eating, or any of a dozen other causes. The kidneys fail (following the stomaoh and liver), the acid poison remains in the blood and seta up inflammation in the joints, and the retained fluids produce dropsy. All sorts Of disturbances are apt to .go with this condition of things, every one le_s a disease in itself than a, symptom of the one causeindigestion and dyspepsia. The heart and lungs aro often attacked in spmpathy. Cure the torpid digestion and an all- ronnd improvement at once succeeds. To do this is in the power of . Mother. Slngel's Curative Syrnp-^B, ' peshags, in the power of nothing else. ?' ?— - — — -. — -. r —— '■ It* was most unfortunate that thia gentleman suffered for eight years; and no wonder, meanwhile, that his mind was sensitive: as his body to every approach. Knowing what he -now knows he f eeh safe. There is no darkness by,t ignorance, and the German Nttrse shows "The Way Out." London, October, 1892. - J.M. P.