A CASE OF NERVOUS PROSTRATION RESULTING FROM INDIGESTION.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XV, 11 April 1896, Page 423

A CASE OF NERVOUS PROSTRATION RESULTING FROM INDIGESTION.

They say that misery loves company, and they have had it so often it has passed into a proverb. Yet it isn’t an all-round truth. Some kinds of misery detest company. They want to be left alone. They hate to be elbowed and questioned and talked to. A wounded dog will always crawl into some retired place by itself. The instinct of badly injured men, after a battle, is the same. Ailments that are mostly fancy, tend to set tongues wagging. But real, genuine and dangerous diseases don’t incite to speech. Crises which are big with fate usually come and go in quiet. That is why Mrs Scuffham had no desire for the society of even her best friends at a certain time she is going to tell us about.

‘Up to April, 1881,’ she writes, ‘I never knew what it was to be ill. At that time I began to feel that something was amiss with me. I had no relish for my meals, and after eating my chest felt heavy and painful, and my heart would beat and thump as though it meant to leap out of its place. Presently I became so swollen round the waist that I was obliged to unloose my clothing, as I could not bear anything to touch that part of my body. ‘ Even the lightest food gave me pain ; a little fish setting my heart to beating at a great rate. My feet were cold, and cold clammy sweats would break out all over me, leaving me exhausted and worn out. At night I got no sleep to speak of, and in the morning I felt worse tired than when I went to bed. I also suffered a great deal from my feet being puffed up and sore. I could scarcely get about the house. When I went shopping I had to ride to the town and back as I could only walk a few yards. ‘ As time went on I lost my flesh and strength more and more, and gave up hope of ever recovering the precious health I had so sadly lost. I took medicines, and consulted a clever doctor at Derby who examined me and said my heart was weak. He also gave me medicines, but I got only temporary ease from them, and in a short time was as

bad as before. All this time I was so nervous and depressed that I had no desire for company. On the contrary, I seemed to want to be alone with my misery. Even a knock at the door frightened me, as though I expected bail news, yet I did not really. My nerves and fancies ran away with my knowledge and judgment. Thousands of women who have suffered in this way will understand what I mean. ‘ Year after year I remained in this condition, and what I went through I cannot put in words, nor do I wish to try. It will answer the purpose to say that I existed thus for eleven and a-half years, as much dead as alive. I spent pounds on pounds in physic, but was not a whit the better for auv of it.

* In October, 1892, a book was left at our house, and I read in it of cases like mine being cured by Mother Seigel’s Syrup. I got a bottle from Mr Bardel, the chemist, in Normanton-street, Derby, and when I had taken this medicine for a few days, my appetite was better and I had less pain. I kept on taking it, and soon my food agreed with me and I gained strength. ‘ After this I never looked behind me, but steadily got stronger and stronger. When I had taken three bottles I was quite like a new woman. All the nervousness had left me, and my heart was sound as a bell. Since then I have enjoyed good health, and all who know me say my recovery is remarkable. I am confident that Mother Seigel’s Syrup was the means, in the hands of Providence, of saving my life ; and out of gratitude, and in hope of doing good, I freely consent to the publication of this statement. (Signed) (Mrs) Ann Scuffham, Cooper’s Lane, Laceby, Grimsby, May rst, 1895.’ This letter is endorsed by Mr William J. Tollerton, of the same town, who vouches for the truth of what Mrs Scuffham has said, as he personally knew of the circumstances of her illness at the time they occurred. No comment can add a jot to the force of this open, candid, and sincere communication. Whosoever reads it must needs be moved and convinced by it. The disease which filled this woman’s life with uain and misery for nearly twelve years was indigestion or dyspepsia, an ailment sly and cunning as a snake in the grass—and as dangerous. Send for the book of which Mrs Scuffham speaks, and read the symptoms in order that you may know what it is, and how to deal with it. The book costs you nothing, yet it would be worth buying as if every leaf were hammered gold.

Japanese Manners in America.— The Japanese have many nice qualities and some great ones. They are clean, they are polite, and apparently they are very gentle and very brave. They are said to be exceedingly neat, too, and to be bountifully endowed with the sense of propriety a defective development of which accounts for much of the rubbish in American streets and most of the disagreeableness of Arneiican street car travel. They certainly beat us in a good many things, and not unreasonably their example is much held up to us nowadays for emulation. Intelligent foreigners who have observed ns closely have declared that we are the rudest and the kindest people in the world. Of course, it is a pity that we are not more universally courteous ; that our children are not de mure and orderly like the Japanese children ; that we throw papers into the street and drop peanut shells and orange peel on the floors of our public conveyances. Of course, it is a pity that we are not more like the Japanese in many particulars ; bnt, for my part, I make bold to confess that American manners, with all their defects, are best suited to my American taste than Japanese manners with all their gentle perfections. American manners aie not nearly as good as they should be, not nearly as good as one may hope they may become ; but that Japanning would profit, them is not so certain as it looks at first sight, even if it did not involve a much greater amount of self-repression or seltobliteration (doubtless more apparent than actual) than the American temperament could endure or has any desire to attain to. The amelioration of our national demeanour must rather be sought in an in creased and enlightened self-control joined to a strengthened self respect. If we ever do become civilised it will be Hist at tbe heart and afterward at the rind. — i’rri/rzicr.