NATURE’S REASON FOR PAIN.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIV, Issue VII, 17 February 1900, Page 333

NATURE’S REASON FOR PAIN.

When one of Dr. Abernethy’s patients remarked that it gave him great pain to lift his hand to his head, the eminent physician responded that, in such case, he was a fool for doing it. The observation was both brutal and unprofessional. The very fact that the act was painful indicated a condition calling for medical treatment and to provide that, if he could, was the doctor’s duty. Still, one might get on in comparative comfort without lifting his hand to his head, if that were the only source of pain about him. But when a bodily operation which is absolutely indispensable to life, becomes constantly painful, the situation is vastly more serious. And that was what happened to Mrs Emma Elwen, as related in her letter herewith printed for our information.

“In the spring of 1889,” she says, ‘I began to feel weak and ailing. From being a strong, healthy woman, 1 gradually lost all my strength and energy. My appetite was poor, and all food gave me pain.” Be good enough for a moment to fix your mind on that statement. Nature has so arranged that all necessary acts or movements of the body shall be painless, if not distinctly pleasurable. Were it otherwise, we should avoid them to the extent of our power, and so produce incalculable mischief. And, above all, the act and consequences of eating were meant to be, and in health, are, one of the highest of our physical enjoyments. This lady having suffered from her food, then, signifies a state of things unnatural and dangerous. "I had fulness and pain at the chest,” she continues, “between the shoulders and down my back. 1 had also a deal of pain at iny side, and my heart palpitated so much that I got but little sleep or rest on account of it. My breathing was short and difficult. I was unable to do any housework, and often wished 1 were dead.”

The words, “I wish I were dead," are often on the lips of the victims of what seems to be hopeless disease, and they ure sad and chilling words to fall on the ears of those of us

who love them. They make us look despairingly around for the help which is so slow to come, and too frequently never comes at all. Is there, then, no medicine which has power to save?

grew to be so weak,” adds the writer, “that I was from time to time confined to my bed. and at other times had to lie down on the couch. I lost flesh rapidly, and was like a mere skeleton —my clothes hanging upon me. For three years I suffered in this way, no medicine that I took doing me any good. “In February, 1892. the Rev. Mr Knight, of Bishop Auckland, recommended me to take Mother Seigel’s Curative Syrup. Acting on his advice I procured a bottle from the Cooperative Stores at Bishop Auckland, and after taking it I l>egan to im prove. My appetite returned, and lood agreed with me, and 1 felt easier than I had done for years. The pain at my heart was less severe, and 1 gained strength every day. “Seeing this, 1 continued to use this remedy, and gradually I recovered my health, gaining three stone weight. Since that time I have kept in good health. My husband has also benefited by the use of Mother Seigel’s Syrup when suffering from indigestion. You are at liberty to publish this statement as you like. (Signed) (Mrs) Emma Elwen, Primrose Hill, Newfield, Willington, near Durham, October 30, 189f>.” If Mrs Elwen were the Only woman in the district wherein she lives who had suffered in this manner, the fact should excite the interest of the intelligent reader, but there are multitudes of others all over the land, all over the world. Her ailment was not heart disease, it was not any form of consumption, it was not rheumatism. It was dyspepsia -the disease that counterfeits most others and has many of their most painful symptoms. It is idle to say that dyspepsia might bo prevented, for we are not yet wise

and careful enough to prevent it. Some day we may be. At present, however, it is inspiring to know that Mother Seigel’s Syrup cures it even in its worst stages. Still, it is better to cure it when it first appears. Watch yourself, and use the Syrup on the day your food and you do not agree.