ORDERS AND ARROWS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIII, Issue 47, 27 March 1896, Page 29

ORDERS AND ARROWS.

1 Whrn the captain of a ship orders some hands aloft to furl the main royal tt c men jump to obey, as a matter of course. A Bailor can climb up on a yard without having a shilling ashore or a penny in bis pocket. In fact, Jack Beldom signs articles nntil he has used cp both cash and credit. Bat when a doctor — who is a sort of captain when one ia laid up in the dry dock of illness— orders a patient to go abroad for the benefit of his health, it is quite another tbinp. A trip and sojourn B«*ay from home is an expensive prescription, and most of ns can't afford it. It the doctor says it is a choice between that and the graveyard we shall have to settle on the graveyard ; it is handy by and easy to get to. But are we really so hard pushed ? That ia, as often as the doctors say we are 1 Let's turn the matter over in our minds for a minute. Here is a case that is pat to the purpose. It concerns Mr Arthur Wbiddon Mellbnish, of 3 Regent's Terrace, Polsloe Koad, Exeter ; and for the details we are indebted to a letter written by him, dated March 7, 1893. He mentions that, in obedience to the orders of his doctors, be went to Cannes, in the South of France in November, 1890, and spent the winter there. He also spent the following winter at the same place. He felt the better for the change ; jwe will tell you why presently. But be obtaiced no radical benefit' which also we will exp'aia later on. If appears that this gentleman bad been weak and ailing nearly 1 ail bis life ; ntn t exactly i.l, not wholly well— a condition that calls for constant cantion. la March, 1890, he had a severe attack of nfiamoaation of tne lungs. Now I want the reader to honour me with his best attention, as I must say in a few words wbat ought properly to take many. Sl-oot an arrow iDto the air— as straight np as 'you can. You can t tell where it will fall. It may fall on a neighbour's head, on your own, or on a chili's, or on the pavement. Everybody's blood contains more or less poisonous elements. These are arrows, but unlike yoar wooden arrow they always strike on the weakest spot, or spots, in the body. If they hit (he muscles and joints we call it rheamatißm and gout ; if they hit the liver we call it liver complaint or biliousness ; if they hit the kidneys we call it Bright'a disease ; if they hit the nerves we call it nervous prostration, epilepsy, or any of fifty other names ; if they hit the bronchial tabes we call it broncoitis, etc ; if they hit the air cells me calV.jb inflammation, of the lungs, or by-and-bye, consumption. And inasmuch as these poisoned arrows pass through the delicate meehes of the lungs a thousand times every day, it would be odd if they dida't hit them— wouldn't Now, wait a bit. Ife follows that all the various so-called diseases above named aTB not diseases at all in and of themselves, bat merely symptoms of one only disease— namely, that disease which produces the poison ! Good. We w^ll gat on to the end of the story. After the attack of lung inflammation Mr Melluish suffered from 1 loss of appetite, pain in the chesr, sides, and stomach, and dangerous constipation. He could eat only liquid food and had to take to his bed. For weeks he was so feeble that he could not rise in bed, He consulted one physician after another, obtaining no more than temporary re'ief from medicine. Then be waß ordered abroad as we have related. Hii letter concludes in these words : "Whilst at Cannei I consulted a doctor, who said my ailment was weak digestion, and that I need not trouble about my lungs. But I never gained any real ground until November, 1891, when 1 began to take Mother Seigel's Curative Syrup. This helped me in one week, and by continuing with it I got stronger and stronger, and am now in fair good health. This, after my relatives thought I should never recover. ("Signed) Arthur Whiddon Melluish." J To sum up : This gentleman's real ailment was indigestion and dyspepsia, from ivhich the blood poison comes that causes nearly all disorders and pains. Tbe air of Southern Frauce helped him tempjiauly, btc-iuse it is roi'der than ours ; it did not remove the poison. By care and tha uoe of M. .ther Ssigel's <Jurative Syrup he would have done better ut home, as the result shows.