A PHYSICIAN'S STORY.
I WAS once sent for, in great haste, to attend a gentleman ofrespectability, whose wife, a lady of intelligence and refinement,had discovered him in his room lying senseless upon the floor. Onarriving at the house, I found Mrs. H--in great distress of mind.
"What is the matter with Mr. H--?" I asked, on meeting his lady,who was in tears and looking the picture of distress.
"I'm afraid it is apoplexy," she replied. "I found him lying uponthe floor, where he had, to all appearance, fallen suddenly from hischair. His face is purple, and though he breathes, it is with greatdifficulty."
I went up to see my patient. He had been lifted from the floor, andwas now lying upon the bed. Sure enough, his face was purple and hisbreathing laboured, but somehow the symptoms did not indicateapoplexy. Every vein in his head and face was turgid, and he layperfectly stupid, but still I saw no clear indications of an actualor approaching congestion of the brain.
"Hadn't he better be bled, doctor?" asked the anxious wife.
"I don't know that it is necessary," I replied. "I think, if we lethim alone, it will pass off in the course of a few hours."
"A few hours! He may die in half an hour."
"I don't think the case is so dangerous, madam."
"Apoplexy not dangerous?"
"I hardly think it apoplexy," I replied.
"Pray, what do you think it is, doctor?"
Mrs. H--looked anxiously into my face.
I delicately hinted that he might, possibly, have been drinking toomuch brandy; but to this she positively and almost indignantlyobjected.
"No, doctor; I ought to know about that," she said. "Depend uponit, the disease is more deeply seated. I am sure he had better bebled. Won't you bleed him, doctor? A few ounces of blood taken fromhis arm may give life to the now stagnant circulation of the bloodin his veins."
Thus urged, I, after some reflection, ordered a bowl and bandage,and opening a vein, from which the blood flowed freely, relieved himof about eight ounces of his circulating medium. But he still lay asinsensible as before, much to the distress of his poor wife.
"Something else must be done, doctor," she urged, seeing thatbleeding had accomplished nothing. "If my husband is not quicklyrelieved, he must die."
By this time, several friends and relatives, who had been sent for,arrived, and urged upon me the adoption of some more active meansfor restoring the sick man to consciousness. One proposed mustardplasters all over his body; another a blister on the head; anotherhis immersion in hot water. I suggested that it might be well to usea stomach-pump.
"Why, doctor?" asked one of the friends.
"Perhaps he has taken some drug," I replied.
"Impossible, doctor," said the wife. "He has not been from hometo-day, and there is no drug of any kind in the house."
"No brandy?" I ventured this suggestion again.
"No, doctor, no spirits of any kind, nor even wine, in the house,"returned Mrs. H--, in an offended tone.
I was not the regular family physician, and had been called in tomeet the alarming emergency, because my office happened to benearest to the dwelling of Mr. H--. Feeling my position to be adifficult one, I suggested that the family physician had better becalled.
"But the delay, doctor," urged the friends. "No harm will resultfrom it, be assured," I replied.
But my words did not assure them. However, as I was firm in myresolution not to do any thing more for the patient until Dr.S--came, they had to submit. I wished to make a call of importancein the neighbourhood, and proposed going, to be back by the time Dr.S--arrived; but the friends of the sick man would not suffer me toleave the room.
When Dr. S--came, we conversed aside for a few minutes, and I gavehim my views of the case, and stated what I had done and why I haddone it. We then proceeded to the bedside of our patient; there werestill no signs of approaching consciousness.
"Don't you think his head ought to be shaved and blistered?" askedthe wife, anxiously. Dr. S--thought a moment, and then said--"Yes,by all means. Send for a barber; and also for a fresh fly-blister,four inches by nine."
I looked into the face of Dr. S--with surprise; it was perfectlygrave and earnest. I hinted to him my doubt of the good that mode oftreatment would do; but he spoke confidently of the result, and saidthat it would not only cure the disease, but, he believed, take awaythe predisposition thereto, with which Mr. H--was affected in ahigh degree.
The barber came. The head of H--was shaved, and Dr. S--appliedthe blister with his own hands, which completely covered the scalpfrom forehead to occiput.
"Let it remain on for two hours, and then make use of the ordinarydressing," said Dr. S--. "If he should not recover during theaction of the blister, don't feel uneasy; sensibility will berestored soon after."
I did not call again, but I heard from Dr. S--the result.
After we left, the friends stood anxiously around the bed upon whichthe sick man lay; but though the blister began to draw, no signs ofreturning consciousness showed themselves, further than anoccasional low moan, or an uneasy tossing of the arms. For full twohours the burning plaster parched the tender skin of H--'s shornhead, and was then removed; it had done good service. Dressings werethen applied; repeated and repeated again; but still the sick manlay in a deep stupor.
"It has done no good; hadn't we better send for the doctor?"suggested the wife.
Just then the eyes of H--opened, and he looked with half-stupidsurprise from face to face of the anxious group that surrounded thebed.
"What in the mischief's the matter?" he at length said. At the sametime, feeling a strange sensation about his head, he placed his handrather heavily thereon.
"Heavens and earth!" He was now fully in his senses. "Heavens andearth! what ails my head?"
"For mercy's sake, keep quiet," said the wife, the glad tearsgushing over her face. "You have been very ill; there, there, now!"And she spoke soothingly. "Don't say a word, but lie very still."
"But my head! What's the matter with my head? It feels as ifscalded. Where's my hair? Heavens and earth! Sarah, I don'tunderstand this. And my arm? What's my arm tied up in this way for?"
"Be quiet, my dear husband, and I'll explain it all. Oh, be veryquiet; your life depends upon it." Mr. H--sank back upon thepillow from which he had arisen, and closed his eyes to think. Heput his hand to his head, and felt it, tenderly, all over, fromtemple to temple, and from nape to forehead.
"Is it a blister?" he at length asked.
"Yes, dear. You have been very ill; we feared for your life," saidMrs. H--, affectionately; "there have been two physicians inattendance."
H--closed his eyes again; his lips moved. Those nearest were notmuch edified by the whispered words that issued therefrom. Theywould have sounded very strangely in a church, or to ears polite andrefined. After this, he lay for some time quiet.
"Threatened with apoplexy, I suppose?" he then said,interrogatively.
"Yes, dear," replied his wife. "I found you lying insensible uponthe floor, on happening to come into your room. It was mostprovidential that I discovered you when I did, or you wouldcertainly have died."
H--shut his eyes and muttered something, with an air ofimpatience; but its meaning was not understood. Finding him out ofdanger, friends and relatives retired, and the sick man was leftalone with his family.
"Sarah," he said, "why, in the name of goodness, did you permit thedoctors to butcher me in this way? I'm laid up for a week or two,and all for nothing."
"It was to save your life, dear."
"Save the--!"
"H-u-s-h! There! do, for mercy's sake, be quiet; every thing dependsupon it."
With a gesture of impatience, H--shut his eyes, teeth, and hands,and lay perfectly still for some minutes. Then he turned his face tothe wall, muttering in a low, petulant voice--"Too bad! too bad! toobad!"
I had not erred in my first and my last impressions of H--'sdisease, neither had Dr. S--although he used a very extraordinarymode of treatment. The facts of the case were these:
H--had a weakness; he could not taste wine nor strong drinkwithout being tempted into excess. Both himself and friends weremortified and grieved at this; and they, by admonition, and he, bygood resolutions, tried to bring about a reform; but to see was totaste, to taste was to fall. At last, his friends urged him to shuthimself up at home for a certain time, and see if total abstinencewould not give him strength. He got on pretty well for a few days,particularly so, as his coachman kept a well-filled bottle for himin the carriage-house, to which he not unfrequently resorted; but atoo ardent devotion to this bottle brought on the supposed apoplexy.
Dr. S--was right in his mode of treating the disease after all,and did not err in supposing that it would reach the predisposition.The cure was effectual. H--kept quiet on the subject, and bore hisshaved head upon his shoulders with as much philosophy as he couldmuster. A wig, after the sores made by the blister had disappeared,concealed the barber's work until his own hair grew again. He neverventured upon wine or brandy again for fear of apoplexy.
When the truth leaked out, as leak out such things always will, thefriends of H--had many a hearty laugh; but they wisely concealedfrom the object of their merriment the fact that they knew any thingmore than appeared of the cause of his supposed illness.
THE END.
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