The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-10-29 00:00:00

SEVERELY SHAKEN.

In an article commenting upon the frequent railway
accidents that have occurred In the put few weeks, the Pall
Nall (Malts remark. :

It may not be our lot to be scalded to death by •
burst boiler, to be burnt alive in transit, or to he shot
over a bridge and drowned; but, as railway direotors
In general seem to think no more of shaking their pas-
sengers almost to death than of shaking a naughty
ckild, we will consider what it in to be 'severely
shaken in a railway collision," looking at the process
and its results, physical, moral, and oomraercial In
the came we are supposing you are shot like a human
bullet from one side of the carriage to the other-- for-
wards, backwards, and forwards again, with • momen-
tum in proportion to the force of the collision ; the parts
generally struck being the back or front of the head,
and the spine, either at the neck (the cervical vertebra)
or the lower part of the back (the lumbar vertebrie).
Your head is moved tie it were by its own weight,
all controlling or resisting power of the muscular
structure being for the moment lost. Yon have lights
before your eyes, an odd taste in your mouth, sudden
severe pain as the blows fall on you one after the other
In quick succession ; and then there is a pause and you
pick yourself up, or aomebody eke picks you up, and
you find yourself feeling a little sick and giddy and •
good deal bewildered. It is only that your spinal cord
has received a jar, or shock, or concussion, whichever
the men of science term it, the effects of which you
will feel for many • long day to come. Meanwhile
you " continue your journey," for of course you
are not "severely injured," and besides, you
have nothing much to show after all. A few
days or weeks after this your hands begin to have
a queer numb sensation, or they tremble after the
slighteet exertion. One arm, or perhaps a leg,
diminishes • very little, just sufficient to be observed
by actual measurement. If your head never ached be-
fore it will ache now, and pretty frequently too. You
cannot hunt or ride, as you used to do. You shrink
from attempting a very small fence; and exposure to
wet or cold brings on agonizing rheumatic or neuralgic
pains on the spot where you sustained the series of
blows. You fall into the hands of the doctors, and
their counter-irritating remedies seem to you nearly
as bad as the disease. They tell you that yours is an
obscure case—that you may be better, quite well
In fact, in a couple of years, or that general paralysis
may supervene, and you may, to speak frankly, be.
come an idiot within about the same length of
time. You look careworn and older, and you feel
older. All your habits undergo a sensible change, if
only for a time. If formerly you were endowed with
an almost demon-like activity, you are now reduced to
accept idlsness and rest ass boon. If you were good.
looking, you lose a portion of your good looks; if you
were ill-favoured, your ugliness becomes more pro.
nonneed ; and, "young though you may be, you will
find before long a few_ gray hairs If you take the trouble
to search for them. Morally, the effects are not lees
marked. You are demoralised as regards your nerves,
and your horse is aware of the fact and presumes ac.
cordingly. Your temper is less elastic and somewhat
irritable. You feel either cowed and depressed or su-
blimely reckless when you enter • railway earriage • and
whereas before you used second or third class carriages
If your pocket inclined you to economy, you now
I confess that cushions and a hot-water tin are essential
to your comfort. As to claiming damages in a court
of law for all these minute miseries, in your idisken
mental and physical condition you naturally shrink
from the multiplied surgical examinations which you
would entail on yourself, and from the bullying to
which you would be eubjected by the opposition
counsel. You may not have the sensallon of perfect
health and physical enjoyment and happiness that
was yours before, but unless you have lost the
sigh of one eye, have forgotten your own name,