New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-01-26
the ,erforma.ee Of chemical eIpedBests. ROBIN,
con cru,oe and the Pilgrims Progress often @"p'ed

ride i,t.cular methods, and cheerfuliy "ench'ed
DOWN 10 CT himself for college ne entered INC
un;uo,s;tv os virginia, where be made good pro-
- Greek and mathematics although
-, .onnlete the entire collegiate course.
e., examination, be evinced great prof.
.;.n.v in chemistry, mineraogy, and the other
.,.n,be, which make up the qualifications OF an
.,s;peer the profession which OF all Others was
..;,.d N his tastes, and which be adopted with
kcarty rood WILL After residing for eighteen
months at the University, he was inter-
,rpted BY an attack of acute rheumatism,
ef which the symptoms had before shown
themselves He father was obliged TO carry
him away wrapped mp in blanket ana AFTER a
painful Journey home, he experienced tedious
and dangerous ft Of illness. He had scarcely ar
rived az Philadelphia when his disease took the
krm Of cardiac Inflammation, and Tor long time
his family dispaired of his life. lie was himself COM
.ete,v discouraged He felt that there was no hope
sfhis ever becoming useful or honored among men.
:. The doctors tell me, he used to say that if i
throw of this paroxysm, may live month, or
perhaps half year; but they know, and l know,
that may be struck down in half all hour" When
he was so far recovered as TO sit up, he underwent
paroxysms of pain and sufocatiOn that racked his
slight frame to the limit of its strength and one of
his physicians told him that an incautious move
ment might prove fatal. "You may fall " said he
Elisha, as suddenly as from musket shot"
This sickness was the turning point Of his history
1t was the period to him of a new birth. After
long struggle which seemed TO promise no speedy
or certain conclusion, his father saw, without the
aid Of medical science-wbat mere science is not
always quick 20 discOver-that his disease was no
longer organic or structural, but homeopathic or
functional, and applied the heroic remedy. " Elisha,
If YOU must die, die in the harness. A thousand
times after, the doctor met danger and faced death
N the harness, and fought his way to victory.
He rose out OF the wreck resoutely, and retrieved
his life, in strength made his ewn by holding it in
fee Of chivarc service. This is the simple mystery
Of the man through his whole history. There is
nothing else in it that puzzles our judgments.
He recovered his medical attendant says, imper-
ketly and had, all his life after, or less rheu
matte and cardiac disease, abated somewhat, per-
kaps, while he was in the high degrees OF
north latitude, by the incOmpatiblity of these
affections with the scurvy, with which he
was deeply tainted in his last Arctic voyage.
His imperfect convalescence, in the Judgment OF bis
friends made the profession of an engineer imprac-
ticable. The study of medicine seemed to offer
promising resource, and in hls nineteenth year
young Kane entered the Office of an eminent physl-
elan in Philadelphia. On Oct 10, lS40, before the
completion of his twenty first year, he was elected
resident physician in the Pennsylvania Hospital as
iunior colleague of DR.. McPheeters For six months
they occupied the same room, and formed an ID
innate and cordial friendship. DIR. McPheeters
says of him, that at that time his health was
delicate and his appearance even pusre, notwith-
standing he was within few months OF his ma
jorty He was laboring under a serious organic
affection of the Decentralization with valvular
disease, which gave rise to very loud 6ruu dc
.ovf7et bellows sound), accompanied by the mos
tumultuous action of the heart from any violent
e1ertion. He was unable to sleep in horizontal
position, but was under the necessity OF having his
head and shoulders elevated, almost to right angle
with his body. He was fully aware of the gravity
Of his disease as he often remarked to me that he
never closed his eyes at night in sleep without feel
INF conscious that he might die before morning;
vet this consciousness did not seem to affect his
.pirts, or TO check his enthusiasm. The habitual
contemplation of sudden death seemed not at all
TO affect the buoyancy of his spirits, or to abate
the ardor with which he pursued the objects OF his
ambition. have always thought that the uncer-
tain state of bis health had good deal to do with
his subsequent course of life, and the almost reck'
less exposure of himself to danger"
In the Spring of 1s4l the young student, though
still Al undergraduate, became one OF the four
senior resident ply sicans, who had charge OF the
patients, bis friend Dr. Pheeters having left the
hospital. The heavy dsties and responsibilities
Of his Office were upon HIM, added to the studies
preliminary to his expected graduation in med-
cine, surgery, obstetrics, chemistry, and all the
tributary branches of the healing art which enter
into our omnibus system Of tuition, under the gen.
uipe American notion that nothing less than too
much lie plenty Of any thing. But he found time,
as the events of the year showed for all this, and
for q margin of collateral Investigations, large
enough in itself 10 pack the pages OF
Years progress in an ordinary mans work.
In the year 1881 NJ. Nauche had communicated to
the Society of Practical Medicine of Paris some OBJ
sevstions upon new substance found in the renal
secretion which he called kystein and announced
a. an ndubitabe test in cases of suspected utero-
CESSATION. The Importance of this discovery made
it the subject of critical examination in Europe,
and, at the request of DR.. Dungison, Drs. Nc
Pheeters and Perry, in the spring of lS4O instituted
series of experiments in the Blockey Hospital,
the results OF which they published in The Medical