Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1870-08-18


with one, two or more cocktails" or
quantities of greater or less extent OF
clear spirita
He wakens from his stupor or troubled
slumber with his nerves all jarring, his
muscles refusing to carry his tottering
frame across the room his tongue nearly
paralyzed; his stomach nauseated bis
brain crazed and infiamed and he has re-
course to the only thing he knows-poor
creature, abandoned Of men!-that viii
enable him to ret about his daily and re-
Quisite taskA
But now he has given himself . two
weeks holiday, and his frienda have prom
ised 10 = zee him through, -snd viii
keep their promise, for It ID sacred and
so he need not get out of bed at
all, and one horrible fear is removed at
once. ,ss
\ Now he takes one of his twenty. grain
powders of Bromide of Potassium, and
the internal conflict begins. It is q NOR
tai fight with the foul fiend himself.
The patient has no cares, no thoughts.
Some one smooths his pillows, shuts
out the bright light which would tor
ture his eyes, aira the room to suit him,
and he feels once more as though he
were child again, nursed by his
mother.
he does not want 10 eat, and he need
not eat, for he has nothing to do but to
lie still and fight, fight! Ali there is
the point. And now he shall show of
what stuff he is made.
For there is no sterner, Is there Is
no nobler, battle waged than this con.
flict of the sick man with himself and
with the devil who has gotten posses.
sion of him.
At first the system, surprised by this
novel condition of things, waits, patient
~ enough, for its usual morning cor
receive; but, at length, grown weary of
waiting, and becoming even impa-
tient-as the best-regulated systems, not
to speak of illregulated ones, sometimes
WILT begins to make itself heard.
Now it is to be understood that the mo-
tive of this article and Its prime intention
are, to show what the will-power of man,
though subdued and crucifed and stided
and subjected to the viiest slavery OF
earth, scM do, if the man be man, without
the aid of asylums or other public and
extraneous aid.
The fight is between the divinity Of
man and the power of evil and the battle
field is the beautiful physical structure,
which, we are told, is "made 10 the image
of God" while the gage is an immortal
soul.
There is a gnaving at the pit Of the
stomach; cold sweats crawl up and
down the body; the skin is clammy /;
the head swims around and about; the
muscles become completely relaxed !;
the nervous system is entirely unstrung;
strange dreams perpiex" the doing
brain he slumbers for an instant, and
is awakened by spasm; cramps assail
his limbs, and he kicks them out; If
pin drops it has the reverberation of q
ten.pin; spots, black and white, dance
before his eyes, open or closed hideous
faces glare at him, and change and
change like the patterns Of kaleido.
scope; out of the pocket of his coat,
hanging over yonder, there comes a
wheel, which increases itself, and whirls
spirally in the air toward him, till it
vanishes under his very eyes, and still,
behind all this phantasmagoria, he hears
a soft musical voice saying: "Be not
afraid! You shall win the hghtp
And by aLd-by the sedative which he
has taken, ard which has ipsidiously
been seeking out the eneny's weak point
all this time, finds it, and the patient falls
into q sleep, the first natural sleep he has
had for years.
But he wakes again to find the conflict
going on harder than ever, and the cray
| ing stronger and he takes second pow
der, say three hours after the first, and q
third at night-fal; and 20 the day passes.
The second day is worse than the first.
| The fancies are intensified the system is
coming out from under the alcoholic in
| fiuence; and the reaction IL the more ter
rible. But there must be no fiinching
now! Keeping continually before the
mind, as it becomes clearer, the determine.
ton to crush out and root out, at any
cost, this vile enemy to health and pro.
gress, the sufferer may also remember
that each hour brings him more and more
under the influence of his only friend, and
each hour improves his condition and in
creases his ability to continue the conflict
successfully.
Food should not be taken, unless mr.
the most nutritious character.
other meats as are best calculated to pre-.
serve the tone of the stomach, are to be
preferred.
Let the patient satisfy himself through
all that, by this treatment, he must sue
coed. If his paroxysms become stronger
than he seems able to bear, the dose OF
Bromide may be increased to thirty or
even forty grains; or, be taken more fire.
quently in the original pre scription.
After tho third day, there will be mark
ed improvement, the skin will assume q
natural hue and sensation, he Will be able
to eat with some appetite, to sit up, and
to move about, firmly though feebly but
the great change viii be in his brain.
/ There will come to him new thoughts
with a viyidness and force that will
cause him to laugh aloud with delight.
His ideas will arrange themselves clear
1 ~ and logically, where before all was cha
otto and confused.
As his appetite grows, and his system
begins to feel the strength, food-given, his
muscles viii strengthen, his will become
elastic In his movements, and strength
come to him as by miracle.
There can be nothing in earth's warfare
that can give that sublime consciousness
of well-doing, which is 50 intensely felt
after those days Of terrible suffering.
He is respected; hh utterances are re-
garded with their due consideration; his
| friends and those who understand through