Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1874-04-01
The Treatment Of Charles Sumner.


The Treatment Of Charles Sumner.
When, in 1857, / saw Charles Sumner
for the first tiale. he presented to me at
once symptoms which could not but rec
ognize rs dependent upon an irritation of
some tibres of the sympathetic nerve. and
II paralysis of others. As you know, he
received Il terrible blow upon the head.
His spine as he WAS sitting had been bent
in two places. the cr;tnium fortunately re.
sisting This bending of the spine in two
places had produced there the effects of Il
spr;tin When SAW him in Paris he had
recovered altogether from the first effects
OF the blow He suffered only from the
two sprains Of the spine and perhaps a
slight irritatio Of the spinal cord itself
He had two troubles At ihlt time. One
was that he could not make use of his
brain ut all He could not read news
paper; could not write letter. He was
in Il frightful state rs regards the activity
of the mind, rs every effort there was
most painful to him. 1t seemed to him at
times as if his head would burst; there
seemed to he some great force within
pushing the pieces away from one another
Any emotion was painful to him. Even
in conversation. anything that called for
depth of thought or feeling caused him suf
fering. SO that we had to be very careful
with him. He had another trouble result
ing from the sprain which was ut the
level Of the lowest dorsal vrrtebra. The
irritation produced was intense and the re-
suit very painful When h. tried to move
forward he was compelled to push one
,1,,y-1, md f,ryK-ae.l l,rt f.4,v
inches. and then drag the other foot To a
level with the first. holding his back at
the same time 10 diminish the plin that he
had there. 1t had been thought that he
was paralvzcd in the lower limbs, and that
he had disease of the brain. and the disease
of the brain was construed rs being the
cause of this paralysis of the lower limbs
Fortunately the discovery made of what
we call the vasa-motor nervous system, led
me at once to the conclusion that he had
no disease Of the brain and had no par
alvsis. He had only an irritation of those
vasa-motor nerves, resulting from the up
per strain in the spine. That irritation
was the cause of the whole mischief as re-
CARDS the function of the brain. The 9TH
er sprain caused the pain which gave the
appearance of paralysis. When | asked
him if he WAS conscious of any weakness
in his lower limbs, he said Certainly not
have never understood that my physi-
cians considered me paralyzcd l only
cOnnOt walk on account of the pain.
What was to be done was to apply coun-
ter-irritantS 10 those two sprainS. That
was done told him that the best plan
of treatment would consist in the lpplica-
ton of moNas. and that they produced the
most painful kind of irritation of the skin
that we knew. | urged him then to allow
me to give him ch oroform to diminish the
pain. if not take it away altogether.
well remember his impressive accent when
he replied: " If You can say positively
that shall derive ;lS much benefit if | take
chloroform as if do not. then of course |
will take it, but there is to be any degree
whatever of amclior;ltiOn i'll case do not
take it. then | shall not take it.
did not find courage enough TO deceive
him. told him the truth-that there
would BE- more effect, rs thought, if he
did not take chloroform. And so had to
submit him to the martvr,lom of the great
est suffering that can be inflicted on NOR
til man ! burned him with the first mo
Nj had the hope that after the first APP
plcation he would submit to the use of
chloroform but for five times after that he
WAS burned in the me way, and refused
to take chloroform. | have never seen a
patient who submitted TO such treatment
in that way. | cannot conceive that it
was from mere heroism that he did it.
The real explanation w;ts this: Heaps of
abuse had been thrown upon him. He
WAS considered As amusing himself in
Paris; as pretending to be i'll. In fact, he
wanted to get We'll and 90 home rs quick
" rs possible. A few days were of great
| Importance to him. And SO he passed
TIN ough that terrible suffering, the great
est have ever inflicted upon any being, be
! il man or animal.
/ mention this only to show what the
man was, and | shall only add that since
that have always found him ready to sub
nit to anything for the sake of what he
thought to he right; and in other spheres
YOU know that such was his character
/ Dr.. Brown-Scguard IN a Boston lecture.