Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1874-03-26
SUMMERS sUFEERINGs.
Experiences Of Dr.. Brown-sequard

In the course of DIR. Brown-Se-
guards lecture on "NervOus Dis
cases." delivered in Boston, he thus
alluded to his experiences with the
dead Senator:
"When Mr.. Sumner first came un-.
der my care, he was suffering from
a arrangement of some fibers of the
nerves. AS you all know, he had
received a blow upon the head.
His spine as he was sitting was
bent in two places. His bent spine
had produced the effects of a sprain
and when l saw him in Paris he had
recovered altogether from the ef-
fects of the blow. He had then two
troubles. One was that he could
not make use of his brain at all.
He could not read a newspaper or
write letter. He was in fearful
state. 1t seemed to him as if his
head would explode-as if there
was some great force in 1t pushing
the parts away from each other.
.Ineed, his emotions were fearful to
me. Often in conversation if any
thing was said that called for any
degree of deep thought, he suffered
intensely Immediately, so that we
had to be extremely careful of him.
ssHe had another trouble of the same
nat ure as regards external appearances
but occupying another portion Of the
spine, and causing other symptoms.
It was sprain at the level of the last
dorsal vertebrate. The irritation there
was intense, and any molten there was
extremely hard. When he walked he
had to push forward his right foot, and
then his left, holding on all the while
to his back with both hands to relieve
the pain. 1t had been thought that he
was paralyZed as to his lower limbs; it
had been thought that he had disease
of the brain, and that was regarded as
being the cause of paralysis Of the
lower limbs. Fortunately the discov-
cry made with regard to the yaser-mot-
or nerves led me at once to find that he
had no disease of the brain, and no par
alysis. He had only an irritation of the
vosomotor nerves, at their exit from
the spine. --il 1 .--l
"When asked him if he was con-
scious of any weakness in his limbs, he
said: "Certainly not; I only cannot
walk on account of the pain. What
was to be done then was to apply coun
ter irritation on these two sprains !;
the only point to which he led me to
speak of this. told him the best plan
of treatment would consist in the ap-
plication Of moxas, the most painful ap-
plication to the skin. 1 asked him If
he would not take chloroform to dull
the pain or remove it altogether. 1
will always remember his impressive
assent when said that. He said: sDr.
if you can say positively that can de-
rive just as much benefit i'll take chlor-
oform as if / do not then 1 will take
chleroform; but if there is to be any
degree whatever of greater ameliora-
tion in case don't take chloroform,
then I shall not take it." 1 didn't
have the courage to deceive him. 1
told him there would be more good if
he didn't take chloroform, so had to
submit him to nartyrdom Of the great
est suffering that can be inflicted by
medical practice, and burned him. 1
thuoght after the torture the first time
he would use chlorefsrm, but fer five
times after in accordance with his own
determination, the operation was per-
formed without it. never saw a pa
tient before that would submit to such
a thing. The only eXpla-ation for
his conduct was this: ..
cat that time he was much abused.
Report had reached him that some of
his countrymen at home considered he
was amusing himself in Paris, pretend
ing to be ill: and he wanted to return as
quickly as possible. A few days, there
fore, were of great importance to him;
so he passed through all that terrible
and most intense suffering, the great
est have ever had the misfortune to
inflict, be it man or animal. l have
mentioned it on this account only to
show what kind of man he was
And will only add that l have seen
him always since to be ready to submit
to anything fer the sake of what he
thought was right, and in other spheres
you all know shuch was his character
obOut everything" 80.