Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-05-07
An Exciting Race-The Story of
Grave Robbery.

! IN a town Of Northern New York q
| poor man went to his grave by a disease
| OF the brain, concerning which the local
medical authorities differed widely and
acrimoniously. In fact two particular ply
sieians, who had long been professional
rivals, so radically disagreed as to the ex-
act character of the case that, when he
| whose treatment prevailed could not save
! the patient, the other did not hesitate to
allege that the sick man had been de-
stroyed by ignorant mismanagement.
When respectable practitioner casts such
an impUtation upon a member of his own
| professional school, he should be pretty
| confident of his ability to prove it, and
| the accuser in the present instance was
not unaware of his imperative obligation
! TO substantiate his accusation. But how
/ was that to be done? He had firmly main
| tanned that the disease IN question was
caused by a tumor, and that the removal
| OF the same by an operation would save
| the patients life. His rival insisted that
there was no tumor, and consequently did
not perform the operation. Now, how
was 1t to be practically demonstrated that
! the tumor did exist if the patient was in
his grave? There was but one way of do
ing that, and the doctor adopted it.
On Christmas Eve, near midnight,
when lights shone brightly from homes
far and at hand, and the snow lay crisply
on the ground, the professional disputant.
whose truth and standing were at stake
| as he considered, in the matter, took a
confidential student of his with him in
the sleigh 10 the graveyard, where had
been placed the hapless subject of dis
T0I1ta ard orDjI1vv onH Silnnf1yr Hicip
the poor body and placed it in the
! vehicle. The whip was given to the horse.
and away started the sleigh on the snowy
road to the surgery.
But scarcely had the Decorators of
mans last resting-place got under way
with their CHASTITY prize when the muffled
beat of horses hOofs somewhere in the
darkness behind them told that they had
been watched and were being pursued.
Sharper fell the whip, and the spirited
young animal before the sleigh went like
the wind! yet still the pursuing hoof-
beats sounded through the keen air,
showing that the pursuer was we'll
mounted. Turning from the main road
into by-way. or shortcut, leading
through swampy piece of woods, the
tugltiyes managed to gain enough
distance to stop the sleigh a
moment just at the edge of
plank bridge, over a frozen woodland
stream, and stretch a rope across the
dark and narrow road. This done, they
were off again for the surgery close at
hand, with the gallop Of the pursuer
coming sharply again to their ears
Pausing once again beyond the bridge to
hear presently the collision of the COM
ing hOrsem2n with the unseen rope, a
crash, a cry Of wrath, the two men carried
the body to the house and triumphantly
deposited it on the dissecting table
Then, thinking of nothing but his own
discredited diagnosis Of the disease and
lhe glory it would be to prove it true, the
daring practitioner set to work with
| his instruments. Carefully shaving one
side of the head and cutting through the
scalp over the spot where the principal
pain had been, he bored with his trephine
through the skull until a circular button
of bone, about as large as a copper cent,
was removed, and, behold, there was, in
deed, the tumor! But the strangest scene
of the curious drama was yet to come,
and may be best described in the
doctors own words: with no
small degree of dissatisfaction [
threw down my instruments and was
SOlHS uOWu SldlIS Nu6u L u6dDQ 1a1QL
sigh. As l kneeled by the dead mans
side and, candle in hand, gazed anxiously
into his pallid features, he feebly gasped
and raised his eyelids. My God! Could
it be reality? Eagerly the slender thread
of life was seized upon, and hour by
hour, day by day, week by week, it was
strengthened into a cable of perfect
health"
In other words, the supposed dead man,
whose disinterment had occurred but a
few hours after burial, had been only in
| sensible instead of dead, and the removal
of the humorous pressure on his brain
was just in time to save his life. And an
other strange discovery was that on the
same Christmas night the doctor who
had denied the tumOr had broken his
arm by falling from his horse! Suspecting
what his rival intended, he, too, had
ridden secretly to the graveyard, and was
the pursuing horseman whom the con-
cealed rope across the road so signally
overthreW.-N. Y. E!rpreSs.