The Bloomfield times. [volume] (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1867-187?, 1874-03-17
RObbing a Grave.

N town of Northern New York poor
Il man went to the grave by disease of
the brain, concerning which the local med
ical authorities differed widely and acIimo-
niously. In fact, two particular physicians,
who had long been professional rivals, so
radically disagreed as to the exact char
acter of the case that, when he whose treat
ment prevailed could not save the patient,
the other did not hesitate to allege that the
sick man had been destroyed by ignorant
mismanagement. When respectable prac-
titioner casts such an imputation upon
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 maintained that the disease in ques-
ton was caused by 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
was it to be practically demonstrated that
the tumor did exist, if the patient was in
his grave? There was but one way of
doing it, 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 disputer whose
truth and standing were at stake, as he
considered, in the matter, took a confiden-
tial student of his with him in sleigh to
the graveyard where had been placed the
hapless subject of dispute, and rapidly and
silently disinterred the body and placed it
in the vehicle. Then whip was given to
the horse, and away started the lsleigh on
the snowyiroad back to the surgery.
But scarcely had the desecrators of mans
last resting place got under way with their
ghastly prize, when the muffled beat of
horses hoofs somewhere in the darkness
behind them told that they had been watch
ed 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 well mounted. Turning from
the main road into by-way, or shortcut,
leading through a swampy peice of woods,
the fugitives managed to gain enough dis
JduC6 W SIOp Juo hlelBH nOIneuU JubJ aL
the edge of plank-bridge over frozen
woodland stream, and stretch 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 coming horseman with
the unseen rope, crash, and cry of wrath,
the two men carried the body to the house
and triumphantly deposited it upon dis
secting table.
Then, thinking of nothing but his own
discredited diagnosis of the disease and the
glory it would be to prove it true, the dar-
ing practitioner set to work with his in
struments. Carefully shaving one side of
the head, cutting through the scalp over
the spot where the principal pain had been,
he bored with his trephine through the
skull until circular button of bone, about
as large as copper cent, was removed, and
behold there was, indeed, the tumor But
the strangest scene of the curious drama
was yet to come, and may be best described
in the Doctors own terms
"With no small degree of self-satisfac-
tion, threw down my instruments and
was going downstairs when heard
faint sigh. AS 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 realityp Eagerly the slender thread
of life was seized, and hour by hour, and
day by day, week by week, it was strength
ened into a cable of perfect health,
until now, he is hearty and we'll"
In other words, the supposed dead man,
whose disinterment had occurred but few
hours after burial, had been only insensi-
BILE instead of dead, and the removal of the
humorous pressure on his brain was just in
time to save his life. And another 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 grave
so signally overthrow.