The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1877-07-12
Valetudinarianfsin.

Farmer.
Valetudinarfanfs11.
WE are personally too conscious Of the
ills that flesh is heir to not to be fully
aware of the effort often required by the
Sufferer to suppress complaint, and ever
ready to award him the sympathy to which
he is entitled, though it may not be always
claimed. 1t is not, however, the seriously
afflicted who are the most often heard to
bewail their fate and invoke the compass
sion Of the more fortunate.
Gfave disease seems to be generally as
ISOLATED with st0icism of soul that,
smotheribg pain, stiles its voice, and tri-
umphing in its own strength, mocks at
sympathy. The truly sick man or woman
will seldom acknowledge the fullness Of his
or her suffering and danger. They per-
haps are deluded by kindly Lature into
the belief that their condition is not so
bad as it seems, and thus strive to con-
firm this satisfactory delusion by all posi-
BILE resistance to the indications of disease.
To this may be attributed the forced com-
posure, suppressed cries, hopeful self-as-
sertions, decided and even angry refusal
of friendly coincidence, and their eager
acceptance of complimentary assurances
of Improvement which are characteristic
Of many of the most painfully and fatally
ill.
From this peculiarly of genuine dis
ease, which apparently is always seeking
to delude itself, or, at any rate, to conceal
its manifestations from the public eye, a
useful lesson may be learned by overeager
sympathisers. Those who are ever ready
to pull long face, squeeze out tear, or
drop their voice to the lowest note of the
gamut of pity at the first sight Of sickness,
would find it probably more agreeable to
themselves, as it certainly would be to the
object of it, to spare this outward express
sion of sympathy. Sick people do not
like to Ne cried over and bewailed, and
have their funerals, as it were, by antici-
patton during their lifetime. Nothing,
moreover, is better calculated to increase
the risks of disease or hasten its fatality
than the depression Of the sufferers spirits.
He should be always encouraged in the
delusion that his illness is not 80 serious as
il is, and with the hope of improvement,
and not frightened ny the reality and driven
to the desperation reflected in the faces OF
funereal friends.
Leaving the genuine sick, who ordinsri-
" are so sparing of their complaints. and
feeling for them a compassion which they
so seldom demand, we pass to large
class Of so-called valetudiharians, who fill
the world with their bewailments, and in
sist upon sympathy which, how
ever largely bestowed, always fall far
short of their requirements The vale
tudinarians of whom we speak are not
charged with being entirely pretenders,
for they are not seldom without some
slight ailment upon which TO base a
complaint. This is generally, however,
only some trifiing indisposition, often
originating in idleness of life, and always
aggravated by the self-nursing of a NOR
bid egotism, and thesympathy which they
exact so imperiously and get so abundant
ly from indulgent friends. Whatever re.
atty there may be in the original suffer
ing of this kind of valetudinarianism, it
would seem either to be confined to a
special class of people of leisure, or ex-
clusively acknowledged by them. Its
complaints, at any rate, are seldom or
never heard from the lips OF the busy
workers of the world, and its symptoms
are not registered in the serious records OF
the hospital. This valetudinarianism,
moreover, is not hypochondria, which is
veritable disease of grave import. The
valetudinarian, so far from being a
malade imaginaire, though his fond inva-
lidism may tend to make him one, is
under no delusion in regard to the serious
ness or existence of bis malady, if ne has
any. He is quite conscious that the CON-
plants he utters are quite beyond any
pain he feels, and the sympathy he asks
much more than he can justly claim.
While the bodies of these valetudina-
rians are so far sound as to show to the
test of the physicians eye or surgeons
probe no indication Of disease, and their
minds continue to exhibit all the intelli-
gence they ever did, it must be confessed
that there is something morbid in their
state. They possess ordinarily an ex-
cessive egotism, which leads them to an
indrdinate longing for personal considera-
ton. 1t is generally people who have
been disappointed in attaining what their
vanity claims. but their merit fails to Sc
cure. Greedy, perhaps, of social recog-
milton, and having neither the powers of
entertainment of the bright and clever,
nor the attractions of the amiable and
beautiful, by which it may be legitimate
ly obtained, they determine to have it at
all hazard. Getting no notice from the
admiration of the world, they force
from it its pity, and strive to compensate
themselves for its scanty smiles with the
abundance of its tears.
1t is astonishing how conversation is
absorbed by the mere narration of peoples
ailments, for the great part of no real ex-
istence, or, at most, of little moment.
Mrs. Smith opens with her cold in the
head, Mr.. Jones Iejuins. with the govt in
his toe, Brown puts in plea for his rheu-
mates, and SO on, until the whole society
has given in detail and summed up its
diseases with the fullness and cxactness
of " domestic medicine book. There |
would seem to be better reason for the
use of castor-oil as conversational
aperient" than was thought of by Dickens
in his witty allusion to the young Phila-
delphia Quaker who opened converse
ton with him by statement .that his
grandfather was the inventor of cold
drawn castor-oil."
Old Sir Roger de Coverly was wont,
whenever he heard anyone complaining
in his company OF being " out of ORDER"
to call Immediately for some pOsset drink
for him, thinking, rightly enough, that
any fellow who oppressed the cheerful
ness Of society by bewailing his ailments
should be relegated to his chamber, where
he might. in its solitude, physic his pains
and stifle his groans. People have no
right to bore and make other folks miser-
able with the tedious and painful details
Of q valetudinarianism the sufferings Of
which seem to exist vicariously only in
the affection of those who are forced to
listen to them. Harpcr's Bazaar.