Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-08-20
MORTON.
The Nature OF Hts DIsease = IL
origin

-
The Nature OF Hts DIsease = It's
origin
From a staff Correspondent Of the Cincinnati
IimeS.l
RICHMoND, IND, August 16.-
When attendant physicians and
family friends most familiar with
his physical peculiarities confess
their inability to make a trnst-
worthy prognosis Of Senator Nor
TONS disease, the newspapers must
be content to do no better. To
deny that he is a very sick man,
and that there j. peril in the situa-
ton, would be TO deny what the
most hopeful confess.
The Oregon trip, while arduous
enough to have exhausted a man of.
perfect physique, seemed to result
only in the Senator'S improvement.
He travelled over $500 miles. He
took full charge of the Grover in
vestigation and examined more
than 100 witnesses-work which,
while not Of a very intricate char
acter, required close attention. Yet
daily as his labors increased so did
his apparent health. He traversed
Oregon, British Columbia, Wash
ingtOn Territory and a good part Of
California.
In the increasing yigor of his
last few days in the West, he taxed
his physique over-much-especially,
perhaps, in the matter of eating.
One Of the features of his long suf-
fering has been an extreme torpid
ity of the bowels-at once the effect
and the augmenter Of his physical
inirmity. Against this trouble
constant care is necessary; and, of
course, the regulation of the diet
forms an impol tant part Of it. But.
by nature a good eater, he is apt,
when absorbed by the conversation
of a gay table, to eat what is set
before him, without much thought
of what it is, or what may be its
effect. Amid the flowing hospital
ity which greeted him Oh his trip,
and especially toward the close OF
it, he was undoubtedly incautious
in this particular; and it Is to this,
and to the aggrayation Of his
bowel trouble which it brought
about, hat his late attack
is believed to be owing. Perhaps
the eliminating morsel against
which the body rebelled, was a Ger.
tain salad of soft-shell crabs which
that prince of entertainers, Ber
Holiday set ont upon the senator'i
arrival at San francisco, on Satur.
day, the 4th. Certain it is. that OF
Sunday he felt unusually oppressed
Had less command of his limbs
than usual, and noticed a Sigh.
numbness in his left side. Their,
was nothing in the nature of wha.
was called a ''stroke." The new
trouble come on him gradually
Sunday night he found himsel
unable to sleep; tried to walk abou
! the room, but found it too sever
an exertion; finally sank exhausted
into a brief slumber, and woke, a
5 o'clock on Monday morning, b
discover hat he had no comman,
5 over his left arm, and that his lel
=. side sympathized largely with tn
paralysis of the arm. There ha
s been no amelioration of the SYM
= toms since then-the case, so far d
s the p%aralytic features go, has re
manned without change.
, Immediately upon discoyerin
his condition Senator Morton IN
sisted upon returning home. III
. wife and his son Oliver, who wer
y with him on his journey, sought {
. dissuade him from undertaking s
long a railway trip in his precariop
q condition, but his determinatio
was inlexible. Still overriding tn
0, body and scorning its suffering
r. he was resolved, at any cost, to II
turn to his home and to more fl
IL miliar surroundings. lie is emit
Or tied, by descent, TO paralyt
&c troubles. His father and his unc
es died of paralysis, an aunt is lyir
- i'll with it now and a brother hi
been more or less affected. II
loss Of power in his lower limbs
u has attributed to this heredita.
tendency, and it has been HOPE
Dis that the inheritance would en-
so there; that the disease would NAL
!. no further progress. q.
!, 1t is the belief of the physical.
ne who have paid closest attention
ia. his case that his local inGrmi
NO would have remained local, and til
n there was no reaeon why his |
would not be as long, and, in
20 other respects, as full Of health
any ones, ave for the torpidity
lat his bowels which grew out Of I