The Goldsboro star. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1881-18??, 1881-08-06

huluhu Auht ltTC
Constant Demand by Old and Y Young--Deal'
ing with the Deaf.
"Now that your little boy is fixed all
right, don't you want something in my
line for yourself9"
"No, I do not. I am perfectly
sound"
"You may think so, but if you should
let me hunt you over I've no doubt
should find that you need some sort Of
apparatus. Eight out of every ten men
who walk the streets of New York wear
some mechanical appliance or other
and women too, for that matter, though
they look SO fine" said the proprietor Of
a mandatory of surgical instruments
and appliances for the relief and rem
edy Of numerous physical ailments and
defects The walls, showcases, tables
and windows of the salesroom were
covered and filled by queerly-shaped
and mysterious contrivances Of steel,
nickel, celluloid, wood, gold, brass,
leather, tin, china, silk, rubber, and
seemingly of every other material that
could be nodded, carved, sewed, ham,
mered, cut, filed and bent to fit some
part of the human anatomy or do some
thing forcible to some refractory or de-
fective member. Among them were
electric belts, chains, medals, girdles,
bracelets, necklaces and hair brushes.
There were all sorts of articles needed
in sick rooms. There were many
strange contrivances for the relief Of
paralyzed persons One, called the dy-
namometer, or paralytico register, is a
steel instrument which is placed in the
patients hand in order to test the power
Of moving his fingers. There were
-Sslpy instruments and apparatuses fer
deTand hip diseases, and for extend
g the limbs of cripples. There was
"a very queer arrangement in which the
sufferer lies on his back.
In the showcases there was stock
valued at $4,000, consisting mainly of
surgical instruments. In showing these
and explaining their uses the pro-
prietor sid: "We do large business
in the sale of syringes for hypodermic
injections Of morphine"
"To physicians mostly"'
"Oh, no, by no means; the sale is
comparatively small to them. The gem
eral use of opium is a growing evil, and
more women than men are addicted to
it. Those who have become accus-
toned to it cannot live without it. The
relief it gives from pain is instantaneous,
but it lasts only two or three hours. We
sell the hypodermic syringe to persons
in every sort of life, from the fine lady
who comes in her carriage to tho poor
laundress with basket of linen on her
arm. How so wide a knowledge of the
subcutaneous application of morphine
has spread about I am at loss to con-
lecture; but even young school misses
make use of it. One girl will tell her
companions and they will come by twos
and threes to purchase instruments. To
such, however, I refuse to sell, although
it is alwa- their sick aunt OF grand
mother sent them, they say. A
gentle lay rushed in here, pale,
hagp nd trembling, and
''nl 're suffering with
'ad broken the
syringe, and
could hardly
.djusted He
N adjoining
ents returned
,osed. He had
is dose, and was
consequently tran
I,au ladies come to have
ments repaired who were in such
of nervous excitement that they
OF leave tl.oir carriage, and the
ent had to be arranged in the
it haste and taken to them. An
.ess of national reputation has for
vs. been addicted to morphine, ad-
stered by herself in this form, and
could not act, nor now even live,
,.Lhout it,"
"I infer, from the immense number
trusses I see, that rupture is not un-
lmmon."
"Iti very common" the proprietor
olied, especially among a class of
nwho seem to be physically perfect
phe athletes, who strain and injure
lenlselyes by violent exercise. The
great majority of circus performers are
ruptured. Children, too, are liable to
accidents. in running or by falling. It
is easily outgrown by children, but not
so easily cured after maturity. We
have an endless variety of trusses. Each
physician has his own pet theory of a
truss to suit the case Of some particular
patient, and we are always making some
thing new after physicians directions.
Then there are many men who only in
vent new apparatus of this nature, and
their improvements and patents are
countless. AS in the case of the sewing