The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1884-09-25
ChIOralisIn.

| TO myself as soon as | entered the
room and saw my patient lying on his
| back in bed. Advanced stage, too. 81
''Do you cough very much?'' / asked
'I don't cough at all" he replied.
"But | am dying by inches for ali that
don't know that | shall ever leave
this bed alive, and it is perhaps fol
the best, for | suffer fearfully.
| You do not see me at my worst now,
but at my best. 1t is toward evening
my dreadful distress begins-the rest
lessness, the indescribable gnawing;
tearing and dragging at my heart.
and this continues till nine o'clock when
| take my draught; then it is all over; !
sink into sleep, and am as dead as
q stone until morning."
''Your draught,' | said, feeling the
pulse, which was soft, feeble and slow.
what draught?" He merely motioned
with his head to a table that stood
handy to the bed. l took a bottle up.
1t contained some white crystalline sub
stance in large scales. / smelt it.
"Why," said, this is choral. You
surely don't take much of this? 1t will
kill YOU
He smiled family and sadly. at
has already done its work. take two
drachms a night. If [ have ray of
hope, doctor, it is conferred in you.
I've heard you are practical man.
Do with me as you will"
81 am a practical man." I replied,
Every" | put the bottle of choral into
my pocket as I spoke and buttoned my
coat.
| shall never forget the departing
look he gave me.
81 must not give it up all at once.
Surely. doctor, you do not know what
| shall suffer! Pain will be no name
for it; torture, torment, no name"
Eyes, all at once" [ insisted. sIti
your only chance. Choose that or
or DEATH"
ut seems to me-" he murmured, sit
is life or death. ~
st is, indeed, life or DEATH" I re-
piled. 'tDo as | wish you to, submit
yourself entirely to me and with God s
help | will raise you again, and soon,
from that bed of sickness and you will
be once more man" From that very
moment had hopes of the case. For
If cbloralist can once give up the
habit he has no desire to resume it.
All that night sat up with nv un-
happy patient. His sufferings were
dreadful to witness. It was the tearing
and gnawing at the heart that he com.
planned of most. 1t was like an i'm
mense crab eating his very vitals, he
said. How he tossed and moaned and
raved, sometimes hanging with head
down out of the bed for little relief.
pitifully moaning all night!
He slept little during the next day,
and took little nourishment. A saluta-
ry dirrahoea took place, and he was re-
duced in every way to a mere shadow.
On the fifth evening 1 offered dose of
choral.
'Not if I were to be made prince of
the realm, " he said, would Iswallow one
grain of the dreadful poison"
"What made you commence the hab-
it?'' / asked one day.
Il had bad tooth, /" was the answer.
The reply only shows the truth of
what have already said, that the most
triiing excuse is often sufficient to in
duce people to NEEDLE with death deal
ing narcotics.
DO not imagine that my patient got
better all at once after giving up the
use OF the choral. No, nor did he soon.
During the first two weeks the state of
his mind was one of what might term
morbid joyfulness. He had ESCAPED
out OF the jaws of death, and there was
mental elatedness in consequence. But
this soon gave place to fits of the great
est and darkest dependency. They did
not last very long, seldom more than
day, and in this lay my hope of being
able to thoroughly restore him to at
least fair state of healthfulness. This
of mind lasted for months.
but, although weak in body, he was
able to take considerable amount of
exercise in the open air, and he was
able to read at home. During the lat
Ter stages of the chlorarism he could |
neither read or write without the great |
est suffering. His exercise was walk |
ng, and | took pains to see that he |
always went somewhere with some |
special object in view, for I do not be-
leve in what l call circular walking
exercise, simply going out certain
distance and coming back again: paw
ng visit of ceremony to q distant
milestone does not constitute health
.ul walk.
The first real sign of returning health
n my Responding patient was his abil-
ty to sleep tolerably well; the second.
he desire he began to evince to be once
more engaged in active pursuits. This
iesire he evinced in a singular way.
de supplied himself with box of mys-
erlous small tools, and l often found
llm day after day working at the table
With a magnifying glass stuck in one
ye. lie was making kind of fairy
music box, and when completed the
Whole thing was no bigger than a
himble.
1T is playing now" he said to me
ne day.
"Indeed!" I replied. 81 can hear
othing.n
My patient smiled and enclosed his
little instrument in worsted
all. From this an elastic tube with a
lpple at the end of it extended.
'.Put the nipple in your ear" he
ald did SO, and was astonished. I
ouid hear it now, as loud apparently
a church organ, but as sweet and