Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1884-03-27
on lPT FSTOWN JEFFERSON COUNTY, W Va, THURSDAY,
Spinat Meningitis.

curiosity uUOul TIC NoONc h""'Su
so few have very clear idea Of the thrill OF
pleasure it affords the patient, unless they
have enjoyed it themselves. that have de-
cded to briefly say something in answer to
the innumerable inquiries have received.
Up to the moment had notion of get
ting some meningitis, had never employed
aphysician. Since then have been thrown
in their society great deal. Most OF them
are very pleasant and scholarly gentlemen,
who will not soon be forgotten but one oi
them, whom we will call Dysart, to distin-
guish from the rest, doctored me first for
pneumonia, then infammatory rheumatism
and finally, when death was contiguous, ad-
vised me that must have change OF scene
and rest.
told him thatif he kept on prescribing
for me might depend on both. Change OF
Of physicians, however, saved M life. Dy-
sart. the horse doctor, a few weeks afterwards
administered a subcu;aneous morphine squirt
in the arm of healthy servant girl, because
she had tho headache. and she Is now with
the rest OF this veterinarians patients in
land that is faircr than this.
She lived six hours after she was prescrib-
ed for. He gave her change of scene and
rest. lie has quite thriving little ceme-
terry filed with the people who have succeed
ell in cording up enough Of his change of
scene and rest 10 last them through all etcr-
ni:y. lie was once called to prescribe for i
man whose head had been caved in by
stone matchbox, and after treating the man
for asthma and blind staggers, he prescribed
rest and change Of scene for him, too. The
poor ssthmetic is now breathing the extreme
" rariiied air Of the New jerusalem.
Meningitis is derived from the Latin Men
iagcs, membrane, and lis, an ailix deaoting
Inflammation, so strictly speaking. men
ingitis is the inflammation Of membrane,
aud when applied to the spine or cerebrum,
is called spinal meningitis, or spinal
meningitis &c, according to the part OF the
spine or brain involved in the Inflammation.
Meningitis is a characteristic and result OF
so-called spotted fever, and by many it Is
deemed identical with it.
When we com- TO consider that the spinal
cord or marrow runs down through the long
beny shaft made by the vcrtcbra, and that
the brain and spine, though connected, are
bound up in one continuou; bony wall and
covered with this inhamed membrane, 1t ls
no. difficult to understand that the thing is
very hard to get at. If your throat gets in
famed, doctor asks you 20 run your tongue
out into society aboltl yard and half, and
he prizes your mouth open with one OF Rogers
Brothers spoon handles. Then he is able
10 examine your thrOa. ~ he wOuid page
Of the Congressional Record, and TO treat It
with some local application. When YOU
have spinal meningitis, however, the doctor
tackles you with bromides, e.go.s, ammonia,
iodine cholorll hydrate, csdi, bromine Of
ammonia, hashccsh, bismnth, yalcrlanatc Of
ammonia, morphine sulph, nlx yomica, tur-
pentiae emulsion, vox humana rex magnui,
opium, cantharideS, Doyer's powders, and
other bric-a-brac. These remedies are mas
ticated and acted upon by the saliyary glands
passed down the aesopheguj. thrown into
the society Of old gastric, submitted to the
peculiar IN oticn of;he stomach and thorough
II chymifed, then forwarded through the
pyloric orifice into the smaller intestines,
where they are touched M with bile, and
later on handed over through the lac.eals,
thorlcic duet, &c, to the vast circulatory
system. Here it is yanked back and forth
through the heart, lungs and capillarie', and
If ANYTHING is left 70 fork over to the disease
it has TO squeeze into the long, bony, air
tight socket that holds the spinal cord. All
this is done withoa, seeing the patients spi-
nal cord before or after taking. fit could
be taken Ou, and hung over clothes-line
and clcansed with benznc and then treated
with insect powder, or rolled in cornmeal, or
preserved in alcohol and then put back, it
would be all right: but youcan't. You pull
mans spine out Of his system and he Is
bound 70 miss it. no matter how careful you
have been about it. II is difficult to keep
house without the spine. You need 1t every
time you cook meal II the spinal cord
could be pulled out BY dentist and pnt a
way in pounded ice every time itge:s hot
box, spinal meningitis would loose its
singer.
Twas treated By thirteen piysicin1' whose
names may give in future article. They
were, as said, men / shall long remember.
One Of them said very sensibly that mcnin-
gifts was generally oyer-doctored. told
him that agreed with him. said that If
should have another year Of meningitis
and thirteen more doctors, | would have to
postpone M trip to EiroPe where had
hoped to 20 and cultivate my voice. I've
got perfectly lovely voice if | coald take
it to Europe aad have it sand-paperel aud
mellowed down with beer and bologna.
But was speaking Of my physicians.
Some time Pm going to give their biogra-
phies AID portraits, as they did those Of Dr..
Bliss. DR.. Barnes, and Others. Next year If
can get railroad rates, am going TO hold
are-union Of my physicians at Chicago. 1t
will be pleasant relaxation for them and
III -... -. l;,.,. 80 Iaroa rercan.avc of