Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-02-24

IN SPITE OF HIM.
By HARRIET PRESCOTT SPoFFoRD.

physician than DIR. Tredickar. His man.
ners were the perfection of the sympathet-
ic, his tact and his judgment were only
equalled by his devotion and skill. his
personal magnetism was immense. and
the cures he wrought were marvellous.
Fresh from the hospitals as he was, and
eager in the pursuit of his science. many
old families welcomed him as likely to
have newer knowledge than the ageing
ply stefan who had carried them through
their life time; and young families. just
setting up for themselves, chose him as
likely to go along the road with them
selves to the end.
The eventcertainly justified their choice,
and reports of the young Doctors ability
went through the country side, and even
extended to the next large city, so that not
infreauenily he was called in consultation
there. with physicians of longer and wild
er repute than his own. His diagnosis of
case was 80 swift and sure that people
used to say that DR.. Tredickar could tell
what allied you. by Just looking at you !;
and many a good woman averred that she
was more benefited by his touch upon the
pulse than by another doctors prescrip-
ton.
Very possibly she was, for DR.. Tredickar
gave very little medicine ;the case was ex.
IRENE in which he sent much custom to
the druggist. He carried about with him
in his gig certain indictments that he
was wont to administer. apparently potent.
and made up under his own formula.
From peculiar liquid in phial. he
measured one drop if. by any accident, a
O. lof no ;nJ tbo
glass had to be rinsed and the single drop
tried again; to this drop halt-glass of
sweetened water being added, the patient
was allowed teaspoonful Of the result
once in six hours. if waking.
1t was generally understood that this
liquid was something of DR.. Tredickar's
own importation, difficult to obtain and
enormous in cost and the gratitude his
patients felt for the kindness of his thus
procuring and keeping on hand what they
could hardly have procured for themselves
was something exceled only by the rapid
ity with which they picked up health and
strength under its effect
Another of the remarkable things he
was fond of administering, was tiny pill
that he always had about him. and that
he left in small numbers to be taken
at morning and night, under certain
other directions, always ordering that
if the patient felt too much braced
on the second day, with ringing ears
or crowded sensation in the head, or a
pain in the left thumb, the number was to
be lessened, the pills. however, to be
taken three days. and then omitted for
three days, until cure was effected.
If these and the liquid did not work in
such cases as he prescribed them, then DR..
Tredickar seemed to take another view of
the case, and to devote himself to it with
personal assiduity and fiery earnestness,
and to endeavor to bring the patient up
as if on the strong wings of all his powers
and learning.
The fact was that DR.. Tredickar believed
in nature. He knew that in certain ma
lignant phases of disease, the physician,
and strong drugs and heroic measures are
as necessary as the air we breathe but he
believed that many whimsical. hypochon-
driac. feeble minded, weary and worn out
patients were to be helped by purely
hygienic treatment, by proper diet, and
other AIDS to health, and should not have
one organ or another ;nterferred with by
the strong poison of drugs; and in every
such instance he gave his priceless liquid
and little dark pills, and let nature and
the tonic effect of faith and hope do the
revving work. And of course, he had
many such patients. as many such people
abound and the cures were so satisfacto-
ry that his fame spread in wide and wider
circles, people who had been hurt and not
helped by drugs leaving other physicians
for his advice.
And he gave the advice and his little
dark pills, too; and with some individuals
relief came quickly, and with others.
where the system had been still further
upset by strong medicines, not so quickly.
If he had at any time doubts as to the
empiricism of this treatment, he excused
himself by stating the weakness of human
nature, and by remembering that as cure
was what was wanted, he was the one to
decide how to effect the cure
But as DR., Tredickar's practice increased,
he had not the time for dividing slices
of brownbread into infinitesimal bits, that
once he had, and, frequently called away.
he would leave the task for pretty Dorothy
Merle to finish, and she would divide and
redivide the tiny segments, and roll them
between two fruit knives, and set them in
the sun to dry. and have all his boxes
filled with fresh supplies of the little dark
pills when he came home.
Dolly did that no more faithfully than
she did everything else. though she was
house-keeper, and maid of-all-work, and
general overseer for the young doctor,
and knew very we'll how to take care of
him, and of herself too.
She was apretty thing. this young Dor
othy Merle; not very tall. and rather
slender. with dark brown hair falling off
the low. white brow in natural waves,
with brilliant, hazel-brown eyes. and
small, fine features, among which was a
mouth whose rosy lips parted over teeth
like seed pearls. She very seldom smiled
she was grave little body, intent in her
beauty, farmers daughter, brought up
to work. brought up to be lady, too,
with good common school education
and simple manners.
Often when the doctor returned from
his visits he left his study and went out into
her sitting-room, where the fire was bright
and the hearth was clean, and sat down
there to have glass of milk and bit of
gingerbread, and to speak first of some
household matter, and afterward of some
patient; and presently he found himself
discussing his most perplexing case with
her. and deriving more or less benefit
from her disinterested common sense.
II