Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-04-02
IN SPITE OF HIM.

There never was y more POpu1tSL
Young physician tdan DR.. Tredickar:
His manners were the perfection OF
t6e sympathetic, his tact and ludg
roent we're only equalled by his de-
vetion and skill, his personal magnet
SIN was immense, and the cures he
wrought were marvellous.
Fresh from the hospitals as he was,
and eager in the pursuit OF bis sci
ence many old families welcomed
nm as likely to have newer knows
edpe than the ageing physician who
had carried them through their life
time; and young families, just sctt1asg
ma for themselves, chose hlsa as likely
to 90 along the road with them TO the
end. -
choice. and reports Of the young doc
tors ability went Through the country
side and even extended to the next
larpe city, so that not infrequently he
was called IN consultation there with
nhvsicians OF longer and wider repute
than his own. His diagnosis of q
case was so swift and sure that people
used to say that DR.. Tredlckar could
tell what allied you by just looking at
van and many o good woman aver
red that she was more benehtted oy
ais touch upon the pulse than by
another doctors prescription.
Very possibly she was, Tor Dr.
Tredickar gave very little medicine;
the case was extreme IN which he
sent much custom to the druggist.
He carried about with him Ia his gig
certain medicants that he was wont to
administer, apparently potent, and
made I'D under his OWE formula.
From a peculiar liquid in a phial he
measured one drop; if, by accident,
a portion of another drop left the
nhial the glass had to be rinsed and
the single drop tried again; to this
drop a half 8 glass OF sWeetened
water being added, the patient was al
loved a teaspoonful OF the result oAce
IN SIX hours, if waking.
It was generally understood that
this LIQUID was something OF DIR. Tired
ielxar's own importation, difficult to
Obtain and enormous in cost; and the
gratitude his patients felt for the
Kindness for his thus procuring and
KEEPING on hand what they could
hardly have procured for themselves,
was something excelled only by the
reniditv with which they picked up
health and strength under It's effect.
Another of the remarkable taings
he was fond OF administering was a
tiny pill that he always had about
him. and that ne left IN small mum
bers to be taken at morning and night,
under certain other directions, always
ordering that if the patient felt too
nuch braced on the second day, with
rinoine ears or crowded sensations In
the head, or a pain in the left thumb,
the pills, however, 10 be taken three
DAYS. and then omitted for three days,
until cure was effected.
If these and the liquid did not work
ia such cases as he prescribed them,
then DR.. Tredickar seemed to take
another view Of the case, and to de-
vote himself to it with personal
assiduity and fiery earnestness, and
10 endeavor to bring the patient up as
if on the strong wings OF all his
power and learning.
The fact was that DR.. Tredickar be-
lieved in Nature. He knew that IN
certain malignant phases of disease,
the physician and strong drugs and
heroic measures are as necessary as
the air we breathe; out he believed
that many whimsical, hypocondriac,
feebIe-minded, weary and WORKOUT
patients were to be held by purely
hygienic treatment, by proper diet,
and other aids to health, and should
net have one organ or another inter
fared with by the strong poison of
drugs; and In every such Instance he
gave MS priceless liquid and little
dark pills, and let Nature and the
tonic effect of faith and hope do the
reviving work. And Of course he had
many such patients, aS many such
people abound; and the cures were so
satisfactory that his fame spread In
wide and wider circles, people who
had been hurt and not helped by
drugs leaving other physicians for
ais 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 weak
ness of human nature, and by remem-
boring inst as a cure was what was
wanted, he was the one TO decide how
to effect the cure.
But as DR.. Treaickar's practice in
creased. he had not the time of divid
ing slices of brown bread into infni
tesimal bits, that once he had, and,
frequently called away. ne 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,
ard set them In the sun to dry. and
have all his boxes filled wits fresh
supplies Of the little dark pills when
ae came home.
Dolly did that, no more faithfully
than she did everything else, though
.sha Was hour sRanpar and maid al .