The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1885-07-10
rHomPsoh.s SHAKE.
Remarkable Experience OF m Indians
Athlete.

THoMPsoN's SHAKE.
Remarkable Experience Of an Indiana
Mr.. James Thompson. of Indiana has
suddenly and unintentionally become
famous. Doctors regard him as a pc
culiar treasure. and from six to twelve
of them investigate him daily with
stethoscopes. auriscopes, microscopes,
stereoscopes and other surgical instru-
ments. The dime museums of the
country are enthusiastically bidding for
him, aud if he lives year or two more
he will be rich as well as famous.
Mr.. Thompson has been for a long
time a strong advocate of athletic exer-
cises. Recently he became interested
in the new discovery that it is better to
exercise the organs than the muscles.
He Immediately gave up his dumb
bells, his rowing machine and his ira
peze, and provided him self with a shak-
ing machine of his own invention. This
machine was a chair furnished with
springs, which, when set in motion and
kept in motion by levers, shook the
char and its occupant violently. MIR.
Thompson was accustomed to shake
himself for fifteen minutes ut a time
every morning, but although the
amount of shaking he received was sat
isfactory to him, he was dissatisfied
with the exerc Sc which the muscles OF
his arm received while working the
levers. He felt that in exercising the
muscles he was violating the principle
that organs. and not muscles, should
be exercised. He therefore devised a
plan of operating his machine by steam
power. At very shor5 distance from
his house stands the steam mill of which
he is the proprietor. 1t was compara-
lively an easy thing to connect the
steam-engine with the shaking chair by
means of betting, and when this was
done Mr.. Thompson was able to SIT in
his chair and undergo unlimited shak-
ing without the use of a singh muscle.
The connection between the chair and
the steam-engine was finally perfected
about two weeks ago. MIR. Thompson
found, however. that the use of steam
power shook the chair with so much
violence that it was necessary for the
occupant to be securely strapped while
undergoing shaking. 1t was necessary,
too, that Mrs. Thompson, after strap.
ping her husband TO the chair. should
90 to the mill, couple the chairshaking
attachment and uncouple it at the end
of fifteen minutes. This the good woman
undertook to do. but just as she had set
the chair in motion, Mrs. Smith, an in
innate friend, came into the mill in
search of her, and after, enlisting her
interest in the subject of summer
dresses, invited her to 60 shopping with
her. Mrs. Thompson was so much in
terested that she totally forgot to un-
couple the chair-shaking attachment,
and she accompanied Mrs. Smith down
town without thought of Mr.. Thomp-
sons situation.
Six hours later. Mrs. Thompson. on
returning home, was shocked to find
her husband apparently lifeless. but
still undergoing shaking. OF course
she rushed to the mill, stopped the ma
chinery. rushed home again. unstrapped
Mr.. Thompson, and, with the aid OF
several men who volunteered their assist
ance, she placed his insen Sible form on
the bed. Medical aid gradually revived
the unfortunate man, but it was soon
found that his entire set of organs had
been shaken upside down. A lump
above the right clavicle was identified
as his liver; his heart was found to beat
at the lower right-hand side OF the abb
dominal cavity. and both lungs were,
,et IicnnunraI in
the small of his back, a little to the left
of his pistol-pocket
Strange to say. Mr.. Thompson seems
to be perfectly well in spite OF the novel
arrangement of his organs. They work
apparently as well as ever, with one ex-
ception. Mr.. Thompson can not digest
his food except when standing on his
head. He can receive food into his
stomach while either sitting or stand
ing. but his stomach can make effective
connection with his liver in its new po-
sition only when the latter is placed
below the former by means of the eN-
pedient just mentioned. Mr.. Thomp-
son, however, is becoming used to this
method of digestion, though he is not
without fear that it may in time con-
ducc TO apOpleXy.
The ca of NJ Thompson is certain
" an interesting one, but it should be a
warning to the enthusiastic advocates
of shaking. 1t is the opinion of the
doctors that had Mr.. Thompson been
shaken for an hour or two longer the
arrangement of his organs would have
been so great that they would have
been made entirely useless. and that AZ
consequence the man would have
died.-N J. Times.