The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1886-11-05
LIFELESS AND YET NOT DEAD,
DIR. CHARLES REED LIVING ONLY IN
HIS HEAD For TWENTY-FIVE YEARS
Waiting for death

Waiting Tor death
On pillow in little back parlor at
1872 Lafayette avenue, Brooklyn, rests
the intellectual head of DR.. Charles F.
Reed, Sc years old, who has not been
able to move hand or foot or turn in his
bed since he was 81. He lives only in
his head, for every joint is fast bound
and his body and limbs are wasted to
the bone.
His eyes are sightless, his neck stiff,
his jaws set so close as to prevent him
from taking any food unless it be in
very soft or liquid form, and shoulder
joints, elbows, wrists, finger joints, hips,
knees and toes are immovable. The
knees are drawn up, the left knee Joint
is almost thrown from its socket, the
right foot is turned so far outward as
almost to turn backward A white
mustache and beard that Rip Van
Wrinkle would have envied cover the
lower part of face strong in outline
and full of character. Around the suf-
ferer's bed, where so heavy cross has
been laid, gather almost daily people
who come to get consolation in trouble.
DIR. Reed is a philosopher, and his
cheerful disposition, in spite Of the ex-
IRENE hardness of his lot, has made him
the wonder of everybody who knows
there to learn lesson in fortitude, and
all who meet the doctor say they go
away with new ideas of life and its pur-
poses. He is we'll read in every branch
of literature.
~ attribute my disease to an accident
al prick from a surgical instrument
while [ was dissecting in Cleveland"
said the doctor, yesterday. Malaria
and rheumatism combined to thorough
ly poison my system and bring me to
this state. | had a very offensive post
mortem about the same time and
breathed SO much Of the foul air that
was sick for two weeks. I contracted
malaria while in Illinois. read a great
deal when first stricken down, and when
l lost my sight my wife took this new
burden upon her. In 1876 had nerv-
Gus prostration. I have been looking
for death these many years, but when
one wants him to come, he is a very
slow COACH"
DIR. Reed was born in Weborn, Massa-
chusetts, and worked on farm until
he was of age, when he began the study
of medicine, which he continued in
New York and Cleveland. In 1864 he
was in charge of sanitarium at Ke-
nosha, Wisconsin, and his sickness,
which has led him life in the midst of
death, first came upon him at Kenosha.
He had inherited rheumatism and con-
tracted malaria in the West. These
diseases seized him about 8 o'clock at
night on September 9th, 1864, and he
has not moved since. When the burn
ing fever he suffered began to pass away,
and the sensitiveness of the joints grew
gradually less, he felt the joints stifen-
ing, and in the fingers and toes ne now
has complete anchylosis. In other
words, the joints have grown into solid
bone. He weighed 200 pounds, and
was tall and vigorous when he was
taken sick. In few years he was re-
duced to a skeleton.
DR.. Reed now suffers from toothache,
and nothing can be done for him be- |
cause his jaws are set and the teeth can
not be pulled, and even the relief of |
toothache drops is denied him. When
his sight left him, thirteen years ago,
Of always looking at the full
blaze of the MONDAY sun took posses
sion of the left eye, and the doctor
suffers the most intense pain.
DIR. Reed was married in 1858, and
Turing all his suferings his wife has re-
NAMED faithfully day and night at her
helpless husbands bedside. AT first
;wo men were required to lift him.
The money saved from a lucrative prac-
ice dwindled, and with exigencies of
he case the doctor invented a kind of
lerrick with two arms and hosting
franks, by means of which his wife can
easily move him from the bed while it
S being made. Bands and straps are
placed under him and he is raised above
he bed. He was brought to New York
~ his wife in 1868. Before the bones
his spine was affected, and as
he trouble worked slowly upward the
muscles of the body contracted and
compressed his ribs so that at one time
lie nearly died by having the breath
squeezed out of him. He was troubled
With nervousness, and when asleep his
aW would suddenly snap open and
,lose again so quickly and violently that
ne several times bit through his tongue.
If any one crossed the floor the Earring
made him wild with pain through his
,pine. The feather bed had to be made
lp with a hollow centre, that his spine
night not touch anything. 1t required
orr men to hold him that he might go
% sleep, as the twitching of his limbs
vas beyond his own control.
The doctor has never suffered from
headache. A curious phase of the dis
,ase is that he lies awake from about
Il o'clock at night until 2 in the morn