Huntsville gazette., 1886-07-31
.For more than thirty years. said


more than fifty, my father before me
gathered facts and wisdom from prac-
tice. often ride thirty miles of day
along the coast; and / have stood by
hundreds of death-beds of fishermen
and farmers, old and young, during
the last quarter Of century; but I can
hardly recall single instance of per
son dying of disease who did not pass
away while the tide was ebbing. 1t is
fact that, in critical cases, never
feel concerned about leaving the pa
tient for an hour or two when the tide
is coming in; but when it is receding,
and particularly in the later stages of
the ebb, always stay by, if can, un-
til the turn comes. You'll scarcely
credit it, perhaps; but the daily record
of the tides is the most important part
of the almanac to me in my practice.
If a patient who is very low lives to see
the current turn from ebb to flow, I
know the case is safe till the ebb sets
in again. Then, take care!-for death
wins. You remember the old saw in
rhyme:1 tsfAfs
"When the tide comes in, death waits for dole:
! When the tide ebbs. it takes the soul"
"Well, it has also proved so in my
practice"
| OF course, the weather-beaten old
practitioner did not wish to be under
stood as imagining that the tidal move
| meDt itself is in any way concerned in
this tendency to fatality. Nor was he
in possession of any definite theory, his
own, or generally accepted by the pro-
of hn or RI yUh hnc
agency the observed fatality Of ebb-tide
| is due. tfssts E.Ar
1T is simply fact of my expert
ence,n he said, ''that patients die at
ebb tide; and that the remaining hours
of the day are hours of comparative
immunity from death, except by acci-
dent. The tower of Sloan is liable to
fall at any hour of the day, high tide
Tor low. One fact may give you that
possibly bears upon the scientific solu-
ton of the question; and that is that
the barometrical pressure varies
rhythmically with the ebb and flow of
the tide. But the relation of the two
phenomena is as yet undetermined.
Indeed, am not sure that any observer
but myself has noticed its existence"
| By way of Illustrating his subject,
the old doctor went on to tell story
in some particulars parallel to that of
Barkis. This young man was very
skeptical as to the basis in fact of the
ancient notion, and so addressed HIM
SELF for three years to the verifcation
of the alleged relation. by ascertaining
the hour and minute of every death
that came under his notice, and com
pairing this datum with the tidal move
ment. Some four years ago the young
skeptic commenced his record, with
view to verify or disprove the world-old
hypothesis. During three years of
careful observation and inquiry he
amassed record of ffty-one deaths.
Only two of these occurred when the
tide was rising, and these two were
deaths from fatal accident. At the age
of twenty-four. the young scientist
himself was stricken down by typhoid
fever, and eventually succumbed to the
disease, after lying for many days on
the very verge of dissolution.
On his death-bed he sent for his
brother in New York City, but the lat
ter was, unfortunately, so circum-
stanced that it was impossible to re-
spond Immediately tc the summons.
and DELAYED a day after the receipt of
the message. On the closing afternoon
of his life, hour after hour, till the last
incoming wave had deposited its rid
dies of the sea, the dying man waited
in patience, exclaiming now and then,
or rather signing, as the. tall, old-fash-
ioned clock in the corner OF the room,
like gigantic coffin with figures and
hands, told off the seconds with mo-
notonous tick-tack, tick-tack of its tribe:
'I'm afraid VALLEY won't get here
till after the tide turns! Mother, what
time is it?" Ms-.
And still the tall old clock, whose
exactly circular, silver-frosted dial re-
sembled one of the cyclopean faces in
some old Hellenic bas-relief, went on
telling of the seconds with the same
relentless tick-tack that Hawthorne
has described with such symbolical
significance in the "Scarlet Letter."
the last incoming wave broke on the
lonesome sands Of the sound shore;
and the ebb set in that ''takes a SOUL"
The dying man lost hope a5 the fated
moment went by and VALLEY did not
come. F#He ss4Fr
"Walley won't get here, mother, till
I'm gone," he murmured, YEARLY. II
shall be dead before the tide turns
againr' HF s
The prediction was verified. He
went out with. the tide, as Barkis did in
the wonderful etching of Dickens, and
as the souls of many more have done
before and since. The longed-and-
waitcd-for VALLEY arrived less than an
hour after the last outgowing wave had
receded-but too late. The tide of life
had ebbed forever; its last pulsating
wave had receded from the enfeebled
brain. ,auAA ass4aaa -
So ended the old Doctors story
whose parallel have listened to many
times in the folklore Of this primitive
community-stories of the old and
young, the grave and gay, whose souls.
like that of Barkis, had gone out with
the tide. oi'a sys a'.A
..Mind you, reiterated the grim old
practitioner, II proffer no explanation
of the fact. But fact it is, sir, and no
superstitious fancy of sea-going popu-
lation, that the pulses Of the living hu-