Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1886-06-17
Buried Fingers That Hurt the Former
Possessor-Transplanting Human
Hide spiritual Theory,

"In recent issue Of local paper,"
said well known citizen, IF zee that
our surgeons have done q novel thing
by transp0sing skin Of one person to
the body of another. The operation Is
neither new nor remarkable. For
years | had charge Of the killed and
wounded of the L. s. Il M. g. railroad.
L had in my charge, altogether, 3,O05
people. My arms are covered with
scars showing where ~ "A was cut from
me to patch up some sufferer. There
are men in this city today, who not
only owe their lives to my submission
to the surgeons knives, but who are
wearing my hide, as it were.
During my connection with the rail-
road company, had msny remarkable
experiences with wounded people, and
there is one thing should like to have
reasonably explained. 1t is the nature
of the sympathy between an amputated
limb and the stump remember
that once Fred. Hall was run over and
the lower part of his leg had to be cut
off. Immediately after the operation I
took the leg, wrapped it in a flannel
cloth, and laid it on the ice in the hos
pitai. When Hall recovered from the in
tiuence of the chlOroform, he saw me
standing by his bed and said that his
foot was very cold. What foot?' / in
quired. THE one you cut of; 1t is freez-
ing,' he answered. straightway got
the amputated leg, wrapped It in an
other cloth, laid it under stove and
returned to Halls room. THAT feels
good; it is getting warm said he.
ION another occasion q man lost his
and. l took the hand and, closing
the fingers, laid it away. Half an hour
later the patient said his hand was so
tightly closed that the fingernails were
cutting him. To humor him, / told
him would unloosen the fingers. I
asked DR.. Jewett, then o student, to
take his watch and notice the exact mo-
ment when the patient expressed relief.
Then | unloosened. the ilngers of the
hand, which was in distant part of
the building. When / returned to the
bedside and inquired of Jewe..ts, 7 found
that the patient had expressed relief
atthe very instant / had relaxed the fin
gers of the dead hand,
swell, said q medical student, ttsuch
instances are common. DIR. Thayer ex-
plains this strange sympathy between
the living and dead parts of the same
person. He says it is the peculiar con-
dition of the nervons system which
produces this feeling and that when
the stump has healed nicely all SEN
sitiveness of that nature dies out"
In his ramdlings the other day a
Press man came across old DR.. G.. New
conner, one of the most enthusiastic
spiritualists of Cleveland, and related
the conversation given above. "Dur-
ing my professional career" said the
doctor, II have come across many such
instances. About two weeks ago, a
man named Brown had q lower limb
took the leg and buried
it. A few days later Brown complain
ed to me that he was in torture from
pain in the buried leg. / exhumed the
leg. / found It in most uncomforta-
BILE position, the foot having been twist
ed around sideways by some force. I
the limb, and Brown re-
ported that he was comparatively COM
Portable. l remember an almost exact
ly similar case of another mans leg.
l remember case where a mans hand
was cut off and he continually complain
ed of pain in it. The amputation was
performed in homeopathic hospital,
and the doctors, not having any faith
in magnetic attraction. refused to listen
to the mans complaints that his hand
hurt him. AS last resort he sent for
q spiritnalist, and / called. He told me
that his dead hand felt cramped. Idug
up the hand, found it badly cramped,
and relaxed the fingers. The patient
immediate relief. I account
for this feeling by the attraction be-
tween the severed limb and stump.
The disease is not in the body but In
the spiritual forces and the magnetic
existing. between the two
parts is what causes the sensation.
The spiritual force that has dwelt in
the hand remains there, even after that |
has been amputated, and the |
sympathies are communicated. 1t is
the deranged or disarranged spirit
forces which produce disease in every |
form. Where spirit force is consigned |
there it remains. There is an affinity
always existing. Doctors take the |
physical diagnosis of the body not the |
spiritual, which is the more important,
and there's where the nlistakes are |
made. Cleveland Press.