Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-07-08
A REMARKABLE CASE.
A Man Who Has Not Been able to Move Hand
or Foot for twenty-five Years.
New York World.

On a pillow in a little back parlor at
No. 1872 Layfayette 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 immoYable, The
knees are drawn up, the left knee Joint is
almost thrown from it's 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 a face
strong in Outline and full Of character.
Around this sufferers bed, where so heavy
a cross has been laid, gather almost daily
people who come to get consolation IN
trouble. DR.. Reed is a philosopher, and
his cheerful dispOsition,in spite of the
extreme hardness of his lot has made
him the wonder of everybody who knows
him. Those who have lost friends call to
learn a lesson in fOrtitude, and all who
meet the doctor say they go away with
new ideas of life and its purposes. He
is well read in every branch of literature.
DR.. Reed was born in Woburn, Mass,
and worked on a 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 a
sanitarium at Kenosha Wis, and his sick
,SnII 1- lC1 60 Ip, Act
of death, first came upon him at Kenosha.
He had inherited rheumatism, and con-
tracted malaria in the west. These dis
eases seized him about o'clock at night
on Sept. 6, 1864, and he has not moved
since. When the burning fever he suffer
ed began to pass away and the sensitive
ness of the joints grew gradually less, he
felt the joints stiffening, and in the fingers
and toes he now has complete ancylosi &.
In other words the Joints have grown into
sole bone. He weighed 200 pounds, and
was tall and vigorous when he was taken
sick. In few years he was reduced to a
skeleton.
DR.. Reed now suffers from tOOthache,
and nothing can be done for him because
his jaws are set, and the teeth can not be
pulled, even the relief of toothache drops
is denied him. When his sight left him
13years ago, a sensation of always looking
at the full blaze of the MONDAY sun took
possession of the left eye, aud the doctor
suffers the most intense pain.
DR.. Reed married in 1858, and during
all his suffering his wife has remained
faithfully day and night at her helpless
husbands bedside. At first two men were
required to lift him. The money saved
from a lucrative practice dwindled down,
with oxyI1rooniaS Of ha 4ba
tor invented kind of derrick, with two
arms and hosting cranks, by means of
which his wife can easily move him from
the bed while it is being made. Bands
and straps are placed under him and he
is raised above the bed. He was brought
to New York by his wife IN 1868. Before
the bones sOlidified his spine was affected,
and as the trouble slowly worked upward
the muscles of the body contracted and
compressed his ribs so that at one time
he nearly died by having the breath
squeezed out of him. He was troubled
with nervousness, and when he was asleep
his jaw would suddenly snap open and
close again so quickly and violently that
he several times bit through his tongue.
If anyone crossed the floor the Earring
made him wild with pain in the spine
The featherqed had to be made up with a
touch anything. 1t required four men to
hold him that he might go to sleep, as the
twitching of his limbs was beyond his
control.
The doctor has never suffered from
headache. A curious phase of the disease
is that he lies awake from about IL o'clock
at night until in the morning, and on
the following day succumbs to irresistible
sleeplessness at precisely the correspond
ing hOurs-11 a. m. to p. m. Even if he
goes to sleep early in the evening he
wakes about IL at night, and the curious
sleep follows the next day at IL a. m.
Il attribute my disease to the accidental
prick from a surgical instrumen while
was dissecting in Cleveland" said the doc
tor, Malaria and rheumatism combined
to thoroughly poison my system and
bring me to this state. I had a very off
enslve post mOrtem about the same time
and breathed so much of the foul air
that | was sick for two weeks. I con-
tracted malaria while in Illinois. [ read
a great deal when first stricken down,
and when lost my sight my wife took
this new burden upon her. In 1876 had
nervous prOstratiOn. l bave been look
ing for death these many years, but
when one wants him to come he is a very
slow COACH"
For seven years" said Mrs. Reed, she
laid here without even knowing how the
street in front of the house looked. He
used to say that he suffered gathered in
the very walls and was reflected back up
IN him. Then committee of ladies
made it possible for me to take him into
vermont, and he sat all day in the sun
shine, and oh, it cid him so much good.
He came back in so much better health.
but the long winter indoors wears him
out"
DR.. Reed was educated at the College of
physicians and Surgeons, New York. He
is of New Engrand Stock. and his grand
fathers on the paternal and maternal side
fought at Lexington and Bunker hill. He
has a brother who is a farmer in Iowa
and who aids him to the extent of his
small means.
L could live out there on the prairie
miles away from any habitation." said
the doctor, 'but how can [ take a wife
who has devoted her life to me, to such a
place as that, without society, and ask