Daily Republican. [volume] ([Wilmington, Del.]) 1874-1890, 1886-05-07
DEAD AND ALIVE.
The Remarkable Case of q Physician
Who Has Lived UnIy IN His Head
For Twenty-Five Years.


Who Has Lived UnIy IN His Head
For Twenty-Five Years.
Waiting for DEATH
On pillow in little back parlor at
No. 792 Lafayette avenue, Brooklyn,
tests the intellectual head of DR.. Charles
F. Reed, SO years old, who has not :
been able TO move hand or foot or turn
in his bed since he was "a. 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 80 far outward
as almost to turn backward. A white |
mustache and beard that Rip VanI
Wirkle would have envied cover the |
lower part of face strong in outline
and full of character. Around this
sufferers bed, where so heavy cross
has been laid, gather almost daily peo-
pie who come to get consolation in|
trouble. DIR. Reed is 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 there to learn lesson
in fortitude, and all who meet the doc
tor say they go away with new ideas
Of life and its purposes. He is well
read in every branch of literature.
DIR. 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 sickness.
which has led him q life in the midst
of death, first came upon him at Ke-
nosha. He had inherited rheumatism,
and contracted malaria in the West
These diseases seized him about nine
o'clock at night on September 6. 1864,
and he has not moved since. When
the burning fever he suffered began to
pass away, and the constituencies of the
joints grew gradually less, he felt the
Joints stiffening, and in the fingers and
toes he now has complete anchylosis
In other words, the joints have grown
into solid bone. He weighed two
hundred pounds and was tall and
vigorous when he was taken sick. In
few years he was reduced to a skele-
ton
DIR. Reed now suffers from tooth
ache, and nothing can be done for hin
because his Jaws are set and the teetl
cannot be pulled, and even the reliet
of toothache drops is denied him
When his sight left him, thirteei
years ago, a sensation of always look
ing at the full blaze of the noonda,
sun took possession of the left eye
and the Doctor suffers the most in
tense pain.
DIR. Reed was married in 1858, an,
during all his suffering his wife la
remained faithfully day and night a
her helpless husbands bedside. A
first two men were required to lift him
The money saved from a lucrativ
practice dwindled, and in the exigen
cies OF the case the doctor invented
kind of derrick, with two arms an
hosting cranks, by means of whic
his wife can easily move him from tn
bed while it is being made. Band
and straps are placed under him, an
he is raised above the bed. He wa
brought to New York by his wife i
1868. Before the bones soliditied hi
spine was affected, and as the troubl
slowly worked upward the muscles {
the body contracted and compresse
his ribs so that at one time he nearl
died by having the breath squeeze
out of him. He was troubled wit
nervousness, and when he was aslee
his law would suddenly snap open an
close again so quickly and violentl
that he several times bit through h
tongue. If any one crossed the f1oc
the Earring made him wild with pal
through his spine. The feather be
had to be made up with hollow Gel
tire, that his spine might not touc
anything. II required four men
hold him that he might go to sleep, {
the twitching of his limbs was beyon
his control.
The Doctor has never suffered fror
headache. A curious phase OF the di
ease is that he lies awake from abol
II O'Clock at night until in the mcrl
ing, and on the following day SUI
cumbs 10 irresistible sleepiness at pre-
cisely the corresponding hours-11
M, ill 2 -. NJ. Even if he goes
sleep early in the evening be walk
about IL at night, and the curiol
sleep follows next day at II a. m,
II attribute my disease to an acc
dental prick from surgical instr
ment while was dissecting in Clev,
land" said the doctor yesterda
malaria and rheumatism combined
, thoroughly poison my system al
bring me to this state. | had a vel
offensive postmortem about the san
a time, and breathed so much of the 70
/. air that was sick for two weeks.
!, contracted malaria while in Illinois.
read a great deal when first strick,
e down, and when / lost my sight n
wife took this new burden upon hi
In 1876 l had nervous prostration.
have been booked for death these mar
years, but when one wants him
|, come lie is very slow COACH"
The trees were budding and 4
flower beds were bursting into beau
h in the park at Lafayette and Tompki
avenues yesterday, but he could 4
70 see it or enjoy it. Even the temper
II breezes that blew through the traili
/ 4. Aax.sad hi,