The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1886-06-16
IIFnLras Avn xnr Nor prAB.
Ewing Only i'm His Head for Twenty.
Two Years.

On pillow in little back parlor at No.
1872 Lafayette ave-, Brooklyn, rests the in
tellectual head of DIR. Charles F. Reed, fifty
six years old, who has not been able to move
hand or foot or turn in his bed since he was
thirty-four. He lives only in his head, for
every joint is fnst bound and his body and
limbs are wasted to the bone.
His eyes are sightless, his neck still, his
jaws set so close MS 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 out
ward as almost to turn backward. white
mustache and beard that Rip Van Wrinkle
would have envied cover the lower part of
o face strong in outline and full of charac-
ter, Around the sufferers bed, where so
heavy cross has been laid, gather almost
daily people who come to get consolation in
trouble. DIR. Reed is q philosopher, and
his cheerful disposition in spite of the ex-
IRENE 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 foititude, and all who meet
the doctor say they go away with new ideas
of life and its purposes. He is we'll read in
every branch of literature.
He had inherited rheumatism, and con-
tracted malaria in the West. These diseases
seized him about o'clock at night on Sept
o, 1864, and he has not moved since. When
the burning fever he suffered began TO pass
away and the sensitiveness of the joints
grew gradually less, he felt the joints stiff
ening, and in the fingers and toes he now
has complete anchylosis, In other words
the joints have grown into solid bone He
weighed 400 pounds and was tall and Wig
orous when he was taken sick. In few
years he was reduced to skeleton.
DR.. Reed now suffers from toothache, and
nothing can be done for him because his
jaws are set and the teeth cannot be pulled,
and even the relief of toothache drops is
denied him. When his sight left him.
thirteen years ago, sensation of always
looking ut the full blaze Of the MONDAY sun
took possession of the left eye, and the
doctor suffers the most intense pain.
The doctor has never suffered from head
ache. A curious phase of the disease Ia
that he lies awake from about II o'clock at
night until in the morning and ON the
| following days suecumbs to irresistible
sleepiness at precisely the corresponding
hours-11 A. M. till 2 p. NJ. Even II he
goes to sleep early in the evening he wakes
about II Mt night, and the curious sleep
follows next day at IL A. NJ.
@ attribute my disease to an accidental
prick from n surgical instrument while
was dissecting in Cleveland, said the doe
tor recently. i" Malaria and rheumatism
combined to thoroughly poison my system
and bring me to this state. | had very
offensive post-mortem about the same time
and breathed so much Of the foul air that !
was sick for two weeks. contracted ma
iarin while in Illinois. l raad "a. great dead
whom first striken down, and when | lost
my sight my wife took this new burden
upon her. In 1876 l had nervous prostra.
ton. have been looking for death these
many years, but when one wants him to
| come he Is very slow coach.n