The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1888-06-28
AN HOUR OF HORRORS:
Experience of Man Under Chloroform
5n Cooling Board.

AN HOUR OF H0RROR.s
Experience of a Man Under Chloroform
on q Cooling Board.
| --.
A few days ago misfortune thew me
upon one of those cold, hard, comfortless
beds you will find in the anteroom of
nearly every physician's Office, and if I
live until my hair is white I will never
| forget that hour under a doctors knife.
was told to stretch my frame upon
that narrow cooling board, and as l did
so the doctor opened his black cases of
instruments and looked carefully over
the glittering steel knives, the sight of
which made cold chills run over me, and
made me regret having applied for relief.
But the door of the little room was locked,
and it would have been a display of COW.
ardice 1 did not care to make to jump up
and run. Other people, thousands of
other people, had gone through more
than was to undergo-legs and arms
had been cut off and operations more
terrible than these had been performed
upon men, and surely it scented as though
could stand few slashes of the knife.
And while the doctor hunted among
the cruel steel things, looked around
me. There In the corner stood tall
glass case, and in it a grinning, ghastly
skeleton. 1t might have been the bones
of one of my friends, one whom in life
was my boon companion for all I knew.
On the wall to the right was colored
engraving Of a mans interior depart.
ment. Possibly, 1 would not have
noticed it had l struck it outside of
doctors Office and under other circum.
stances; but now, lying on the cooling
board, waiting to see my own blood, l
was forced to observe it closely. What
horrid picture! So many organs, and
each so tender, seemingly, that they were
liable to be injured even by bread crust.
There was the heart with blood pumps.
The lungs, the liver, the kidneysl All
delicate, all liable to be disarranged and
yet life with all its pleasure, its joys, its
blessings, depended upon the proper care
of each. And how many men out ofa
picked 100 knows how to care for any
one of those important organs, and how
many out of the hundred has any thought
for either of them? You strike q man
with heart disease and the doctors tell
him he must avoid excitement. BE does
not forget the admonition but he feels as
though little excitement, just little,
will not hurt him--the doctor is overly
cautious, you know-but before the poor
fellow knows it he is meat for the under.
taker. Just the same way with the man
whose lungs are affected. His doctor
tells him he must avoid the cold air and
be careful that he swallows none and
thus chill his lungs; but he goes out of
his warm prison of house and gets
taste of the cool air. 1t feels so good 10
his hot face that he makes himself be.
lieve that moment in that deliciously
cool air cannot hurt him, and then he
has wrapped himself up carefully. But
in that moment Of enjoyment the cold,
raw air has been drawn into the lungs,
and he suffers and dies. The man with
the kidney trouble is told by his doctor
that alcohol is poisonous to him. Perhaps
he bravely resists the temptation and
abstains until some day he feels thirsty,
water does not satisfy him, and there is
is a longing for cocktail, a milk punch,
or some other elegant disguise for red
liquor, and he is satisfied in his own
mind that just one won't hurt, and down
goes the cocktail or the milk punch.
Not having INDUCED in some time the
red liquor, 80 pleasantly disguised, soon
sendsits fumes to the brain, and while feel.
ing as if he had fully recovered from his
all ments, the patient takes just one more,
knowing that it will not hurt. This
makes him take another and by this
time he does not care continental
whether his kidneys are wrong or wheth-
er he has any kidneys at all.
And that is the way I occupied my
mind while the doctor searched among
his instruments for one that would suit
my case.
The little room was close and warm,
and as wiped my throbbing brow with
my handkerchief, I noticed that it was
scented with perfume the odor of
which was new to me. 1t was pupgent.
but then care so little for perfume that
didn't mind it much, though / wonder
ed where I obtained it. Then took
another look about the room. The
skeleton was the first object to meet my
eye. had to pinch myself to see if I
had my right senses, for I saw the ghastly
thing open the show case and walk out.
| It flashed across me that the doctor WAS
developing living skeleton for some
side show. Then the bones walked all
around the cooling board and looked into
my face. The grinning skull was so closa
to me that could see bits of gold filling
| in the teeth. At first wanted to run
away, but remembered that other men
had had legs and arms cut off and if they
could stand that much I could stand a
triAing operation. But we're those
patient people treated to the sight Of q
skeleton walking about the room? I can
tell you truthfully / vas uncomfortable.
| Once tried to rise from the cooling