Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1888-12-27


months and days of said service, as
shown upon the muster rolls containing
their war records and which are now
on file in the War Department of the
United States
Somebody is to blame for the neglec.
to pension these men for the DISABLE
tiles herein above mentioned the fault
is not with the Pension Bureau; it can
not issue pensions for nervous disability
until formal demand for it has been
made; the fault is not with the soldier
for he is incompetent to know very
much about pathological matters. The
fault lies with us and others, who are
the medical advisers of these men, be-
cause certificates of disability upon
which to base a pension claim must
necessarily in the majority of cases
come from the family physician. Let
each and all of us resolve to make
amends for past neglect and contribute
OF our knowledge and diagnostic skill
to help these men to obtain their just
dues.
No country can afford to treat its
brave men grudgingly and no generous
man would object to the pensioning of
these disabilities.
The common nervous troubles of old
soldiers are the legitimate sequela of
the degradation of nerve structure that
had its origin in the neurokinesis of
battle, in the tiresome watches of sleep
less nights, in exposures to thermal
extremes in the ever-varying vicissi-
tudes of climate. They come of mala-
rial saturation; they were born in prison
pens, while infinite mercy slept. An
Jacksonville was fruitful of causation in
this direction - Andersonville, over
which God for some inscrutable reason
spread a pail that was lmpervious to
prayer-they only need to be looked for
to be found. and they should be recog-
nized and brought to the attention OF
the Government by US that justice may
be done to these brave men who can
not obtain it of themselves.
There is form of progressive ner-
vous disease that has its origin in
painful scar or cicatrix that has been
insufficiently noticed by medical wri-
tiers except in what is known as painful
stump.
A painful cicatrix means a neuritis
and it is the law of neuritis to proceed
along the affected nerve centripetally
until the spinal cord is involved, and
sometimes the mischief extends to the
brain and the victim becomes a total
wreck.
Pardon me for inviting your attention
to the ENHANCEMENT of nerve fiber in
electrical tissue-the gynecologist has
appreciated this pathological condition
at its true value, but it is capable Of
giving rise to untold miseries in other
localities than the cervix uteri.
A neighbor received a gun-shot flesh
wound of his right arm that was fol-
lowed by gangrene that finally healed,
leaving rather large but painful cica-
trix, which gave rise to a painful arm,
and finally epilepsy supervened. His
PAOoOAC SOAoAIlOII 10 O1elO VI
and general paralysis; his face wears
an idiotic leer. In a few more months
the degradation of nerve structure will
have reached limits that are incompat-
ible with life.
And now a word about the unhing-
ing of the heat-regulating mechanism
of the soldiers body. 1t reminds us of
the famous leaning tower of Pisa A
lesser force would be required to over
turn it than a similar tower that stands
erect. 1t is possible for this defect of
the so-called heat-regulating center of
the soldiers nervous system to make
all of the difference betwixt transient
nasal catarrh in a previously sound man
and fatal acute lung ailment in the
unsound man.
1t should never be 4orgotten that an
Infringing of the heat-regulating mech
anism caused by exposures in the
Chichahominy swamps in 1862, may be-
come the prime cause of soldiers
death from pneumonia in the coming
winter of 18SS-9.-Hordce p Porter, NJ
d., Late assistant Surgeon 7h and
Surgeon 10Th Reg. Conn. Tols., Oneida,
Kan