The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1890-01-30
OLD TIME DOCTORS

i OLD TIME DOCTORS
WHO BLED THEIR PATIENTS T,
CURE THEM.
And the Modern Doctors Who Bleed Thei
| Patients Pockets and Sometimes Xii
Them--Arp's "Reminiscences.
There is an awful mystery about thes
doctors. They know so much that com
mon people don't know. When l wal
a child l hal profound reverence fo
them. Oar family doctor was a three
huudred-pounder, and was gruff anC
short in his speech, and not very fond o.
children. Aud yet he seemed to have
great many hid out somewhere, aud
was always giving them away. When
ever a new child came into the famil,
or the neighborhood it was said that tho
doctor brought it. l used to wonder
where be kept them. l asked my moth
er once, and she said, "in Heaven may.
be-" and this increased my veneration.
Our big, fat doctor had shop-we
didn't call it ap office--aud l used tC
peep in at the door sometimes and look
at his little bottles On the shelves.
was sent there once for some licoricc
root and some cinnamon bark There
was mysterious box standing up in the
corner, Il long narrow box about big
enough to hold an old-fashioned clock
a grandfather's clock--aud the door was
open little and saw an awful thing
in there, a skeleton suspended from a
screw in the skull. There were dark
cavernous holes for the eyes, and a hole
for the nose, and there were jaws with
teeth in them and they looked fierce and
malicious. l had little primer at
home, and it had pictures in it, One
was picture of a skeleton with a scythe
in his hand and l had learned the
lines:
thine cuts down all,
Both great and small"
and thought l had discovered where
this old rascal was kept hid. lie was
in that box. 1t was long time before
l recovered from those childish super
stitions. One time had long spell of
fever, and that old doctor bled me till
l tainted, and he wouldn't let me have
any water, and when | got delirious l
thought that he had that skeleton on his
back, and l was to be cut down with
scythe blade. He bled me several
times-five little scars are on my arm
yet. Bleeding was a big thing then.
Mark Harding says his arms are Just
tattooed with scars. I reckon they bled
more in Marks day than in mine, for the
older a man is the more scars he has;
aud Mark says he has got forty. l can
tell how ola man is by his scars. Mark
says that "bleeding was good thing
and ought not to have been abolished.
That these modern doctors are always
talking about blood poison, blood poi
soa: ,--TTsl1,'if y sn, the blood is poisoned,
why not take i: it:'d61ta d1atsaa Bleed a man un;
form that is not poisoned :,
But we lived-blood or n& pioou-
water or no water-doctors or nSrrv5a 5aoc-
tors The Baptists lived and the Pres=-
byteTians lived, for they say that Bap-
lists don't die until their time comes,
and predestination saves the Presby-
terians; but it is q wonder that any Meth
odists were ever raised in these phleboto-
my days. We never had any medicine
except castor oil and calomel, and epson
ooieo ohu JoiaPj auu uuuUeI Blk ana
eheep saffron tea, and some jawbrcaking
tooth pullers that were made just like
these crowbar hooks that you turn over
a log with at sawmill. There were
some patent medicines, like paregoric
and Bateman's drops, and Godfroy's cor
dial and opedeldock that were kept in
the store, and they were good, too. But
the noble science has made progress,
and like it because it offers such
slim chance for fool. We've got
boy studying medicine, and are hopeful
Of him-of course we are. His mother
thinks he will be great surgeon, for he
is the seventh son, and when he was
lad our peacock got his leg broke, and
was about to kill him to put the poor
thing out Of misery, but Ralph begged
me to give the bird to him; aud he made
some splints out Of big cane and fixed
him up in swing, and he got well; and
another time he sewed up bad cut on
one of our mules; and lie just loved to
pick out splinters or get cindcr out of
your eye, and 50 we consented 10 his
being d doctor, and he is attending lee
lures in Atlanta, and the other dav
called to see him at tie college. 1t was
q kind Of recess when I got there. /
was introduced to Dr.. Kcndrick, and ho
was mighty kind and said they were
just about to perform on q clinik, and
invited me in. l thought that it was
some kind Of electric machine, but
when got in the room there were 1875
young doctors sitting all around on tiers
of seats that got higher and higher so
that all of them could look Gown on the
little circulai pit at the bottom--a little
pit about ten feet across and loopcd
like it was built to fight chickens in. /
heard that the boys did fight chickens
there, on the sly, sometimes. The clinik
was a revolving table that had a cot on
it, and was placed III the middle of the
pit. DR.. KeudriCk went in first and 7
followed along with sick white man
and two sick darkies. All of a sudden
the young doctors commenced cheering
and so | took cheer and sat down. I
didn't know whether they were cheering
the professor or the sick men. rose tor
ward and took another cheer and thew