Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1892-08-01
THE REST CURE,

No matter what you complain of-the
effects Of the grip, chronic dyspepsia,
nervous prostratlon-anyo Of the ills that
hesh is heir to-somebody is sure TO ask
II you have tried the "rest cure" It
happens to be the fad Of many fashion
able New York physicians at the time
OF writing, just as a goodly number of
them prescribed the Salisbury treat
ment indiscriminatelS q year or two
ago-hot water, raw beef md starya>
ton. 1t was beguilingly put as rest
ing the stomach" Sometimes after il
the stomach took an eternal rest, if the
patient had not robust health. Tho
rest cure is extremely fashionable Just.
now. 1t is very expensive to rest pron-
erly, though You may not think So.
Some of the society girls here vino
are trying it have nothing the matter
with them; they only want
to fill out hollows in their cheeks and
cover their collar bones with adipose
tissue, and this I admit, says one who
has tried the cure, the treatment" al
most invariably accomplishes. The
merely nervous, rundown" patient
who tries the rest cure Is put TO bed
preferably in room containing very
Few adornments. A trained nurse is a
matter of course. She is not suffered to
converse much with the patient, but
she gives massage and electricity under
the doctors instructions at regular in
tervals. The patient is directed to lie
as still rs possible, hardly to raise the
head above the pillow, the idea being to
save the slightest expenditure of
strength, while the circulation which
would otherwise suffer from lack of ex-
ercise is kept in perfect order by regu-
lar massage. No news from the outer
world, not hint, is permitted near the
charmed chamber. The patient sees no
one except the nurse and physician;
she is told to think as little as possible
and she gets nothing except milk and
malt for several weeks. She developes
ravcnous appetite long before that
time and consumes milk by the gallon
whether she has detestcd it before or
not; she becomes n mere sleeping and
eating animal for the time bring. If she
does not emerge n driveling idiot she
comes out with radiant complexion
and twenty or thirty pounds stouter
than when she went in, and with stead.
led and quietcd nerves. There are some
natures that should think the mofiot-
ony would drive to insanity. A curious
feature Of the rest cure, with its weeks
of milk diet, is that it Is said to eradi,
cate any previously formed gustatory
preferences one may have had. Like
child, oil things to e;st arc an expert.
ment. What you liked before you may
dislike now, or vice versa.
The daughter of a celebrated divine
who is living tcstim ohial Of what this
peculiar new medical fnd can accomplish
in the way Of good results. and who is n
very clever young woman, told rue that
In the third week of treatment her
doctor, as joke, sent in rag doll, be.
cause she complained SO bitterly Of
nothing to look at." '"There never
was n child on EARTH" she declared,
who was made so perfectly happy by
gift of doll as was by thnt rag
baby. 1t was the greatest comfort 10
me, md was reduced to such q state Of
artificial babyhood that it was rs much
satisfaction to have That doll on the
pillow by me as if were only four
years old. l should hive liked n Noah's
ark" she added, pehsivcly, "but the
doctor thought oil the animals would
be too exciting"
Absurd as 1t may sound in the telling,
tne rest cure ID really, with some tenn
peraments, n remarkable success. The
utter absence OF care or need for
thought is n relaxation invaluable for
over-Strsined nerves. 1t is the nlne-
tcenth century remedy for the nine
tcenth century disease, too much nerv-
GUS strain and tension. In the days
of stage coaches they did not need rest
cures"
AS you lie motionless, staring ut the
ceiling, with your trained nurse near
whom you are paying from eleven dol
lars a week up TO forty dollars to watch
you rest-if you must occasionally per
init your mind, which should be as neur-
ly vacuum as possible, to conceive
thought, let It be the soothing one that
you are doing absolutely the correct
thing, the proper and approved thing.
IL you are not worn out by the winters
social strain or the labors of your mind.