The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-03
HIS LEG STILL PAINS HIM.
1t Was Amputated Long Ago but
Keeps on Torturing the Iowan.
From the Muscatine. Ga.l News.

From the Muscatine, Qa.) News.
have been requested by many friends
to note for publication some of the nerve
phenomena characterizing the sensations
have suffered from my amputated limb.
For years past have heard and read of
similar sufferings of soldiers and others
who had lost a leg, foot or hand and have
known of the superstition in respect to
those sensations being due TO the burial
of the lost member in a cramped condi-
tlon, and of the sensations ceasing upon
the limb being relaid in a natural position,
so that ! was not wholly unprepared
for what I have to relate. But no pre-
viouS warning or information can give
to one any anticipation of the strange,
ghostly, but terribly substantial pains
which are so frequently the sequel to
amputations. There is little heed to be
paid to aught but the pain of what are
called the surgical and nervous shocks
following thigh amputation. All one
can do is to hold on to life with the grit
he possesses while passing through this
severe ordeal l think it was the fourth
day after the operation that / became
strangely conscious of my leg not having
been discovered at all 1t was lying there
in bed by the side of its companion, per-
feet in knee, calf, ankle, heel, instep and
hollow OF foot and toes, and as natural as
its fellow. The pain in nearly all it's
members would have suficed to make
1t realize itself to me, but found / could
raise it from the bed, work it's foot, articu-
late its toes and gently move it from one
place to another II began to be in
tensely painful and soon commanded my
whole attention. From that time to this
about three weeks, it has caused the only
suffering have endured. The wound it
self has been free from pain and the rest
of my body in fair normal condition,
while my appetite has been fair and my
spirits comparatively cheerful But let no
one make the mistake, by my saying that
these nervous emotions have been nv
''only'' suferings, of supposing that they
have consequently been slight. On the
contrary, had l been stretched night an
day on the STORED rack my torture could
net have been greater. Had Dante suf-
fered similar amputation he could have
added pictures surprising anything to be
found IN his Inferno" And vet as |
have said to myself and sometimes out
loud, hundred times, there is absolutely
nothing there, and all these tOrtures oc-
cur where nothing exists!
The reader will be carious to know the
/ kind and method of these tortures. They
partake of every kind which the spirit of
cruelty could devise. At times a stream
of fire courses down the calf with a VIC
1
wreathes its flames about the ankle and
heel and makes its escape by deep grooves
along the foot to the toes. This changes
to the limb being held in a terrible wise
or Jagged wood, as tortuous clamps are
put on the ankle and heel until they seem
crushed out of all form. Small balls of
fire are pressed against the hollow
of the foot, and appear to be
burning themselves through. The toes
are twisted as by a sharp wrench, and to
vary the pain keen knife proceeds to
slit open the ball of each toe, One OF the
most excruciating tortures consists in
binding foot, ankle and leg with innumer-
able cords and strings attached to the
toes and then drawing a tension on them
that threatens to disjoint every member
AS sit writing these cords are on, and
my foot seems drawn nearly to the seat.
/ have lain in bed for hours watching
these varying fortunes, and wondered
what devilish appliances would come
next. These sensations are not so violent
ly severe as the surgical and nervous
shock, but the latter are of momentary
endurance, and one has the satisfaction
of knowing what they mean, while the
other sensations are constant ana are
yelled in mystery.
Surgical science calls these sensations
the effect of nerve habit but tell DR..
Little he would find some other definition