Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1893-08-02
HIS PHANTOM LEG.
Amputated Long Ago, Gives Its owner
Painful Sensations.

have been requested by many friends
to note for publication some Of the
nerve phenomena characterizing the
sensations | have suffered from my am
putated limb.
For years past / have heard and read
of similar sufferings of soldiers and
others who have lost a leg, foot or hand,
and have known of the superstition in
respect to these sensations being due to
the burial of the lost member in a
cramped condition, and of the sensa-
tons ceasing upon the limb being relaid
In natural position, SO that | was not
wholly unprepared for what | have to
relate. But no previous warning or in
formation can give to one any anticipa-
ton of the strange ghostly, but terribly
substantial pains which are SO frequent
ly the sequel to amputations.
There is little heed to be paid to
aught but the pain Of what are called
surgical and nervous shocks following a
thigh amputation. All one can do is to
hold on to life with all the grit he pos
sesses while passing through this Sc
we're ordeal. | think it was the fourth
day after the operation that | became
strangely conscious of my leg having
not been discovered at all. 1t was lying
there in bed by the side Of it's compan-
ion, perfect In knee, calf, ankle, heel,
instep and hollow of foot and toes, and
as natural as its fellow. The pain in
nearly all its members would have suf-
feed to make it realize itself to me, but
[ found | could raise it from the bed,
work its foot, articulate its toes and
gently move it from one place to another.
1t began to be intensely painful
Cd 10
attention. From that time to
this, about three weeks, it has
caused the only suffering [ have en-
dured. The wound itself 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 my
"only" sutferings, or supposing that
they have consequently been slight.
On the contrary, had | been stretched
night and day on the stored rack of
the inquisitiOn my fortunes could not
have been greater. Had Dante suffered
a 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 alb
solutely nothing there, and all these
tortures occur where nothing exists.
The reader will be curious to know
the kind and method of these fortunes.
They partake of every kind which the
spirit of cruelty could devise. At times
a stream of fire courses down the calf
with violence that tears the flesh
open; then it 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 terrible vice of jagged wood
as tOrturOus 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 q
keen knife Sits open the ball of each
toe. One Okthe most eXcruciating tor
lures consists in binding foot, ankle and
leg with innumerable cords and strings
attached to the toes, and then drawing
tension on them that threatens to dis
joint 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 various tOrtures, and wondered
what devilish appliances would come
next. These sensations are not SO vio-
lently 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 and yelled
in mystery.
Surgical science calls these sensations
the effect of nerve habit" but [ tell
DIR. Little he would find some other
definition if he once had them. | have
wondered at times if this phantom leg,
SO afame with feeling, might not be a
part of the spirit body which Sweden
borg taught existed within the physical
frame.
If there be such body of course it
could not be dismembered, and would
remain intact in spite of any physical
amputat1on. Being connected with it's
discovered physical limb, it would prob
ably be subject to pain, and all the
greater and more acute because of its
finer material. When the wound had
completely healed the spirit limb would
feel no painful sensations, which agrees
with what the doctor tells me, and after
such healings these sensations will dis
appear.
| asked the doctor what under the
sun they meant and he sharply an
sWered that | had no business to be SO
nervous, and [ have to confess that
there are grounds for his insinuation,
but the answer is not satisfactory.
AS [ walk on my crutches | feel the
amputated knee bending under me and
the foot extending out behind.
could dispense with nay astral limb
with infinite Zest.-MUscGtjaae NeUs.