Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-06-20
CURING A NERVOUS CRANK,

Crafty Treatment Employed In Restoring 9
Well Man Who Imagined He Was Ill.
From the New York Herald.
On the east side lives physician whose sue
cess In the treatment Of nervous disorders ha.
brought to him, rather against his own wishes
considerable practice among a class whom he
describes as nervous cranks" One OF these
patients. a man of large means, had caused nc
end of trouble to the doctor. who, seeing that
the case was purely one Of mental idiosyncrasy
was unwilling to prescribe a course Of druggine
or other injurious treatment. The man insisted
that his nervous system was completely I'M
strung, and that the physician should take his
case in hand.
There, you can see how nervous am" said
the patient one day in the doctors Office as he
picked up an incandescent electric light bulb
from an adjoining table. ''Look at that. See
how that carbon coil inside of the bulb vibrates
and trembies from very nervousness
Very WELL" replied the physician, deter
mined now to deal with the case in another
way; you are more nervous than [ sup
posed, but think can fetch you out all right
IN five or six weeks"
An assortment Of bogus pills and potions was
given to the patient, and he was placed under a
rigid rule for sleep. diet baths and exercise His
physical health, which had been excellent to be-
gin with, improved steadily: but his nervous
condition. as indicated by the fluctuations of
the incandescent bulb. which he found cou-
veniently Mt hand every time he visited the
doctors office, showed little or no trace of
mending.
One day, however. near the end Of the fourth
week, the patient, upon taking the bulb from its
accustomed place and holding it up to the light.
was surprised to find that the vibrations of the
carbon were almost nothing. Beaming with new
hopefuiness, he called tho physicians attention
to the fact: The latter was surprised and de-
lighted. The patient tested himself with the
bulb In his right hand. then changed it to his
left. and then repeated the operation always
with the same gratifying result. The treatment
had done its work. He fei. Ike a well man. He
WAS satisfied from the first that those pills
would fix him
HE sailed for Europe the other day." re-
marked the physician, land he is to remain
abroad for five years guess there is no danger
OF his learning how cured him. He was so
taken with the idea Of testing the condition
of his nervous system by the vibrations of
the carbon in that electric light bulb that
1 humored bis fancy. After three or four
weeks of careful living, and when he had
put himself into frst-class physical condi-
ton. simply changed the buibs for him. For
the ordinary bulb containing a carbon coil
submitted one that 1 had made with
a fine coil of oxidiZed silver wire closely re-
sembiing the other, and which was SO stiff that
it WAS capable of almost no vibration when the
bulb was held in the patients hand. He took
it. saw that the vibrations had ceased and con-
ciuded that he was cured. In some way perhaps
by accident or when in a condition Of mental
excitement, he had noticed the trembling OF
the carbon in a bulb when held in the hand,
and had instantly made up his mind that he
was suffering from nervous disorder He
insisted upon using the same means in
testing his progress toward recovery that
had first persuaded him that he was
Ill, and l was compelled to acquiesce and
treat him from that basis. He had evidently
had little experience with these bulbs Ordi-
nary tests and observation would havo shown
him that no man, however sound. can hold an
bulb in his unsupported hand so
steadily that the carbon inside of 1t will not
vibrate"