The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1896-11-05


There was struggle the following
morning, in which courtesy and OBJ
stinacy were finely blended, when Mrs.
Loring and her medical adviser came
together for discussion of her case.
The points at issue were the length,
particuarity and minuteness with
which she should describe her symp-
toms, real or imagined, the systems OF
treatment to which she had been sub
iected, the effects, good, bad or in
different, produced by them, and the
opinions thereof, weighty or valueless,
of many persons unknown 10 her
auditor. 1t was n contest, valiant but
unequal, and at last the woman had
the man at her mercy.
"Oh, doctor, dear DOCTOR" she rat-
tied on, 'you can't imagine how pleased
yes. reioiced--I am to be under your
care. / wish / could tell you, describe
to you, the miseries I've suffered, the
horrors I've undergone at the hands of
those wretches. Ugh! it makes me
SILVER TO think of them. But can't tell
you; / can't bear even to think of them
Now there was that last one, so highly
recommended, too. i went to him, doc
tor-picture my going TO him-abso-
lutely putting my life in his charge,
doctor-just after / had escaped from
that quacls who had made me take
electric shocks and ride horse-such
"A dreadfully hard trotting horse, too
four hours every day. And what, doc
tor, do you imagine that next wretch
did? Think of it, He thrust me into
what he called 'rest-cure;' absolutely
nothing to do, nothing to see, nobody
TO speak to. Why, doctor, it was mad
dening, simply maddening!"
my dear Mrs. Loring," i broke in,
pray do not agitate yourself with
such memories. If you please"
But she had regained breath and
was again in full career. Rest-cures,
water-cures, milk-cures, steam-cure3:
drenchings internal and external, pills,
pads and plasters; sea air, mountain
air; massage, calisthenics, and out-
door exercise; drugs by wholesale,
diets without number, treatments rep
resenting range from the latest and
beet in the medical science to a close hp'
proach to the superstitions of voudoo-
ism--all these she had survived. For
two long hours her tale flowed on in
flood which overwhelmed all inter
ruptions, and when she paused at last
il was rather from WEAKNESS than from
an exhausted subject.
For a woman of such experiences
she looked remarkably well. Her com
plexion was pale and sallow, and her
nerves were ION edge" as she herself
phrased it; but the stethoscope showed
that her lungs were not affected, ana
there was nothing TO cause alarm in the
action of the heart. Her digestion WAS
weak-it could hardly have been other
wise after the trials to which it had
been put for so many years-and un-
questionably she had had some genu-
inc twinges of rheumatism, but these
were not very wcighty reasons for
traipsing about two hemispheres. As
many of my predecessors had prob
ably decided, it seemed clear To me
that the best plan TO pursue was to let
her entertain herself with some harm
less dose, and to strive to induce her
to forget that she believed herself an in
valid
"Your case, Mrs. Loring, is most in
tercsting," said l, gravely.
"And complicated" said she, earnest
ly. $50 many physicians have spoken
of complications"
"They could hardly avoid it. But
that is not the point just now. shall
have to ask you to submit implicitly to
my guidance. / shall give you pre-
scription of great efficacy, but ona
which must be used with rigid care,
ire BE Continued