Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1896-07-09


There was a struggle the following
morning, in which courtesy and OBJ
stinacy were finely blended, when Mrs.
LoriDg and her medical adviser came
together for a discussion of her case.
The points at issue were the length,
particularly and minuteness with
which she should describe her symp-
toms, real or imagined, the systems of
treatment to which she had been sub
different, produced by them, and the
opinions thereof, weighty or valueless,
of many persons unknown to her
auditor. 1t was a 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 1 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
shiver to think of them. But can't tell
you; l can't bear even to think of them
Now there was that last one, so highly
recommended, too. went to him, doc
FORFEITURE my going TO him-abso-
lutely putting my life in his charge,
doctor-just aftel 1 had escaped from
that quack who had made me take
electric shocks and ride horse-s { n
dreadfully hard trotting horse, 10
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," 1 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-cures:
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 q range from the latest and
best in the medical science to a close ap-
proach to the superstitions of voudoo-
ism-all these she had survived. For
two long hours her tale flowed on in
a flood which overwhelmed all inter
ruptions, and when she paused at last
it 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, and
there was nothing to cause alarm in tn,
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 I'M
questionably she had had some genu-
inc twinges of rheumatism, but these
were not very weighty 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 /, gravely.
And complicated" said she, earnest
~. so many physicians have spoken
Of complications"
"They could hardly avoid it. But
that is not the point lust now. shall
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