The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-07-14
FLESH HARD AS WOOD.
STRANGE CASE OF A ELEVEN.YEAR.
OLD CONNECTICUT GIRL.

The Disease is Known as scleroderma
Subjected to Radical Treatment by
Twenty Leading Specialist of New York
City Who Firmly Hope For a Cure.
Miss Annie Waterbury, the eleven
year-old daughter of Mr.. and Mrs.
George Waterbury, of Noroton, Conn,
is a victim of scleroderma, rare d.
sease, which, if not checked, will end
in the girl becoming mummifed. The
girl, says Che New York Herald, is
good looking, has an intelligent face,
is well formed and is exceptionally
bright. At school she made an envi-
able record and among her associates
has always been popular because other
sunny disposition.
Annie is one of seven children, there
being three older and three younger.
Her father is well to do. He owns a
place at Noroton valued at $40, 900 and
more valuable property in Stamford.
Annie's parents two months ago
noticed a slight stiffness in her move.
ments and a peculiar hardness in her
flesh. Local physicians were con.
suited, but could do nothing for her.
On the advice of DR.. Hurlbut and Sha-
voir, of Stamford, she was taken to
New York City and placed in a private
sanitsrium. Here many experiments
were made in the attempt to soften the
girls flesh, which is nov as hard as
wood. The hardest pinch makes no
impression on it and is not felt.
In the presence of twenty leading
scientific Investigators, New York
physicians, the young girl was put
through q course of treatment that in
cIuded everything the doctors could
think of for her relief and the
softening of the flesh. She was
steamed in Russian baths, soaked in
water slowly brought to temperatures
that would have boiled an ordinary
mortal, made to exercise in damp
room, rubbed with a score of powerful
oils and trenchant connections usually
applied for the softening of bruises
and other hardened spots-all without
bringing the least flush or drop Of
perspiration to the surface of her white
skin or rendering more pliable, in the
least degree, the firm flesh. 80
The experts say that the disease
must have been a full year in reaching
it's present stage. The girls case is q
rare one, and they were anxious to
keep her in New York for the purpose
of experiment, but to this her parents
would not agree, and she now remains
quietly. at home. A peculiarly of the
case-one that puzzles the physicians
lis the fact that the girl is still able to
use her limbs: She is kept from
school, and exercises as much as the
growing stiffness of her limbs will
permit, this being the advice of the
physicians.
Little Annie remains sunny and
bright under her affection. Her vital
organs are still unimpaired, but if the
creeping hardness reaches the heart
or if calcareous deposits form in the
blood her life will be very short. So
little is known of the disease that treat
ment of it must be entirely expert
mental, and the chances of arresting
it's progress are not good.
DR.. Bulkley told a Herald reporter
at his s~anitarium in New York that
Miss Waterbury's disease was sclero-
derma, which, though uncommon, is
we'll known to the medicA. profession.
It differs materially from Justification,
DR.. Buckley said, and is caused by the
action of the nerves OF nutrition. The
disease is sometimes fatal, the skin
contracting 80 much across the chest
that the patient is unable to breathe.
"Miss Waterbury is fairly comfort
able" he told me, "and T have hopes
that she will recover. In, fact, her
condition showed some improvement
while I was treating her, but for a cure
it is absolutely necessary that she
should be where she can have ire
uuent baths. When the new Skin
Hospital, at Nineteenth street and
Second avenue, is completed in the
fall, I expect to have the patient placed
there. Because of the rarenes of the
disease, I had the members of the New
York Dermatological Society examine
the girl when she was here. Her face
is considerably drawn so that the eyes
have a peculiar expression, and the
skin on her body is in the same condi-
ton. In advanced stages the joints
become hardened, and death is likely
to result. But as I look for Miss
Waterbury's recovery. the advanced
stages do not apply to her" -,