The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-21
SWEATED $27O in GOLD.
Very "YeIlOw' story About Miner
from the Yukon Region.

ST. JOSEPH, Mo-, March 2O.-Superin-
tendent Woodson, of State Lunatic Asylum
No. 2, has received into the institution for
treatment a patient whose case is without
precedent in medical annals. Abe Boyle
went to Alaska in the summer of 1896 and
was ore of the first to set out for the Klon-
dixie diggings. His claim was one of the
few from which the nuggets and coarse
gold had to considerable extent been car
ried lower down the creek, while the wash
ing from above left the gravel heavily i'm
pregnated with what is known flour
gold" This is the finest form taken on by
the yellow metal which in that shape mani
tests it's presence in the sands of all the
Rocky mountain plateaus ard even in the
waters of the Pacific ocean, into which it
is carried by the streams heading westward
from the great continental divide. There is
no known method of saving flour gold
which will escape over the quicksilver plates
of a stamp mill in spite of all efforts to cap
ture it.
Boyle during the summer of 1897 was much
of the time immersed to the waist in the
waters of the Yukon. Being in the water
constantly his body seems to have accom-
plished what no invention of man has yet
done, for through the pores of the skin
there was absorbed an incredible quantity
of flour gold. He was seized with what he
thought was rheumatism, but kept on with
his work until his limbs became unmanage-
able. 1t was as If Justification, if not petri-
faction, had set in. This condition gradual
ly spread upward and he lost his appetite
and eventually became insane. There being
no physician in the camp capable of hand
ling the case, he was sent back to the
States in charge of a friend, who kept him
for several months at his old home in Lam
der, Wyo His condition did not improve
and he was finally taken to Laramie, Wyo.,
where DR.. William II. Harris, one of the
most noted practitioners in the West,
thought he had located the source of his
trouble and resolved upon an experiment
to test the correctness of his theory.
In a Turkish bathhouse Boyle was sub
mitted for a week to a treatment in which
the medicine administered consisted largely
OF mercury. Then he was given thorough
Turkish bath. His chair in the sweating
room was placed in shallow basin of zinc,
so that the perspiration that poured down
from his body would all be retained. He
was afterward rushed through the remain
ing features of the bath and put to bed.
When he awoke he was found to have en-
tirelyo recovered from the hitherto unac-
countable stiffness of his limbs, his flesh
being soft and pliable as an infants though
his mind was still affected.
The next thing done was to examine the
contents of the zinc basin in the sweating
room An assay of it's contents showed that
the mercury, administered in the form of
pills, had passed off through the open pores
of the skin, carrying with it the flour gold
with which Boye's body had been sat-
urated. An assay by Superintendent M. A.
Grant, of the Keystone mine, showed that
the value of the flour gold drawn from
Boyle'S body by means of mercury approx
mated $270. The effects of the treatment
upon the mind were something the phys-
clans did not care to experiment with, so
Boyle was sent to asylum No.. 2 in this city.
He is now apparently in the best of health
physically. and Superintendent Woodson be-
lieves he Will soon regain his reason.