The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1898-03-01
DOCTORS HAVE MET.
some Persona, Experiences Of One Who
HES been II sufferer From MANY OF tho
las That Ft'sh IL IIeir To d Il Timo
CuppinE- q. ttlng Rid OF
TrOubiesnme Mil.
NV ittcH expressly for Herald and News

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on one hand and u sluggish river or
creek on the other. and was reared
! largely on quinine, wild cherry and
dogwood bark. The chills were little
( considered in those days and in that
part Of the world. They were taken as
| shine and the rain. When neighbOrs
! met and cnQuired, in their usually per-
| functory manner, after each others
| "folks," the common reply was: "All
tol'erblo 'top chills." But as chils
scarcely served to put one on The sick
list, they were hardly counted. The
most common kind was the every other
| day chill, which returned with the
regularity Of cl0ck-wOrk; sometimes
! continuing al through the summer and
fall and late into the winter. Not a
| few persons had chills al the year
round. Children seldom stopped from
| school on account OF chills, nor laborcrs
from the fields. l myself have often
| hunted 'possums and raccoons more
than half the night after having had n
third-duy-chill tho day before; and it
was no uncommon thing for me to ho
in tho field picking cotton when the
| chill would come on-generally about
IL o'clock. would coil up in tho cot
| basket or stretch out in the cotton
row and wait an hour or two, until it
"wore or" and then resume my pick
| ing.
| Sometimes, though, the chills would
take to coming every day. Then there
was some danger of Il congcstivc chill,
which was then, Us now, no light mat
ter. Sometimes the chil's would run
into bilious fever. Then the doctor
! was sent for--milcs and miles away,
perhaps. He came always OH horse
back, with his doctor 's-saddlcbags be-
| hind him, in which he carried an abun-
dant supply Of the medicines in com.
| mon usc in country practice. There
| was not much sending Of prescriptions
| to drugstores to be filled In those days
| even by town doctors; nothing of the
kind by country practitioners. They
furnished their own physic and made
up their own pills, powders, etc, and
| left enough with the patient to last uu-
| til the next visit.
The ordinary treatment for bilious
fever was q big dose Of jalap or senna
followed by heroic doses of quinine. ]
- member talking while mere boy
twenty -four grains Of GMininc In ore
day. And it seemed to me that the
quininc of those days was stronger
than it is now. Then thought it was
| awfully bitter, even when taken with
molasses: now l can eut it like salt,
and don't mind the taste bit. Per-
haps got used to It..
| AS the stomach was the critical point
in bilious fever, country doctors wero
much addicted to what they called
'cupping.' Our family physician was
| DR.. T., II tall, rawboncd Scotsman--o of
the decidedly rugged type, but skillful
and kindly in the highest degree
strikingly like the picture Of DR.. Mac
Lure SO graphically drawn by Ian Mac
larcn. He believed in heroic treat
mcnt. With him the first Indication
of congestion led to tho cupping pro-
cess at once. Between this process
and being scalped there was scarcely a
choice, except in the loss Of the hair
tho pain and the skinning were about
| of kind. The doctor would first
scarify the pit of the stomach with his
"scarifcator"-an instrument of tor
turc probably unknown by my fellow
sufferers Of these degenerate days. 1t
was an instrument containing several
lanccts moved simultaneously by q
spring for making slight lncsions. IA
like result might bo attained by meane
| Of n hcalthy Tom cat with split stick
on his tail Then the doctor would
call for IL large tumbler, saturatc q thin
rag or piece of paper with spirits of
turpentinc, set 1t on fire, put it in the
tumblcr, and quickly invert tho tumb-
lcr over tho scarified spot. Any school
boy who has studied elementary ply
sizes can explain the philosophy OF the
suction that would soon follow; but
forty school boys, with their teachers
to help them, couldn't describe the
pain. The burning rag or paper would
rarely tho air in the tumbler to such q
degree "a almost to create vacuum;
when it was applied to the stomach the
exclusion of fresh air would cause the
fire to go out; that would cool the tumb-
Ter and condcnsc the littlo air left in it
and then it would take grim hold
and the poor fellow would arch himself
on his heels and the back of his head
until he was bent like bow, and II no
wasn't mighty good grit he'd hollcr.
said there was scarcely choice be-
tween cupping and scalping. On second
thought, and since have been good
while married man and am bald any
way, if had to take my choice now, l
believe ia say: Bring on your Indian.
QAnothcr doctor of different type al
together, and Of equal worth, was q
refugee from the seacoust near the