The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1899-06-28
40 YEARS STRUGGLE
5lsMARck's MEDICAL ADVISER ISSUES
A STATE MENT.


Reveals That the Iron Chancellor Wa,
Face to Face with Death From Disease
Many Times During That Length of Years
At Times Was Out of His Mind.
Prof. Schweninger, the medical ad-
wiser of Prince Bismarck during his
declining years, has just issued a pam
phlet entitled "Andenken Bismarcks, "
describing his medical diagnosis and
treatment of his distinguished patient.
Intended for medical readers, the
pamphlet is intensely interesting to lay
readers, says the New York World. .
1t reveals that thirteen years before
the humbling of France in 1870 Bis
marck so injured his leg that its ampu-
tation was threatened that In the Sa-
dowa or Koniggratz campaign in 1866
he broke down and cried like a child;
that so early as 1883 he was almost in
a dying state, and that in his later days
he not only suffered intolerable agonies
but was sometimes for brief periods
out of his mind.
For forty years the life of this man
OF iron, whose name was in the popu-
lar estimation almost a synonym of
rugged strength was one continual
fight with disease, suffering and death.
Prof. Schweninger paints a thrilling
picture of Prince Bismarcks' grim
struggle with death.
Several times during nearly forty
years." he writes, Bismarck was face
to face with death In 1857 an injury
to his leg, received while hunting, de-
veloped, from neglect and quack treat
ment, into a serious wound so that
the doctors strongly advised the am
putation of the left leg above the knee.
But Bismarck decided to fight the dis
ease.
After two years of keen suffering
he regained his strength but this left
leg always remained the seat of weak
ness. In the Koniggratz campaign of
1866, when he was broken down by
work and worry this leg became vio-
lently painful. He was reduced to the
lowest state of nervous prostration, the
attack eliminating in a violent storm
of Mysteries, in which the man of iron
cried like child. When he returned
from the campaign he had aged greatly,
but the excitement of the war of 1870
once more raised him above his ply
steal ills.
"When | saw him first, in 1882, l
said: If he goes on as he is now,
there will be a serious collapse in six
months. with results concerning which
l should entertain great fears
My prediction was fulfilled The
Chancellor was reduced almost to a
dying state in 1888 by mistreatment,
his doctors diagnosing his case as can
Ger of the liver and stomach.
Il put him under a strict regimen
and in a fortnight he was so well that
in my absence he drank an immense
quantity of buttermilk-enough for
three ordinary men-bringing on jaun-
dice in a serious form; but careful
treatment and dieting mitigated his
sufferings from faceache and headache
and for years he was almost rejuven-
ated.
But again from time to time govt
like pains in his left leg came on, the
precursors of his fatal illness, and on
Oct. II, 1897, mine months before his
death on July 30, 1899, there began an
intolerable pain whose sudden appear
ance and terrific strength were almost
ineXplicable, rendering his life thence
fOrW ard an unbearable burden.
81 diagnosed these symptoms as in
Cipient old age modification, which the
protracted and releptless course of the
disease had confirmed, though the
Prince was never informed of it and
harmless bulletins were prepared for
the papers, SO that he might not learn
the truth from that source.
The process of decay was attended
by slight alterations of the mind, by
decisions of which he was afterward
conscious. This afternoon l was part
ly outside of myself; now l have found
myself within me again. was his de-
scription of these attacks.
But two days before his death he
was able to sit in his accustomed place
at dinner and drank the foaming wine
in which he delighted. His intellect
was as bright as ever.
so he was taken. After ten months
OF this awful agony death was gen.
tie deliverer and we had succeeded in
our object of arresting the disease I'M
til the decay of the vital forces brought
about the end"