The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-15
DISEASE AS A PROFESSION.
EARNS a SOFT HOSPITAL COT, BUT
HAS ITS DISADVANTAGES,


and Enjoy Surgical ODerations-A
Patient Who Has His Toes Ampu-
tnted One After AnOther-A Woman
who Makes a Specially of Getting
Into Insane AsyIums-Weird Power
of a Patient in Raising Phantom
TumOr.
New York, Jan. 13.-Of all odd occupa-
tions, a middle-aged keen-witted Irishman
named Bowling has perhaps the oldest.
His business is heart disease, and 1t yields
him a comfortable living. When he is
hungry, or cold, or in need of a bath or
hair cut, he simply has an attack and falls
in a heap on some convenient street cor
ner. A policeman sends in a hurry call,
an ambulance dashes up, and Bowling is
soon lying in a cool hospital cot and suck
ing broth through a straw. Sometimes he
is SO weak that he needs glass of in
MIGRATING port wine to brace him up. Not
long ago he had such successful fit that
clergyman save him blessing and sent
him to the hospital apparently in dying
condition. OF late he mas been complain
ing of hard times. The police have come
to know him, and sometimes they do moi
appreciate his enterprise.
Bowling is typical of a class of men and
women who love hospital life, and who
actually enjoy being operated upon.
we have them every day or two" said
one of the Oldest registrars of Bellevue
hospital. We could fill the house with
them. Nearly all of them have special
ties. Bowling makes a business of heart
AZ u
the most original of his class, is a spe-
cialist in epilepsy. He has been in the
hospital eight or ten times every year
since 1886. That is his Bellevue record,
but nearly all of the meantime he has
spent in various other hospitals. Several
times he has been discharged from the
house, and ten minutes after his DISCHARGE
We have had q hurry call to the drug
store on the corner, two blocks away The
ambulance would rush down there and
bring back an unknown" in an epileptic
fit. 1 always make it a habit to look at
the corner, two blocks away. The am
bulance would rush down there and bring
back an unknown" in an epileptic fit
l always make it a habit to look at all
the unknowns brought in. on several oc-
casions 1 have found that Mcmahon had
played a trick on us and had himself sent
back as soon as lie was put out He has
had himself sent to the poor house, to the
insane asylum and to every hospital in
town. Probably you win hear of him in
the other institutions. He is a middle
aged man and well able to work. He was
florist in his younger days, and served
some time in the English army.
Bertha Ebling, Emma Dean and Bes-
sic Hammel are three of Bellevue's would
be star boarders, although lately Emma
Dean makes a Speciality of getting into
insane asylums."
Raising Phantom TumOr.
Rev. DR.. Parker of St Luke's Hospital
tells of woman who was able TO raise
what is known as a phantom tumor. She
was admitted to the Institution suffering
apparently from a small swelling which
was diagnosed as tumor. She occupied
a bed in ward for some time while va
rious means for the reduction of the lump
We're practiced. Finally il was decided to
operate and the patient was put under
ether. When the doctors leaned forward
to make the first incsion 10 and behold the
tumor was gone. They thought this
rather curious and decided to postpone
the operation. When the woman was al
lowed 10 revive and was questioned she
stouuy maintained that she had the tu-
NOR and pointed to it in proof Sure
enough it was there. She was put under
the influence of ether again, but this time
the swelling was watched and as the drug
began to take effect it was seen slowly to
recede. The patient was, therefort put
back to bed and the hospital authorities
attempted to look up her antecedents
After some research 1t was found that she
was known in nearly every hospital in
London and to few in New York. She
could raise the lump at will merely by ex-
ercising certain muscles, and she got her
living by the imposition on hospital au-
thorities.
Cut or One Toe After Another.
A man mentioned by Dr.. Baker was ad-
mitted to the hospital because he COM
planned of a terrible pain In his left foot
Finally the pain became so great, as he
claimed, that at his request it was decid-
ed to amputate one of his toes. The OPP
Grafton laid him up for some time, but
when hetwas convaescing the toe next
to the one just taken off began to pain.
In the course of time the second toe was
amputated and later on other toes were
taken off. Finally the doctors were COM
PEELED to call halt, as manifestly the man
was losing his toes Intentionally for the
sake of an otherwise easy living in the
hospital
AS soon as the subject was mentioned to
House Physician Maloney of st. Vincents
Hospital, he referred Immediately to Rob-
ert Mcmahon as the king Of malingerers.
He said the man had a depression in the
back of the skull. evidently the result of
an operation, and well calculated 10 fool
ambulance surgeons who do not know
Mcmahon. After speaking of McMahon's
well-knoWn ability to withstand ordinary
surgical tests, DR.. Maloney said:
ODD Tests for Inconsistencies.
Il once ran across a fellow who eclipsed
Mcmahon in his ability to stand all tests.
except one. 1 remember I was called
in a hurry to BECKER street, where a
man had been found unconscious. When
the ambulance reached the call point !
found a group of passersby and police
man gazing down at a man lying on the
sidewalk. The bluecoat said the man was
dead, and after applying various tests / |