The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-15

M.l y |. ] LUKE
concluded he was. He did not breathe nor
did he respond 70 pressure on the super
iiclal nerve Pressing on this nerve, which
Is located just under the eyebrow, is the
last and final test used by ambulance sur
icons for detecting whether or not a
person is shammlng Inconsistencies. Fin
ally, l thought l would resort to one mote
test before | turned the body over TO the
coroner. / had With me bottle of very
strong aqua ammonia. l held it uncorke,l
under the mans nose, while the crowd
wondered who he was, how he died and
what his family would do. At the end
OF five minutes the corpse" suddenly
arose and hurried down the street The
crowd looked on it as a kind of miracle,
aud the policeman was too dazed 90 ar
rest the fellow. He must have been on
the ground over half an hour. How he
Kept so quiet all that time and had the
nerve to resist the other tests | made on
him has always seemed wonderful to me
Mania for Surgical Operations.
There was another fellow who was ad-
mHted to this hospital suffering with
stomach trouble, SO he said, and his de-
scription of the general symptoms of a
certain disease was SO accurate that IL
was decided to operate on ahitn. He was
put under ether and cut open and exam
ined, only to be found quite healthy. 1t
took him some time TO get well, and
things went easily with him meanwhile
When the cut had almost healed he be
gan complaining again, and i'm the end a
second operation was performed, with no
other result than to insure him bed and
board for a month or more. We fohnd
that man had a record. He was well
read in the symptoms of diseases. He
knew just how 90 act inf order to give
the impression OF suffering lie had been
operated on number of times and al
ways in a manner to lay him up for
various periods of time. Did it hurt him?
No. The anaesthetics deadened the pain
He knew that as well as we did He
simply wanted to live in a hospital and
be waited upon. In fact, it is curious to
find how many people there are who have
mania for being operated upon. We
have some women who almost beg us to
cut them open, when really there is no
necessity for it. Some of them doubtless
believe they need the cutting. l believe
much of this desire for treatment comes
from lily digested reading of medical
works.
Woman's Ability to stand Pain.
DR.. w. L. Stone of Cornell Medical Col
lege relates the following story of a
woman's ability to Withstand pain:
once" he says. 81 received a hurry
call TO attend. an unconscious woman
who had been brought into a police sta
ton ] was just graduated from college.
So, for fear Of exposing my undue zeal.
L resolved to make some very severe
tests on the woman when [ found her
She manifestly belonged to the lower
half of society. l thought she might be
shamming Inconsistencies.
Il raped the soles of her feet. She did
not seem to mind 1t. l damned a pin
into her arm muscles-and suddenly.
too, but she did not vince. Finally I
pressed my finger nail hard on the
super-orbital nerve. 1t never phased her.
Then concluded that her case was
serious and | rushed her off to the
hospital. When We got there one Of the
regular ambulance men looked at the
woman on the stretcher, laughed and
said: I say Stone, what have you
there% % said |, that appears to be
serious case and I told him of the tests
l had applied. Serious, nothing, he
said. Then he walked up TO the woman
and said: Now, look here, Mag, you
can't fool me! Get up out of there and
get out! Go along now! To my great
surprise the woman did get up and eussed
him roundly for Informing on her. She
had fooled that surgeon once just as she
had fooled every new man. But her abil-
ity to Withstand the pain must have
caused her astonlshed me-"
Hose Cure for Paralysis.
DR.. David T. Marshall OF Gouverneur
Hospital relates how the house physician
of one of the City Island hospitals got
rid OF a man who feigned paralysis Of the
legs. The man affirmed that he could not
walk and lay apparently helpless. at the
mercy of tremendous appetite. one
summers day when the man had been
wheeled out on veranda, the physician
rugged up hose al the foot of the par
alytic's bed, fixing the nozzle in such a
manner that a stream of water from the
hose would strike the man near the neck
That night, while the patient was asleep.
the faucet connecting with the hose was
turned on. Several doctors were in the
office awaiting developments Almost
instantly the yels of the man awakened
nearly everyone in the hospital, and In
a moment he was jumping down stairs
three steps at time. He made a great
outcry, but the authorities did not have
to persuade him TO leave. He went of his
own accord, and nothing but a padded cell
could have held him back
In the Presbyterian Hospital they tell
of an old woman who used 10 fan an
parently unconscious on the street every
Thanksgiving eve. She-lved in Eighty
seventh street, and for years the ambu
lance surgeon Of the hospital would wait
for that call, 1t always came without fail
the day before Thanksgiving. Nothing
ever was found TO be the matter with this
woman, nor could the hospital authorities
ever find out why she made her periodical
visits.
She Learned to Walk.
The pet remembrance Of the Mount ST.
mai hospital doctors is Of a woman who
aunrraA She cn1ld NOT raII. Qko -4.....l