The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-05-25
ROOTED FOR ANTITOXIN.
How Four Youthful Lovers Followed
the Physicians Advice.

washington Post.
Now this is true story and wiser men
must answer its conclusion.
She was the most popular girl in the
northwest section, and the proof of ii lies
in the fact that all the boys were in love
with her and yet never quarreled over their
places in her affection. And she lay sick
unto death with pneumonia. Two trained
nurses were in attendance and the physi-
clans assistant slept in the house to watch
the progress of the fell disease. Her chance
for life was not one in hundred, and it
was merely a painful waiting for the end.
Four of the boys had simply forced them
selves into the case and took charge of the
kitchen, where they made fiaxseed poultices
by the hour, saw to it that the water was
always at the boiling point that some one
was always on tiptoe TO run for prescrIp
tons, and that the nurses had only TO come
to the head of the stairs to find silent
and ready messenger.
Finally the delegation held up the physi-
clan at the door and demanded information.
Now, DOCTOR" said the spokesman, I'VE
hear that Mary stands only one chance
in a hundred. Now here is every boy In
boys and girls she knows in Washington
just roofing for her, but, doctor, how can
we root to do any good unless we know
just what we ought to root for"
The sober-faced physician looked into
those young and earnest countenances and
then threw professional etiquette to the
winds. In simple, plain terms he explained
the nature and progress of the disease;
how the blood cells of the left lung were
filled and COngeSted with a mass of red and
white blood corpuscles and coagulated
fibrin; how it cut off her system from the
proper amount OF oxygen; how the pois-
oned blood drfted to her brain and pro-
duced delirium; how the pulse, tempera-
ture and respiration rose and hung far
above the danger point, and wherein the
only hope of life lay.
1.-The physician counts per cent" said
he, 1.-The nursing 10 per cent, and nature
must do the rest. If nature will set up
the formation of antitoXin in the walls of
these congested blood cells the antitoxin
will dissolve the coagulated fibrin and
sweep the whole dead mass out into the
big veins, which will carry the load down
for the kidneys to eliminate, and what the
way of the liver and intestines. So, boys,
you must root for antitoxin if you are ever
TO see Miss Mary alive again.
And then he departed. And the chairman
of the delegation said: Fellows, that's
plain enough for any one. Now. get into
the game like it was the annual drill and
root for antitoxin. l can just see il form
ing"
They rooted silently and with faces set
like rocks and muscles tense. This was
10 o'clock at night At O'Clock in the
a dead faint. He got a dash Of water in
the face and was thrown on a cot. Half
an hour later the night nurse came down
and said:
was then and there unceremoniously hug
ged and kissed by the whole lot. BY morn
ing the patients temperature was down 10
IO2 her pulse had dropped from las 10 10.
the delrium had gone and she slept quietly.
And she got well
The physician gets credit for a remark
able discovery.
The nurses tell how few cases they have
ever lost
Her father says that nature reasserted
itself Her pastor talks about the efficacy
of prayer and is broad-minded enough to
say that the boys were praying. even If
they didn't know il. And there is talk of
the psychic influence.
But the boys-and Mary-kIow what
saved her life. And she says she shall
never marry. because she can't marry
them all. and she won't break either her
heart or theirs.