The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1903-05-05
A SURGICAL DEVICE
lOriginal,'

Sultl llle Sledl
surgeon, concluding his address 10 the
graduating class of the College of Ply
sicans and Surgeons, .let me impress
upon You one cau,ion When you have
done everything in yeur power for q
patient with the hope OF benefiy. neyer
cease 10 apply some new device, no
matter how little connection it may
have as remedy with the disease. BY
this course you Will gain time, retain
the confidence OF the patient and keep
him from sinking into despair"
The great surgeon bowed to the class
as an announcement chat his address
was finished, and the members before
passing out each waited his turn to
take his preceptor by the hand. One
hung back Till the others had all left.
s.Dr. Kenworthy," he said, for the
last time ask your consent | have
no desire to rob you OF the daughter
you love, nor will she marry me with
out your leave. / hope you will not
continue your opposition
Il shall have no opposition to make
when you have built up a practice"
The young man departed, sorrowful;
the doctor took up his hat and went to
the hospital to perform critical oper-
alton.
Ten years later DR.. Kenworthy was
travelling in the west and stopped in a
little town in the Rocky mountains.
Being troubled with Indigestion, he
took a vial from his satchel, held the
bottle in one hand, a spoon in the 9th
err, and drawing the cork with his
teeth, held it there While he dropped
the medicine in the spoon. A violent
hiccough caused him to relax his hold
on the cork and at the same time draw
it into his windpipe. In a few minutes
the household, having been summoned
by violent pull at the bell, We're gath
cred about the doctor.
DR. Kenworthy of course knew very
we'll what should be done in his case,
but with the cork in his windpipe, pur-
pie in the face, his eyes bullying out of
their sockets, he was not only unable
to articulate, but his faculties We're
momentarily impaired. The country
uOtlOI SOC llIC ptillClI l1Ip u >iioAA CIV
began succession of efforts to ex-
tract the cork. They We're not success
full. and it began to look as il the end
was near. Suddenly the mountain
practitioners eye lighted as if with a
new hope. Throwing down his forceps
and his hooks. he showed by his ex-
pressive countenance every indication
that he had solved the problem. The
bystanders wondered by what new
method the doctor was about to win
success. and the patient looked at him
wonderingly.
Take off his coat!' cried the younger
doctor imperatively. Two attendants
seized Dr. kenworthy and raised him
violently. while the landlord Invested
him of his upper garment.
"Off with his collar!
This too. was accom- blished with the
haste and energy of despair fringed
with hope.
"Some beeswaX!"
The house was hunted, but no bees
wax found. The landlady brought in
some honey, which as soon as the coun-
try doctor saw it he exclaimed joy
fully:
"The very thing; far better than
beeswax; more soothing; more to my
purpose"
Dipping his fingers into the dish, he
broke off piece of the comb, the cells
filled with honey, and began rubbing
it upon DR.. Kenworthy's throat
Now, the great surgeon, was so thor
oughly cogniaant that rubbing honey
comb on a mans throat for the pur-
pose of eXpelling cork from his wind
pipe was so useless, the idea was SO SUI
premely ridiculous, that had he been
able he would have burst into a fit of
laughter He did the next thing; he
laughed inwardly. Whether this inter-
nal mirth relaxed the muscles or his
coughings had by this time loosened
the cork, or both, no man, not even the
great surgeon himself, could tell, but
the fact remains that the stopper slip
ped from its place, and the patient
spat it out on the floor.
For few minutes the relieved man
Was ~ OSc1 W Acillleu Will CouSidtuad-
tons that he was unable to get in a
word The village doctor showed a
more than ordinary interest in his pa
tent by sinking into chair and draw
ing few long breaths of relief. AS
soon as DR.. Kenworthy could escape
from clamOr Of congratulations he
said to the village physician:
Doctor have practtced and taught
surgery for~thirty years. | am famil.
lar with every newly discovered device
for relieving patient from an OBJ
struction in the larnyx or the esopha