The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1904-11-23

Three weeks ago Glen Bachelor Of
Indiana lost both hands in railway
accident The amputated hands were
placed in jar Of alcohol aud Mr..
Bachelors arms received the most
careful surgical attention. He suffer
ed, however, for two weeks from Sc
we're and peculiar pains where the
hands formerly we're.
Dir. Bachelor insisted that his lost
hands we're crowded in such a way
as to give him the sensation of severe
oramping pains, and when he learned
how they had been disposed of he de.
msnded that they be properly buried.
The hands were taken from the Jar,
were Strengthened to natural posi-
ton, were carefully wrapped, were in.
oased in box, and were buried. AS
soon as this was done Mr.. Bachelor
was relieved of the pains that had
kept him in agony for two weeks.
The story will be received with
smiles by the younger experts of the
medical profession, with shakes of
the head by the older surgeons, and
with ready belief by hundreds of men
who have suffered as Mr.. Bachelor
suffered.
Many man who has suffered am
putation of o leg or foot has been kept
in anguish by the feeling of some OBJ
jeot between the toes, by an intoler-
able itching where toe ought to be,
or by sharp rheumatic pain in the
ball of missing foot. A mau who
has lost hand or an arm has been
seized suddenly with distressing
pain in the limb or the finger, and has
become almost hysterical because he
could not relieve it by touching the
hand that was not there.
Surgeons called to treat such cases
have contended that the feeling was
simply hallucination; that men who
have suffered amputation have read
stories of queer sensations in lost
limbs, and that these stories have
taken such hold upon the imagina-
tion that they experience the pain
attributed to the men whose storiea
they have read.
Acting on this theory <the surgeon
falls in with the belief Of the mau,
administers something to quiet his
nerves, and, in cases whore the miss
ing hand or foot is accessible, gives
directions for it's proper handling and
interment.
However, this does not settle the
case. In a week or month the man
of the lost hand or lost foot has other
trying experiences, and the surgeon
tries to laugh him out of the halluoi-
nation. IL good time the patient ap-
parently surrenders his belief as to
pain in the lost foot or hand, but in
his own heart he holds to it. He may
not talk about it, but he will insist
that the sensation in the missing foot
is 80 real and 80 exasperating that it
at times drives him almost to the point
of insanity.
There are strong men who have had
such experiences, and their theory is
that some careless treatment of the
nerves severed in amputation is re-
sponsible for the queer sensations.
"A few surgeons have admitted that
there may be something in this theory,
but if it be admitted that the theory
is correct, it does not explain the sen.
sations experienced by Mr.. Bachelor.
In this age, when the nerves of men
and women receive more attention
from the medical profession than ever
before, it is not little strange that
these so-oalled hallucinations as to
sensations in missing members of the
body have not been more closely in
vestigated? Are these sensations the
work of the Imagination, or are they
tf.s result of real physical conditions?
Chicago Inter, Ocean.