The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-03-18
USE / /. Of CAL0R0|F0RM
TO stop SUFFERING
"A PHYSICIAN RECALLS "A TRAGIC
EXPERIENCE.
He Recites the Pathetic Story Of the
Case Of Young Man Whose Agony
Was Ended by Surgeon While the
Patients Wife Looked On.
r. tbs Editor Of The Journal.

TO tbs Editor Of The Journal
In your issue Of yesterday, under the
caption Woman Endorses .Chleroform
Bin,''s you quote Mrs. Oglevie of Des
Moines as long urging the plan of the
billie, the use Of the drug in cases
hopelessly i'll and painful.
May cite from my own experience an
instance Of forty years ago., The time,
1866; the place. Brazos de Santiago, at
the mouth Of the Rio Grande. Our
army Of observation" was still there as
a menace to Napoleon and his Latin en-
pire. I was q civilian, a young student
of medicine, but accredited by the treas
ury department. to the Twenty-ffth army
corps "(colored) as a civilian on special
duty. Life was monotonous., grub
poor, water worse. Officers lived in bar
racks fronting the gulf, and killed time
as well as a lot of good fellows and sea-
soned soldiers could. The only medical
/ officer was DR.. NJ, contract surgeon,
| level-headed and a gentleman. He is
/ still living. *
/ One day after dinner the officers were
fooling with trapeze, suspended in the
wide hallway looking out upon the open
4 water. Captain NJ, fine fellow, muscu-
i lar but not in training, was challenged
1 to take a turn on the bar He sprang up,
i took a turn and went over, 81
~ Shortly after he felt a. sharp pain in
This right side. It increased and sent him
tito his quarters. In an hour, the surgeon
1 was called. His young wife, one Of the
little colony of ladies that frightened the
tlsodden place, was summoned. Remedies
4 seemed to fail. Opiates did not avail and
Fsoon became contra Indicated"
AS night advanced. agony increased. 1t
was obvious what had happened-serious
!. injury to the liver a rupture Of its sub
stance or it's ligaments. We two were
$ Ealone; aid not nearer than Brownsville
4 forty miles away, and no one there of es-
|" tablished value as a surgeon. We must
4 act. !. +. ~. Il =. hs, i..a --
a One. Of us proposed chloroform to pro-
tEduce partial anesthesia in hope Of par
tial mitigation of the pains, now becom
! ing uncomfortable. Gangrene was already
. setting in. DR.. N. administered a small
: portion, but not to the point of insensi
!, biity A period Of rest set. in The pa
. tient slept an moment or two, as only al
: exhausted man can sleep. He awoke ant
: could talk for an instant Then tn
: pains returned and he signed for more.
a All the night long the doctor and tool
r it turn and turn about at this mitigation
= In the morning a conference The wifi
: Wassstold plainly the facts. In a momen
q Of rest the husband was told. It was
o matter at most OF tWenty-fOur hours
Then at the next interval we left the tw
4 together. God and good a~~els onl
n know that parting talk. But Lo.h wishe
+ us to go on to the. end. BY nightfal
q with constantly diminishing vitality upo
q his part, the patient and we two stoo
# together Some Of our brief words wit
a him in lucid periods remain with me an
q will forever. .6> ii 81.
r, In early evening the chloroform CAV
d out! Imagine, If you can. our disma!
y sorrow, terror. RI ,~-..a ~. /.
The doctor bethought him of an oil
abandoned depot Of unused stores. H