Year: 1873

Startling Cures.


Among the phenomena of hum an dis
ease for which the sages of the medical pro-


fession are accustomed to give explanations
more Ingenious than satisfactory, is that
susceptibility of immediate cure by severe


nervous shock which is sometimes exhibited


by the system racked with acute pain or


disabled by protracted physical disorder.


The common circumstance of the sudden


cessation of pain in an incorrigibly aching


tooth upon the arrival of the patient in the


dreaded presence of the surgeon-dentist has


some passable adaptation to the ordinary


powers of human apprehension in common


with the benumbing effect of extreme terror


which is said to occur SO mercifully in the
cases OF lesser animals when seized by beasts


of prey. In the sensation of overwhelming


alright, abruptly precipitated, there is at


least temporary insensibIIity to local pain


and the dentists visitor, and the hare


caught by the hound, are alike an anasthe-


tsed for the moment by the congestive eli


max of mortal fear Other than specific
ally - nervous disorders, however, are


often banished almost magically, and per


manently, too, by sudden great e1citements
of the brain, and in these cases there is fire.
quently room for physiological curiosity
and speculation not vet wholly answered by


the exposition Of medical science. Not long
ago, in Paris, a Nine. Lambert, or Lombard,


was atrOciously murdered by her maid, a


girl named Panthalvers. The husband of


the slain woman, paralytic who for ten
years had been unable to move or to speak,


was shocked by the horror into an imperfect
immediate power Of action and speech, and
Of


both, from which his complete cure ensued
To draw an illustration from nearer home a:
There is, in enc Of our suburban cities, the
well-knOwn case of lady who, alter years


of helpless confinement to her room and


generally to her bed by complication of


obscure diseases for which doctors had long


prescribed unayailingl y, suddenly sprang to


her feet, donned travelling attire, and lost


the last sign of her sickness in long and
arduCus journey, upon mistaken information
that her temporarily absent husband had
eloped with more healthy woman A


recent novelist, having occasion to restore
the shattered health of fictitious invalid
character by the curative shock, recalls the


experience of a certain old New Yorker, now
living, who recovered instantaneously from
a very tedious and dangerous attack of in
Hammatory rheumatism through the tre-
mendous activity and alarm induced in him
by the fall of lighted lamp upon the COM


bustible liniment with which his wife was
amounting his tortured limbs. Indeed, the
writer's of romance have employed prece-
dented treatment of this order ON sever ii
occasions, as witness the partly unparalyze
NJ Noirtier of " Monte Cristo," and the
Mrs. Clennam of - Little Dorrt" What
all preface leads to, however, in lately cur
rent social news, is the instance of cure of


the kind said to have been at Saginaw in
Michigan, last week, under the following
rather piteous circumstances: As the local


Courier asserts, there arrived in that town,
some ten days ago, from a successful lumb ber-
ing speculation on the adjacent waters,
gentleman of equally respectable dress and
address, who, finding himself broken In
health by the undue exertl0n and exposure
of his recent business avocation, took to his
bed in the hotel and sent for a physician.
he latter at first believed him to be suffer
ing from light miasmatic fever; but per
ceiVing that the disease, instead of yielding
to the treatment, grew rapidly more and
more serious, thought it his duty to express
some apprehension in the matter, and ad-
vised his patient to have his family notified
of his situation. The invalid seemed quite
conscious of his peril, and, after some silent |
thought on the subject, begged the good |
doctor to send word thereof to a young lady |
living in Romeo, same State, who, OF all his |
dear ones within practicable reach, might |
be most entitled to the mournful attention |
Without actually saying that Miss P,
the young lady in question, was his betr0th-
ed, the oIok man lett his medical friend to |
understand that the news of his sad condi-
tion should be parted to her with a eau
tion proportonate to the presumabe sensi-
bility of very tender feeling, and, accord
ingly, when the volunteer scribe undertook |
his postal mission, it was with keen sense
of the necessity for making his note as de-
void of rude alarm as possible. Writing
that Mr.. D, his patient, while not, per-
haps in Immediate danger, was sufficiently
iGdlsposed to think plaintively of the absent
OLes most dear to him, and wish the one not |
least dear to know that it was not in the
physical anguish of his sickness among
strangers to make him forget her, the oblig-
ing man of medicine despatched the consid-
crate missive to Miss P, and then coun-
selled the sufferer to keep his soul in patience
until lo2ing answer, or perhaps the lady |
herself should arrive. The coveted reply
was to be addressed to the doctor in the
room of his patient, and when, on the fol-
lowing afternoon, it came promptly to hand,
the former read it as though it had been the
most surprising thing in his life, and with
an impulse more natural than professional
thrust it into the burning hands of the
eager Mr.. D.. 1t was short and unmis
taxable: " Doctor: l care nothing for
that Mr. D., nor to hear from him.
You will please tell him to send no more
word. Mis- p. N. B.-Kill him.
No sooner had the enfeebled invalid at
Deaths door received the shock, than, with
a truly remarkable expression of counte-
nance, but without a word. he arose deliber-
ately from his bed, as deliberately resumed
his customary attire, and had resource to
his pocket-book. Fascinated by the strong
gaze kept upon him all through these alb
ruptly convalescent proceedings, the doctor
could only stare feebly in turn, make pre-
tence of scratching his head, and helplessly
received the handsome fee finally placed in
his hand. He did manage to stammer,
" Amt you taking it too-isn't this l-l-lit-
tie imprudent ?" Whereunto, after grasp
ing his carpet-bag, MIR. D. replied with
a trightfully ghastly smile, "I'm cured ="
and Immediately staIked away, thoroughly
eonvalescent, from physician, room, hotel