The Bane of Human Life (1895 advertisement)

Absurdity of Stage Deaths

1895

Nature Outrageously Violated Instead of Being Shown a Mirror.

A French dramatic critic, with some show of medical knowledge, represents that nearly all actors and actresses outrageously violate nature in their imitations of death. He cites, in corroboration of his charge, the customary theatrical death of "Camille," in the younger Dumas' favorite emotional play of that title. According to the author, his heroine is affected with pulmonary consumption, and an incidental attack of hemorrhage of the lungs extinguishes her life.

There is absolutely nothing dramatic to be made out of this mode of dying, if fidelity to fact be obeyed. The gushing of a stream of blood from the mouth would be realistic, but the imitation of such a phenomenon is never made by actors, male or female, nor would any discreet manager tolerate such a piece of stage business. Again, the overwhelming suffocation which produces the rapid death in Camille's case is never accompanied by convulsions, such as her dying representatives on the stage almost always assume. In natural death from this cause the sufferer simply collapses from failure of the vital powers.

Theatrical poisoning scenes are also usually untrue to nature. It is popularly believed that when a fatal dose of laudanum or morphine is swallowed the victim immediately sinks into a deathlike sleep, as is commonly seen on the stage, whereas the first effect of this poison taken in like quantity is invariably to excite and enliven. Nor is the mode of dying after the hackneyed cardiac stage stab in conformity with the laws of nature. The actor simply falls at full length or in a heap, whereas the everyday member of society gives a spring when the heart is struck before entering eternity by this unhappy gate. Even the modern Othello has not inherited enough of Shakespeare's wonderful fidelity to truth to die naturally after a stab through the heart. — Baltimore Gazette.

A Simple Remedy For Insomnia

1895

A physician, in speaking of the various methods of inducing sleep, said: "I've tried them all — putting a cold towel on the head, bathing the feet in hot water, counting up to 1,000, drinking a glass of milk, and so on, and the best thing I ever found was simply this: When I have worked all evening and find myself at bedtime in a state of nervousness or mental activity, I go to bed and place my right hand directly over the pit of the stomach. Whether it is the animal warmth of the hand resting on the stomach and drawing the circulation from the head or some nervous action I can't say, but I know that I fall asleep in a few minutes. I believe that in a large majority of the ordinary cases of sleeplessness this simple remedy will prove effective. I have recommended it to many patients, and they report surprising success. — Chicago Record.

Stops Asthma

1895

Here is a very simple formula for a powder recommended by M. Naguet of Chatellerault to stop attacks of asthma, and which acts in the same way as cologne water:

Powdered snuff, 5 grams; camphor, 5 grams; menthol, .15 centigrams.

When the first symptoms are felt giving warning that an attack is coming on, it is enough if you sniff into each nostril a pinch or two of this powder every quarter or half hour to set up a lively irritation of the mucous membrane with sneezing and copious secretion, while at the same time the attack of asthma stops. — New York Journal.

Comment: Beware of antique medical advice. Don't do it.


Not an Agnostic

Bessie — Don't you believe in anything?
Frank — Oh, yes — in pretty girls, for instance.
Bessie — Then I suppose you often change your place of worship and keep the same creed. — Detroit Free Press.

Bruises

1916

A bruise, or contusion, is caused by a blow or by strong compression of the soft tissues. It is an actual wound of the subcutaneous tissues, and is less serious than an open wound only because the unbroken skin usually prevents it from being infected. That does not mean that pus never forms in a bruise, for the blood can carry infection, and if germs lodge in the lacerated tissues they will cause inflammation.

The first result of a severe bruise is pain; next comes swelling and discoloration. That is owing to the escape of blood from the torn vessels, and it is usually more marked where the tissues are loose; that is why a "black eye" often follows a blow that would leave no mark on the chest or back.

The pain of a bruise is best relieved by sponging with very hot water or hot fomentations; sometimes an electric-light bulb will give enough warmth to relieve moderate pain. The hemorrhage, which is the cause of the swelling and discoloration, can be reduced by applying pressure at once over the injured part. Fold a handkerchief or napkin so as to make a smooth pad and keep it firmly in place by a bandage or by a towel tightly pinned. When you cannot make a pad work well, hot water may arrest the bleeding and prevent discoloration.

Ice-cold applications have the same effect, and they are better than hot ones for a black eye. It is a good plan also to compress a bruise under the eye by a mass of cotton or soft cloths — or by the traditional raw beefsteak.

If the pain of a bruise persists and there are signs of beginning inflammation, apply cooling lotions, such as lead and opium wash, salt and diluted vinegar, equal parts of alcohol and water or extract of witch-hazel. Arnica is often used, but it is better to try something else, for it sometimes causes a rash or even gives rise to symptoms of general poisoning. If the inflammation persists and an abscess forms, the surgeon must be called.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 26, 1916, p. 4.

Note: Please note, this information is from 1916. When I read about "lead and opium wash," to me that signals crazy danger and something you should not do. Times change, science advances. So if you have a bruise, by all means, take care of it by up-to-date methods and don't rely on what they suggested in 1916. Of course, if "lead and opium wash" is still what they currently prescribe, I'm sorry, I've just never heard of it. But somehow I doubt it!

Why John Quit Drinking (1916 Advertisement)

1916

By John's Wife

I'm the happiest little woman,
In all this little town;
And my merry laugh and singing,
Takes the place of sigh and frown.
For JOHN HAS QUIT HIS DRINKING
And is like himself once more,
And the world is just a paradise
With such happiness in store!

One day I read some verses—
"Mary's Miracle," the name,
And I said, that's John exactly,
And I'll send and get the same.
So I sent for GOLDEN TREATMENT.
(As sly as sly could be)
And I put it in John's supper
And I put it in his tea.

And it didn't taste a little bit;
Had no odor, so, you see—
It was smoothest kind of sailing
For little Doctor Me.
And I watched and prayed and waited,
(And cried some, too, I guess),
And I didn't have the greatest faith,
I'm ashamed now to confess.

And John never thought a minute,
He was being cured of drink,
And soon he's as well as any one,
It makes me cry to think!
Just makes me cry for gladness,
I'm so proud to be his wife—
Since he is cured of drinking,
And leads a nice, new life.

"Since John he quit a-drinking!"
I can't any it times enough!
And hates and loathes a liquor
As he would a poison stuff.
And when I say my prayers at night
As thankful as can be—
I pray for John the most of all—
Then GOLDEN TREATMENT.

Home Treatment For Drunkards

Odorless and Tasteless — Any Lady Can
Give It Secretly at Home in Tea, Coffee or Food.

Costs Nothing to Try.

If you have a husband, son, brother, father or friend who is a victim of liquor, all you have to do is to send your name and address on the coupon below. You may be thankful as long as you live that you did it.

Dr. J. W. Haines Company.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 7.

Spitting Blood Not Sign of Consumption

1919

Most Tuberculosis Patients Never Have This Symptom.

There is no need to become alarmed if one spits blood. It is not, as so many think, a sure sign of consumption, for the overwhelming majority of tuberculosis patients never have this symptom, and the blood may come from the larynx, pharynx, teeth, stomach or even the small intestines.

Dr. H. Rabinowitsch of New York points out in the Medical Journal that when we consider the great size of the arteries that enter the lung and their minute ramifications on the surface of the delicate air cells we should not wonder if blood is sometimes coughed up from the lungs. Severe coughing or straining may easily break a small branch of one of these arteries.

Dr. Rabinowitsch says the hemorrhage itself is of slight moment. If it comes from aneurism, death is almost instantaneous; if it comes from a congested area and is limited, it is in some ways beneficial by relieving the congested area. It has another good effect — making a recalcitrant patient obey the doctor's orders.



Nail Illustrates Progress.

A common nail is an excellent illustration of the difference between old and new methods. Formerly the metal was cut into strips and then forged into shape with hammers. Today they are made of steel and are lighter and stronger. Strips are cut with steam shears and fed into automatic nail machines.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 9.

Insurance Against Surgical Operations

1902

In England people of moderate means are beginning to insure themselves against surgical operations. The plan is that subscribers who pay an annual fee shall be entitled either to free admittance to a hospital or nursing at home and a free operation or to a fixed sum paid down to defray the cost of an operation if one becomes necessary.

In England, as here, the cost of surgical repairs to the human body has become oppressively great to persons who just manage to pay their way. People who are obviously poor get a great deal of excellent surgical and medical treatment in hospitals and elsewhere for nothing, but for the next class above them a serious illness — especially if it involves an operation — is almost ruinous. It would seem as if the time was near when societies for insurance against specialists might be profitably organized in the larger American cities.

The specialist has come to be a very important — indeed, an indispensable — institution, especially to families in which there are children. The office of the family doctor has now become simplified to the task of coming in and telling the patient which specialist to go to. It is not that specialists charge too much, for their honorable services are above price. It is that landlord, butcher, baker, grocer, milkman, coalman, dentist, and trained nurse do not leave you money enough to pay them appropriately.

To subscribe a considerable sum annually and have all the repairs and desirable improvements made in one's family without further disbursement would be a comparatively simple way out of a troublesome predicament. — Harper's Weekly.

Ulcers — Scientific Explanation from 1900

1900

An ulcer is a sore on the skin or mucous membrane, in which the healing process is very slow or wholly at a standstill. It may be due to a number of causes, some constitutional, others local; but even when a local cause seems most evident, there is almost always some constitutional taint present as well. This may be consumption, diabetes, gout, and so forth, or merely a little impurity of the blood resulting from constipation or indigestion. Ulcers in the mouth, on the tongue, or at the union of the cheeks and gums, are very common and exceedingly annoying. They should be treated by frequent rinsing of the mouth with a solution of boric acid or borax, and can usually be prevented in great measure by reducing the sweets and starchy food, such as bread, that enter into the diet.

A common seat of ulcers is the shin. Sores occur here especially in the aged or those past middle life, and are commonly due to the presence of varicose veins. These are caused by pressure from tight garters, by congestive disorders of the liver and other abdominal organs, and by any occupation which requires standing for many hours a day.

Ulcers of this kind are found more frequently on the left leg than on the right. They sometimes give little trouble, but they may be exquisitely painful, and are often most rebellious to treatment, which must be both local and general, corresponding to the local and constitutional causes.

All disorders of digestion must be corrected as far as possible, and the diet regulated. The food should be nourishing, but not stimulating, and all forms of alcoholic beverages are to be foregone. The patient should keep perfectly quiet, either in bed or with the leg supported on a chair.

The local treatment must be varied according to the necessities of each case. The sore must be kept clean by pouring over it twice a day a stream of boiled (not boiling) water, and in the intervals of washing it should be protected from the air. The leg must be kept snugly bandaged or encased in an elastic stocking, so as to prevent stagnation of the blood and distention of the veins.

A piece of silver foil smoothly applied over the surface of the ulcer and for a little distance beyond its edges, and kept in place by a bandage, often does good. Sometimes, when the extent of ulcerated surface is very large, skin-grafting is necessary in order to start the healing process. — Youth's Companion.

This Man Had Courage — Sold His Skin for Grafting

1896

Half a dozen men were relating experiences of college days when a young physician said that in cases where students were obliged to eke out their expenses in a professional career by every possible means there often occurred pitiful examples of their courage.

"Suppose, for example," said he, "a case of skin grafting comes to the clinic, any student who will give up his skin is paid five dollars for each bit. I remember one instance in particular, that of a hard working young man who gave ten bits of flesh to graft a new face on a badly burned baby. As the flesh must be healthy and fresh nothing can be used to deaden the pain and it is cut from the inside of the upper arm, the most sensitive part. Slices the size of a silver dime are taken and laid quivering on the wounded part where a new skin is to be grown. This fellow stood there several days and allowed the surgeon to slice off pieces from both arms, each piece bringing the amount stipulate, which paid for extra books, clothing or food, and the poor fellow minded neither the pain at the time of the operation nor the lameness with which he was afflicted for weeks after, neither did he fear the risk of blood poisoning or other difficulties which might ensue.

"He had the satisfaction, however, of seeing a baby face resume its healthy form and his examinations were passed with brilliancy. He is to-day a man well known and honored in the profession." — New York Herald.

The Deadly Grape Seed

1896

The grape seed, having been relieved of the charge of causing appendicitis, seems to have taken a new tack and is trying to do its mischievous work in another fashion.

An official of a New Jersey county is in a critical condition from the effects, it is said, of a grape seed. He ate some grapes and took great care not to swallow the seeds, but by some accident managed to inhale one, which lodged in the upper portion of his lungs. Himself a physician, he realized the necessity for care and rest, and supposed he had given the seed ample time to become encysted, which however was not the case.

There are a number of cases on record where small articles of various sorts have been drawn into the lungs with the breath. In several instances irritation had begun that ended in death. Sometimes, though, the article becomes coated with exudations from the surrounding surface and is gradually covered up, forming a lump that one may carry through the remainder of life without serious injury. Postmortem examinations have disclosed several of these cysts which had nothing to do with the death of the subject. — New York Ledger.

Life-Destroying and Life-Saving

1900

An eminent physician lately called attention to the important part wars have taken in hospital development. He declared that the Crimean War developed the trained nurse and the training-school. In the American Civil War, medical men learned that small hospitals, and even hospital tents, are better than large enclosed structures for the sick and wounded. To the knowledge thus gained is due the pavilion tent.

It was war, also, it is asserted, that led, not to the discovery, but to the introduction, of antiseptic surgery. Medical science will profit by the conflict now in progress in South Africa. Through disease and wounds there treated, benefit will come to the civilized world.

Thus out of a great evil may come a great good; for war compels resort to every expedient to save the lives of one's own soldiers, no less than to destroy the lives of those in the hostile army.

Moreover, the experience gained in the effort to save life is at the service of the world. There is nothing provincial or selfish in genuine surgical or medical skill. Its work and triumphs are for all men. Quackery conceals information which may help the race, except as it disposes of the knowledge for cash; but the surgeons and the physicians of approved attainment and experience feel that their mission is limited only by the bounds of possible service to their kind. In war, in peace, under favorable or perilous conditions, appreciated or criticised, the good physician, the conscientious operator, does his duty, and is discontented only when his service is less complete than his professional ideal. — Youth's Companion.

Kleptomania

1878

Kleptomania, which has long been recognised by the medical, is not recognised by the legal profession.

We boast of our advancement in physiology, psychology, and humanitarianism; yet when a lady of otherwise blameless life suddenly taken to pilfering mutton chops, children's boots, jewellery, or anything else upon which she can lay hands, we throw our philosophy and our humanity to the winds, we brand her as a thief, and, regardless of the fearful consequences to herself, her husband, and her children, we throw her into gaol, and utterly ruin the happiness of her and hers for life.

The doctors may be called to prove that she is nervous or excitable, that she has been very ill in time past, and has been obliged to take remedies which have more or less affected her power of control: but all is useless. The evidence is clear, she took the goods, she even secreted them. Her actions have all the appearance of deliberate fraud, and yet her whole conduct from first to last may have been due to physical disorganisation by which her power of self-control has become impaired, leaving her at the mercy of her morbid impulses.

But how can she be acquitted, while poorer women, no more or less guilty, are sent to gaol by the score: so to gaol she goes, although the more thoughtful among judges, magistrates, doctors, and jury feel the hideous cruelty of the proceeding; feel that she should be treated as a patient, and not as a criminal; and that there should be, both for her and her poorer sisters in like circumstances, a loophole of escape which does not, but which might exist, and that the infliction of a fine, or of an order of restitution, or discharge upon recognisances to come up for judgment if called upon, would be a more fitting punishment than the cruel one of imprisonment.

Such imprisonments are the more to be reprehended as they are utterly useless. The imprisonment of one kleptomanic will not deter another from pilfering, for the simple reason that in such cases the power of self-control is more or less absent. A conclusive proof of this exists in the fact that in many each cases on record, the moment the prisoner is released, keenly as she has felt her disgrace and degradation, she commences to pilfer again.

—Journal of Psychological Medicine and Medical Pathology, Winslow, Lyttleton Forbes, 1878, p. 172.

Carbuncles

1899

In a previous article it was stated that pimples, boils and carbuncles are essentially the same thing — an inflammation of the skin and of the tissues immediately beneath it — and differ only in size. But while this is true, the difference in size is fraught with consequences so serious as to constitute practically a point of distinction between two separate diseases. In a carbuncle the inflammation is usually more deeply seated than in a boil, and is spread over a much greater surface. It is also accompanied by signs of a general disturbance of the system, signs which are usually absent in the case of an ordinary boil.

The appearance of a carbuncle is generally preceded by a little feverishness, headache and a general ill-feeling, and sometimes by one or more slight chills or a chilly sensation. The first sign of the local inflammation is a swelling in the part affected. This may be nodular, as if several boils were beginning together, or even and rounded, like a pad of cloth or tightly pressed cotton.

After growing somewhat in circumference, the carbuncle begins to swell, pushing up the skin, which is of a purplish-red color and hot to the touch. Small blisters may form over it, break, and exude a clear, sticky fluid, which dries and forms scabs.

In time a number of small openings appear and discharge pus. All the tissue involved in the carbuncle dies and is thrown off. Whitish or blackish shreds are discharged through the openings already formed, and later the entire remaining mass becomes gangrenous and melts away, leaving a wide, deep hole, which may take weeks or months to heal.

The neck is the most frequent seat of carbuncles; then come the back, the scalp and the face; the trunk and limbs are seldom invaded.

The pain is at first comparatively slight, but soon grows excessive, with violent throbbing and burning sensations, as if a live coal were buried in the flesh. A person with a boil can usually attend to his regular duties, but one with a carbuncle is gravely ill.

Sufferers from carbuncles are almost never vigorous; the aged are much exposed to them, and they frequently attack sufferers from Bright's disease or diabetes.

The treatment of carbuncles coincides in part, with that of boils, but the patient is usually so ill that there should be no temporizing with simple remedies. The physician's aid should be invoked at once.

Catching Cold, Cough, Consumption

1874

Antique Medical Advice That Might Still Be Good — Who Knows?

A large number of fatal diseases result from taking cold, and often from such slight causes, apparently, as to appear incredible. But, although the causes are various, the result is the same, and arises from the violation of a single principle, to wit, cooling off too soon after exercise. Perhaps this may be more practically instructive if individual instances are named, which, in the opinion of those subsequently seeking advice in the various stages of consumption, were the causes of the great misfortune, premising that when the cold is once taken, marvelously slight causes serve to increase it for the first few days — causes which under ordinary circumstances, even a moderately healthful system would have warded off.

Rachel the tragedienne, increased the cold which ended her life by insufficient clothing in the cars, traveling from New York to Boston; this was her own statement.

The immediate cause of the last illness of Abbott Lawrence, the financier and the philanthropist, was an injudicious change of clothing.

An eminent clergyman got into a cold bed in mid-winter, fifteen minutes after preaching an earnest discourse; he was instantly chilled and died within forty-eight hours.

A promising young teacher walked two miles for exercise, and on returning to his room, it being considered too late to light a fire, sat for half an hour reading a book, and before he knew it a chill passed over him. The next day he had spitting of blood, which was the beginning of the end.

A mother sat sewing for her children to a late hour in the night, and noticing that the fire had gone out, she concluded to retire at once; but thinking she could "finish" in a few minutes, she forgot the passing time, until an hour or more had passed, and she found herself "thoroughly chilled" and a month's illness followed to pay for that one hour.

A little cold taken after a public speech in Chicago, so "little" that no attention was paid to it for several days, culminating in the fatal illness of Stephen A. Douglas. It was a slight cold taken in mid-summer, resulting in congestion of the lungs, that hurried Elizabeth Barrett Browning to the grave within a week. A vigorous young man laid down on an ice chest on a warm summer's day, fell asleep, waked up in a chill which ended in confirmed consumption, of which he died three years later. A man in robust health and in the prime of life began the practise of a cold bath every morning on getting out of bed and standing with his bare feet on a zinc floor during the whole operation; his health soon declined, and ultimately his constitution was entirely undermined.

Many a cold, cough, and consumption are incited into action by pulling off the hat or overcoat as do men, and the bonnet and shawl as do women, immediately on entering the house in winter after a walk. An interval of at least five or ten minutes should be allowed, for however warm or "close" the apartment may appear on first entering, it will seem much less so at the end of five minutes, if the outer garments remain as they were before entering. Any one who judiciously uses this observation, will find a multifold reward in the course of a lifetime.

The Quack — Fake Healthcare for Gullible Public

1915

"Every age has its quacks, its fakers, its fortune-tellers with their countless vicitms," says Leslie's Weekly.

"Newspapers expose the quacks, the postoffice department denounces the fakers and get-rich-quick schemers but the newspapers are filled with the advertisements of quack medicines and the postoffices with the prospectuses of the get-rich-quick schemers.

"The campaign of education goes on, however. The public is learning. Analyses of quack medicines show them, in many instances, to be made up of water, salt and other cheap ingredients. A bottle that costs a few cents sells for a dollar.

"The gullible public swallows the quack medicines and the manufacturers of the so-called 'remedies' revel in millions.

"The sick always want to get well. Anything that deadens pain, even for a moment, is promptly accepted as a remedy, though, in the end suffering is intensified and sickness prolonged.

"The last resort is the doctor, the practiced, experienced physician — the one who should have been consulted first. Often he comes too late. The quack medicine may have done its work, but the doctor must take the blame.

"It is not strange that the sick get impatient to recover their health, nor that they can be so easily imposed upon, but experience should teach its valuable lesson. Yet it doesn't, for if it did quacks would disappear, the fakers would fade away and the get-rich-quick schemers be heard of no more.

"But for the credulity of mankind — a credulity often based upon ignorance — we should have a healthier, wealthier and a happier people.

"As we have quack remedies for human ills, so we have quacks prescribing for all the ills of society and taking the places of elder statesmen who ought to be first.

"So the loud-mouthed demagogue, the persuasive pleader for the rights of 'the common people', the fakers of politics, the 'sockless Simpsons' and the 'Mother Joneses,' are knocking at the door of the White House, intruding upon the makers of party platforms and publishing their preposterous vaporings in the columns of a sensational press.

"The statesmen must take a back seat until the people have tried the quack remedies and witnessed the results. We are witnessing some of the natural results in the revival of the soup houses, the crowding of municipal lodging places and all the employment agencies, while engines are still and factories cutting down their payrolls.

"In our legislative halls the quacks and the fakers are pressing new and still newer remedies upon legislators. As a result we are having experimental legislation at the expense of the taxpayer. If one experiment fails, try another, just as one quack remedy is replaced by a worse one. The taxpayer foots the bills, until patience ceases to be a virtue and then, in their wrath, they will rise, cast out the quacks and beseech the elder statesmen to resume the reins of government.

"Experience still continues to the best schoolmaster."

Young Child Gets Pig Eye, Corneal Transplant

1914

Operation in Baltimore Hospital the First of Its Kind in United f States.

Baltimore, Md. — What is believed to be the first operation of its kind in this country was performed at a local hospital when the cornea of a pig's eye was grafted on the sightless eye of a three-months-old boy.

It was said that previous operations, in which rabbits' eyes had been used, were unsuccessful, but that experiments with pigs' eyes had led scientists to believe that they were more adaptable. Two cases are said to be on record where the grafting of human cornea gave sight to totally blind eyes.

In the operation the pig was chloroformed, the eyeball taken out and the cornea cut from it. An extraordinarily fine needle and fine silk were used in sewing the cornea in place. The eye will remain bandaged for about a week.


How to Wed Happily

1914

Princeton, New Jersey — "To assure happy marriages all applicants for marriage licenses should file declarations of intentions a month before the license is granted," said Prof. R. M. Ross, in a lecture on social economics.

Florence Nightingale Dies — "Angel of the Battlefield"

1910

Heroine of Crimea

"Angel of the Battlefield" Revered by All Soldiers

Florence Nightingale's Life Was One Long Sacrifice for the Cause of Suffering Humanity — The First Army Nurse

London. — A woman whose name for over half a century has been a household word throughout the civilized world and who was universally loved and revered as few women have been, was claimed by death when Florence Nightingale passed away in her London home. She had been an invalid for a number of years. During recent years, owing to her feebleness and advanced age, Miss Nightingale had received but few visitors. On May 13 last she celebrated her ninetieth birthday and was the recipient of a congratulatory message from King George.

"The Angel of the Crimea," "The Soldiers' Friend," are titles which were conferred upon Florence Nightingale for her memorable service in behalf of the wounded and dying in the Crimean war. The last honor to be conferred upon her by a grateful country was in 1908, when the freedom of the city of London was bestowed upon her. Before that, in 1907, she received from King Edward the English Order of Merit, the most exclusive distinction within the gift of the British sovereign. She was the only woman who has ever received that honor.

Miss Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy, May 12, 1820, and it was in honor of the "city of flowers" that she was named. She was the daughter of a wealthy English landowner and returned with her parents to England when a child. She early displayed an inclination toward philanthropy, and was the first woman to follow a modern army into battle as a nurse. Although her father was a very wealthy man, she insisted on learning all that there was to be learned about the profession of nursing and became famous as a "probationer" in London hospitals. Later on she went to France and subsequently to Germany. A few years later she was in Africa nursing Arabs with such effect, says one of her biographers, "that the Moslems were almost convinced that the woman had a soul."

When the war of the Crimea broke out the British army sent to the front to help the French in the struggle with the Russians was not accompanied by the usual corps of women nurses. The struggle had been going on only a few months, however, when "Bull Run" Russell began sending to his English newspaper heartrending accounts of the frightful conditions that prevailed in the British hospitals and the horrible state of the wounded men. Instantly all England was in an uproar, and for a time the British ministry seemed tottering. Then, almost at the same moment, for their letters crossed each other, Florence Nightingale volunteered to take a corps of nurses to the front and Herbert Sydney, the secretary of war, suggested to her such a commission.

October 15, 1854, Miss Nightingale set forth on her errand of mercy at the head of a corps of 34 women nurses and equipped with most of the material for setting up a first-class field hospital.

Establishing herself on the heights of Scutari, near Constantinople, Miss Nightingale and her aids began the organization of a field hospital. At one time she had four miles of wounded — four miles of cots, side by side — with only 34 women to nurse her patients. Soon after this letters began coming in hundreds into the homes of England Which established permanently in the hearts of the people the supremacy of Florence Nightingale among all English women. She was the "angel of the battlefield," "the angel of the Crimea."

In August, 1856, Miss Nightingale returned to England. A grateful country would have welcomed her royally, but she had no desire for public praise. She arrived in England when least expected and went to her home. The queen, however, was not to be denied. She sent for Miss Nightingale to visit her at Balmoral and decorated her with her own hand. The sultan of Turkey made her a valuable present. The English government, on behalf of the people, was very practical in its expression of appreciation and presented her with $250,000.

Perhaps the greatest good that has resulted from her noble life has been the setting in motion of a force which has led thousands of women to devote themselves to the systematic care of the sick and wounded.

Florence Nightingale — Born May 12, 1820, Died Aug. 13, 1910.

Embalmer's Knife Flashing, Mom Insists Son "Alive"; He is!

Rhode Island, 1888

COFFINED, BUT ALIVE

Story of a Man Who had a Narrow Escape from Premature Burial

Mauly Z. Corwin, of Providence, R. I., has enjoyed the sensation of being coffined and prepared for burial, says the Boston Globe. But for an accident he would have been embalmed. He lives on Smith's hill, and is a carpenter by trade. Some years ago he was at work on the roof of a three-story house, and had a sun-stroke. Falling at his work, he rolled down the sloping roof and fell, an inert mass, to the street below. He was picked up and conveyed to the office of the nearest medical man, who pronounced him dead. An undertaker was sent for, and soon his assistants were measuring the corpse and making preparations for the embalming process, which was considered necessary for preserving the body for the funeral.

That evening a casket arrived with the name of the deceased, age and manner of death engraved on a silver plate.

After the body had been coffined and the room cleared, Mrs. Corwin, the mother, arrived, and, while laying her head upon his breast, she fancied she detected a motion of the heart. Another doctor was sent for, who, after making a stethoscopic examination, confirmed the opinion of the other physician, and declared life to be extinct.

The weeping mother was led from the apartment, and the watchers awaited the coming of the embalmer. The man was delayed so long that when he arrived the family requested him to postpone making the incision until the following morning.

The morning found the loving and disconsolate mother at her son's bier again, and again did the maternal instinct within her tell her that her boy was not dead, but sleeping. The embalmer came and displayed his instruments for opening the veins and for eviscerating the deceased. Then the mother refused to allow the operation. In vain they urged her to accept the verdict of medical science, but she refused to budge, and, throwing her body across that of her son, she declared she would not leave his presence until all doubt was ended. The weather was fearfully hot, and it was expected that the condition of the corpse would be unendurable by the next night, but it was not, nor the next night, and then some weight was attached to the old lady's belief. More doctors came, other examinations were made, and at the end of the sixth day a slight pulsation was felt.

The man was alive beyond all doubt.

The house swarmed with physicians after that. They came from New York, from Boston and from Philadelphia, and all agreed that the vital spark had not left the body, although how to fan it into a life-sustaining flame was a question not so easily settled. Various expedients were resorted to, and on the fifteenth day the "corpse" opened an eye. After that the man's recovery was but a question of time. To-day he is at work, a better and stronger man than he ever was, and the silver plate on his coffin, framed in crimson plush, adorns his parlor.

—St. Joseph Herald, Saint Joseph, Michigan, April 28, 1888, p. 5.

Sleeping With Your Feet Toward the Equator

1884

Dr. J. S. Wright, professor of operative and clinical surgery in the Long Island college hospital, does not think that health is promoted by sleeping with the feet to the equator. He says the subject has never been treated in medical lectures, and he never heard it discussed in any scientific body. He never knew of any hospital where attention was paid to the theory in the arrangement of the beds.

Dr. McCorkle, professor of matoria medica and therapeutics, also of the Long Island college hospital, says he believes the theory of placing the bed north and south is more believed in by the laity than by the medical profession; that he has never tried it himself nor seen it tried by anybody.

Dr. Merzbach, of the same hospital, does not believe in the theory. A venerable physician of New York says: "My opinion is that it is a piece of nonsense worthy of some superstitious old lady. I would rank it with fortune-telling and table-tipping. Some people believe in them. Some people derive benefit from having charms about their persons, and there is no particular harm in their wearing charms if they see fit. I have heard of a man who carried a horse chestnut in his pocket as a preventive of hemorrhoids. He declared that whenever he lost his horse chestnut the disease returned. Yet I never heard of any physician prescribing that mode of cure for hemorrhoids.

"There is no end to the cures that may be worked by imagination. Bulwer hits off this thought capitally when he makes Pisistratus Caxton say: 'A saffron bag worn at the pit of the stomach is a great cure. Oh, foolish boy, it is not the saffron bag, but the belief in the saffron bag. Apply belief to the center of the nerves and all will be well.' So I say that this bed theory is a sort of saffron bag. While I am of the opinion that it is nonsense, and old women's cackle and empiric drivel, I have no doubt people may honestly believe in it and bear testimony to its worth. It is easily tried; it does not cost any money. It will do about as much good as a dose of sweetened water, such as a doctor often gives to people who think they must have something when they don't need anything."

The above opinions will no doubt prove of interest to those people whose rooms are so arranged that they cannot sleep with their heads to the north.

—The Atchison Globe, Atchison, Kansas, Aug. 3, 1884.