Forty Years in the Wilderness of Pills and Powders: Cogitations and Confessions of an Aged PhysicianAlcott, William A. (William Andrus)
Science
Forty Years in the Wilderness of Pills and Powders: Cogitations and Confessions of an Aged Physician
Alcott, William A. (William Andrus)
Medicine -- Anecdotes
"We inquired if he would come again and see her: to which he replied in
the affirmative. She proceeded to take his medicine for one day, but it
quickly increased her diarrhoea. Instead of six movements a day, they
were increased to thirty-five. Under these circumstances, her weakness
increased so fast that she could help herself very little; and her feet,
hands, and limbs were very much bloated. As Dr. Q. did not come,
according to his agreement, we sent for her old physician. When he saw
her, he said it was a wonder she had lived so long after taking Dr. Q.'s
medicine."
We are not told, in the letter from which the above is extracted, why
her old physician, Dr. K., consented, in the first place, that she
should take the medicine, if he regarded it as so very bad for her. But,
then, he was a timid as well as a Janus-faced man, and probably said as
he did because he did not know what else to say. But I will go on with
the extracts, since they reveal another most astounding fact in regard
to medical dishonesty.
"He also (the family physician) told us that we must not expect Dr. Q.
any more, for he told him expressly that he should not come again, as he
could do nothing for her, and that if he had known how she was before he
came, he never would have come so far in a case so hopeless. And, true
to his engagement with Dr. K., but contrary to his promise, both to my
sister and my father, separately, he never came again.
"But the other doctor came again, and attended her as formerly. He gave
her a powder of morphine, and some gum myrrh, and a little anise, which
reduced the evacuations from thirty-three to three a day. But her
distress was still very great, and her feet soon began to turn purple,
and she began to bloat in her stomach and bowels. This continued till
she was as full as she could be; and you could have heard her scream and
groan as far as the road (a distance of three or four rods). The
physician then applied ether, to relieve her distress, and gave
twenty-five drops of laudanum, and a morphine powder, upon which her
distress left her for a very short time, but soon returned, not to leave
her again while she lived. Almost her last breath was a scream. She died
in just eight days after Dr. Q. came to see her.
"But I must close by saying that we think if our sister could have been
a patient of yours, she would have been restored to health. But it is
past, and we cannot recall it; and all I can now do, is to tender our
thanks to you for your kindness and attention during our sister's
sickness. I trust you will have life and health, long to pursue your
noble vocation."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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