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
If you desire to know, in few words, what he _did_ do, I will tell you.
First, he took a long walk, regularly,--sufficiently long to induce a
good deal of muscular fatigue,--as the last thing before he went to bed
which was at an early hour. Secondly, he used a cold hand-bath, followed
by much friction, daily. Thirdly, he abandoned tea and coffee (tobacco
and rum he had never used), and drank only water. Fourthly, he abandoned
all animal food and all concentrated substances and condiments, and
lived simply on bread (unfermented), fruits, and a few choice
vegetables.
It was faith that served this young man,--not faith without works, but
faith which is manifested by works. "According to your faith be it unto
you," might be enjoined on every patient, under all circumstances. But
the most remarkable thing connected with this case, is the fact that
this young man had been brought up _in the lap of ease and
indulgence_--an education which is as unfavorable to faith as it is to
works.
CHAPTER XCVI.
WORKS WITHOUT FAITH.
A female, in Worcester County, Massachusetts, nearly sixty years of age,
having for many years been a sufferer from domestic afflictions, till,
along with certain abuses of the digestive function, it had brought upon
her a full load of dyspepsia, was at length subjected to a trio of
evils, which capped the climax of her sufferings, reduced her to a very
low condition, and laid her on her bed.
While lying in this condition, a young woman who was her constant
attendant, and who was acquainted with my no-medicine practice,
recommended to her to send for me. She hesitated, for a time, on account
of the expense; for, though by no means poor, she felt all the pangs of
poverty in consequence of the hard and unworthy treatment of the
individual who was to have justly executed the last will and testament
of her husband.
But I was at length sent for. I found her under the general care and
oversight of a homoeopathic physician; but as he was ten or twelve miles
distant and had not been informed of my visit, I did not see him. His
practice, however, in the case, was similar to what I had usually met
with in cases which had come under the care of physicians of the same
school, and was, at most, as it appeared to me, negative. She had indeed
been drugged by some one most fearfully, and her whole system was
suffering as the consequence; but it was a physician who had preceded
Dr. A., and who was of an entirely different school.
I found no great difficulty in persuading her to ask Dr. A., when he
should next call, to suspend his medicine a week or two; and, after
ordering a warm bath two or three times a week, and certain changes in
diet, with particular care about ventilation and temperature, left her,
to call again the next week.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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