The Autobiography of a Quack, and The Case of George DedlowMitchell, S. Weir (Silas Weir)
General
The Autobiography of a Quack, and The Case of George Dedlow
Mitchell, S. Weir (Silas Weir)
Didactic fiction; Political fiction; Social problems -- Fiction
A month later, to the amazement of every one, I was so well as to be
moved from the crowded hospital at Chattanooga to Nashville, where
I filled one of the ten thousand beds of that vast metropolis of
hospitals. Of the sufferings which then began I shall presently speak.
It will be best just now to detail the final misfortune which here fell
upon me. Hospital No. 2, in which I lay, was inconveniently crowded with
severely wounded officers. After my third week an epidemic of hospital
gangrene broke out in my ward. In three days it attacked twenty persons.
Then an inspector came, and we were transferred at once to the open air,
and placed in tents. Strangely enough, the wound in my remaining arm,
which still suppurated, was seized with gangrene. The usual remedy,
bromine, was used locally, but the main artery opened, was tied, bled
again and again, and at last, as a final resort, the remaining arm was
amputated at the shoulder-joint. Against all chances I recovered, to
find myself a useless torso, more like some strange larval creature than
anything of human shape. Of my anguish and horror of myself I dare not
speak. I have dictated these pages, not to shock my readers, but to
possess them with facts in regard to the relation of the mind to the
body; and I hasten, therefore, to such portions of my case as best
illustrate these views.
In January, 1864, I was forwarded to Philadelphia, in order to enter
what was known as the Stump Hospital, South street, then in charge
of Dr. Hopkinson. This favor was obtained through the influence of my
father’s friend, the late Governor Anderson, who has always manifested
an interest in my case, for which I am deeply grateful. It was thought,
at the time, that Mr. Palmer, the leg-maker, might be able to adapt some
form of arm to my left shoulder, as on that side there remained five
inches of the arm-bone, which I could move to a moderate extent. The
hope proved illusory, as the stump was always too tender to bear any
pressure. The hospital referred to was in charge of several surgeons
while I was an inmate, and was at all times a clean and pleasant home.
It was filled with men who had lost one arm or leg, or one of each, as
happened now and then. I saw one man who had lost both legs, and one
who had parted with both arms; but none, like myself, stripped of every
limb. There were collected in this place hundreds of these cases, which
gave to it, with reason enough, the not very pleasing title of Stump
Hospital.
I spent here three and a half months, before my transfer to the United
States Army Hospital for Injuries and Diseases of the Nervous System.
Every morning I was carried out in an arm-chair and placed in the
library, where some one was always ready to write or read for me, or to
fill my pipe. The doctors lent me medical books; the ladies brought me
luxuries and fed me; and, save that I was helpless to a degree which was
humiliating, I was as comfortable as kindness could make me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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