The Prairie Farmer, Vol. 56, No. 2, January 12, 1884: A Weekly Journal for the Farm, Orchard and FiresideVarious
Science
The Prairie Farmer, Vol. 56, No. 2, January 12, 1884: A Weekly Journal for the Farm, Orchard and Fireside
Various
Agriculture -- United States -- Periodicals; Farm life -- Periodicals; United States -- Rural conditions -- Periodicals
After awhile the stimulants commenced to disagree with my
stomach, my weariness increased, and I was compelled to
resort to other means to find relief. If a physician is
suffering he invariably calls another physician to prescribe
for him, as he cannot see himself as he sees others; so I
called a physician, and he advised me to try a little
chemical food, or a bottle of hypophosphates. I took two or
three bottles of the chemical food with no apparent benefit.
My lassitude and indisposition seemed to increase, my food
distressed me. I suffered from neuralgic pains in different
parts of my body, my muscles became sore, my bowels were
constipated, and my prospects for recovery were not very
flattering. I stated my case to another physician, and he
advised me to take five to ten drops of Magende's solution of
morphine, two or three times a day, for the weakness and
distress in my stomach, and a blue pill every other night to
relieve the constipation. The morphine produced such a
deathly nausea that I could not take it, and the blue pill
failed to relieve my constipation.
In this condition I passed nearly a year, wholly unfit for
business, while the effort to think was irksome and painful.
My blood became impoverished, and I suffered from incapacity
with an appalling sense of misery and general apprehension of
coming evil. I passed sleepless nights and was troubled with
irregular action of the heart, a constantly feverish
condition, and the most excruciating tortures in my stomach,
living for days on rice water and gruel, and, indeed, the
digestive functions seemed to be entirely destroyed.
It was natural that while in this condition I should become
hypochondrical, and fearful suggestions of self-destruction
occasionally presented themselves. I experienced an
insatiable desire for sleep, but on retiring would lie awake
for a long time, tormented with troubled reflections, and
when at last I did fall into an uneasy slumber of short
duration, it was disturbed by horrid dreams. In this
condition I determined to take a trip to Europe, but in spite
of all the attentions of physicians and change of scene and
climate, I did not improve, and so returned home with no
earthly hope of ever again being able to leave the house.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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