THE MEASLES AND POURING DOWN RUM.
When I was about fourteen years of age, an event occurred which left a
stronger impression on my mind than any of the foregoing; and hence in
all probability did more to give my mind a medical bias and tendency.
It was in the month of August. My father, assisted by two or three of
his neighbors, was mowing a swamp meadow. It was an unusually wet
season, and the water in many places was several inches deep,--in some
few instances so deep that we were obliged to go continually with wet
feet. To meet, and as it was by most people supposed to remove the
danger of contracting disease, a bottle of rum was occasionally resorted
to by the mowers, and offered to me; but at first I steadfastly refused
it.
At length, however, I began to droop. A feverish feeling and great
languor came over me, and I was hardly able to walk. I was not then
aware, nor were my friends, that I had been exposed to the contagion of
measles, and therefore was not expecting it. I spoke of my ill health,
but was consoled with the answer that I should soon get over it. But no;
I grew worse, very fast. "Turn down the rum," said one of the mowers,
"if you mean to work." But I hesitated. I was not fond of rum at any
time, and just now I felt a stronger disinclination to it than ever
before. "Turn down the rum," was repeated by the mowers, from time to
time, with increased emphasis.
At length wearied with their importunity; and, not over-willing to be
the butt of their mirth and ridicule, I went to the spring, where the
bottle of rum was kept, and, unperceived by any one, emptied a large
portion of its contents on the ground. The mental agitation of
temporary excitement dispelled in part my sufferings, and I proceeded
once more to my work.
In a very short time my noisy alcoholic prescribers went to the spring
to pour rum down their _own_ throats. "What," said they, with much
surprise, "has become of the rum?" "Have you drank it?" said they,
turning to me. "Not a drop of it," I said. "But it is almost all gone,"
they said; "and it is a great mystery what has become of it." "The
mystery is easily cleared up," I said; "you told me to turn it down, and
I have done so."--"Told you to turn it down!" said one of them, the most
noisy one; "I told you to drink it."--"No," said I, "you told me to turn
it down; and I have poured it down--my part of it--at the foot of the
stump. If you have forgotten your direction to turn it down, I appeal to
two competent witnesses."
The joke passed off much better than I expected. For myself, however, I
grew worse rapidly, and was soon sent home. My mother put me into bed,
applied a bottle of hot water to my feet, and gave me hot drinks most
liberally, and among the rest some "hot toddy." Her object was to sweat
away a supposed attack of fever. Had she known it was measles that
assailed me, or had she even suspected it, she would almost as soon have
cut off her right hand as apply the sweating process. She would, on the
contrary, have given me cooling drinks and pure air. She was not wholly
divested of good sense on this point, neither was the prevailing public
opinion.
I suffered much, very much, and was for a part of the time delirious. At
length an eruption began to be visible, and to assume the appearance
which is usual in measles, both to my own relief and that of my parents
and other friends. But the mistaken treatment, or the disease, or both,
gave a shock to my already somewhat delicate constitution, from which I
doubt whether I ever fully recovered. The sequel, however, will appear
more fully in the next chapter.