SWELLED LIMBS.
Not far from this period I was called to visit Mr. O. B., sixty-one
years of age, a farmer by occupation. He had been for twenty or thirty
years addicted to cider drinking very freely, according to the custom of
the country; which habit, conjoined with full feeding, a diminished
amount of exercise, and a lymphatic tendency by inheritance, had
rendered him exceedingly corpulent. His legs had even fallen into a
habit of swelling, especially at night, sometimes to a very alarming
extent.
His story concerning himself was essentially as follows: In getting into
a wagon, some time before, he had detached a small portion of skin from
one of his legs. Although the wound was slight, and was duly attended
to, according to the usual method of the family, with cabbage leaves,
and with considerable care and neatness, yet, instead of healing kindly,
it had put on a very unhealthy appearance, and had, at length, even
become extensively ulcerated. He was also habitually a sufferer from
chronic rheumatism in his back and hips, partly constitutional and
partly as the result of overstraining the parts, especially in
wrestling.
When I was called in to see him, it was about the last of June. His
wounded leg was now evidently growing worse; and as the heat of the
weather was increasing, and was for some time to come likely to
increase, I could hardly help apprehending the most serious
consequences. He had been in the habit of making greasy applications to
it for a short time, but these at my special request were set aside
immediately.
He was also encouraged to keep his leg cool; to exercise his whole
system moderately; to avoid exciting, above all, stimulating, food and
drink; and to keep his mind quiet. In regard to drinks, particularly, he
was directed to use none but water. He was also required to abstain
wholly from pork, and all long-salted meats. He had also been, for
almost half a century, a chewer of tobacco--a circumstance rather
unfavorable to a rapid return of healthy action; but I did not think it
expedient to interdict its use entirely at the very first; for I feared
the change, at his advanced age, would be more than his system could
well endure.
In fact, I found it extremely difficult to persuade him to pursue the
straight and narrow path which, letting alone his tobacco, I had deemed
indispensably necessary. To encourage him to do so, I availed myself of
a circumstance which, though in itself trifling, was nevertheless likely
to have its influence. The thirteenth day of July was at hand, and would
be the fortieth anniversary of his marriage. My proposal was that he
should commence the change of habits that very day, and continue it
precisely eighteen months.
Although the danger to which he would be exposed by neglecting my
prescription was neither immediate nor imminent; yet it was so
considerable in prospect that I pressed him very hard to comply with my
requirements, notwithstanding their seeming rigidity. And as a further
inducement,--for he was not above the influence of pecuniary
considerations,--I offered him a certain sum of money.
I left him without much hope, after all, that he would follow out my
suggestions and advice, so difficult is it, at the age of sixty, to make
substantial and radical changes. But I was most happily disappointed. He
began the work of reform on the very day appointed, and began it well;
and though he did not adhere to the letter of my prescription entirely,
he did quite as much as I had dared, even in my most sanguine moments,
to expect. And though his leg did not at first improve much, it was
something to find that during the very hottest weather of the season it
did not grow worse.
For three months he did not use, as he said, so much as fifty cents
worth of pork, nor much salted food of any kind. He abandoned entirely
all drinks but water, and all condiments with his food except a little
salt. He subsisted almost wholly on bread, fruits, and vegetables, with
a very little flesh or fish.
At the end of three months he ventured abroad more than before; and as
it was now near the middle of October, he consented to put on woollen
stockings. But he made one change at this time which I had not intended.
He returned to the use of one of his former greasy and worse than
useless ointments. In the course of the month, however, in spite of the
foul external application, his leg was entirely healed; and the swelling
considerably abated. In short, at the close of the year he had entirely
recovered.
The friends and neighbors attributed the cure to the ointment. How very
unreasonable! The ointment had been used during the spring, up to the
time when he came under my direction, without any apparent benefit. What
evidence then was there that it had been useful now? Why should not the
change for the better be attributed to his increased exercise, the
change of air and food, and the stimulus and warmth of woollen
stockings? Had water, moreover, as his only drink, nothing to do with
the cure?
But while standing in the position I did, it was useless to decry the
ointment or exalt my own treatment, since it would have been regarded as
merely special pleading. Still, I did not shrink wholly from the
statement of my honest convictions, whenever I was inquired of, even
though I did not manifest a disposition to carry the war into Africa.