SUDDEN CHANGES IN OLD AGE.
Mrs. N. was about seventy years of age. In her early years she had
possessed a sort of masculine constitution; and though embarrassed by
poverty, had reared a large family of children, who were all well
settled in the world. She resided with the youngest but one of them,
where she did just as she pleased. In short, she had a good home, and,
had she enjoyed health, might have been happy.
But a change had come over her in point of health, which it was not so
easy to account for at its outset as in its progress. For her first
derelictions, at least, I know of no cause. But she had, at length,
become reconciled to the use of tea, and as her spirits began to flag,
she added to it strong coffee. From these she proceeded to the pipe.
The more she increased her extra stimulants, the more she added to her
troubles, and the greater was her necessity for additional stimulus.
Laudanum was very soon on her list; at first, it is true, in very small
quantities. Yet, as she grew older, she found a necessity, as she verily
believed, for increasing the size of her dose from year to year, till,
at the age of seventy, I found her in the full and free use of tea,
coffee, tobacco, and laudanum,--the latter to the enormous extent of
half an ounce a day,--and yet her complaints were more numerous than
ever.
She was a reasonable woman, and therefore I attempted to set forth, in
their true colors, the realities of her condition. However, as I was not
acting as her physician, but only as a friend, I had little hope of
making any very permanent impressions. She knew the whole story as well
as I or any one else could know it. The great difficulty under which she
labored was a want of resolution to change her habits. Her irresolution
was sustained by the belief--a very general one--that old people cannot
make sudden changes in their physical habits with safety.[G] But she was
unhappy in the condition she then was. She had no peace with conscience,
nor, as I might almost venture to say,--for she was a religious woman by
profession,--with God.
I assured her that the real danger of sudden changes, at her age, had
been greatly overrated; though danger there certainly was, in greater or
less degree. But I pointed out to her the means of obviating what danger
there was, and urged her, as a Christian, to make up her mind to meet
it. Of course, I did not presume to urge her to cast every thing aside,
and return to Nature's path at once; but to drop first one thing and
then another. I counselled her to be thorough and determined, as far as
she went; and when she abandoned a thing to make no reserve, but to be
sure of not going too fast and too far at once.
When I left her one day, after a somewhat protracted conversation, it
was with many feelings of discouragement. I doubted very seriously
whether, on the whole, she would move at all. The power of half an ounce
of laudanum and a paper of tobacco daily, in paralyzing the human will,
is very great. But she was one of those persons who cannot, or think
they cannot, leave off a habit gradually, in the way I proposed. She
must "go the whole figure," as it is said vulgarly, or do nothing at
all.
Judge then, if you can, of my surprise, when about two months afterward
I learned, from a source which was perfectly reliable, that the very
next day after I saw her, she abandoned the whole herd of extra
stimulants, both solid and liquid, and betook herself to water. Nor had
it, so far as I could learn, at all injured her.
No sooner did I hear the news of her reformation, than I took my horse
and made her a visit. There she was, nearly as well as ever she had been
in her life, though perhaps a little paler and thinner. And oh, what
rejoicing she had in her freedom! It would have done you good to see
her. She had now no fears for the result. "True," she said, "I suffered
for a few days, but the agony was soon over."
One thing should be mentioned, since it doubtless added to the dangers,
real and imaginary, of her condition and trial. It took place during the
middle of a very cold winter--one of the coldest which we of the North
ever experienced; scarcely, if at all, behind those of 1855-6 and
1856-7.
But all persons have not Mrs. N.'s faith, nor her deep-abiding religious
principles. These, it is presumed, greatly aided her in the terrible
conflict. No one ought to attempt such changes, at least in life's
decline, unless most fully convinced of their importance and necessity.
Yet, _with_ this conviction, and strong faith in addition, all becomes
comparatively easy.
Mrs. N. died a few years after her reform; but she died a free woman,
and not a slave to her appetite. Some few there were of her acquaintance
who appeared to think that the sudden changes to which she had subjected
herself several years before, hastened her dissolution. But I do not
believe there was a particle of evidence to be found that such was the
fact. Reader, remember Mrs. N., and if you are in the road of error, and
not more than seventy years of age, go and do likewise. If you have not
_lived_ free, resolve at least to have the pleasure of dying so.
FOOTNOTES:
[G] This error has been met and refuted in the happiest manner, by the
late lamented Dr. John C. Warren, of Boston, in his little work,
entitled, "Hints for the Preservation of Health." Also, by Dr. Alcott's
new work, "The Laws of Health."