I WAS once sent for, in great haste, to attend a gentleman of
respectability, whose wife, a lady of intelligence and refinement,
had discovered him in his room lying senseless upon the floor. On
arriving at the house, I found Mrs. H-- in great distress of mind.
"What is the matter with Mr. H--?" I asked, on meeting his lady,
who was in tears and looking the picture of distress.
"I'm afraid it is apoplexy," she replied. "I found him lying upon
the floor, where he had, to all appearance, fallen suddenly from his
chair. His face is purple, and though he breathes, it is with great
difficulty."
I went up to see my patient. He had been lifted from the floor, and
was now lying upon the bed. Sure enough, his face was purple and his
breathing laboured, but somehow the symptoms did not indicate
apoplexy. Every vein in his head and face was turgid, and he lay
perfectly stupid, but still I saw no clear indications of an actual
or approaching congestion of the brain.
"Hadn't he better be bled, doctor?" asked the anxious wife.
"I don't know that it is necessary," I replied. "I think, if we let
him alone, it will pass off in the course of a few hours."
"A few hours! He may die in half an hour."
"I don't think the case is so dangerous, madam."
"Apoplexy not dangerous?"
"I hardly think it apoplexy," I replied.
"Pray, what do you think it is, doctor?"
Mrs. H-- looked anxiously into my face.
I delicately hinted that he might, possibly, have been drinking too
much brandy; but to this she positively and almost indignantly
objected.
"No, doctor; _I_ ought to know about that," she said. "Depend upon
it, the disease is more deeply seated. I am sure he had better be
bled. Won't you bleed him, doctor? A few ounces of blood taken from
his arm may give life to the now stagnant circulation of the blood
in his veins."
Thus urged, I, after some reflection, ordered a bowl and bandage,
and opening a vein, from which the blood flowed freely, relieved him
of about eight ounces of his circulating medium. But he still lay as
insensible as before, much to the distress of his poor wife.
"Something else must be done, doctor," she urged, seeing that
bleeding had accomplished nothing. "If my husband is not quickly
relieved, he must die."
By this time, several friends and relatives, who had been sent for,
arrived, and urged upon me the adoption of some more active means
for restoring the sick man to consciousness. One proposed mustard
plasters all over his body; another a blister on the head; another
his immersion in hot water. I suggested that it might be well to use
a stomach-pump.
"Why, doctor?" asked one of the friends.
"Perhaps he has taken some drug," I replied.
"Impossible, doctor," said the wife. "He has not been from home
to-day, and there is no drug of any kind in the house."
"No brandy?" I ventured this suggestion again.
"No, doctor, no spirits of any kind, nor even wine, in the house,"
returned Mrs. H--, in an offended tone.
I was not the regular family physician, and had been called in to
meet the alarming emergency, because my office happened to be
nearest to the dwelling of Mr. H--. Feeling my position to be a
difficult one, I suggested that the family physician had better be
called.
"But the delay, doctor," urged the friends. "No harm will result
from it, be assured," I replied.
But my words did not assure them. However, as I was firm in my
resolution not to do any thing more for the patient until Dr.
S-- came, they had to submit. I wished to make a call of importance
in the neighbourhood, and proposed going, to be back by the time Dr.
S-- arrived; but the friends of the sick man would not suffer me to
leave the room.
When Dr. S-- came, we conversed aside for a few minutes, and I gave
him my views of the case, and stated what I had done and why I had
done it. We then proceeded to the bedside of our patient; there were
still no signs of approaching consciousness.
"Don't you think his head ought to be shaved and blistered?" asked
the wife, anxiously. Dr. S-- thought a moment, and then said--"Yes,
by all means. Send for a barber; and also for a fresh fly-blister,
four inches by nine."
I looked into the face of Dr. S-- with surprise; it was perfectly
grave and earnest. I hinted to him my doubt of the good that mode of
treatment would do; but he spoke confidently of the result, and said
that it would not only cure the disease, but, he believed, take away
the predisposition thereto, with which Mr. H-- was affected in a
high degree.
The barber came. The head of H-- was shaved, and Dr. S-- applied
the blister with his own hands, which completely covered the scalp
from forehead to occiput.
"Let it remain on for two hours, and then make use of the ordinary
dressing," said Dr. S--. "If he should not recover during the
action of the blister, don't feel uneasy; sensibility will be
restored soon after."