936 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15. 



there is less half-heartedness among the med- 

 ical fraternity. 



Some years ago my old friend. Rev. A. T. 

 Reed, thought I was getting a little too ex- 

 travagant on the lean-meat diet. He said 

 there were excellent physicians in most of the 

 great cities who did not indorse such treatment 

 at all ; and as my health was poor he urged 

 me to consult one of the leading physicians of 

 a near city, and promised to go along with me. 

 The great man sat at one side of the room 

 while I sat at the other. Bro. Reed asked him 

 if it was not necessary to look me over a little. 

 He said it was not. He could tell all he need- 

 ed to know about me by looking across the 

 room. Instead of the doctor asking the pa- 

 tient questions, the patient asked the doctor 

 questions, and the doctor responded mostly 

 by yes and no. When I asked him what the 

 fee was for a few minutes" conversation, he 

 opened his lips enough to say "Ten dollars," 

 and that was about all. He did not write any 

 prescription, did not give any medicine, nor 

 any thing at all except a few pills, which he 

 said might give temporary help. He said I 

 should get away from business, and go to 

 California. After I got to CaHfornia I found 

 there was just as much need there of avoiding 

 fruits and vegetables as there was at home. 

 In fact, I rather decided that I felt better out 

 in the frosty air of my native home than in a 

 country so mild that it never freezes. Now, I 

 am trying not to be too severe in this case. I 

 try to believe this physician was a good one, 

 and a great one in certain cases ; but I do 

 think, in view of the fact that he was going to 

 get ten dollars for his services, he should have 

 looked the patient over, asked him some ques- 

 tions of his own accord, and given him some 

 sort of advice that would make a sentence of 

 more than three or four words. My opinion 

 was, and is still, that he was not only a half- 

 hearted doctor, but that he was a //^riZ-hearled 

 doctor. They called him a " Christian physi- 

 cian;" but it is hard work for me to scrape up 

 faith for that kind of Christianity. I might 

 give you a dozen more illustrations, but I shall 

 use only one. 



Our eldest daughter had been for some years 

 in very poor health. A good many physicians 

 were consulted, with about the result I have 

 mentioned above — a good-sized fee coupled 

 with a good-sized indifference, so it seemed to 

 me, in regard to the life or death of the patient. 

 In this I refer to the big city doctors. Our 

 home physicians did what they could, but 

 confessed the case was a difficult one. We 

 finally went to a leading surgeon in Cleveland. 

 He said she would have to undergo an opera- 

 tion. It would take several weeks, however, 

 to get ready for the operation. Some appara- 

 tus was sent, for her to use meanwhile, but it 

 was not at all suitable. It was returned, with 

 full explanations. Some more was sent, but 

 that was not suitable. The third lot was 

 promptly returned because they were too in- 

 different in regard to the matter to give the 

 case ordinary attention. Then these great 

 surgeons tried to make us pay for stuff that 

 could not be used, and never was used, but 

 promptly returned. They did not get their 



pay, however, neither did they get a chance 

 to perform the surgical operation. 



By my advice our daughter then consulted 

 Dr. Lewis, the lean-meat man. He is not a 

 surgeon, you know. He made an examina- 

 tion, and thought she might, perhaps, be 

 obliged to have the operation performed, but 

 advised that she get well and strong first on 

 the lean-meat diet. She said she could not 

 bear beefsteak, and that it was not any use to 

 try to treat her that way. She said she would 

 die that much quicker, that was all, and per- 

 haps die of starvation if she was obliged to eat 

 meat. She did learn to eat meat, however, 

 and now prefers it to any thing else, even if 

 she could have her choice. But my story is 

 not done yet. I think the second time she 

 called on Dr. Lewis he noticed something pe- 

 culiar in the way she walked. He asked her 

 a great number of qiiestions, made a particu- 

 lar and very thorough examination of her 

 spine, and then declared abruptly that the 

 trouble was in her spine, and that the surgeons 

 were entirely off the track. They were going 

 to take away organs that were all right, or 

 perhaps suffering indirectly from the real 

 trouble — the spine. He said she would have 

 to go to bed and lie down, and not get up for 

 a month. Then he advised sending her to some 

 place where she would be treated particu- 

 larly for diseased spine. These people want- 

 ed an enormous price for taking her into their 

 institution. After she got there she did not 

 have the comforts of an ordinary home. Her 

 room was not sufficiently warmed ; her food 

 was not properly prepared, and, in short, they 

 had an enormous price for very meager atten- 

 tion, and we had to have some downright 

 quarrels, almost, over a sick woman's bed, 

 before we could get them to make the jacket 

 or " harness " needed to hold her weak spine 

 in place. They finally did make something 

 that answered temporarily; but to get a good 

 apparatus we had to send to New York city 

 and throw away the old one. Of course, the 

 readers of Gleanings will know that we 

 prayed as well as worked to save the dear 

 one's life, and God heard our prayers. vShe 

 learned to relish the lean-meat diet, and, as I 

 have told you, preferred it to any thing else. 

 And, by the way, she learned to love and 

 value her own home, after she returned from 

 the city, in a way she never did before. Little 

 by little she got outdoors so as to take the 

 fresh air. First she took a few steps on the 

 porch ; then I would see her slowly going 

 down the walk. Proper food, pure air, and 

 good care helped her to pick up gradually but 

 surely.* She still wears the apparatus, to pre- 

 vent her spine from getting back into its old 



* Let me explain to those who may be similarly 

 afflicted, that her trouble was what is called Potts' 

 disease, or tuberculosis of the spine. When she first 

 undertook to walk, her shoe had to be built out three- 

 fourths of an inch. Von see the disease had gone so 

 far tliat one limb was really shortened or drawn up 

 that much. When she began to get out in the open 

 air, a little of the extension of the shoe was taken off, 

 and after a while a little more, and in five months it 

 was all removed. .She now stands .squarely on both 

 feet, like anybody else. This last, I confess, was a 

 revelation to me. I supposed that, when one limb was 

 shortened by disease, it would have to remain so. 



