1842-43. STRENGTH SINKING. 293 



CHAPTEE VII. 



CONVERSION : ITS PEACEABLE FRUITS : RETURN TO 

 PROFESSIONAL LABOURS. 



calleth unto deep . . . ; all Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over 

 me." 



" Cast down, but not destroyed." 



A CRISIS was again approaching in George Wilson's life more 

 momentous than any hitherto considered. At the close of the 

 year 1842 it seemed evident that the contest with suffering 

 could not last much longer, rest being only attainable through 

 the use of opiates. 



A record in his own words 1 conveys forcibly a statement of 

 the facts : " I was required to prepare, on very short warning, 

 for the loss of a limb by amputation. A painful disease, which 

 for a time had seemed likely to yield to the remedies employed, 

 suddenly became greatly aggravated, and I was informed by 

 two surgeons of the highest skill, who were consulted on my 

 case, that I must choose between death and the sacrifice of a 

 limb, and that my choice must be promptly made, for my 

 strength was fast sinking under pain, sleeplessness, and ex- 

 haustion. 



"I at once agreed to submit to the operation, but asked a 

 week to prepare for it, not with the slightest expectation that 

 the disease would take a favourable turn in the interval, or that 

 the anticipated horrors of the operation would become less 

 appalling by reflection upon them, but simply because it was so 

 probable that the operation would be followed by a fatal issue, 



1 ' A Letter to Dr. Simpson on the Anesthetics in Surgery, from a Patient's Point 

 of View.' Simpson's 'Obstetric Works,' vol. ii. 



