286 On Chronic Debility 



leg. Expecting from the information sent that an ampa- 

 iation would be necessaiy, I carried a set of instruments 

 along with me. The day was cloudy, and very raw and 

 chilly. I started a little before noon, and being straight- 

 ened for time, imprudently did not stop to dine. I arriv- 

 ed about dusk. My stomach Avas empty and irritable, 

 and I v/as desired soon after alighting to examine the 

 wound. The foe tor proceeding from it was highly offen- 

 sive. An extensive mortification of the fleshy parts 

 around it had taken place, and the bone was to a consid- 

 erable extent bare of the periosteum. While examin- 

 ing with my probe the more minute circumstances of the 

 wound, it was necessary to hold my head very near. I 

 was soon seized with severe sickness at the stomach. — 

 Perceiving that 1 was becoming extremely faint, and 

 should im.mediately drop upon the floor, unless relief was 

 given, I made a desperate effort to reach the outer door, 

 which I saw standing open. Finding no relief as I hast- 

 ened towards the fresh air, but perceiving myself rapidly 

 failing, I sprang through another door, two or three feet 

 distant, and threw myself on to a bed, which lay near by, 

 in an adjoining room. All sensation and voluntary mo- 

 tion ceased for a time, and when I revived I was imable 

 to raise my head from the bed without relapsing into the 

 same state. I continued in this situation about two hours, 

 and though I have often fainted from a disordered stom- 

 ach, and other causes, and suffered repeated fits of sick- 

 ness, I have never in any instance, experienced from any 

 disorder for so long a time, such a total prostration of 

 Jehe whole energy of the system. I did not recover from 

 it that night, nor the next da}^, till late in the afternoon, 

 when a consultation of medical gentlemen summoned at 

 my request, by the attending physicians, unanimously ad- 

 vised to an amputation of the limb, v/hich I proceeded to 

 perform. The stimulus of the mind then overcame the 

 disorder, and I never had more command over the mus- 

 ■cular system, than on that occasion. The vitiated air of 

 a crov/ded room I have often observed, to occasion and 

 aggravate disorder in the stomach ; or in other words, to 

 generate and increase in it acidity and v/ind. Being an 

 liour or t\vo in a close room in v/arm weather, or in an 



