"Ode to Health;
Date: 1896-1903
Series: N2009-5 - Civil War veterans medical journal, 1896-1903.
Civil War Veterans Medical Journal.
(Page 6 of 24)
Transcript
[Page 6]
Now, what chance of escape can a poor sick patient
have, who must run the gauntlet among over fifty
enemies, all well armed, every one of whom stands
prepared to give him a blow as he passes. Is it any
wonder that there is so many fresh graves in the burying grounds?
Effects of Poison on the Living.
I have seen persons through whose jaws calomel had eaten holes, others whose
legs were only a burthen to them, dangling in every direction, I have seen those
who were made idiots
by it, and one little girl of four or five years of age left
deaf and dumb from its administration. Go where you will
and you will find persons whose mouths are filled with foul
and rotten teeth, sometimes produced by one dose of mercury. Extracting the
teeth may to some extent relieve the mouth, but does not remove the pains and
aches which it has produced throughout the rest of the system, causing the disconsolate
sufferer often to exclaim with the poet.
"O, life thou art a galling load, A long, a rough, a weary road, To wretches
such as I." And the charge is frequently laid
at the door, of the blessed God of infinite goodness and mercy.
By submiting to such treatment parents entail suffering on
on their posterity, it may be the third and fourth generation.