CHAPTER VIII




The following case comes to my mind, for some of the initial
symptoms are similar to those of the case just described: M. B., age
42, farmer, was taken sick with the usual symptoms of appendicitis
as near as I could get the history from his wife, who was his nurse.
He lived twenty miles from Denver. When he was taken sick he called
a local physician who treated him for _bilious diarrhea. _The drugs
used, as near as the wife could remember, were small doses of
calomel followed with salts to correct the I liver, morphine for
pain, and bismuth and pepsin for digestion and diarrhea, and quinine
to break the fever; also hot applications on the bowels.

The pain was so great that morphine had been given quite freely. At
the end of one week the sick man, being no better, declared that he
would go to Denver and consult another physician. When he told his
physician what his intentions were, the doctor advised him not to
attempt the trip himself, for he was too sick, but to send for the
physician. The sick man was willful and forceful, and he was also
afraid of the cost; and, being a plucky fellow, he declared that he
could go just as well as not and that he would and he did.

His wife was a large, strong woman and gave him valuable assistance,
but I never have understood how it was possible for so sick a man to
make the journey from his home to my office. He was obliged to help
himself a great deal in climbing in and out of ordinary conveyances
to reach the train and, when in Denver, with his wife's assistance,