Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 137, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 June 1910 — METHODS OF CHINESE DOCTOR. [ARTICLE]

METHODS OF CHINESE DOCTOR.

Treatment Pere Ripa Underwent Was Severe, but Kflleaelona. This Is the Chinese medical treatment which a Roman Catholic priest, Pere Ripa, underwent, according to the London ‘Lancet: Having been thrown from his horse and left fainting In the street, he was carried Into a house where a doctor soon visited him. “He made me Bit up In bed, placing near me a large basin filled with water, in which he put a thick piece of ice to reduce It to freezing poinL Then stripping me to the waist, he made me stretch my neck over the basin while he continued to pour the water on my neck With a cup. The pain caused by those nerves which take their rise from the pla mater was so great and so insufferable that it seemed to me unequaled, but he said it Would stanch the blood and restore me to my senses, which was actually the case, for in a short time my sight became clear and my mlpd resumed its powers. He next bound my head with a band drawn tight by two men, who held the ends while he struck the Intermediate parts vigorously with a piece of wood, which shook my head Violently and gave me dreadful pain. This, he said, was to settle the brain, which, he supposed, had been dlsplac-

ed, and It Is true that after the operation my head felt more free. “A third operation was now performed, during which he made me, still stripped to the waist, walk In the open air supQorted by two persons and while thus walking he unexpectedly threw a basin of freezing water over my breast. As this caused me to draw my breath with great vehemence and as my chest had been Injured by the fall, it may easily be imagined what were .my sufferings under this affliction, but I was consoled by the information that if any rib had been dislocated this sudden and hard breathing would restore It to its natural position. The next proceeding was not less painful and extravagant. The operator made me sit on the ground and, assisted by two men, hold a cloth upon my mouth and nose till I was almost suffocated. ‘This,’ said the Chinese Aesculapius, ‘by causing a violent heaving of the chest will force back any rib that may have been dislocated.' The wound In my head not being deep, he healed it by stuffing it with burned cotton. He then ordered that I should continue to walk much, supported by two persons; that I should not sit long nor be allowed to sleep till 10 o’clock at night, at which time I should eat a little thin rice soup. He assured me that these walks In the open air while fasting would prevent the blood from settling upon the chest, where it might corrupt. These remedies, though barbarous and excruciating, cured me so completely that in seven days I was able to resume my journey.”