d be proposed by a weak and silly
mother for a darling daughter. Such a feeling as that would have placed
me on the same level of human folly that she herself occupied. On the
contrary, a medical man of any considerable experience among the sick
and the friends of the sick, should think himself exceedingly fortunate
when nothing worse is suggested by ignorance for his patients than
_pumpkin-seed tea_!

CHAPTER XLI.

BROKEN LIMBS AND INTEMPERANCE.

Wrestling for amusement, in the region where I practised medicine, was a
very common occurrence, and certainly had its advantages. But there was
one drawback upon its excellence, except to physicians. It involved a
good deal of bone-breaking. One famous wrestler with whom I was well
acquainted, broke, for his neighbors, an arm and a collar-bone; and in
the end almost broke his own neck. He certainly injured it to an extent
from which there was never an entire recovery. I shall mention him in
another place.

For more or fewer of these broken bones from wrestling, I was called on
to prescribe. One case in particular may be worth a few moments'
attention, especially as it brings with it certain medical confessions.

I was sent for one evening, about nine o'clock, to visit a young man who
had been injured, as it was said, by wrestling. On my arrival, I found
him in great distress. He had delayed sending for aid so long that there
was much inflammation, and consequent heat, swelling, tenderness, and
pain.

It was not easy, at first, to ascertain the exact character of the
fractures; but on inquiry and examination, it appeared that while the
patient was resting nearly or quite his whole weight on the fractured
leg, his antagonist had struck or tripped with his foot so violently as
to fracture both bones a little way above the ankle.

It was rather a trying-case to me--for as yet I was, in the art of
surgery, a mere tyro. But it was a case which would not admit of much
delay; for the inflammation, already sufficiently great, was rapidly
increasing. Nor would it do long to hesitate from mere modesty. I was
among a class of people, who would, as I well knew, construe modesty,
even though it should chance to be, as sometimes it is, an accompaniment
of true science, into sheer ignorance; and this would deprive me, as a
physician, of my principal lever. For who can lift up the down-fallen
without having their full confidence.

But I must explain. My patient with the frac