DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70267#0477
CASE OF ISABELLA WlLSOlf. 42£
‘Her new attempts to walk, were as awkward as her at-
tempts to speak; and she required nearly as much time to
recover the perfect use of her legs as of her tongue. Even
after she had acquired a considerable degree of strength^
she wanted expertness in her motions, and was obliged to
be led about by the arms like a baby. Whenever I called
to see her, I made a point of taking her into the garden to
walk with me ; but it was with great difficulty that I could
prevent her from falling. W6 often lament the weakness
of infancy ; yet were we to come full grown into the
world, we should not only be as long in learning to walk
as infants are, but our first essays would be infinitely mor©
dangerous.
It is unnecessary to trace any farther the steps by which
this young woman advanced to the full re-establishment of
her health, and to the perfect use of all her mental and cor-
poreal faculties-. These great ends were gained by a mode
of treatment the very reverse of the enervating plan which
had been the cause.of her long sufferings ; but which, hap-
pily for her, was not afterwards resumed.
I shall leave tender parents to make their own reflec-
tions on this Case, and shall now only urge it as a farther
caution against the too hasty interment of persons who may
seem to expire in a fit. Unequivocal proofs of death
should always be waited for, and every adviseable means of
resuscitation persevered in, when we consider how loiw
Appearances may be deceitful, and how unexpectedly the
latent sparks of life may be rekindled.
Besides the uncommon instance of this young woman’s
inanimation, as it may be called, I have heard of a young
lady in Holland, who was restored to her despondino-
friends, after she had been for nine days apparently in a
state of death. The day before her proposed interment,
her Doctor called to take his final leave of her; but fan-
cying, that he perceived some vital symptom., he renewed
- ■ x k k his
‘Her new attempts to walk, were as awkward as her at-
tempts to speak; and she required nearly as much time to
recover the perfect use of her legs as of her tongue. Even
after she had acquired a considerable degree of strength^
she wanted expertness in her motions, and was obliged to
be led about by the arms like a baby. Whenever I called
to see her, I made a point of taking her into the garden to
walk with me ; but it was with great difficulty that I could
prevent her from falling. W6 often lament the weakness
of infancy ; yet were we to come full grown into the
world, we should not only be as long in learning to walk
as infants are, but our first essays would be infinitely mor©
dangerous.
It is unnecessary to trace any farther the steps by which
this young woman advanced to the full re-establishment of
her health, and to the perfect use of all her mental and cor-
poreal faculties-. These great ends were gained by a mode
of treatment the very reverse of the enervating plan which
had been the cause.of her long sufferings ; but which, hap-
pily for her, was not afterwards resumed.
I shall leave tender parents to make their own reflec-
tions on this Case, and shall now only urge it as a farther
caution against the too hasty interment of persons who may
seem to expire in a fit. Unequivocal proofs of death
should always be waited for, and every adviseable means of
resuscitation persevered in, when we consider how loiw
Appearances may be deceitful, and how unexpectedly the
latent sparks of life may be rekindled.
Besides the uncommon instance of this young woman’s
inanimation, as it may be called, I have heard of a young
lady in Holland, who was restored to her despondino-
friends, after she had been for nine days apparently in a
state of death. The day before her proposed interment,
her Doctor called to take his final leave of her; but fan-
cying, that he perceived some vital symptom., he renewed
- ■ x k k his