DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70301#0191
PRESERVATION OF LIEUT. SPEARING.
169
tioned it myself. This happily stopped the progress of the
mortification, which the doctors did not know had taken
place till the miller’s wife had shewn them a black spot
about as broad as a shilling, at the bottom of my left heel.
In a day or two more the whole skin, together with all the
nails of my left foot and three from my right foot, came off
like the fingers of a glove.
Opposite to the mill oh the other side of the river there
was a bleach-field. It is customary for the watchmen in
such places to blow a horn to frighten thieves. This I
frequently heard when I was in the pit; and very often when
I was in a sound sleep at the miller’s I have been awakened
by it in the greatest horrors, still thinking myself in the pit;
so that, in fact, I suffered as much by imagination as from
reality. I continued six weeks at the miller’s, when the roads
became too bad for the doctors to visit me, so that I was
under the necessity of being carried in a sedan chair to my
lodgings in Glasgow. By this time my right foot was quite
well; but in my left, w’here the black spot above-mentioned
appeared, there was a large w ound, and it too plainly proved
that the os calcis was nearly all decayed, for the surgeon
could put his probe through the centre of it. The flesh too
at the bottom of my foot was quite separated from the bones
and tendons, so that I was forced to submit to have it cut
©ff. In this painful state I lay several months, reduced to a
mere skeleton, taking thirty drops of laudanum every night:
and though it somewhat eased the pain in my foot, it was
generally three or four in the morning before I got any rest.
My situation now became truly alarming: I had a consulta-
tion of surgeons, who advised me to wait with patience for
an exfoliation, when they had not the least doubt but they
should soon cure my foot. At the same time they frankly
acknowledged that it was impossible to ascertain the precise
time when* it would happen, as it might be six and eve»
VOL. iv. &
169
tioned it myself. This happily stopped the progress of the
mortification, which the doctors did not know had taken
place till the miller’s wife had shewn them a black spot
about as broad as a shilling, at the bottom of my left heel.
In a day or two more the whole skin, together with all the
nails of my left foot and three from my right foot, came off
like the fingers of a glove.
Opposite to the mill oh the other side of the river there
was a bleach-field. It is customary for the watchmen in
such places to blow a horn to frighten thieves. This I
frequently heard when I was in the pit; and very often when
I was in a sound sleep at the miller’s I have been awakened
by it in the greatest horrors, still thinking myself in the pit;
so that, in fact, I suffered as much by imagination as from
reality. I continued six weeks at the miller’s, when the roads
became too bad for the doctors to visit me, so that I was
under the necessity of being carried in a sedan chair to my
lodgings in Glasgow. By this time my right foot was quite
well; but in my left, w’here the black spot above-mentioned
appeared, there was a large w ound, and it too plainly proved
that the os calcis was nearly all decayed, for the surgeon
could put his probe through the centre of it. The flesh too
at the bottom of my foot was quite separated from the bones
and tendons, so that I was forced to submit to have it cut
©ff. In this painful state I lay several months, reduced to a
mere skeleton, taking thirty drops of laudanum every night:
and though it somewhat eased the pain in my foot, it was
generally three or four in the morning before I got any rest.
My situation now became truly alarming: I had a consulta-
tion of surgeons, who advised me to wait with patience for
an exfoliation, when they had not the least doubt but they
should soon cure my foot. At the same time they frankly
acknowledged that it was impossible to ascertain the precise
time when* it would happen, as it might be six and eve»
VOL. iv. &