THE BRITTLE MAN.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1361, 12 February 1912, Page 11

THE BRITTLE MAN.

HIS CHIEF JOY IN AN UNWONTED PIPE. There was no patient in a.ll the London hospitals this Christmas (says the London "Dailv Mail" of December .1(1), more cheerful than Alban Rushbrook, the brittle man, who since April, lillfl, has been undergoing special treatment at the Homeopathic Hospital, Great Ormond Sheet, W.C. Almost two years ago Rushbrook was brought to London suffering from a rare disease, which was resulting in his inusrles gradually turning to bone. The only lax muscles wore certain groups on the left arm and the jaw muscles; and if he had fallen his.bones would have broken like china. Homeopathic medicines have, however, done much for him, and he is now able to move some of his limbs with comparative freedom. Year of Steady Progress. Mr. Rushbrook described to a "Daily Mail" representative on Saturday the improvement in his condition. "This Christmas," he said, "I can look back on a year of steady progress. In the first place (ho muscles of the dhest have relaxed to such an extent that I. can now breathe freely and eat almost anything. This time last year I could digest only liquid foods and a littlo minced meat. Now I can cat bread and butter, and my meat no longer has to be cut un for mo. I can move my right leg a little without tho aid of a stick, and can turn my right hand either way. 1 am also able, with the help of two sticks, to lift my feet sufficiently to walk over the mat at the entrance to'the ward." On Christmas Day Rushbrook, with other patients, was allowed the Christmas privilege of a smoke. "It was more to me." he said, "that all the Christmas festivities put together."