Dr. Lamont's Strong Fingers.

Manawatu Herald, 23 November 1897, Page 3

Dr. Lamont's Strong Fingers.

" I was afraid you were going to slip through my fingers," said good old Dr. Lamont. The writer was a boy of about seventeen, then. While a student at school, more than 300 miles from home, I was taken down with pneumonia. I had a tough time, and lot two or three weeks my life was despaired of. But youth and good care won the fight, and one bright morning I was ready to go home wilh my dear father who had come for me. I was weak still, bat well and happy clear up to the brim. Oh. what a ridel Oh, what sweet air 1 Oh, what a glorious world I had got back into! and what a reception from mother and sisters at the familiar house. Oh, life I Oh, health ! Oh, duke, duke domuml Saoh an illness, if one survives it, only makes the sense of existence and its blessings more keen and delightful. It is good rather than bad. Lucky boy, not to have slipped through the doctor's fingers. But when a man with most of his days behind him has to write a line like this " All my life I have suffered more or less from disease " — why that is another and ■adder story. It is the odds between an occasional thunderstorm and a sky always oovered with clouds. We quQte what he says, reminding the reader that in this matter Mr. William

Foikinson voices the experience of millions. He says : " I always had a bad taste in the mouth, no proper relish for food, and after eating had pain and fulness at the chest." These sensations are symptoms of acute indigestion. In the stomach there is marked loss of power. The food ia neither ro'led over as it should be so that the whole of it in lurn may be presented to the digestive fluid, nor is it duly moved on towards the outlet into the bowels. As a remit it ferments and gives off irritating acids and gases, hence the patient complains of pain weight, distension, acidity, and flatulence in that region. Thence the poisons proceed to every other part of the body, and headache, vertigo, gout, rheumatism, depressed spirits, and a score more of evils follow ; among them, possibly, nervous prostration, progressive anaemia, locomotor ataxis, and more or less complete paralysis. " Frequently," continues Mr. Hodkinson, " I was sick, and as time went on I became very weak and feeble. I consulted doctor after doctor, and took various medicines, but obtained no real or lasting relief from any of them. This describes my general condition until the fortunate day when I read about Mother Seigel's Curative Syrup. I was impressed by the statements o hers had made concerning it, and proceeded to try it. After taking one bottle I found relief, and was soon entirely free from my old complaint. Since that time (now eight years ago) I have enjoyed good health. Knowing personally of its virtues, I have recommended this remedy to hundreds, and have never beard of its having failed to give relief. But for Mother Seigel's Hyrup I should have been in my grave years ago. (Signed) William Hodkinspn. Hollington, near Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, August 11th, 1893." Mr Hodkinson is well known and highly respected. He is a local preacher in the Methodist church, and by employment a quarry master Had he gone into the grave •s he feared ho should, be would have been missed and lamented by the community in which ho has long been useful, we hope, for years to come. Now let us repeat our leading thought. Short illnesses, even though sharp and dangerous, may result in good rather than harm. But a disease that drags its victim through decades of lingering distress — what shall we say of it ? The trouble and suffering it inflicvs is beyond estimate, and its name is indigestion and dvßpepsia. And the name of the medicine that cures , it Mr Hodkinson has done you the favour to mention with clearness and emphasis.