PAIN IN LOST LIMBS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 239, 5 January 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

PAIN IN LOST LIMBS.

—*■ ——— SOME QUEER SURGICAL MYSTERIES. who have lost thtfir arms and legs in battle often tell astounding stories ab «ut feeling intense pa:n in the stamps .of the limbs that have been cut off. One man had his left loot shot off. Ho used to have corns 01. it, from which he suffered excruciating pain. Now, though he ha 6 lost the foot, he states that he still continues tc fee! the twinges of pain that formerIV came from the corns. It seems difficult to believe. But it is true all the same. Here is an instance of a man •'n America who lost his leg by an accident. It was buried in a churchyard. But it was not buried straight, and the man continued to feel cramp-pains till it was dug up and straightened. This is the story as told by a New York journalist. Strange tales have often been told of ci ipples who, many years after the accident which left them maimed, have suffered aches and pains from the severed meml>er. though it was safely buried, perhaps in some quiet churchyard a thousand miles aawy, but such statements, though backed by medical science, have seemed so weird and improbable that the average reader will probably remain sceptical even though such a case has recently come to light iu MsAlester, and is vouched for by the sexton of Oakhill Cemetery and his wife, as well ag the party who owned the buried limb. BURIED IX A CRAMPED POSITION Al>out three weeks ago Anderson Pugh, a local employee of the Standard Oil Company had his kg amputated as a result of an accident. The leg was buried by George Burt, the sexton of Oakhill Cemetery. What happened after that time is told by Mr. Burt ; u his own way, and affriued by Mrs. Burt win was a witness of all that t'anspircd. "A few days ago,' - .says Mr. Burt "Anderson Pugh came to me and sa'd, 'Burt, you have buried my leg in a camped position, leaving a crease in the bottom of the foot, and it is giving me such pain that I want you to take it up, straighten it out. and bury it again.' He described the crea*?, telling just how it ran across the bottom of the foot.

"'Well, I went to the cemetery next day and dug up the limb, and sure enough I found that I had buried it so that it was cramped, leaving a crease ii the foot just as Mr. Pugh had described. I straightened the member out and replaced it in the grave. Mr. Pugs says that since that time he has not suffered the slightest pain from the missing leg." Anderson Pugh, the man who lost tho leg. said that everything Sexton Burt had told was true. He declared that he had suffered constant pain fiom the time his leg was buried, and the feeling had always been with him that the leg was stiff and cramped until it had been unearthed and reinterred by the sexton, after which all pain had vanished. TELLS OF SIMILAR CASE. Sexton Burt said this was the second case of the kind which had come under his observation, the other being thai of Elmer Mize, an employee of tJio City Barber Shop, who lost an arm in a railroad accident about four years ago. Young Mize, when seen recently, said that his arm had been buried with the hand doubled, and the had become «o severe That he was forced to go to Sexton Burt and request him to take up the member and straighten out the fingers. This was done, but such a space of time ha'! elapsed that it was impossible fully tc remedy tho evil, and Mize decli-red that that cramping sensation in the missing arm is always with huu, becoming so pronounced sometimes at night that ae will awaken from sleep and spring out of bed crying with pam.