CONVALESCENCE.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2829, 9 March 1878, Page 4

CONVALESCENCE.

The appetite of the convalescent is fitful and capricious; yet bis friends insist upon stuffing him at all sorts of odd hours, as if he were destined to fill a tureen de foie gras. . Between breakfast and luncheon he must aw allow some raw meat juice and a gUss of wine; at three p.m. he must lake some strong jelly; between dinner and bedtime be has to face beef-tea, aud during the night watches he is dosed with Liebig's Extractum Carnis. An attack of biliousness soon follows, which has to be relieved by cooling but unpleasant medicines. The doctor tells him that be never intended him to overfed in such a manner, and reads dim a long lecture on the incapability of the stomach to respond ,to too frequent calls upon its energies. In place of being overgorged, he is now overtbriicked until a bussing in the head and sudden deafness demand rest for the system from medical pick-me-ups. There is yet one more torture in store for him. He is sent abroad. According to the time of year, a j German watering-place or an Anglicised town in the south of France is selected as the scene of his banishment. The necessary arrangements before leaving home harass him beyond measure. Even were he in good health, they would prove a considerable burden. Wearied out by those preliminary worries, hestarts upon along and tiring journey, reaching his destination more dead than alive. To be treated like a child by his courier humiliates and annoys him ; yet be is perfectly harmless in his hands. 'Likely enough wet; wea-j ther or.the mistral hails his arrival. Sad indeed is then his jot. Confined to the house, as be lies all day in his one sitting room, he wishes himself back in his comfortable English home, with its choice of rooms and domestic interests. . Such meditations upon his personal comforts and discomforts, and the increase or de* crease of his health, are apt to engender in bis disposition that spirit of selfishness and egotism .which too frequently becomes a parasite of the invalid. : " But unfortunately the convalescent himself is not the only sufferer. His relatives and attendants who may be taking care of him have also a bad time cfit When he was very ill, there was a certain excitement in nursing him; and watching every symptom that presented itself caused an intense and perpetual interest. The dependence of the patient upon his nurses afforded the latter dome gratification. It won the heart of the female attendant to see the great stalwart man owing every comfort and necessary to her tender watchfulness and delicate himds. The fact of having a strong man under despotic discipline, aud reduced to the feebleness of a baby a month old, has charms/ for certain feminine minds. It, is- sweet: to the weaker sex to have the power, by raising a finger; to silence in an instant the voice of one who in health can move the hearts I of thousands by his oratory; and it in delightful to the fair govemante, to have full authority to scold, or even punish by a curtailment of reading or conversation, the wayward patient, whose utterance as a judge, examiner, or critic, are usually, received with awe and fekrl But, besides these pleasures of despotism during serious illness, there is an excilemeot in the constant and marked changes, and the rapid succession of hopes and fears. In convalescence, however, s there is none of this stimulative interest} the pro-; cess of restoration to health is gradual and gently progressive, and the only excitement is an occasional relapse, which is caused, as a rule, byj some imprudence on the part of the invalid. The gentle patient who, in the extremity of his illness was<>so passive; and so grateful* for the least service, is converted into a testy and irritable hypochondriac, who resents the least inter-; Terence and yet is discontented unless constantly attended to. His constant employment is to do nothing, and compel as many people as possible to assist him in this nugatory occupation. IJisoccaiional relapses are!very disheartening to his poor! attendants, and he generally seems to at»j tribute them in some degree to their neglect. Ibey. dare not explain and argue out the whole state of the case to him, lest he should become wearied and feverish, and the ill deserved odium has to be patiently; endured. He becomes wilfully wayward.; His nurse flatters herself that he is safe in his own room, when suddenly he ap-i pears on the terrace, although a keen; easterly wind is blowing and he adds' insult to, injury by appearing immensely, { (leased with himself, and indulging in a; ittle chaff at his duenna's expense.! During the relapse which follows this: piece of imprudence, he suffers from a fit, ,of overwhelming depression, when his at-; tendant has lo devise means of amusing 'and enlivening him, instead ot'indulgingin richly merited •• I told you so's." He will be fidgety and restless, and take the mostcapricious and unaccountable likes and. .dislikes to people, places, and things ;j •evincing,,,*, sudden antipathy towards at f36ctcirwnd'is managing- his dase with, great ability, loathing a watering place,! just as every arrangement has beea satisfactory made there for his comfort,* aud taking an invincible aversion to a ; wine or a rare article of food, a stock of which has been laid in at his especial,' request. If he is fanciful about his food, he.is absolutely obstinate about his; medicines, and when he has left the neighborhood' of- his: doctor he refuses to take the tonic which he used to swallow so obediently. . If he has been suffering fr.om gout, he will insist upon; drinking port and champagne, and tasting all sorts of "curious" aud uu* wholesome wines. If he had been ailing: from poverty of blood, he will take a sudden whim about total .abstinence, and drink nothing but water. Alter an attack of gastric fever, richly-made dishes will form bis favourite foqd; while after an illness which( r decesakates the most nourishing of diets, he wm be seized with a mania lor fasting or vegetarianism. Altogether convalescence is a trying period both for. nuties and patients,. eßpec|a.lly after .sevesie illness. It is an •interesting, unsympathetic, and uncomfortable probation, and severely teetti the temper, patience and endurance both of the victims of disease and the victims of invalids.—Saturday Bevievr.