In September of 1883 I met with a very serious accident. I fell from the second story of a building and received a compound comminuted fracture of one of my legs midway between ankle and knee, the bone protruding through my trousers into the ground. There were three inches of the shin bone broken in small pieces which had to be removed. It appeared to be so serious, that there was no effort made till the ninth day to set it, thinking that amputation would be necessary. The upper end of the lower part of the shin bone was cracked lengthwise and the surgeons thought it would unite, or knit together where it was cracked, but it failed to do as they expected. The ninth day they operated on me, removed a lot of broken bone, and set my leg. New bone gradually filled in the place made vacant by what the doctors removed. But with all the medicine taken inwardly and applied outwardly and the very best of nursing that a loving mother, sisters, and friends could do for me, there remained a very tender wound that refused to heal.
The following June I was operated on, and there was a considerable amount of carious bone removed. The surgeons now thought I should enjoy a speedy and permanent use of my leg, but it seemed that I was to suffer more, for it still refused to heal. For the next ten years I was treated by several doctors, took patent medicines, and every preparation and salve that any person suggested. and, strange as it may seem, everything I tried helped me at first and then the old conditions would be manifested again. When I went to a noted hospital in the East I could manage to walk five miles. I rapidly grew worse after my arrival, and at the end of three weeks' treatment I could not walk half a mile, and even with that effort suffered terribly.
The physicians said that it was one of the most remarkable pieces of bone setting they had ever seen. They doubted my word when I told them the nature of the fracture, but I had the bones with me that had been removed, and they could be fitted together to prove what I had told them. Then they photographed my two limbs and laid me on the operating table and measured with instruments trying to find out if there wasn't some difference in the length of my legs, and concluded it was a wonderfully good job. I have forgotten to say there was a piece broken out of the back bone, so that when it was set, and twenty-four pounds were hung over a pulley at the foot of the bed and fastened to my foot, the ends of the back bone lapped just like your finger nails. This is the way the doctors described it to me. During this time I became addicted to the morphine habit to ease my nearly constant suffering. Not wishing to describe how I did suffer, I will simply say the wound was so tender, that I would sink to the ground like a person in a faint, if my leg were but touched by any object, near the wound. In 1894 it gradually got worse till I had to give up entirely and go on crutches. I was advised to see a surgeon who had the reputation of being the best in that part of the country. I went to him on Thursday, and after examination, he gave me no encouragement whatever as to saving my leg. So decided to come the next Wednesday to be operated on. He was very gruff, and from the way he answered me, which was like this: "If there is dead bone in there I will take it out, and if I have to take it off, I'll take it off," it made me feel that the latter was my fate. The Friday morning after visiting the doctor a very dear friend told me about having his baby healed of croup by Christian Science. He. said that he telegraphed to a practitioner about fifty miles distant for treatment, and the child was healed in about an hour. Dear reader, you don't know how good that sounded to me. I had no idea what Christian Science was, did not care just then. Anything for me but another operation! And I had to decide quickly. I told my wife what I had heard and we talked it over and decided to try it. This friend told me about a book the Christian Scientists had and drove to my house that night and took me home with him to see it. After I had been seated a few minutes his wife got the book and opened it to the account of Mrs. Eddy's healing Mr. Clark of Lynn. Mass. (Science and Health, p. 193.) How true the saying, "Man's extremity is God's opportunity." I wrote a letter to this practitioner, asking for treatment, and my friend mailed it that night. At this time I had not been able to endure a drop of water on the wound for six weeks, it would pain me so, but on Saturday about noon the soreness just vanished. I had only five treatments and was told to keep reading Science and Health. I gained rapidly for a while and I went to work in a few days. I read Science and Health most of my spare time, and talked it too much at other times for my own good. I thought I was doing the Cause good, but I plainly see now that talking Science too much and not living it enough, is a detriment to both the patient and the growth of the Cause. My leg continued to gain slowly for about a year and apparently healed over. In two or three days it broke out at the ankle. When it would heal at the ankle it would break out on the shin, and vice versa. I wish to state here that it was the prevailing thought with the doctors that the bone was decaying toward the ankle. About four years ago, I thought I should have to give up, my suffering was so intense.
