The Atlantic Monthly | Page 2

War, and Goldwin Smith's Address
on the Civil War in America 252
Marcy's Thirty Years of Army Life on the Border 255 Miss Ildrewe's
Language of Flowers 646 Moens's English Travellers and Italian
Brigands, and Abbott's Prison Life in the South 518
Porter's Giant Cities of Bashan, and Syria's Holy Places 125
Reade's Griffith Gaunt 767 Reed's Hospital Life in the Army of the
Potomac 253
Saxe's Masquerade and other Poems 123 Simpson's History of the
Gypsies 254
Wheaton's Elements of International Law 513 Whipple's Character and
Characteristic Men 772 Wilkie Collins's Armadale 381
RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS 383, 648

THE
ATLANTIC MONTHLY.
A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics.
VOL. XVIII--JULY, 1866.--NO. CV.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by TICKNOR
AND FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District
of Massachusetts.

THE CASE OF GEORGE DEDLOW.

The following notes of my own case have been declined on various
pretexts by every medical journal to which I have offered them. There
was, perhaps, some reason in this, because many of the medical facts
which they record are not altogether new, and because the psychical
deductions to which they have led me are not in themselves of medical
interest. I ought to add, that a good deal of what is here related is not of
any scientific value whatsoever; but as one or two people on whose
judgment I rely have advised me to print my narrative with all the
personal details, rather than in the dry shape in which, as a
psychological statement, I shall publish it elsewhere, I have yielded to
their views. I suspect, however, that the very character of my record
will, in the eyes of some of my readers, tend to lessen the value of the
metaphysical discoveries which it sets forth.
* * * * *
I am the son of a physician, still in large practice, in the village of
Abington, Scofield County, Indiana. Expecting to act as his future
partner, I studied medicine in his office, and in 1859 and 1860 attended
lectures at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. My second
course should have been in the following year, but the outbreak of the
Rebellion so crippled my father's means that I was forced to abandon
my intention. The demand for army surgeons at this time became very
great; and although not a graduate, I found no difficulty in getting the
place of Assistant-Surgeon to the Tenth Indiana Volunteers. In the
subsequent Western campaigns this organization suffered so severely,
that, before the term of its service was over, it was merged in the
Twenty-First Indiana Volunteers; and I, as an extra surgeon, ranked by
the medical officers of the latter regiment, was transferred to the
Fifteenth Indiana Cavalry. Like many physicians, I had contracted a
strong taste for army life, and, disliking cavalry service, sought and
obtained the position of First-Lieutenant in the Seventy-Ninth Indiana
Volunteers,--an infantry regiment of excellent character.
On the day after I assumed command of my company, which had no
captain, we were sent to garrison a part of a line of block-houses
stretching along the Cumberland River below Nashville, then occupied

by a portion of the command of General Rosecrans.
The life we led while on this duty was tedious, and at the same time
dangerous in the extreme. Food was scarce and bad, the water horrible,
and we had no cavalry to forage for us. If, as infantry, we attempted to
levy supplies upon the scattered farms around us, the population
seemed suddenly to double, and in the shape of guerillas "potted" us
industriously from behind distant trees, rocks, or hasty earthworks.
Under these various and unpleasant influences, combined with a fair
infusion of malaria, our men rapidly lost health and spirits.
Unfortunately, no proper medical supplies had been forwarded with our
small force (two companies), and, as the fall advanced, the want of
quinine and stimulants became a serious annoyance. Moreover, our
rations were running low; we had been three weeks without a new
supply; and our commanding officer, Major Terrill, began to be uneasy
as to the safety of his men. About this time it was supposed that a train
with rations would be due from the post twenty miles to the north of us;
yet it was quite possible that it would bring us food, but no medicines,
which were what we most needed. The command was too small to
detach any part of it, and the Major therefore resolved to send an
officer alone to the post above us, where the rest of the Seventy-Ninth
lay, and whence they could easily forward quinine and stimulants by
the train, if it had not left, or, if it had, by a small cavalry escort.
It