I ascribed the wonderful improvement in the ladys condition largely to her optimism and the hope which I had aroused in her, and I declined to take her letter seriously. However, she wrote to me three days later, on October 13th: “It is with the greatest delight that I am able to report a very marked improvement in my hearing. Life already seems to me well worth while. I had lost all interest in most things as it was a continual strain being even with ones relations and hearing them harping on my deafness, and what a strain it was on them to speak to me I have already told you.
I had seen four eminent ear specialists and they all told me the same, that my deafness was hereditary and the sooner I made up my mind to buy an ear trumpet the better, as I could never hope to be any better. Is it any wonder that I awaken in the morning and think it must be a dream? No one knows the misery of being deaf but those who have suffered for years as I have, and so few people have any human sympathy. I feel so much better in myself and have had no headaches since the day after I saw you, and I had suffered for years. The blood does not rush to my head and throb every time I stoop.”.
On October 17th I saw the lady for the second time, and I wrote to her after her visit: “I am most delighted with our interview. You looked distinctly better, muscles feel harder, you look much happier, your nerves are better, hearing has marvellously improved and for the first time for years you were able to listen to the sermon.” Since then I have seen the lady repeatedly and her hearing is apparently normal. I can converse with her in the slightest of whispers at a distance. It has been the quickest cure of deafness, pronounced “incurable” by a number of eminent aurists, which it has been my good fortune to produce.
I think these two cures must be highly encouraging to those of my readers who are consulted by people suffering from chronic deafness. However serious the condition may be and however long it may have been in existence, the prescriber should not despair and should try his best and he may be rewarded with results which will surprise not only the patient but himself as well.