The Monroe Journal

OWES HIS LIFE TO MEASLES
Man Afflicted With Tuberculosis and Given Up to Die Has the Laugh on the Doctors.

If the doctors have given you up to die of tuberculosis, don't do it, but go and get a dose of the measles, and when you have recovered from the combination you will not have any tuberculosis, and will be as likely to outlive the doctor as he will be to outlive you. This may seem like a peculiar remedy, but a man named Trotter, who was given up to die by his physician, has outlived the doctor.

Trotter was of a jolly disposition, and kept on his feet and out of doors a large part of his time, but it finally became only a question of days, and was so recognized by the sick man and all his friends. About this time an epidemic of measles broke out in the neighborhood, and as Trotter had never had the disease the doctor advised him to leave the locality, as to contract it would surely kill him.

Trotter replied: "Well, Doc. you say I'se gwine to die anyhow; I reckon I'll jes stay to hum with the ole woman an' die with a good taste in my mouth." He got the measles and had it from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet. The disease remained with him as long proportionately as he was physically (he was six feet and four inches tall), but despite the doctor's prognosis he got well and when he was well of the measles he was well of the tuberculosis, and though the doctor told him one lung was gone and half of the other one, he persisted in remaining a well man, and outlived the doctor and nearly all his neighbors. It would be a heroic remedy for a man given up to die to seek, but Trotter's philosophy proved to have a better foundation than that of the doctor who had done all that his education and experience enabled him to do.