5

Martin Cross
-5-

to the patient, as he was bound to die anyway, and to give it to him
whenever he became restless.

"A week passed like this, and one night becoming worn out with
my vigil, I dozed off. I was rudely awaked by the grip of the patient's
hands on my throat, and he began shouting - 'You are trying to kill me!
You've been giving me poison!'

"I shook him off, as he was weak from having nothing to eat for
seven days, and gave him another does of chloral!

"The young man's parents came from Palatka about this time. They
were ignorant people, and thought we were not doing all that should be
done for their son, especially in keeping him under the influence of an
anaesthetic, or rather opiate. They took him home, and the doctor at
Palatka advised giving him morphine. The parents said they did not wish
their son to acquire the morphine habit, and refused to give him the
drug. The young man again became violent, and the authorities took pos-
session of him and carried him off to the county jail declaring him
insane.

"The authorities at Tallahassee and Chattahoochee were notified,
but mails traveled slowly and transportation, too, was limited, so that
before the proper authorities arrived a week later, the young man, from
his close confinement in jail and being kept quiet and unannoyed, had
entirely recovered.

"This is an illustration of how country people had to look after
themselves in those days.

"It took three hours to drive from Picolata to St. Augustine. The
sand and the corduroy roads made transportation tedious, and often in

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