Petition of Mrs. Caroline M. Thompson, of Massachusetts, to the Hon. the Legislature of New-York, in aid of the Woman's Hospital.

  • Thompson, Caroline M.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Petition of Mrs. Caroline M. Thompson, of Massachusetts, to the Hon. the Legislature of New-York, in aid of the Woman's Hospital. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    I have there seen heart-broken mothers made whole in a few days, even after 25, 30, 35, and in one instance 36 years of agony, mortification and distress, that no mere man can possibly understand. In all these cases the poor sufferers were depressed and unhappy beyond degree—many of them a charge upon the state, and a loathsome burthen to themselves, and to all around them. In restoring them to the enjoyment of perfect health, mothers were restored to their children, wives to their husbands, and women to their homes and to usefulness. How many of you, in your experience of life, have seen un- happy mothers and desolate homes. In many cases, the wife who had before been well, cheerful, useful and happy, from some cause unknown to herself, loses her health. Her nerves are irritated and her mind clouded. When the husband comes home from his daily toil, the wife, suffering and nervous, fails to meet him with her usual happy welcome. She was once the light of his home, but she now seems to cast a dark shadow over it. Gentlemen, you all know that if home be not the brightest spot on earth to man, if he does not find peace, com- fort, rest and sympathy there, he will seek consolation and amusement elsewhere; and woe to the wife whose husband finds more attractive places than his own home can offer. Younger and fairer faces smile upon and welcome him, and in the excitements of society, and, it may be, of dissipation, he seeks to forget his cares and drown his sorrows. You all know such cases, but few of you know the cause. These female troubles come to all classes and conditions. Because your wife, daughter, sisters and mother are refined, cultivated and intelligent, they are no more exempt from suffer- ing than are their poorer sisters in the humbler walks of life. Do not understand me as saying that all the unhappiness of married life arises solely from the ill health of the wife, but in very many cases such is the fact. Among our higher classes, the mother is often unable, from loss of health, to take that care of her children that every