An 1889 Patient Testimonial for Dr. J. Eugene Jordan
A nineteenth-century resident of the Seattle area shares a harrowing, vivid account of surviving chronic illness through a controversial 'histogenetic' medical system.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Five years ago, I fell ill with rheumatism, gravel, and inflammation of the stomach. I was two years on my back and could not turn over. I had the best medical aid of Seattle that summer and I got worse. I was shipped to San Francisco, stayed there six months under expert medical care, and I received no slight benefit. All that time I suffered excruciatingly in my back and kidneys, and my left leg was swollen to the size of two and as hard as a rock its whole length. I could hardly eat anything and grew daily weaker. I gave myself up to die. About that time, all the country round me rang with the praises of Dr. J. Eugene Jordan and his new histogenetic system. I had myself conveyed to him at the Brunswick Hotel. In one day after taking his medicine, the terrible pain in my stomach vanished. My bodily health came back to me. I threw away my crutches, and if it were not for a remaining stiffness of my knee, I would be a young man again. This does not begin to tell the sufferings I endured. All this transformation to health has now been a year, and I have no recurrence of the trouble. I am 62 years old, have lived 30 years near Seattle, and my many friends never expected to see me about again. I am still taking the medicine and have hopes to get the use of my knee back.
“I gave myself up to die. All this transformation to health has now been a year, and I have no recurrence of the trouble.”
This testimonial, lifted from a 1888 Seattle newspaper, captures the era's desperate reliance on 'miracle' cure-alls in a city before the rise of modern regulatory medicine. It mirrors today's unregulated wellness-influencer economy, where personal testimonials are frequently used to bypass professional medical consensus in pursuit of profits.
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