1812 was one of those years
when serious illness
affected huge populations. Yellow fever had
decimated the populations of Philadelphia
and New York earlier.
This time is was typhoid,
and went up and down the valley through
rural populations that normally escaped
because they were separated
at such a distance, contagion is less,
but they didn't this time
and thousands were ill, some died,
and the Smith family was hit very hard.
They thought they were going to lose their
daughter. She revived.
Joseph became very ill.
He revived.
But as happens
with typhoid
you can have left afterwards a
salmonella organism
which can infect in very serious ways.
"Joseph one day screamed out with severe
pain in his shoulder and we
were fearful
that's something dreadful was about to
ensue.
"The physician annointed the shoulder
with bone linament, but the pain remained 
as severe as ever.
After two weeks of suffering,
the doctor found that a large fever sore
have gathered between the breast
and shoulder.
"He immediately lanced it upon which it
discharged a full quart of matter."
Almost immediately he felt a terrible pain
in his left shin
and that troubled him for months. The
doctors would come and 
say it was this or that.
At one point cut into the skin and
opened it up to let the
puss flow out.
Finally,
what turned out to be a very
experienced physician from the Dartmouth
Medical School came down
and suggested to the family that they
amputate.
"I will not let you do it."
"Be reasonable Mrs. Smith."
"What kind of life would he have?"
"The bone and tissue are both infected."
"It happens sometimes after typhoid fever."
"Unless we remove the leg, 
the infection will keep spreading."
"There must be another way."
"Well, there is one
possible procedure.
"It is an unproved and complicated surgery."
A surgeon friend of mine says the surgeon
knew what he was doing. He was, in a way, preparing the mother
to accept an
actual operation and he knew very
well what should be done
and he wanted her to try it to know
he was far ahead of time.
"Joseph refused to be tied down
or take brandy for the pain
insisting,
'I will have father sit on the bed and
hold me in his arms then I will do
whatever is necessary to have the bone removed.'"
"Lucy, he doesn't want you to have to watch."
Nathan Smith was working on the 
foundation of the Dartmouth Medical School
and later moved to the Yale Medical School
and we have notes of his students, not his own writings, 
but notes describing
this procedure
which so far as we can tell, he invented,
because it was not used, or not even known,
until the end of the century and not used commonly until World War I. Until that time, bone infection
led almost inevitably
to amputation. Otherwise, the infection would kill you.
This little boy
lay there in his father's arms, his mother had been sent out into the field,
and with no anesthesia
his leg was opened up, the bone was exposed.
Three
pairs of holes were
bored into his little shin bone
at three points
and they pulled off
that exterior bone
to show the infection
underneath and to clean that out
and then sewed him back up.
Afterwards, there were
fourteen pieces of bone scraps that came
working their way through this to the
surface.
Of course, there was bloodshed.
It was a horrible experience for the young man. For three years,
Joseph Smith
was either being carried around or on crutches.
"First you walk...
and then you run!"
