CHINESE EMPEROR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 13948, 2 January 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

CHINESE EMPEROR.

FRENCH DOCTOR'S STORY. An extraordinary document, surreptitiously handed to a French doctor by the late Emperor of China, is published by the Paris Matin, which relates ■an extremely interesting story in connection with this • very weird confession. It is perhaps the strangest document ever indicted by a sovereign. M. Pichon, Minister for Foreign Affaire, was in the year 1898 representing his country at Pokin, and moved by sinister reports of the state of the Emperor's health, he sought and obtained permission for the doctor of the Legation to see and examine him. The authorisation having been granted by the Dowager Empress, Dr. Dctheve went to the palace, in company with M. Vissierc, who was to act a« interpreter. A FRAIL POTENTATE. Kwang-si, who was then 28 years of age, looked more like a lad of fourteen than a grown-up man. Very frail and delicate, with dark eyes in his deadly pallid features, such expression as he had appeared sad and wild. Dr. Detheve, after the usual preliminaries, asked for and obtained the leave of the Dowager-Empress to sound Kwang-si. Through the intermediary of the interpreter various questions were put to the Imperial patient, and suddenly, as the two visitors happened to be standing between him and his aunt, he snatched a paper from his velvet boot and slipped it "into Dr. Detheve's hand without being perceived by the Dowager-Empress. This document, as our contemporary says, is one of the most minute descriptions of his own case ever given by a neurasthenic sufferer. In it the Emperor explained that ho was reduced to such a state of nervous prostration that he was seized with faintness whenever he heard the sound of a gong. At night, while he wa6 dreaming, the same sound would haunt him, and then dreadful nightmares would follow, and in the morning, when he awoke, he would be in a condition of total collapse. Our contemporary, indeed, gives an extract from this weird document which conveys a more precise idea of it than any description could do. After having mentioned the symptoms related above, the unhappy Emperor went on to write : " Moreover, 6ince the spring of this year, the fingers of my left and right hand seemed to be swollen internally, and to be inert as wood. My loins and legs are painful, as if they were empty. Whenever I speak, cough,-or sneeze, the whole of my body seems to me to shrink ; I breathe quickly, as if I was panting, and -find relief in sighing. Besides this, I cannot endure cold, or heat, or fatigue. If I remain standing for any length of time my loins and legs grow even more painful, my chest is oppressed, my breathing more rapid, and I do not feel as if I had any basis under my feet. If, on the other hand, I remain'sea ted for a long time, my eye« feel as if they were swelling, and my four limbs are painfully deadened, my chest ie oppressed, and I can scarcely breathe. At night, while I am asleep, my legs and knees become cold. When I have awakened the whole of my body is inert, and it is difficult for me to move or to turn round." USELESS REMEDIES. But there is no remedy, the Emperor added : " I am so run down that I cannot be restored to health. If I take medicine to warm me up, pimples come out on my head and face, or little blisters form on my throat and gums, and I suffer from toothache. Although I eat and drink a good deal during the day, I do not easily digest my food. On the other hand, I feel during the day too lazy to move and to do anything, and have a great longing to lie down, although when I remain for some time in that position my chest seems to swell, and to be weighed down with oppression. lam also extremely afraid of wind. If I have been caught a little by a fresh breeze I feel a pain above my right temple. Yet, in autumn and winter, when I am a little more clad, or at night, when 1 have rather thicker coverlets on me pimples easily break out on my face, while small blisters appear on the throat and tongue. It is the same thing as if there are substances in my ordinary beverage which produce a sensation of heat. The case was well-nigh desperate. "It is, in truth." this distressing document concluded, "difficult to find any means of treating this malady, and of maintaining health."