DIPHTHERIA IN FRANCE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6541, 9 May 1889, Page 3

DIPHTHERIA IN FRANCE.

A Realistic Study. [The following " realistic " sketch of a case of the disease which has been attract- \ ing only too much attention in Christ- j church lately is from the pen of M. Guy do ! Maupassant.] IN SAD MOOD. It was raining ; I was alone, shooting in the plains of Normandy, plodding through the deep-ploughed field of greasy mud, that melted and slipped under my feet. From time to time, a partridge overtaken, hiding behind a clod of earth, flew off heavily through the downpour. The reporb of my gun, smothered by the sheet of • water that fell from the skies, hardly sounded louder than the crack of a whip, ' and the grey bird fell, its feathers be- : spattered with blood. I felt sad unto j tears, tears as plentiful as the showers that were weeping over the world, and over me ; my heart was filled with sadness ■ and I was overcome with fatigue, so that 3 I could hardly raise my feet, heavily coated i ■ as they were with the clay soil. I was returning home when I saw in the . middle of the fields the doctor's gig follow- ' ing a cross-road. The low black carriage ■ was passing along, covered by its round hood and drawn by a brown horse, like an • omen of death wandering through the i country on this siniater day. Suddenly, it ] pulled up, the doctor's head made its ] appearance and he called out — j " Here." \ I went towards him, and he said — " Will \ you help me to nurse a case of diphtheria ? i lam all alone, and I want someone to hold i the woman while I take out the false mem- i branc from her throat." " I'il come with you," I replied, and I ] got into his carriage. " I ]

AN OUTBREAK CLOSK AT HAND. He told me the following story .— Diphtheria, terrible diphtheria, that suffocates unhappy creatures, had made its appearance at poor Martinet's farm. Both the father and aon had died at the beginning of the week. The mother and daughter were now in thoir turn dying. A neighbour who attended to them, feeling suddenly unwell, had taken flight the day before, leaving the door wide open, andabandoning the two sick people on the straw pallets, alone, without anything to drink, choking, suffocating, dying ; alone, for the last; twenty-lour hours ! The doctor had cleaned out the mother's throat, and made her swallow ; but the child, maddened by pain and the anguish of suffocation, had buried »nd hidden its head in the straw bedding, absolutely refusing to allow itself to be touched. The doctor, accustomed to such scenes, repeated in a sad and resigned voice — "I cannot r<?ally spend all day with these patients. By Jove ! the3e do give one a heartache. When you think that they have remained twenty-four hours without drinking. The wind blew the rain in on to their very beds. All the heuß had taken Bhelter in the fireplace." THE PATIENTS. "Wo bad reached the farm. The doctor, fastened his horse to the bough of an apple tree before the door, and we went in. A etrong smell of sickness and damp, of fever and mouldiuess, of hospital and cellar, greeted our nostrils as we entered. In this grey and dismal house, firekss and without sign of life, it was bitterly cold— the swampy chill of a marsh. The clock had stopped, the rain fell 'down into the great fireplace, where the hens had scattered the ashes, and we heard in a dark corner, the noise of a pair of bellows, husky and rapid. It was the breathing of the child. The mother, stretched out in a kind of large wooden box, the peasant's bad. and covered with old rags and old clothes, seemed to rest quietly. Slie slightly turned her bead towards us. The doctor inquired— " Have you got a candle ?" She answered in a low depressed tone — " In the cupboard." He took the light, and led me to the further end of the. room towards the little girl's crib. She Jay panting, with emaciated cheeks, glistening eyes, aud tangled hair, a pitiable sight. At each breath deep hoilowa could be seen in her thin strained neck. Stretched out on her back she convulsively clutched with both bands the rags that covered her, and directly she caught sight of us she turned her face away, and hid herself in the straw. I took hold of her shoulders, and the doctor, forcing her to open her mouth, pulled out of her throat a long white strip of skin, which seemed to me as dry as a bit of leather. Her breathine immediately became easier, and ahc drauk a little. The mother, raising herself on her elbow, watched na. She stammered out — " " Is it done ? " " Yes, it's done." " Are we going to be left alone ? " A terror, a terrible terror shook her voice — the terror of solitude, of loneliness, of darkness, and of death that she felt so near her. I answered — " No, my good woman, I will stay till the doctor sends you a nurse." And turning towards the doctor, I added — " Send old Mother Mauduit ; I will pay her." " Very well ; I'll send her at once." LEFT ALONE WITH THE SICK. He shook my hand, and went out ; and I heard the gig drive off over the damp road. I wa3 left alone with the two dying creatures. My dog Pat had lain down in front of the empty hearth, and this reminded me that a little fire would be good for us all. I therefore went out to seek for wood and straw, and soon a bright flame lit up the whole room and the bed of the sick child, who was again gasping for breath. I sat down, and stretched out my legs in front of the fire. The rain was beating against the window panes, the wind rattled over the roof. . I heard the short, hard wheezing breath of the two women and the breathing of my dog; who sighed with pleasure, curled up before the bright fireplace. SAD BEFLECTIONS. Life ! life ! what, is it ? These two unhappy creatures, who had always slept on strasv, eaten black bread, suffered every kind of misery, were about to die ! What had they done ? The father was dead, the son was dead. The poor souls had always passed for honest folk, bad been liked and esteemed as simple and worthy fellows ! I watched my steaming boots and my sleeping dog, and there arose within me a shameful and sensual pleasure, as I compared nay lot with that of theßß slaves. The little girl seemed to choke, and suddenly the grating sound became an intolerable suffering to me, lacerating me like a dagger, which, at each stroke, penetrated my heart. I went towards her. " Will you drink ?" I said. She moved her head to say yes, and I poured a few drops of water down her throat, but she could not Bwallow them. The mother, who was quieter, had turned round to look at her child ; and all at once a feeling of dread took possession of me, a sinister dread that passed over me, like the touch of some invisible monster. Where was I ? Ino longer know. Was I dreaming ? What horrible nightmare was this ? HOBKOK. Is it true that such things happen ? that one dies like this ? And I glanced into nil the dark corners of the cottage, as though I expected to see crouching, in some obscure angle, a hideous, unmentionable, terrifying thing, the thing which lies in wait for the lives of nieu, and kills, devours, crushes, strangles them; the thing that delights in red blood, eyes glistening with fever, wrinkles and scars, white hair and decay. Tho fire was dying out. ' I threw some more wood on it, and warmed my back, shuddering in every limb. At least, I hoped to die in a pood room, with doctors around my bed and medicines on the table ! And these women had been all alone, for twenty-four hours in this wretched hovel, without a fire, stretched on the straw with the death-rattle in their throats ! At last I heard the trot of a horse and the sound of wheels ; and the nuree came in coolly, pleased at finding some work to do, and showing little surprise at the sight of such misery. I left her some money and fled with my dog. I fled like a malefactor running away in the rain, with the rattle of those two throats still ringing in my ears — running towards my warm home, where my servants were awaiting me and preparing my good dinner.