434 SYMPTOMS. 



victims ; and partly also by people who, with tears and 

 lamentations, were imploring that a litter might be provided 

 for a parent, a child or a relation, as the case might be. But 

 the number of applicants and the confusion were such, that 

 few were fortunate enough to obtain the object of their 

 wishes. All the wards were indeed so overcrowded already, 

 that it was not until death had done its work, that space 

 could be found for new inmates. 



" Having forced our way through these miserable and 

 bewailing people into the spacious court in front of the 

 infirmary, we found it filled with trusses of straw and rolls 

 of coarse canvas, of which materials a number of women 

 were occupied in forming pallets for the sick. Hence we 

 proceeded into the principal apartment of the building itself, 

 which was filled with cholera patients, numbering from 

 seventy to eighty. Many were dead, and others in a dying 

 state. The former, as soon as life was extinct, were borne 

 to another chamber, to leave room for other victims. 



" I had then an opportunity of closely observing the 

 many and various symptoms which this disease assumes. 

 Some patients evinced severe pain ; others were lying as in a 

 quiet sleep or trance, without showing signs of consciousness. 

 On the countenances of many death was pictured with a 

 dark blue hue and brustna or glassy eyes ; but even amongst 

 these some were very quiet, whilst others, on the contrary, 

 exhibited great restlessness. I particularly recollect a black- 

 smith, a stout powerful man, whose chest heaved and 

 laboured terribly, and who, to judge by appearances, was on 

 the very verge of dissolution ; but this poor fellow eventuaUy 

 recovered. Another patient laboured under delirium, and 

 was so violent that two nurses were unable to keep him in 



