440 WANT OF COFFINS. 



was difficult to keep alive at one time. The air was tainted 

 by the sick and the unburied dead. Fear, bad ventila- 

 tion, and incautious contact with the dead, must have 

 concurred in rendering whole families victims. In a great 

 many instances corpses have lain in private houses from 

 twenty to thirty hours. Such, unhappily, was at first the 

 case in the hospitals." 



" Coffins were at a premium, when the cholera was 

 at its height," said my informant. " We hailed their 

 arrival, and they were paraded through the town in hun- 

 dreds. The want of them was so great, that the town 

 carpenters could not furnish an adequate supply; and 

 recourse was had to the Commandant at Elfsborg, who 

 employed the convicts in constructing numbers out of 

 rough unplaned boards. They were sent up in boat-loads, 

 and deposited on the quay opposite to my window. At 

 first they were taken away as fast as landed, but finally 

 they accumulated as the disorder decreased. And I used 

 to remark that I never anticipated pleasure from having 

 a pile of coffins in prospect ; but in this case it was no 

 small satisfaction, being the best proof of the abatement 

 of the cholera. 



" At the first appearance of the disorder, it was much 

 more malignant than towards its close; almost every one 

 who was then attacked perished. And it was not unusual 

 to order both coffin and hearse as soon as the disease 

 appeared. This occurred in a house of mine, where one of 

 the maids was taken ill, upon which a coffin was imme- 

 diately brought home, and the hearse ordered for the 

 evening. At nightfall the undertakers came to carry away 

 the corpse, went straight into the room, where, still in the 



