444 SELF-POSSESSION, A PRESERVATIVE. 



say at the town hospital, in which category are included 

 the nurses, the laundresses, and even the wretched Sjuk- 

 barare, were infected. And the like was the case in the 

 military hospitals, where the duty of attending on the sick 

 was voluntarily performed by men from the ranks ; whereas 

 previously, when the task had been compulsory on the 

 soldiers, almost every man perished !" 



Again "I and eleven others," writes a friend, "spon- 

 taneously undertook the management of a soup-kitchen. We 

 were, of course, constantly exposed to contact with the rela- 

 tives of the sick, and with the convalescents themselves ; but 

 excepting one individual who took fright, kept at home, 

 sickened and died, we all escaped." 



After the return of Count Rosen which occurred soon 

 after the breaking out of the pestilence, when several cholera 

 hospitals, amply provided with everything from the Govern- 

 ment stores, had been established, and additional medical aid 

 obtained, consisting chiefly of young men from the provinces, 

 or from Denmark the spirits of the people began to revive. 

 Owing, perhaps, somewhat to the energetic way in which 

 these and other sanitary measures were carried out, the 

 pestilence gradually subsided ; and, after having raged for 

 eight or nine weeks, terminated, or nearly so, towards the 

 end of September ; not, however, before it had swept off 

 upwards of three thousand souls, or a seventh part of the 

 inhabitants. 



High and low, alike, perished on this occasion. General 

 Count Rosen, whose praiseworthy and fearless exertions 

 nothing could exceed, was, amongst others, a victim. Nearly 

 at the close of the visitation, public matters called him to 

 Trollhattan, where we accidentally met ; and, though he 



