THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 679 



The idea that the disease might be typhus was at the basis of 

 an heroic effort to disinfect the Police barracks with sulphur fumes. 

 My room was closed and it was thought that the sulphur fumes 

 would not enter, but I was disturbed by the prospect of the night. 

 There was an Indian boy waiting on me and I asked him to keep 

 ray door open- all night and also another door leading from a hall- 

 way to the outside. Had this been done nothing serious would have 

 happened, but the Indian had not appreciated the reasons and with 

 an idea that it was getting pretty cold in the house, he closed the 

 outer door. I awoke with my room full of sulphur smoke and had 

 just strength to knock on the wall loud enough to attract the atten- 

 tion of Mr. Seymour, who was about the building although he 

 lived in another house. He came into the room, opened the doors 

 and windows, and was there not more than two or three minutes, 

 yet he told me that he spent several hours in the fresh air before 

 he was rid of the severe discomfort caused by the sulphur in his 

 lungs. The effect must necessarily have been more severe upon 

 me. It may have been the result of this gas or possibly only a 

 stage of pneumonia, but the second day after I commenced bleed- 

 ing severely from the lungs. This bleeding lasted all day and 

 there were two or three relapses. 



It was now decided to move me out of the Police barracks to 

 a separate building where Mr. Leo Wittenberg volunteered to nurse 

 me, and for the next several weeks he and the Loucheux Indian 

 boy were my attendants. Mr. Fry visited me frequently to give 

 nursing directions, and Mr. Harding used to come nearly every 

 afternoon and sit for hours telling stories. He is one of the most 

 interesting story tellers I know and I always looked forward greatly 

 to his visits. 



But the convalescence was going badly. Just as soon as it had 

 become clear that I had had typhoid I was put on the diet which 

 used to be considered appropriate. The common belief was that 

 it should be milk. Here there was nothing available but the ordi- 

 nary tinned milk and a variety of powdered milk. My belief was 

 that if I were allowed to eat the hearty foods for which I hungered 

 I should probably have a better chance of getting well, and I used 

 to argue elaborately and, it seemed to me, convincingly for a chance 

 at a square meal. I explained how the old idea of feeding tj^phoid 

 patients on milk only was now antiquated and that many of the 

 best hospitals will give a typhoid patient as much food as they 

 would a healthy laboring man. It exasperated me sometimes and 

 at other times it made me laugh as heartily as my condition would 



