158 STELLER'S JOURNAL 



As it was, he perished almost from hunger, thirst, cold, hardship, 

 and grief. The edematous swelling of the feet, which he had 

 already had a long time from a suppressed tertian fever, was 

 increased by the cold and forced into the abdomen and chest, 

 and finally his life was ended by the inflammation in the lower 

 abdomen on December 8, two hours before daybreak.^^o As 

 deplorable as his death appeared to his friends,^^! so admirable 



370 In the MS this sentence reads: "As it was, he perished rather from 

 hunger, cold, thirst, vermin, and grief than from any disease. The fluid 

 which already [had formed] a long time before in a swelling of the feet 

 originating from a prematurely suppressed tertian fever, retarded by 

 conslrictiones artuum atonia [atonic constriction of the joints] of the in- 

 ternal and external parts caused by the cold, entered the abdomen. At 

 the same time a fistula ant appeared, which, however, as soon as it 

 opened, displayed ichor lividus [dark discharge] as a sign of internal 

 gangraena [gangrene], followed shortly after by sphacelus [mortification 

 of the tissues] and death itself on December 8, two hours before day- 

 break." In the MS the word here rendered gangraena reads gangrava. 

 This is probably an error due to the copyists' unfamiliarity with medical 

 Latin. In the original the word may have been written gangrdna. 



This passage was submitted to Dr. James T. Pilcher of Brooklyn, 

 N. Y., for comment from the viewpoint of modern medicine. Dr. Pilcher 

 kindly writes: "The account of Bering's last illness does not give a 

 very satisfactory clinical picture. He may have had a nephritox, which 

 caused the edema of the legs and subsequent extension of the edema into 

 the abdomen. The extension being accounted for by a prematurely 

 suppressed tertian fever has no basis in real etiological pathology. 



"The final sentence, however, relative to a fistula ani from which 

 developed a gangrene, is extremely interesting. This is a very rare record, 

 there having been but three reports of such cases in the present-day 

 literature. Bering's case was undoubtedly one of gas gangrene which 

 developed from the infection of the anal fistula by what we now know as 

 the bacillus Welchii. This is an infection wherein gas is formed in the 

 affected tissues, hence the name. To infection with bacillus Welchii are 

 to be ascribed the numerous cases of gas gangrene resulting from gunshot 

 wounds during the World War." The three cases in present-day medical 

 literature referred to by Dr. Pilcher were described by Thibaut and 

 Schulmann, Bull, et Mem. Soc. Med. des Hopitaux de Paris, Vol. 63, 

 1919, Jan. 31, p. 70; by Berkow and Tolk, Journ. Atner. Med. Assoc, 

 Vol. 80, 1923, June 9, p. 1689; and by himself, Annals of Surgery, 

 Jan., 1925, pp. 208-212. (J) 



371 "to the world" in the MS. 



