AN ARM PATIENT. 



241 



pestilential discharge, and, when that was cleared 

 away, out poured a stream of arterial blood. The 

 man had cut an arterial vein. Doctor Cabot had 

 no instruments with him with which to take it up, 

 and, grasping the arm with a strong pressure on the 

 vein, so as to stop the flow of blood, he transferred 

 the arm to me, fixing my fingers upon the vein, and 

 requesting me to hold it in that position while he 

 ran to the ruins for his instruments. This was by 

 no means pleasant. If I lost the right pressure, the 

 man might bleed to death ; and, having no regular 

 diploma warranting people to die on my hands, not 

 willing to run the risk of any accident, and know- 

 ing the imperturbable character of the Indians, I got 

 the arm transferred to one of them, with a warning 

 that the man's life depended upon him. Doctor 

 Cabot was gone more than half an hour, and during 

 all that time, while the patient's head was falling on 

 his shoulder with fainting fits, the Indian looked 

 directly in his face, and held up the arm with a fix- 

 edness of attitude that would have served as a 

 model for a sculptor. I do not believe that, for a 

 single moment, the position of the arm varied a 

 hair's breadth. 



Doctor Cabot dressed the wound, and the Indian 

 was sent away, with an even chance, as the doctor 

 considered, for life or death. The next that we 

 heard of him, however, he was at work in the fields ; 

 certainly, but for the accidental visit of Doctor Ca- 

 bot, he would have been in his grave. 

 Vol. I.— H h 21 



