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time of physicians when they were pre-determined to do nothing they desired. Another curious thing he told me was, the great anxiety manifested by many not to have it known that they were attacked with the 'malattia.' They entreated him not to report them. Perhaps this arose from some vague recollection of the plague, and of the state of exclusion in which the impestati were necessarily kept. I should be curious to enquire whether the same fact has been observed in other countries.

Certainly, all that one has read of the abandonment of every duty, and the extinction of every affection under the influence of general fear, is justified by what has occurred here and elsewhere in presence of this disease.

Mr. Papaffy told us that he went into a house where a boy was dying. The air was so foetid that it was almost impossible to breathe in it. The boy had been vomiting all day, and was lying covered with filth, and distorted with cramps. No attempt had been made to remove any of the offensive matter which covered the floor, or to do anything for the sufferer. The father had crouched into one corner, the mother into another, as far as possible from their dying child.

I heard from a woman whose husband lay dying, while the infant in her arms was seized with the vomit, that her husband sent three times to entreat his brother to come only to the door, that he might see him and speak to him before he died. The brother refused.

Mrs. D., wife of a Maltese physician who was nearly worked to death, related to me her situation, as follows:

The mother of the wife of Dr. D.'s brother was attacked. Nobody would go to her, so Mrs. D. went. She nursed her till she died. At

this time Dr. D. was so ill that he was obliged to be supported at the bedside while he prescribed. His wife sent him home to bed, and remained. The brother was next attacked.

Nobody could be got for love or money to come near the house. Mrs. D. wanted to send the four children of the dying man out of his house, to her own. It was impossible to get a calesse at any price to convey them. Dr. D. could not rise from his bed; no other physician was to be found. Those who would act were out; the others, hidden. Mr. D. died shortly after his mother-in-law. Mrs. D., during all this time, only went home to give suck to her infant, and instantly returned. The dying man was one of eight brothers, not one of whom-indeed not a single blood relation-went near him, leaving the whole to a young woman with a husband sick, a babe at the breast, and two other young children. To complete all, the maid who had the care of these children went mad from fear.

I afterwards heard of two other persons who went mad from fear.

I heard, from what I thought good authority, that a man in the Isola was attacked while working in the dockyard, and carried on a chair to his own house. His wife and daughter shut the door in his face, and he died in the street, before his door, on the chair.

Major Rose,* of the 92nd Highlanders, told Mr. L. that as a sergeant's guard of his regiment were returning, early in the morning, along Marsa Muschetto, they found the dead body of a man thrown out into the street.

A lady told me that the sister of her daughter's husband had been attacked. When the physician was sent for, he stood at the door, peeped in, and said, 'Ah! come stiamo?" and then told her to take some

*Now Major-General Sir Hugh Rose.

thing. The poor girl said, 'Come? neppure il medico non vuol avvicinarsi a me. Dunque per forza morirò. However, she did not die, for she had a father who nursed her. Her mother retired to an upper story of the house, shut herself up, and would not go near her.

I forgot to mention that M. Miége, the French consul, told us that, at an early period of the epidemic, he was crossing the piazza, when a man fell down attacked with cholera. Everybody ran away, crying, 'Il governo ci abbandona! Il governo ci abbandona!' and similar complaints that nothing was done for them. They never dreamt of doing anything for themselves, much less for others. M. Miége assisted the man, and got him taken to the hospital. He told the people that they were cowards, without humanity or courage, and that he hoped they would never again complain to him that the English treated them with contempt.

An English physician told me that a poor fisherman of St. Julian's was attacked while at sea in his boat. When he came into the bay he was already unable to go on shore. His son was sent for. Instead of going to help his father out of the boat, he stood on the shore calling out to him to say where his money was, and enquiring about other articles belonging to him. No persuasions would induce him to touch his father. Dr. - and another English gentleman got the man on shore, and he recovered.

I was told by Mr. that he met one of those nobles who had fled to the casals, in Valetta, and put out his hand to him as usual. No,' said the Marchese, 'non sono questi tempi,' &c. He went on to say that, having affairs in the city, he had come con suo massimo pericolo,' and in spite of the entreaties of his family.

At the beginning of the epidemic, Signor called on me

one

evening. He was hardly seated when Mrs. Sankey, wife of the English physician who had honourably distinguished himself by his activity, came in. Signor immediately

rose to go, under the pretext that he wanted to see some persons who were leaving the island. I have not the least doubt that the sight of Mrs. S. frightened him away; though she had not then done what she afterwards did-visit the cholera hospital with her husband.

But general and overpowering as the panic was, there were not wanting honourable exceptions, and especially among the regular clergy. The Capuchin friars never shrank from their duty, and endured great fatigue. I believe not one of them suffered. Three nuns of St. Ursula, secluded and idle, died. The Capellano of the Dominicans was unwearied. In consequence of the abominable practice of many of the physicians, who, when called to a patient, looked at him from a distance and instantly ordered the viatico, there was ten times the demand for priests to administer it that was necessary, and the secular clergy were generally too cowardly to go near the sick. The labour, therefore, of the regular clergy was unceasing. This Capellano_had been subject to epileptic fits. From the time he was thus on foot, night and day, he had not an attack. Finding this, and attributing it to the Divine favour, he made a vow that he would receive no human assistance and he has had none.

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of her imprisonment were expired. Dr. Arpa told me nothing could exceed her courage, energy, and tenderness. She took possession of a poor infant that would have died from desertion and neglect, would not part with it, and attended the dying old people while she kept the babe on her arm.

All that I saw and heard confirmed me in the conviction that, of all predisposing causes of cholera, fear was the most fatal. I shall never forget some faces, blanched with terror, and which death had marked as an early and easy prey.

On July 17, Signora

and one of her married daughters called on me. They were very pale, and looked like people sick and restless with fear. They immediately began to question me as to what I ate and drank, and, generally, what was good or bad per la malattia.' I found that, one thing after another being prohibited as dangerous, they had reduced their diet so low, and had so entirely given themselves up to the terrors of the disease, that they would probably fall its victims. They were greatly surprised to hear that we ate, drank, rode, bathed, and did everything exactly as usual; that I had forbidden any change at our table; and that the only precaution we took was to occupy ourselves about other things. I said all I could to encourage them; and, knowing them to be good and pious women, I made an appeal to their religious feelings. They thanked me with distressing earnestness, and, at going, the mother took my hand and said, 'You have given us ten years of life.' shocked me, and I exclaimed, 'Oh, do not say so!'

This

When they were gone, I thought of their words and looks, and I felt that they were doomed. Shortly after, this very daughter was attacked. From the Thursday to the Monday she lay between life and death. Her mother, a tender and

excellent mother, could not be induced to go near her. On the Monday, the patient was betterthe mother went to see her, but cried so that they said she did more harm than good. She did not go again. On the Wednesday the daughter had a relapse, and died.

The next thing I heard was that the single daughter, a charming girl, was attacked, and in the utmost danger. Her illness excited great sympathy. English army and navy surgeons went to offer their services and to try to save her. In vain. The unhappy mother lived. No incident struck me like this. I saw by how frail and precarious a tenure we hold our best qualities, unsustained by courage. A good woman, all her life devoted to her family, seems to lose not only the sense of duty, but the instincts of maternity. Nothing ever appeared to me so pitiable.

I ought to give some account of the precautions used and recommended. As to diet-No vegetables, no fruit; these are things so commonly prohibited that I need not comment upon them. No fish. When I asked the reason for this, I was told the fish had died in great numbers. One fisherman said he had seen the fish come to the surface of the water, whirl round, and die. Captain H., the harbour-master, told me that, in his nets in the Great Harbour, there were thirty-eight dead fish to eighteen living, in one day; and that dead fish did not, as usual, lie belly upwards. I don't answer for the truth of these things, nor do I know how far the prejudice against fish was founded merely upon them. The only thing I do know is, that we were prevented bathing in the sea several days by the immense number of purple medusa, or jelly-fish (called by the French pourpres; by the Maltese, bruom), which sting like a nettle. All the servants and others

assured us that they had never seen anything like the shoals of them. The sea in our bay was covered and coloured with dense masses, as big as the top of a large table. In all preceding years, as we were assured, there had appeared only here and there one. This unusual phenomenon occurred just at the first violent outbreak of cholera. But only with certain winds,―venti bassi.' If the wind got to the north or west, they disappeared utterly in a few hours.

N.B.-I don't mention this as having any connexion with cholera, but as one among many indications of (as everybody declared) a strange season-una stagione stravagante,' as they called it.

Another forbidden article of food was milk, or anything made of milk. I asked why. They said, 'Fà male,' or 'Non è buono per questa malattia.' Nobody gave or required a reason. The same of eggs.. Tea was pronounced 'buono per la malattia;' that is, good for those who had it not. Brandy-and-water, a beverage al most unknown to Maltese-especially women-was in great request. But many individuals and families were literally half starved from the fear of eating anything. Un poco di brodo con un pezzino di biscotto' was their daily fare. This extremely low diet, combined with entire seclusion, want of air and exercise, and, above all, fright, was doubtless fatal to many.

The other sanitary regulations were still more absurd. Not to expose one's self to the sun, is one of the standing, and probably the most rational, canons of hygiène in Malta. To this was now added a

rule not to be out in the 'sereno.' From these two combined, followed the impossibility of being out at all; and accordingly numbers of families, women and children especially, never left the house for six or eight weeks. They said, with the air of people who claim approbation for prudent conduct, Non esco mai di casa.' Many added, per non prendere l'aria, perchè quella malattia viene coll' aria.' In a heat perfectly suffocating, many kept doors and windows shut. One gentleman told me he stopped up the key-holes in his house, 'per non prendere l'aria.' All shut up their houses just when the air brought any freshness.

6

Another of the prohibited things was bathing. People remonstrated with me in the most earnest manner on my persistence in my daily seabath, and evidently wondered I did not die. 'Si dice che fa molto male,' they said. It was difficult to see upon what this notion was founded, for I could not discover that anybody ventured on the experiment.

Partly from these fears and pre · cautions, which, if they meant anything, meant that the disease was epidemic; partly from the dread of contagion, which was strangely mixed up with them, all intercourse was suspended. The women sate on the sofa crying, and repeating the rosary, or watched at the balcony to see the viatico, or the cart containing the dead, go by. Of course, the persons who were entirely occupied with timorous precautions, were those whom generally the disease attacked.

(Incomplete.)

S. A.

THE BEAUCLERCS, FATHER AND SON.

A Novel.

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BY CHARLES CLARKE, AUTHOR OF CHARLIE THORNHILL, WHICH IS THE WINNER?' ETC. ETC.

HA

CHAPTER VII.

A REAL WOMAN.

ὦ καλλιφεγγὲς ἡλίου σέλας.—EUR. TROIADES.

ARRY, you look tired,' said Mrs. Colville-for we must change the scene from Grammerton to Lymmersfield.

'I look as I am, my dear; and these army examiners have done me out of part of my vacation again. You know I got no Easter, because they had fixed the examination for May: and now I must go on till August.' It was a warm day in June, and Harry Colville gaped at the anticipation.

'Who are going up this time?' 'Standish: he's sure to come back again. He's been educated entirely on the modern system, and consequently knows nothing of English. Bentley has been taught nothing in the world but Latin and Greek: so that he's pretty sure to be plucked for mathematics and history. Still he may pull through, for it has taught him to spell his own language, and to write the essay of a scholar and a gentle

man.'

And Frank? what do you think of him? he comes to-morrow.'

'I should think Frank is quite safe, thanks to your teaching when he was a child, and Doctor Armstrong's since he has been a schoolboy. Ah! it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good. If he likes to go on reading at once, I can get him through in August; and then I sha'n't regret the labour.'

Harry, you never regret labour for other people.'

'I never regret it for you and the girls, my love; and some day or other we must be repaid for it: at least I always think so.'

in.'

'One thing you're not deficient

'What's that?' and her husband looked up a little faintly.

'Courage. You've had enough to try yours. If you were not a good man you would have ceased to believe in anyone.'

'I don't believe in many men, Bessie; but I have never ceased to believe in God.'

Bessie Colville stooped down and kissed his forehead. 'Yes: He's been very good to us sometimes, when we least expected it. We'll continue to trust in Him. I have but one sorrow.'

'What's that, my wife? and Harry got up and looked at her, with a hand on each shoulder. He thought for the ten thousandth time that he had never seen so beautiful a face. And so it was. It was just the face to give expression to every word that she uttered, as she slowly replied, 'I never can help you,' and then he saw her eyes fill with tears.

'You never can help me? That's very unfortunate indeed, Bessie. You are a great incumbrance. You know neither Greek, Latin, nor Mathematics. The Binomial Theorem would be a sad puzzle for you. And yet I prefer you as you are to a profound graduate, an LL.D. and an A.S.S.; and without such a helpmate I think I should have died. So don't fret, dear; and then I'll give these fellows a half-holiday, and we'll go out for a stroll. Where are you going to put Frank Beauclerc?'

'Into the spare room.'

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