Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1900-01-25
PUN COST SCIENTIST HIS LIFE
Verification of the Last Words of 6
Dying Man.

Had DR.. Camera Pestana: head of
the meteorological Institute in Lisbon,
Portugal, never bethought himself of
the jest which he made in talking with
fellow-physician some weeks ago.
he would still be alive.
AS it was, the two friends laughed
heartily over the witticism DR..
Pestana dropped his work of dissect-
ing the body of a bubonic plague vic
tim, and as his hand fell by his side
| 1t struck lightly scalpel lately used
in probing the lymphatics of the
scourge victim.
The wound was no larger than a
pin prick, but the deadly incubation
was instantaneous, and week later
he suffered an agonizing death from
the plague.
No deathbed ever offered so remark
able a spectacle. From the moment
that he realized the certainty of death
the brilliant young physicians only
thought was that his mortal illness
should contribute to the science of re-
lieving plague patients, whom it was
his custom to tend devotedly.
Tortured as his body was, his
mind was clear as glass. Indeed, he
seemed two beings in one-sufferer
and student His absorbing desire
was that his case might be a perfect
one, and that he might retain until
his death the strength to describe
and explain every detail of it's pro-
gress.
So, while one physician ministered
to DR.. Pestana according to his own
directions, the other wrote from the
sick mans dictation his account of his
painful transition from life into death.
Considering my vital force" he
dictated, Il think death will come
about the seventh day. There was not
enough of the virus on the point of
the scapel to produce death in less
time than that, although in the most
virulent condition death is almost sure
to ensue inside of forty-eight hours
certainly in four days"
Some days later he begged the ply
stefan who was with him to examine
his mouth and throat carefully. When
he had finished DR.. Pestana had read
in his face the truth. THE end is com
ing" he cried. We'll, you can do
nothing further now The death agony
will begin in about ten hours"
Then with continued calmness he
began to give directions for the post
norton examination.
"a xrrnc f1tr tl1
not the strength of mind or body to
continue his discussions of his condi-
ton. That his mind was still work
ing with it was plainly evident, since
from time to time some remark would
flash out that displayed some new fea-
ture of the case. Even at the end,
though he allowed them to give him
stimulants, he would not take any
thing to deaden his sensibilities.
Shortly before he died he said: at
cannot last more than a half hour
longer" And then he began again to
lecture in broken sentences until the
words died on his lips and he gasped
his last breath.
At the present time, according to DR..
Pestana himself there is no cure for
the bubonic plague.
A curious fact was the verifcation
of the last sentence he spoke before
death. He said: After death the tenn
perature of the body will increase
rather than diminish for several
days In about four days it will
reach it's maximum. probably 10S de-
grees. Then 1t will subside." The
only thing in which his prediction
failed was in the figures. The body
recorded a temperature OF 1894 de-
grees four days after death. 1t then
subsidized.